We lapsed into a comfortable silence. I didn’t want to get my hopes up—I knew it wasn’t as simple as him leaving and making a home with me out here—but if he was serious, if it was genuinely what he wanted and not just a means to keep me safe, we could discuss it properly once everything had blown over. I wouldn’t exactly put up much of a protest, but for now, I just wanted to enjoy a few more days of all this before we had to make plans for our return.

And our future.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, behind one of the wooden pillars, and with a slight turn to the side, I saw Gary chasing Leaf through the courtyard. Cee marched like an unimpressed mother behind them. The wyvern had something in her mouth that Gary clearly wanted back—food probably—and no doubt Cee was herding the two to a less conspicuous location.

Considering they were meant to be our guards, and all that.

I snorted at the display, which quickly peeled off into uncontrollable laughter as Gary tripped over a bush and landed in a pile of mud. Or horse shit, I couldn’t see from this distance. His entire face was coated in brown, except for his eyes, which wish-washed from side to side like window wipers.

All while Leaf tucked into her loot.

I may have even caught Cee cracking a genuine smile.

With tears in my eyes and a cramp in my side, I turned to Cair, making sure he’d also witnessed the absolute circus, but he wasn’t even looking out at the farm. He was staring straight at me, a glimmer to his eyes that made me feel a little like prey.

“What?” I asked, a touch breathless, my heart skipping a beat.

“I missed hearing you laugh,” he said earnestly, his voice pitched low. How quickly the mood shifted from light and carefree to stifling heat had my head spinning. I swallowed thickly. “You’re so beautiful, Luca, and I’m failing to understand why I don’t yet have you writhing on my cock.”

Oop, good morning!

I nodded dumbly, licking my bottom lip before saying, “Um, me too.”

In a blink his mouth was on mine, hot and consuming, and in another, we were staggering toward the stables, my shirt somehow no longer on my body. He steered me into an empty stall, pinning me against a wooden beam with his bulk, his tongue never wavering in its fervent exploration and his greedy hands still roving my naked torso. The scent of his arousal swept through me, so strong and dizzying that it masked the smell of horses and hay. The resounding growls in his throat muffled their curious snorts.