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endearing, which is sealing my fate. I’m falling for him.
    Hell, I think I already went splat.
    Hand in hand, we trudge down the trail. A surprise, he’d said when he’d called me earlier. And then he’d made me risk running back into the house to grab a swimsuit.
    I love Jack’s surprises. My favorite so far was the motorcycle ride to Two Harbors for my birthday, tucked against his broad back, the bike and his body between my legs. It was much better than the couple of times he’s taken me on the wind. Jack travels that way a lot, but it makes me want to hurl. The bike, though, that was fun…and hot.
    That trip was over a month ago. I shiver and Jack glances over, eyes narrowing at my instant blush. I’m ridiculously shy with him, but it’s his own damn fault. Jack takes moving slow to a whole ’nother level.
    He’s kissed me, sure—just never as much as I would like. Kissing Jack is an experience I can’t imagine ever getting enough of. But he never does anything else. I know he’s weirded out by the difference in our ages. Hel-lo, me fucking too! I’m with a guy who existed long before I was a speck in anyone’s eye. Or even before my mother was, which in my case, is saying something.
    Speaking of which, my mother would bind my magic and lock me in my room for the next century if she knew who I was seeing, but I don’t give a shit about any of that. I just want him. Truth is, this man makes me a bit nuts. In every way.
    I thought that after my birthday Jack might get down to business, since I’m officially legal now, but no go.
    “What’re you thinking of, princess?” he asks, a teasing bite to his tone.
    I sigh and give him a sidelong look. “Nothing that would interest you. Apparently.”
    He looks away, but his lips twitch and I know he caught the jab. But he doesn’t respond.
    Typical. Getting any sort of a rise out of Jack, har har , is pretty tough. He’s mellow to the extreme around me, though occasionally I see something in his frosty eyes. Something dark and cool that makes my heart both stutter and race.
    “Well now, that is beautiful.” I stop short at the view behind Jack.
    The Lester River area is always awesome. A tangled woodland beauty that rambles through east Duluth in a maze of waterfalls and swimming holes, the most memorable of which is probably the Deeps, a cliff-diving paradise off Seven Bridges Road that’s haunted June to August by college kids and families alike. But the scene in front of us is more than nature, it’s magic. I can feel it in my bones. The river jumps off a perfectly smooth lip of stone, falling in ruffled sheets to a pool of deep emerald green rimmed by quiet pines that sway in the breeze.
    “That,” I point below, “is not real. Who’d you bribe for the illusion?”
    “It’s not an illusion. It’s real. For today anyway.” He shrugs at my frown, pulling my suit from his backpack and pointing to a huge tree. “Go change.”
    I take my suit from his outstretched hand and follow orders. “How’d you pull off the magic?” I call.
    Jack’s powerful as holy fuck, but even he can’t change a summer forest like this.
    “The sylphs like me.”
    “Do they now?” I peek at him from behind the tree and almost fall over.
    He’s bare-assed, without a goddamn stitch, bending over his backpack and rummaging for his swim trunks.
    What’s not to like?
    The man is pure deliciousness in human form. He’s powerfully built, but lithe. Taut strength flows in long, corded lines, thicker through his upper arms and the wide muscles of his upper back. Tanned skin just a shade lighter than walnut, smooth and flawless, covers all, except where it’s marked with ink.
    Those wicked tattoos ripple as he flexes both arms, indecipherable runes and patterns curling around biceps that make me lean my cheek against the tree, mouth half open, not even feeling the rough bark. Those wide, wide shoulders taper down and my eyes follow helplessly. He has dimples right above