Page 74 of Legacy Ascended

"Say it."

"You're here," I say, and it comes out wrecked, and she pulls me down until my face is in her neck and holds the back of my head, and I move in her and keep saying it, over and over, and she takes every one of them.

It gets hard and fast at the end and she asks for that too, and I give her everything I've got. I get a hand between us and find her with my thumb and she goes over a second time with her heel digging into the back of my thigh and my name coming out of her in pieces, and the way she clamps down on me when she does it takes me with her. I follow a few strokes later with my mouth on her shoulder — the right one, the good one, even then.

Afterwards she won't let me get up.

"I'm getting a cloth."

"In a minute."

"You'll be cold—"

"In a minute, Mateo." She's got my arm across her and both hands on it. "Stay."

So I stay, and then I get the cloth, and then I come back and she's already got the blankets rearranged into the shape she likes and my pillow annexed.

"That's mine."

"It was."

We eat the last of our dinner in bed and she tells me about an argument Freya had with a Council recorder about a definition. It’s stupid but hearing her tell it makes me smile.

"I'm finding Voss tomorrow," I tell her, at some point. "Before he has to ask me. I'm going to tell him I want it and ask him what it takes."

"Good."

"If it turns out there's paperwork, you can fix my commas."

She turns over and puts her chin on my chest.

"Tell Leo yes," she says. "Properly. From me. Whenever they can come — all seven of them. We'll ask about guest rooms, and Declan will cook for that many people and enjoy every second of it, and Renzo will lose his mind about the size of the group." She grins. "I want to meet the people who knew you when you were a menace."

"I'm currently a menace."

"You're currently a man with a career plan," Jessica says, and I laugh so hard I have to sit up.

She settles back against me.

“Arena tomorrow?” she asks. “I want to shift and go for another run.”

“What time?”

“After your session.”

“I'll be there.”

A few minutes later she falls asleep on my arm, one hand still closed around my wrist, chestnut hair everywhere.

I check the bond once, out of habit, and she's right there.

I stop checking.

Chapter thirteen

Jessica

The rescue block roster goes up in the lower hall on the coldest morning we've had, and Sophia finds it first.