Since the day she’d kissed Jayce, Rika had been happier than she’d thought possible. He was with her as a real part of her life, and the faeries in the desert had been leaving them alone since that odd night at Dead Ends. She knew Sionnach was responsible for that, but he acted like it was the most normal thing in the world to help her navigate the difficulties of dating a mortal while keeping him safe from meddling faeries.

Today, Rika walked through town visibly with Jayce’s arm around her. Maybe Jayce was what she’d been waiting for all this time. She could finally have a relationship. When she’d “dated” Keenan, it had been a different century, and the Summer King hadn’t ever kissed her with the sort of fervor Jayce now did. Keenan had never touched her without ulterior motivation, but Jayce . . . he was different. When he pulled her into his arms, he wasn’t trying to convince her to sacrifice anything, wasn’t trying to hide his true intentions from her. Jayce’s only interest seemed to be making her forget the world around them—and that was an interest she could happily support.

Being with him, being out around people, made her realize how much of living she’d been missing. She wanted more of it, the silly jokes and the casual touches. She wanted to spend days doing nothing but kissing. She wanted to be lost to the dizzying joy of touch. What Jayce wanted, however, was more talking.

“I want to know you better,” he repeated. “It was a sentence he’d used far too often, one that hinted at more than she could offer right now.

“You do know me. We’ve spent hours talking and—”

“Are you happy being with me?”

She paused. If there was a right way to say that she was happier than when she had watched him in secret, she didn’t know it. Instead, she said, “I never expected to get to touch you. I didn’t think I’d become this . . . I don’t know . . . free.”

“Free enough to answer more questions?” His voice sounded teasing, and his fingers trailed over her arm.

If Rika had only her desires to consider, they’d spend more time touching and less time talking, but she knew she was being unfair. She’d had time to learn about him before he knew she existed. Still, she let herself simply enjoy his caress for a moment more before asking, “What else do you need to know?”

“Everything. What you did before we met.” Jayce stepped away, clearing his throat briefly as if the temptation was more than he wanted. “I just want to know everything about you, your world, your history. Everything.”