Chapter 288

The next thing I know, Jackson and I are cliffside and he is snatching me close to him with a wicked snarl, surprising a laugh out of me that he quickly silences with a proper kiss – the long, deep, knee-jellying kind that quickly has me rather desperate, pressing my body tight against him and winding my arms around his neck.

The growl that builds in Jackson’s chest is satisfyingly hungry as he pulls me to the ground with him, my legs finding their place on either side of his hips as he settles me on his lap, deepening the kiss and letting one hand get lost in my hair while the other traces down the line of my back.

I’m basically panting a few minutes later when he breaks the kiss, looking at me with his gorgeous sapphire eyes lazy and half-lidded. “Hi,” he whispers.

I ignore the word, emitting a little desperate huff and lifting my chin, wanting more, but Jackson just laughs again and turns us, laying me out on the soft grass by the cliff of our dreamscape, cradling my head gently in his hand. “Trust me, I want nothing more than to kiss you all night,” he murmurs, dropping his lips to my neck and tracing long, lingering kisses there.

“So do it,” I whine, desperately unhappy that he apparently wants to talk when things were getting so good.

Jackson just laughs and presses one final kiss to my mouth before he shakes his head at me. I sigh, tracing my fingers along his cheek and staring up at his face, noting and not at all displeased that Jackson doesn’t make any move to lift his body from where it presses deliciously all along the length of mine.

He grins at me, sensing my emotions, and I just bite my lip. “It’s your fault,” I whisper. “For being so hot.”

Jackson laughs, grinning at me, shaking his head. “I didn’t choose to be so devastatingly good looking, Ariel,” he murmurs. “Can’t blame me for that.”

“Yes I can,” I whine, covering my face with my hands, unable to look at him without wanting to grab his shirt and pull him down further on top of me and kiss him until I pass out or die or whatever comes next. “Unfair.”

“You have the same effect on me, you know,” he murmurs, tracing his hand achingly down the length of my torso.

“I so don’t,” I growl, lowering my hands enough to glare at him. “Or else we’d definitely be naked right now –“

He laughs at me, I think entertained and pleased. “It’s just discipline, Clark.”

“Well then quit that, McClintock,” I snap, sitting up a little, grinning at him. “Give in – it’s a magical dream state! There are no rules here, no one to impress with how stoic you can be!” But this just makes him laugh, and kiss me again, before taking a deep breath and relaxing against me.

“I want to check in with you,” he says, calm and even. “Make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m all right,” I say, relaxing back against the grass, pleased and warm and perfectly at peace – even if just mildly sexually frustrated. I raise my hand and rake my fingers through his hair.

“You’re worried, after everything that happened today,” Jackson murmurs, even as his eyes go half-shut with the pleasure of having his head scratched. “I can tell and I want to help.”

“You know,” I say quietly, even as I study his perfect face, “I’m allowed to be worried – it’s a very natural emotion. You don’t always have to fix it. Sometimes things are worrying – and so I worry.”

“I know,” he says, his full lips curving at the corners. “I just want to make it all easy and good, even if I can’t.”

“Because you are so sweet,” I whisper, continuing to trace my fingers through his hair.

“No, I’m very tough and scary,” he says, his voice pitching deeper, more threatening. But I just laugh. “Nobody needs to reminded of how sweet they are the night before battle.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell the enemies” I say softly. “Your secret is safe with me.”

He nods once, dropping a kiss to my cheek.

“What about you?” I whisper, my eyes moving slowly over his face – his long lashes, his straight nose. “How are you feeling about what happened this afternoon, all the news we got?”

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Jackson sighs, rolling away from me so that he’s laying on his back, staring up at the stairs. I prop myself up at his side so that I can look down at his face, listening closely, wanting to help in turn if I can. “I never…thought about where my magic came from before I came to this Academy – it was always just mine. And now I have so many questions.”

“Does it upset you?” I ask quietly, slipping a hand across his hard stomach, kind of unable to not touch him. “That your magic is not a Goddess-given gift? That it’s from someone else?”

