The bad things weren’t far at all, just over the next valley, where the spoors would be growing, where the rebellious phae would be taken by the Queen’s Ruiner. She forced herself to look up at Josh with a tremulous smile. “You are a good man to bring me here.”
Had she ever met a good phae? Glorious and powerful, yes; never simply good. But Josh’s goodness put him so terribly at risk. How would he even recognize phae peril? He certainly hadn’t seen it in her.
By bringing the phaedrealii intrigue here, she was endangering his valley as unfairly as she’d been banished from her place. The knowledge chewed at her with teeth like Bunco’s, dull and grinding, but she didn’t see any other way to get home.
Unable to apologize or explain without betraying herself, she had nothing to offer him except a musetta’s exhilaration. She reached out to tangle her fingers in the waistband of his jeans. “Let me be your dessert.”
He stepped between her spread knees. “You are sweet.” His voice was husky.
“No, but I can pretend for you.”
“Adelyn...”
She slid off the stool to her knees and unzipped his jeans in one graceful move. His erection surged from behind the denim before she had safely cleared the little steel teeth.
She smiled at him as she tugged his jeans lower. “What were you thinking over there at the dirty dishes?”
“About you. I was thinking about you.” He propped one bare foot on the stool, giving her full access.
She slipped her fingers under his sac, caressing the hot, heavy weight of him. He groaned when she breathed across his damp tip.
“Ah, Adelyn. I want you so bad.”
“You have me,” she assured him. For this moment. As for what came next...That too would be him, if the jerk of his hips was any indication. She would give him this. Never mind that the phae only took and never gave. This once, she would be musetta and he would remember her forever, if only in his dreams.