it run its full course." She didn't move, just allowed the sweet flickers to make her fingertips and canal tingle. But when he finally lifted his head to begin to withdraw from her, that's when she felt the huge aftershock that had been building.
The sensation rocked her so hard that she dug her nails into his shoulders and arched up, mouth open and face con torted. Sound exited her body that belonged to another woman, a banshee, as he flattened a palm against her spine, hit her base chakra, and released the last trapped charge. She almost banged her head on the edge of the tub she'd whiplashedjerked so hard, and she couldn't have stopped moving against him until it was over if she'd wanted to.
Spent and half-dazed they finally looked at each other. Shabazz was the first to crack a smile. That was it. She burst out laughing with him, but that only made him wince from her tightening sheath around him.
"What was that, Shabazz?" she asked, kissing him with a huge smile. "Dang, brother."
"I don't know," he said, still breathing hard. "I guess that's what you call a brother losing his complete mind."
"Whew ... you have to lose your mind more often, then," she said, leaning up to kiss him.
"Puts a new meaning to a white bath, though, don't it?" She glanced around at the floor. "This don't make no sense." He chuckled and then got serious, tracing her cheek with a finger. "You know, when I shifted, it sorta took me out a little, Mar."
All the mirth dissipated from her eyes as she cupped his cheek but remained mute to let him talk.
"All of a sudden I was burning up, like every cell I owned would explode. Then this vast
... I don't know how to ex plain it ... other than incredible power and raw energy just slammed me." His troubled eyes searched her face as he spoke in a low, private murmur.
"I'd slipped out of my clothes, I don't even know how, and was free, primal. It felt like there was no division between me and anything - then when it was all over, I was standing with the team, dazed for a second, bloody and naked, dead demon bodies every where ... and I had to go put my shit on. Find my pants, Mar, you know? The brothers were staring at me for a few with their mouths open, and for a minute I was so damned embarrassed that I almost wanted to put my own nine to my skull." He looked away. "Do you know what I'm saying?"
"Yeah, I do," she whispered, tightening her hold on him. "I had it happen to me, remember?" But the moment she'd said it, she instantly regretted it - because then that one teeny statement would unnecessarily remind him of how such a scenario came to be. Old lovers, dead or alive, were skeletons that had already leapt out of the closet, but that now needed to stay dead and buried.
No way to recover, she simply pressed her forehead to the center of his chest. "I love you
... and I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go there."
"Water under the bridge," he said quietly. "Me and you are too old to rehash the past." He turned his mouth into her hand and kissed it as she touched his cheek, then captured her palm with his to place a gentle kiss on her ring finger, which was laden with a large oval diamond.
"Yeah," she whispered as he withdrew from her. The sud den loss was profound.
"Thing is," he said, climbing out of the tub and helping her out behind him. "I could feel the energy band connec tions in everything, Mar, does that make sense?" She nodded and brushed his mouth with a kiss as an an swer. This time she grabbed his hand and kissed his ring fin ger, toying with the thick gold band etched with Adinkra symbols that matched hers. If she didn't make this man understand anything else, it was that she loved him. Not that she wanted anyone to lose their life, but the man holding her close right now didn't need to be the one to die out on the battlefield in Morales months ago, or in Lilith's lair tonight, for that matter. God knew what He was doing when He gave her back Shabazz. She was just fine with that decision from On High.