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“How do you say mosquito again?” I ask, changing the subject, for fear it’ll shift back to why all of this, he and I, here and now, remains an impossibility.

“Maringouin.”

“And dragonfly?”

“Zirondelle.”

With a frown, I lift my head to see him staring off at something beyond me. “How the hell do you get dragonfly out of that?”

Snorting a laugh, he trails his gaze to mine. “No idea.”

“Chatte, I’ve learned, is pussy. Cat.”

Lips stretching to a grin, he pulls me closer. “Your chatte is sweet.”

Chuckling, I needle his ribs, and lightly bite his chest. “So, what’s beautiful, then?”

Some of the humor in his eyes fades, and he leans forward to kiss me. “You,” he says, forehead pressed to mine. “Je suis fou de toi.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m crazy about you.”

“The good crazy, or the bad crazy?”

“Both.”

Again, I want to believe him. To believe that this isn’t just the two of us passing time, but I know better. Fairytales aren’t real, after all. “You learned Valir from your mother, right? I mean, Russ never spoke it around me.”

“Yes. She spoke nothing but French with my grandparents. Adult language, we called it.”

“Are your grandparents still alive?”

“Non. They passed when I was just a boy.”

“You’re lucky. To have had your mother in your life, even for a short time. I wish I could’ve met mine. Just once. Just to hear her voice.”

“I imagine she’d probably sound like you, chère.”

With a smile, I roll over onto my stomach. “Not anymore. With this nasally northern accent. She probably wouldn’t even recognize me now.”

Running a thumb down along my temple, he stares at me. “You’re hard to forget.”

“But you’ll forget me. You have to, right? When you turn me over?”

“I’m not turning you over to anyone.”

I blink at that. “Doesn’t that put you at risk?”

“Yes.”

“Then, why wouldn’t you?”

He hikes my thigh up, pulling me tight to his body. “Because I’ve sipped the poison now. I’m addicted to it.” Burying his face in my neck, he kisses my throat. “Your chatte is my heroin.”

“Addictions are hard to shake. Trust me. I know.”

“They are. I could stay in this bed, getting high on you, for days.”