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“We’ll find you,” he said, pointing to Zara.

Four guardians stooped to touch her and then instantly disappeared with her.

Two others remained behind with Orlin.

I looked at my guardian grandfather. “I’m never going to blindly accept yer concept of neutrality.”

“Will you ever accept me as part of your family?”

Were Orlin and I back to being friends again since I won? Or was he being sincere? I gave up trying to figure it out and opted to go with the flow. “I suppose ya’re no more annoying than any other relative. Try to come visit when there’s not a crisis happening. I’ll get Mulan to make some brownies for us. She’s a good baker.”

“Murieann would have been very proud of how you turned out, Aran. You enjoy your odd life, don’t you?”

“More than I have words to explain,” I said, then glanced around. “Except for the part where I keep having to deal with my ex-husband.” Jack was huddled with Ben and talking low. The fact they were so chummy knotted my stomach. “Don’t expect me to make any more concessions where he’s concerned.”

Orlin reached out and patted my shoulder. “None are needed. His meeting with his father went better than our meeting did.”

I rolled my eyes. “If ya tell me my grandmother never challenged ya, I’m going to call ya a liar.”

Orlin grinned at me. “I need to attend to Zara. I’ll be in touch.”

“Do that,” I said, forcing myself to watch his gross conversion back into his guardian self.

If Orlin was going to be a regular visitor, I needed to toughen up about it. Conn would say I needed to toughen up about a lot of things.

I glanced over at Jack and snorted. “I’d rather eat shit and die than let Jack Derringer into my life again.”

I turned to head to the house and found Rasmus still waiting by the chair for me. He lifted an eyebrow as I walked to him.

“I know. I know. We need totalk.”

He stood and stared down into my face. “I also need to get inside you before we both go insane from lust. I just didn’t want to say that in front of the others.”

I giggled before I could stop myself. My face heated as I stared up at him. “I appreciate yer discretion. Do ya remember us kissing earlier?”

His eyes flashed golden. “Not as well as I’d like to.”

When I giggled again, Rasmus reached down and picked me up. My arms went around his neck and he pulled my legs around his waist. He stood there holding me for a good long while. I heard two gasps of shock from our onlookers, but I wasn’t talking to them until tomorrow.

“My bedroom’s all mine tonight. Fiona’s on her way to Ireland. She may decide to stay for a while—if I get lucky.”

Rasmus looked very interested in what I was implying. Neither of us was keeping anything a secret any longer.

He smiled at me. “The Dagda said the demon wolves were spending the night in the veil and he was as well. I’m not sure what he meant, but I think it translates into me having the garage all to myself.”

“Well, yer room is not very romantic, but yer bed is definitely bigger.”

Rasmus smiled. “Tomorrow, you can tell me why I look Fiona’s age.”

“That’s easy enough to explain. Orlin insists ya chose to look this young.”

“The word I used to describe what I wanted was vigorous. I wanted to look vigorous. I never said young. I wanted us to look like we belonged together.”

Learning that help me not mind how he looked. I smiled and laid my head on his shoulder as he turned to walk toward the house. “I’m glad to have the real version of ya back, Rasmus. I missed ya something fierce. And ya always looked plenty vigorous to me.”

His mouth on mine stopped me from gushing about his looks. I couldn’t wait to go to bed with him now becausethiswas the version I wanted. I’d made him hide his new awareness from Orlin because I feared they’d make him forget himself again. I was more than ready to end the longest dry spell of my sexual life, but I wanted it to be with someone I thought of as my equal. The awakened version of Rasmus was the perfect man for me.

He whispered a question against my mouth. “Does sharing sex mean exclusivity these days? Because I want to be exclusive with you. I won’t let this body be drawn to other women.”