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MICAH SAT ON THE MOUNTAIN, Jade beside him, a crisp wind blowing around them as leaden clouds rolled in overhead. There was still snow in the shadowy areas above them though they looked out over a gray and green valley of budding trees. It was spring, barely. Still too early for mining.
If you were human.
But he’d helped her mark spots on her new claim for when the weather finally broke and the frozen earth thawed. He’d offered to just bring the crystals up, but she’d shaken her head with a smile.
“No, I really enjoy the work. And besides, we can’t flood the market with gems from this mountain or it’ll be overrun by miners.” Her brows dropped and her jaw clenched. “And claim jumpers.”
“Okay,” he’d said with a secret smile as she’d turned away. She was right... but if it came to the end of the season and she was having any trouble, he’d give things a little nudge.
Now, they sat together on the rocks, enjoying a silence filled only by the sound of the wind through the boulders. He held her hand, breathing deeply. There was something about sitting in beauty and silence that made one happy and hurt at the same time. He always thought of Tokoni and his village in these moments.
Jade felt it too. Her eyes were shadowed as she looked over the valley and the town. She must be thinking of her family, feeling the loss of them, the way he was with Tokoni. It was different now though. He wasn’t alone.
And neither was she.
He leaned over and grabbed Jade, one arm behind her back and one under her legs, and sat her down between his open knees facing the valley. He ignored her exclamation of surprise and wrapped his arms around her chilled form. She relaxed against his chest, and he gently rested his head on top of hers.
He’d sought solitude for so long. Still did, sometimes. But this was what he’d been looking for, something even solitude couldn’t give him.
Peace.
Even with the war and fighting and tragedies and the world still gradually falling to Chaos... he could find peace with Jade in his arms. And though he still hurt over Tokoni's death, the deaths of others in the decades since... he could be happy at the same time. It was a marvel, a gift.
Companionship was more healing than seclusion.
That went for the other Warriors and their families, too. He enjoyed spending time with them, getting to know them better. He considered them his family, his tribe. The new Warriors, not so much. But Levi and Brooke and baby Seraphina, Ajax and Emory and baby Jackson. Even Walker, though they’d had a shift in roles between them. Now it seemed like Walker was the one withdrawing. But he understood why; the time and circumstances had to be just right for him to find healing. Walker’s time would come.
Micah didn’t know how he knew that, but he did.
In the meantime, he was getting his chance at happiness, and he wouldn’t waste it. As recent events had taught him to do, he was going to share it.
Micah leaned forward to murmur to Jade. “I have a gift for you.”
“You do?”
Jade looked back at him with a smile while she rubbed her hands together. “What is it?”
“Turn around. Don’t look.”
She gave him a puzzled smile but did what he asked.
Micah slowly took the pendant out of his pocket, concealed in his wide palm. He allowed it to drop from his hand, the cord keeping it from falling to the ground.
He pressed himself closer to her back and moved her hair to the side off her neck. Lips at her ear, he said, “No peeking.”
Jade’s shiver at his words was satisfying and she huffed, but she closed her eyes like he knew she would. She liked surprises.
He reached around her with both hands and drew the necklace up her neck, tying it. He would have put it on a fine chain, but it wouldn’t have been practical when she was mining. That’s why she never wore jewelry, she’d told him once. Impractical, too easy to break or lose. But he wanted her to wear this, always.
“You can look now,” he said, Jade still facing away from him.
She looked down and inhaled sharply. “Oh my god, it’s beautiful.” Crystal in her hand, eyes wide, she swiveled to face him. She held the crystal up to the light, gasping when she saw the rainbows dancing over it, inside it. “What is it? I don’t recognize the mineral.”
“No, you wouldn’t recognize it.” He smiled.
She raised her brows at him, waiting, glancing between him and the pendant.
“I made it,” he said simply.
“You—” Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened in understanding. “You made it.”
He nodded. It was born of his Earth powers and his love for her, carefully crafted over many weeks this winter, deep in the bowels of the earth in a nursery of heat and pressure.
She put a hand to her chest, awe all over her face. “That’s the most amazing thing in the universe.”
Micah shrugged, but he was pleased with her obvious joy and wonderment. When she looked at him again, her green eyes were glimmering, shiny. Full of all that same awe and delight.
She threw herself at him and he caught her, pulled her into his lap as she kissed his face, interjecting words between them.
“Thank you. It’s beautiful, amazing. You’re amazing. It’s the most beautiful thing in the entire world. I love it. I love you.”
She kissed him again.
He still wasn’t great with words. It was easier with her than it was with any of the others, but sometimes he still stayed silent when he should speak. He pulled back from her mouth. “This is so you know I love you even if I don’t say the words enough.”
Her expression melted into another smile. Hand to the side of his face, she said, “I do love hearing it. But I know it, even if you don’t say it.”
He would never stop telling her, in every way he could. So he pressed his lips to hers until she opened and let him in, their tongues stroking against each other as he rubbed his hands over her back.
That quick, his hunger for her returned with stunning force. But when he pushed his hands under her jacket, seeking her skin, she yelped and pulled back.
