by Amy Pennza
She turned her head. He captured her chin and pulled her lips to his.
He withdrew and helped her to her feet. She swayed, and he steadied her with a hand at her elbow. The kaptum around his biceps gleamed silver and liquefied.
Her breath caught. It slid down his arm in a smooth, rolling glide. The metal paused at his hand, then flowed over it and circled her elbow in a soft caress. Sparks tingled around her arm as it brushed her skin. It flowed around her arm a few more times before retreating to Ivar and curling back into position. It sank into his skin and turned black.
He smiled down at it and then lifted his gaze to hers. “It likes you.”
Voices drifted from the pit. She scrambled to retrieve her clothes. Ivar stretched his arms over his head.
“Aren’t you going to get dressed?” she asked. She balanced on one leg, then the other as she put her pants on.
“Not when the view is this nice.”
She shook her head, smiling.
He teased her for a few more minutes. Finally, he put his clothes on. They walked to the edge of the field, hand in hand.
She stopped and faced the way they’d come. Rows and rows of healthy crops stood up proud from the soil. “Now that’s a view.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Because of you.”
“We should plant more. In another year or two, we’ll have enough food to stop depending on Council rations.”
His eyes grew serious. “The Council isn’t likely to accept that. They’ll be back, or they’ll send their spies. Living here won’t be easy. I have big plans for Tolbos, and they know it. They will fight me at every turn. I want you by my side, but you have to understand that they think of the people here as little better than animals, and—”
She put a finger against his lips. “I know all that. I’m not worried.”
“You’re not?”
She shook her head. “We have an opportunity to change things. A once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity.”
His lips curved. The dimple appeared. “I know what you’re doing.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Mmhmm. You’re talking up your crops. Making them irresistible.”
She smiled. “Is it working?”
He lowered his head until their lips were almost touching. “It’s working.”
About the Author
Amy Pennza has been a lawyer, a soldier, and a copywriter. Although she liked the first two well enough, she decided writing romance is the job she loves best. After years in Tornado Alley, she now makes her home in the Great Lakes region with her husband, kids, and two demanding animals.
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