“No,” he says, turning his head to look at me. “Especially if it opens the possibility that I don’t have a second mate – someone I met earlier in my life who made the magic start.”

“Well, it’s your lucky day, Jacks,” I say, giving him a big smile. “Because…I kind of asked about that when she froze time and we had a little…secret meeting.”

“What?” he asks, sitting up a little.

I laugh, nodding. “Yeah, I couldn’t resist - couldn’t not know. She told me that I’m your only mate - a fact that gives me a great deal of relief, even if…” I hesitate now, grimacing a little, “it is hypocritical.”

Jackson groans with relief, falling back to the ground and wrapping an arm around me to take me with him. I laugh, resting my head against his chest, pleased to feel that he, too, is happy and relieved at the news.

“Thank god,” he murmurs. “I can barely handle you, Clark. Don’t want another one. Don’t want anyone but you.”

I nod, tilting my head to press a soft kiss to his shirt, and we sit in silence for a moment as I let Jackson collect this thoughts.

“So, you have time to ask the Goddess only a few questions in private,” he murmurs, “including questions about the gift the God of Darkness gave you…and you asked about whether or not I have another mate?”

I laugh, sitting up and grinning down at him as he peers up at me – exhausted, pleased and curious all at once. “I do have my priorities straight, Jacks,” I say daintily, pressing my fingers to my chest. “I needed to know if there’s some girl out there that I needed to have locked away in a dungeon or something.”

He laughs, shaking his head at me, but then narrows his eyes a little. “What else happened?” he asks. “In the private conference? That news wasn’t enough to have you on your feet, your chair knocked over.”

I bite my lip, my face falling into more serious lines, considering what to say and shutting down my end of the bond a bit for privacy. Jackson waits patiently, watching my face. “Would it be okay,” I ask quietly, “to…keep that to myself a little longer? Just until I have some time to turn it all over in my mind and know how I feel about it?”

Jackson frowns at me and I can feel his worry down the bond as he raises the hand from my back, sliding it softly over my hair. “But you’re okay if you do that? Nothing…we need to do, or take care of?”

I shake my head then, softly, barely moving it. Because, I mean, there is time…three months is not a long time, but…

Well, I know that if I told Jackson what the Goddess said right now, he’d wake up and give me his mark right now rather than risk losing me, having her break our bond. But, perhaps selfishly, I don’t want it to happen like that –

I want Jackson to give me his mark freely, because he wants to and because I want it. Not because a Goddess demands it. And while that’s maybe too romantic for our situation…I have some time, right?

Quite suddenly, I make a snap an arbitrary decision to give it one month. One month to try everything I can to persuade Jackson to give me his mark as naturally as I can – and then, if it doesn’t happen by then, I’ll tell him about the Goddess’s ultimatum. That’s…that’s plenty of time, right? To let it happen naturally?

Inwardly, my wolf nudges me and I guiltily add Luca to the list. One month to get Jackson’s mark and Luca’s. Both of their marks, both of my mates.

I sigh, looking to the side, wondering how the hell I’m going to manage this.

“Ariel,” Jackson murmurs, cupping my cheek in my hands, and I turn my eyes back to him. “Are you sure you want to wait to tell me what’s going on?”

“Yeah, babe,” I whisper, laying myself down at his side and letting him wrap me up in his arms. “I’m sure. Don’t worry about it – just…something I have to figure out.”

“Okay,” he whispers, curling his body over and around me, protective and warm.

“At least we get to shoot people with paintball guns tomorrow,” I say, working hard for a smile as I look up into his worried face. “That should take the edge off.”

“Yes, victory is always a great relaxant,” he murmurs, lowering himself to kiss my cheek, and then my jaw, and then my neck, moving his way down towards my shoulder. “Though now, I’ve got other things in mind.”

I tilt my head back, eager to give my mate more of a canvas to work with, wishing you could get marks in the dream state – because honestly, I’d take it right now, if he’d give it. Though whether or not he to give me his mark as badly as I want to have it?

Well. It’s a question I’m not sure I’m ready to ask.