“It’s too cold here for that!” But she smiled and kissed him again, lips skimming over to his ear. “Let’s go back to base, where it’s warm enough to get naked,” she said, grinning.
He rose quickly, wordlessly, Jade still in one arm, bending down to grab their packs in the other. He started walking down the trail, her legs dangling above the ground, her laughter echoing over the mountainside. She finally tapped his chest with her fist. “Put me down, you brute,” she said, humor in her voice. “It’ll be faster.”
He grinned and lowered her to her feet with a quick kiss, and grabbed her hand. He led her down the trail, smoothed and evened out by his powers, to his SUV.
They drove to base in comfortable silence, Jade’s hand in his, nothing but warm smiles and hot looks between them.
When they made it to his suite without interruption, he shut the door and dropped the packs at his feet, pulling Jade into his arms. Their lips met and her hands lifted to grip his hair as his now-warm hand dove under her clothes. As they kissed, he undid the buttons of her flannel. He swept her shirt off her shoulders and then stepped back and pulled his own over his head. She’d been busy undoing his belt and his fly while they kissed, but his boots had to come off before his pants could. Same with her. So he backed them up to the bed and they sat together, undoing laces and pulling off clothes.
He finished before she did, so he grabbed her feet as he stood, tipping her back onto the bed. He finished unlacing the last boot and tossed it to the floor, and then slowly drew off her jeans, stroking her legs as he revealed each inch of lovely skin.
She lay on his bed, hair splayed on the sheets, eyes dark and languorous, lips swollen. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, the most beautiful thing he’d ever touched. He crawled on the bed and lay at her side.
Jade’s eyes were curious, but she was patient. Starting at her cheek, he stroked over the soft skin of her face, her lips, her neck. And then down, across her shoulders, her breasts, her ribs, caressing each inch. Her stomach clenched as his fingers went lower, across her abdomen, to her hips, down her thighs, and up again.
Her eyes shut and her mouth opened on a breath when he stroked across the delicate, damp cloth between her legs. He drew the scrap off cloth off of her and then his lips took the journey his fingers had made, Jade grabbing the sheets and arching her back when he got to the end and stayed there. Her breaths turned to gasps and then to moans, and then to cries, as he showed her he loved her with his mouth. But not with words. He’d always been best at things he could do without speaking.
‘I love you’ was by far the easiest thing for him to say to her, but he still didn’t say it enough. Couldn’t say it enough, and the words weren’t sufficient. So he would tell her every way he could, every chance he got. He’d tell her with words, and gifts, and smiles, and with his body.
When Jade was limp in his hands, he pulled himself up over her. He wrapped his arms around her and pushed into her, losing himself in the almost painful pleasure of touching and kissing her. Of loving her, and being loved by her.
He was glad he’d waited for Jade. No other woman along the way compared to her. No physical union could come close to what they had; a merging of bodies and souls. She was perfect, and she was his. He could feel the vibration of every one of her crystals in the room around them, the gem he’d placed around her neck, but none more so than the woman in his arms.
Thank you, he whispered in his mind to the Earth as he kissed down her shoulder, the two of them moving together.
A feeling of joy was whispered back to him. Not just his joy, but reflections of it; the joy of Jade, her happiness, and love. And the joy of the Earth.
When she came apart in his arms, her body shook from the pleasure, and the feeling of it, the sounds of it, sent him over the edge, too. When he came, it was with a groan into her neck and pleasure so intense, his body quaked.
With his first calm breath, he noticed that Jade was still trebling. So too was their bed, their room. Seemingly the whole base vibrated around them.
“Oh no,” she said as the shaking slowly subsided.
Jade’s shocked face was right below his, and she brought her hand up to cover her mouth, mirth in her eyes though her cheeks were reddening with embarrassment. “That was us,” she said from behind her hand.
Micah felt a smile starting. It had been them. Her power leaking from the force of her emotions, added to his, had combined to make the ground beneath the base shake. Which meant probably everyone there knew what had just happened. Ajax would likely mention it the next chance he got, but he didn’t care.
Not one bit.
His life was full of happiness and laughter and kissing and love, now. What a change from how it had been. He didn’t mind if everyone knew how deliriously happy he was with Jade from the two of them shaking the earth. It was kind of funny, actually. He laughed and kissed her on the forehead.
And then he laughed some more, Jade’s embarrassed giggles making him laugh harder, louder, until the halls of the base were echoing with a sound none of the other occupants there had ever heard.
Micah, laughing with joy.
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CRUSH: Book 3 (what you just read!)
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UNTIL NOW, FIRE ELEMENTAL Tansy has only known a life of servitude in the kitchens. Her abilities are weak, too weak to be any use in the war against Chaos, but she can sure make a mean spaghetti. If only she could get handsome, aloof warrior Rowan to taste her... cooking.
Rowan is a Botanical Elemental, which sounds great, except he doesn’t feel very powerful, or useful. When disaster befalls the lovely cook and he can’t save her, he begins to seriously doubt his place among the other warriors. If only he could use his powers all the time, but it seems the only way to do that is to... fall in love.
Rowan must learn whose acceptance matters most, while Tansy learns that her powers can be used for more than just kitchen magic.