"You already talked to him - why do you need to talk to him again?" I held the phone away from my ear for a second. "No, he's not going to change his mind. He's not that kind of man, and besides, he can't. I'm his Beloved. He can't impregnate me and leave me for someone else. Well, OK, he could, but he wouldn't because he's nice. And he loves me. A lot. He was going to destroy a god for me! Only a man head over heels in love would decide to do something so ridiculous."
My mother, never one to keep feelings to herself, unburdened herself of several items, up to and including the likelihood that the elf side of my family would look down on Paen because of his dark origins. "Like I care what they think?" I flinched at the barrage that followed that statement. "Sorry. Yes. Yes, I hear you. Yes, yes, yes. Huh? Of course we're going to get married! I don't know about Clare - she and Finn seem to be pretty tight. More than her usual boyfriends. I think they may be getting serious. We'll just have to see how that goes."
Outside, traffic hummed along merrily in another gloriously sunny - AKA rare - May day.
"No, you can't talk to him again, you've talked to him three times already today. Someone finally tracked down his parents, so he's telling them everything that's been happening. Yes, you'll meet them. Yes, they're nice. Mom - " I sighed and prayed for patience. "No, I won't let his mother help me pick out a wedding dress, OK? I have to go. No, now is not a good time to look into ear reconstruction surgery - I'm happy with my ears! Paen likes them, too. No... no... it's not a matter of money, I just don't want them re-elfed! Look, I really, really have to... Mom... Mom, Paen is stark naked with an erection that could bring down buildings, and he's calling for me. Gotta run! Love to you and Dad. Again. Bye!"
I clicked off the phone to the sound of my mother sputtering indignantly, rubbing my ear in an attempt to get feeling back into it as I leaned against the wall and stretched. I knew my mother was going to be excited by the news that I was now immortal (something she had been fretting over ever since I had my ears bobbed), and madly in love with a man who was just as crazy about me, but she was running amok with international phone calls. I had a suspicion she'd be dragging Dad over to Scotland in the very near future.
Still at it?
My toes curled at the warm, rich voice in my head. Yes. It feels good. I like doing it. I may do it every single day from here until the end of our time.
Paen sighed from where he leaned against the door. "How is your arm?"
I smiled at nothing and arched my back, relishing the absolute joy that sunlight on my skin brought, making me giddy from the power it fed me. I was clad in a rather risque eyelash lace chemise... and nothing else. "Perfect. You were right - the sunlight did a lot to hurry along the healing process."
"I thought it might. Was that your mother again?"
"Of course. We'll probably hear from her another good dozen times today before she works most of the excitement out of her system. I liked your parents."
"Good. They liked you, as well. My mother says you're not to pick out a wedding dress until they get back to Scotland. She's excited about having a daughter-in-law and doesn't want to let any of the wedding planning slip past her."
I laughed. "That'll be a battle royal - my mom against yours. Oh well, we'll let them work it out. I don't really care so long as the end result is the same."
He raised an eyebrow. "Wild, unbridled wedding night sex?"
"No." I shook my head, to his surprise. "A passionate, romantic, wonderful beginning to our eternal wedded bliss."
He smiled.
"Followed immediately by wild, unbridled wedding night sex."
"Sam? Are you decent?" Clare's voice drifted in through the closed door. Paen edged past the pool of sunlight on the floor, grabbed my robe from where it lay over the wooden rhino, tossing it to me before he opened the door.
I sat up on the window seat where I'd been soaking up the all-healing rays from the sun, and watched with curiosity as Clare forged a path into the room. "We brought you some flowers - merciful goddess, what happened here?"
Paen handed her the machete. "It appears her plants are happy again."
"Good god, it's like a jungle," Finn said, only part of him visible as he fought his way past a particularly exuberant African oil palm. "I expect to see a lion or rhinoceros at any moment."
Paen moved aside to hold back a rubber tree leaf.
Finn laughed at the sight of my rhino. Clare disdained the use of the machete and beat her way over to my dresser, placing a large bouquet of hothouse flowers there, turning them until she was happy with the presentation. "Are you all better?"
I stretched in the sunlight, happiness welling out of me as I looked at Paen where he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed casually over his chest. Those lovely eyes of his were like sunlight on silver, shining back at me. "Yes, I'm all better now."
"Good. Is your mother happy about the wedding?"
