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“Is that what you want to do with our baby?” Istil demanded. “Put it outside?”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“They need a proper nest, Ari. I need to give them a proper nest.”
The floorboards creaked and popped beneath my feet, and a young sapling thrust out through the hole.
“I didn’t do that on purpose,” he said dejectedly. He sighed and slumped against the vines, which twisted to support him like a hanging chair. “I’m sorry.”
Istil needed to finish this nest, but doing so was putting the house at risk. There was only one solution.
“We can’t stay here,” I said.
“You’re kicking me out?”
His forehead was knotted into a furious crease, but his eyes were brimming with tears. It took me by surprise—I’d never seen Istil like this before, and him on the verge of crying was like a gut punch. It hurt me more than I could’ve expected.
I took him by the shoulders and looked into his eyes. “I saidwecan’t stay here, Istil.We.We’ll go somewhere you can do whatever you need to do, without any problems.”
“The jungle?” he asked.
“What? No, there’s a small community on the north side of Blue Fin territory, where the extended family lives. There are a few empty homes there. They haven’t been lived in for years, and they need a lot of work, but we can do whatever we need to them.”
The tension in his face released as my words sunk in.
“How does that sound?” I asked.
He nodded. “It sounds good. It sounds very good.” His usual smart-ass smile teased across his lips. “I wouldn’t mind living in the jungle, though.”
“Obviously,” I said, prodding a huge leaf hanging over the dresser. “But some of us would like a proper roof.”
“I’m sorry about all of this,” he said. “I know, this is a lot. I’ve been so overwhelmed. It feels as though my head is going to pop.”
“You’re nesting,” I told him. “It’s completely normal to have these needs.”
“I’m not used to this,” he muttered unhappily. “It’s like I have no control over anything I’m doing. There have been two things running through my mind, every minute of the day. Getting this room perfect—which feels impossible, and…”
“And?”
The look Istil gave me implied it ought to be obvious. And maybe it was—but I still wanted him to say it.
“What’s the other thing?” I asked.
He leaned back in his vine hammock. A gecko scampered behind him up the tree and out the window. “You know what it is,” he said.
“Something I can assist with?” I asked.
“Dammit, Ari. I don’t wish to play games right now.”
“A healer can only do so much if his patient doesn’t speak what’s ailing them.”
“Oh, shut up!” he said with a laugh.
I could smell his rising heat like a potent nectar swirling around me that immediately made my cock jump to life.
“So, are you going to tell me?” I asked.
He reached out with his legs and slipped them around my waist, then pulled me forward so I was locked firmly between them, my crotch tight against his. The vines stretched tight beneath our weight.
