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She raised her other hand to his face, sealing both palms to his skin, opening herself to the full storm of his emotions. Accepting them. “Be angry,” she told him. “Be everything you are. You are infinitely precious to me, Jak, and I want everything you feel. I’m not fragile, you know.”
His lips quirked as his glinting gaze searched her face. “No, you’re not fragile. You never have been.” His smile widened. “Stubborn and hard-headed to the point of driving me insane, perhaps, but—”
She silenced him with a kiss, one he immediately returned with avid seeking, his mouth moving over hers as a groan rumbled through him, his frustrated anger transmuting into the fire of passionate need. He put his hands on her, demanding and urgent, and her own desire flared into consuming radiance. She melted against him, yielding utterly, everything in her softening to take him in. This. This was all she needed. Him.
“Jak,” she breathed, gasping as his clever fingers had somehow already found their way beneath her heavy velvet skirts, skimming up her bare thigh, unerring as he sought the target of his intent.
“Too much?” he asked hoarsely.
“Not enough. I need you.”
“Finally she admits it,” he growled.
“Well, of course she needs you,” Ami declared imperiously from behind Jak. “It’s not as if we can have the wedding without you.”
With a heartfelt groan, Jak leaned his forehead against Stella’s, deftly removing his hand from under her skirts and letting them settle. “Your Highness Queen Amelia,” he said over his shoulder, not sounding particularly polite, “can you give us a moment?”
“No, I cannot, young Jakral. There’s no time at all to waste, in truth. You’re weeks late for fitting your wedding suit. Comealong immediately.” She actually snapped her fingers, and Stella watched Jak’s face harden, eyes glinting dangerously.
“We have always and always and always,” she reminded him, infusing him with all the love she felt for him. “Once we get through this wedding, that is.”
He huffed out a laugh. “So: the epic challenges recommence.”
“Glorianna save me,” Ami cried out in exasperation. “You’d think a hero of the realm could put up with standing still for a few hours.”
Jak turned toward Ami, taking Stella’s hand and interlacing his fingers with hers, his fingertips brushing over the black diamond on her finger as if ensuring it remained in place. “I’ll go, but only because I want input on what I’m going to wear, heart-mother.”
Ami narrowed her brilliant twilight eyes. “If you’re contemplating anything like that flashy crimson outfit you wore to the ball on the long night of the crystalline moon, the answer is no.”
Stella opened her mouth, but Jak squeezed her hand. “It’s my wedding, too,” he reminded her.
Ami sniffed in disdain. “Now that you’ve actually shown up for it.”
“As promised,” Jak replied, releasing Stella’s hand and bowing deeply to the queen. “Speaking of being a hero of the realm and in other good news, I’ve arranged a solution for bringing my rapacious Dasnarian family to Windroven without them having to cross through Annfwn. You’re welcome.”
Ami’s brows climbed. “I can’t wait to hear this.”
“I shall explain on the way to the fitting,” he allowed graciously, then turned to Stella. “Unless you want me to run it past you first?”
She shook her head slowly. “I trust you. If you say it’s a good solution, then it is.”
Something in him relaxed, a coiled spring of uncertainty releasing. “Thank you,” he murmured, picking up her hand and brushing a tender kiss over the back of it. “Later?” he asked, stepping away again.
“Sooner, I hope,” she answered fervently and his intense, sensual gaze connected with hers in heated agreement.
Touching his fingertips to his lips, he blew a kiss to her, winked jauntily, and gestured for the queen to precede him out of the tower room. Ami turned to her daughter with a bright smile. “I love when I get to use my favorite phrase,” she said with a saucy smirk. “Told you so.”
Stella was far too happy to be annoyed.
~ 7 ~
Reconciling with hertrue love didn’t solve everything, Stella reflected ruefully. Not like in the stories when the lovers rode off together, locked in a deep kiss and bound for a perfect happy ever after.
But having Jak back, knowing that he loved her, did make everything shinier. The transformation of Castle Windroven into a glittering midwinter paradise reflected her own change of mood. If a fragile glass ornament fell and shattered, Stella only laughed, unbothered by the small loss because there was such an abundance of them that it hardly mattered.
This was being happily in love and accepting everything about it, Jak’s flaws and her own. And understanding the true grace of Glorianna’s gift, that with love, she could bear all trials.
Oh, she and Jak weren’t cooing and beaming every moment of every day, but the aggravations and arguments were easier with him by her side. When she was perilously close to hurling a fireball at her mother—not to really hurt her, maybe just singe some of that fabulous hair a little—Jak had only to catch her eye and send a mental caress for her to rein in her temper. When they reached an impasse on some bit of planning, she and Jak reserved the right to retire and discuss it between the two of them, returning to give a united verdict.