"Very, although she is a bit annoyed we haven't actually set a date. I tried explaining to her that I only just forced Paen to his knees to propose, but you know how she is once she gets an idea - she doesn't much listen to anyone else."
"Well, she is an elf. You know how they are."
I sent Paen a mischievous grin. "Mom did say that she'd be perfectly happy organizing a double wedding, if you and Finn..." I let the suggestion fade to a stop, expecting one or the other of them to voice a negative exclamation. To my surprise, they just eyed each other for a moment.
"You never know," Finn said finally, with a grin that warmed my heart.
"I'm going to expect a lot more than a proposal in a car riding home from the scene of a demon attack," Clare informed him, then snatched one of the flowers from the vase and popped a petal in her mouth as she turned back to me. "Speaking of that, perhaps you can explain to me what exactly happened. Paen was too busy taking care of you after Pilar dumped you on the ground, and then Finn was bleeding and he had to eat, and those movie people wanted to talk to me about a possible role in an upcoming science fiction movie, and... well, with all that, I just never did find out what happened."
"Pilar took Sam to the Akashic Plain," Paen answered, a small smile making the corners of his mouth turn up.
Have I told you today how much I love you?
Yes. Seven times, as a matter of fact.
Ah.
It's not nearly enough.
I grinned.
"But how did he do that?" Clare asked, absently plucking a carnation from the bouquet and peeling off a few petals, which she promptly ate. "I thought it was impossible to get to the Akashic Plain?"
"Linear thinking," I said cryptically, and sent Paen a mental image of me stroking every square inch of him.
He straightened up. All of him.
"What?"
"Pilar is a god. There are places where deities can break the rules. The Akashic Plain is one of them."
Paen sent me back images of myself covered in whipped cream, and him with a bowl of strawberries.
I shivered, but not from cold.
"Oh. So he took Sam to the Akashic Plain to get her soul back, and then plopped her back in our reality?"
"Yes." I dwelled lovingly over what it felt like taking Paen into my mouth, of the scent and taste of him, of the joy I received in giving him pleasure.
"And he wasn't angry about Paen cutting off his arm?"
"Not angry enough to wreak any vengeance, no," Paen answered. He thought about nibbling on my ears. My entire body tightened in response.
"What about the statue? If it was a demon lord's statue, why didn't Brother Jacob see that? And why was the monkey statue hidden inside the bird one?"
"The bird statue shielded the Jilin God, making it impossible for anyone to detect its dark origins." I remembered what it felt like when Paen thrust hard into my body, causing every single one of my muscles to tighten around him.
"The demon lord who held it hid the statue within another one for security. He changed the outer statue's shape every so often, in case Caspar was on to it." Paen dwelled lovingly on the thought of my nipples.
I sucked in a breath, my body tingling like mad from his mental images.
"All right, that I understand, but what about your father? How did he get the statue?"
"Er... Clare, my sweet, I think we should be going now," Finn said, looking from me to Paen.
"But your father..." She popped another bit of carnation into her mouth.
I recalled what it felt like to ride him, our bodies moving together in a rhythm that swept us into ecstasy.
Paen lurched forward, stopping abruptly at the edge of the sunlight.
"I think they need some time to themselves right now," Finn said, shooting Paen a grin before swinging Clare up in his arms and fighting his way to the door. She giggled as he kissed her nose. "Actually, as it turns out, Caspar forged part of that receipt. He did help Dad find Mum, but the payment due was Dad's assistance in locating the statue, nothing more..."
"You do realize the irony of this, don't you?" Paen asked as the door closed behind them. He skirted the sunlight, stalking me as a predator would. I shed the robe, then, after a moment's thought, the chemise as well.
"The irony of you proposing to a sun elf? Yes, my darling Paen, I do indeed realize that I'm going to have to learn to love the moonlight."
"And I'm going to have to make sure the castle brings in even more profit than it does now," he said in a low voice filled with arousal as he pulled off his shirt and pants, standing naked just at the edge of the pool of sunlight.
"Really?" I admired him for a moment, merging myself with him, wanting to burst into song with the happiness I felt when our souls twined around each other and became one. "Why is that?"
"Sunblock," he growled, ignoring the sunlight as he stepped into it to scoop me up, carrying me to the bed. "I'm going to need lots and lots of sunblock."
Three months later the CEO of a UK-based company which produced sunblock, amongst other pharmaceuticals, happily reported to board members a quarter of record sales. He just couldn't figure out why most of the sales were concentrated around a remote Scottish town...
