I could hear him smiling from his tone, and I blinked. Commune with a line? When I’d been eighteen, I thought communing with a line meant tapping into it, but now I was wondering if it really meant matching your aura to a line in order to jump into it or … whatever that was we’d been doing to each other. “Sorry,” I said, dropping my hands from his shoulders.

“No, I meant a little lower.”

I flushed red. “I’m working on that,” I said, embarrassed, but it was kind of nice doing the nasty with a witch, where I didn’t have to explain myself. Biology was grand. Male witches were not as well endowed as humans, and to make up for it, we girls had a couple of extra muscles that didn’t let go right away. I didn’t have control over it, actually, and the saying was that the better the sex, the longer it took. Right now, it seemed like it might be a while.

A faint glow showed in the lantern, and Pierce rolled us to our sides to get his weight off me. Stretching, he reached for a fold of blanket, giving me flashes of his anatomy until we were covered. Propping his head up on an elbow, he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m in no hurry to mosey off,” he said, but he was hiding a wince.

“Oh God!” I said, thoroughly embarrassed now. My body was betraying me. “Pierce, I’m sorry. It’s been a few years since I’ve been with a witch, and I think the hormones are overcompensating.” This was utterly mortifying.

He leaned in and gave me a kiss on the forehead. “I’m not of a mind to complain. I should have taught you how to shift your aura sooner. I swan, I lost it when you traced a line through me. I didn’t know it made a body feel so all-overish.”

All-overish? I blinked when the light went out and he gathered himself to me. “What time do you think it is?” I asked.

“It’s dark,” was his answer. “Go to sleep.”

Our legs were intertwined, and I could feel things loosening up. I didn’t think this was quite what Ivy had in mind when she said to be smart. Or maybe it was. Sighing, I tucked my head under his chin and listened to his heartbeat. His arm was over me, and I was warm. I was warm inside and outside. Everything. This was a damn fine hole in the ground.

“Thank you, Pierce,” I whispered, and I felt my hair shift when he chuckled.

“I opine you’ll feel different when your business partners fill your head with gum-flapping nonsense.”