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“You look pretty enough to me right now, doc. Even sweaty and overly skinny and wearing this crappy hospital rag…” He tugged on my hospital gown, then grinned when I smacked him in the chest. “Pretty enough that my cock is really pissed off at you at the moment… really pissed off, doc.”

“Is it?” I quirked an eyebrow. Reaching out a hand, I placed it deliberately on his crotch. I massaged him there slowly, sensually. As I did, I pretended to think while he gritted his teeth. “It doesn’tseemmad… are you sure you’re reading this thing correctly?”

“You’re evil,” he informed me. “I’m married to a dark witch.”

“You wish.”

“You mean Ipray. Usually for my own life. Sometimes for others.”

I grunted another laugh. I couldn’t help it. Taking my hand off his impressively hard cock, I shook my head, exhaling as I leaned into his side.

Feeling his light wrap around me, coiling deeper into mine, I sighed.

His light was like a drug right then.

His fingers were hypnotic where they stroked my neck and arms and hands.

I still hadn’t adjusted to how different our lights felt.

The sheeramountof Black I felt in his light was a lot of it. And it wasn’t just Black. I felt so much more ofmenow. I felt so much more of myself, so much more grounded in my body, so much more physical and present, in a way I couldn’t remember feeling in years.

Maybe never. Maybe I’d never felt myself like this before.

I had a faint memory of feeling this way when I was young.

Before my Uncle Charles was a big presence in my life, I remembered feeling this.

Living up in the Yukon part of Canada, with my mother’s people and my father.

Even back then, Charles changed things.

Something felt different after Charles arrived.

I hadn’t noticed it then, but I could feel that difference now, when I gazed backwards at those memories of my youth. We were happier before my dad’s brother found us. My father was happier. My mother and father were happier together. My uncle being up there changed that whole dynamic somehow. It took us out of our simple, happy, grounded family space.

Now, everything was different again.

Even today, this morning, it was different.

I felt different now than I had yesterday.

I felt like some weight had lifted off my chest.

“No dark witches here,” I informed my mate. I exhaled as I twisted halfway onto my back, looking up at the white ceiling. I combed my hair out of my eyes with my fingers, then turned, smiling into Black’s face. “Just a boring, ordinary, unremarkable, and quitemediocrelady seer, I’m afraid. That’s it. That’s what you’re stuck with, baby.”

He grunted a deeply skeptical laugh.

“Sure, doc. Sure. That’sexactlyhow I’d describe you.”

I smacked him on the chest.

I was still smiling, about to crack another lame joke…

He kissed me before I could.

Rolling me all the way to my back on the crowded-feeling hospital bed, he kissed me harder, maneuvering himself between my legs. Once I was lying completely under him, he sank his weight, letting out a low sound when I opened my light.

I gripped his arms when he kissed me a second time.