"You didn't leave a mark." He stood slowly and scooped her up with the towel in her lap.
"How . . ."
"Seems they don't tolerate dirt up here in Mid-heaven."He chuckled and used a nod to indicate the towel. "Check it out. I just wiped away enough grime to plant potatoes, on a white towel no less, and you'd never know it."
Damali picked up the towel and inspected it, turning it over and over. "Deep . . ."
"Ain't it just?" Carlos said, putting her down easy to stand.
"You shouldn't be picking me up and doing stuff," she said, concerned. "And I should be givingyou a healing waters bath . . . not fainting like somebody who's never seen blood." She closed her eyes. "Carlos, I am so, so-"
A slow, easy kiss stopped her words.
"You are so, so important to me," he whispered against her mouth. "And I will try to be more careful from now on, if there is such a thing in our job descriptions."
"I-"
His mouth covered hers. "Owe you an apology. You never fainted, and no you didn't go all girlie-girl on me. You straight wigged, just like I have in the past when I thought you were dying . . . and I asked them to sedate you before your nervous system fried and shut you down in its own defense."
"Oh, God . . ." she murmured against his shoulder as she closed the gap between them and held him. "I'm so tired, baby.Tired from days and nights of fighting the Darkness since I can remember."
"I know," he murmured against her temple."Me, too. In the early days, it was different. Now with a full family . . . civilians, kids . . . it's-"
"Taking a toll," she said into his mouth, finishing his sentence. "Let me tend to you," she said after a moment, breaking their long, soul-deep kiss.
"I already got fixed up, boo . . . you need-"
"To allow me to do for you, sometimes," she said, having cut him off with another kiss before pressing her point against the side of his neck.
"I could fight like this all night," he murmured, leaning into her gentle suckle at his jugular vein.
"Remember how we used to fight?" she whispered."About nonsense. Now here we are fighting about whose turn it is to do for the other."
"Change is good, sometimes," he said as his breath hitched when she nipped his old vampire sweet spot.
"Like the gift of the Magi, us two . . . she cut her hair to sell it to buy him a gold chain for his cherished watch," she murmured into his ear and then gently pulled the lobe of it between her teeth.
"And he sold his watch to buy her a set of combs for her beautiful hair," he said in a quiet rasp, allowing her locks to fall between his splayed fingers. "God . . . I love your hair . . . let me wash it."
"How about a compromise?" she offered in forbiddenDananu into his ear, ruining him.
Even in this place, she knew conversations between man and wife were a very private matter, so the slight risk was worth witnessing his reaction. Who would know? As long as there was good intent behind it, anyway, she reasoned, no real feathers should get ruffled. But all of that skittishness to use the forbidden tongue evaporated when she'd felt Carlos's body come alive against her thigh beneath his robe. The look on his face made her ready to accept any fussing she might have to endure from theQueens . Yet, she also felt restraint ripple through his system like a slight tactical charge, and could tell that he was trying to allow her time to fully relax into their new environment.
"Name your terms," he said in a low rumble inDananu after a moment, his eyes slowly going silver. "You're about to get us both in trouble, you know that."
"Like that's ever stopped us before." She stared at him with a sly smile, aware that the very fact that they'd just done something which wasn't completely sanctioned, while contemplating taking it to a whole different level, had been enough to turn him on.
"You lie back and relax . . . and watch. I'll go down the steps and take a bath. Then, we'll see if you're fully healed . . . if so . . . who knows what could happen?" She shrugged, baiting him into the game, but also telling the truth. "I still don't like the fact that I couldn't help you when I so desperately wanted to. I want to make that up to you-so let me."
His half-smile slowly faded as full silver overtook his irises. "I accept your terms," he breathed out inDananu , then slowly began to peel her destroyed tank top up her torso. But when she winced as she raised her arms, hestopped, worry blotting out the silver in his eyes. "Baby . . . I'm sorry. Hey, look, maybe we need to just chill. I had no business-"
She put a finger to his lips. "It isn't an injury, it's-"
"Yeah, right, D," he said, and then kissed the rest of her argument out of her mouth. "I saw it all, even while out cold, third-eye snapshots. A damned serpent banged you against the wall so hard it left plaster on the floor. Then back in N.Y.C.-"
She'd grabbed his jaw with both hands and shoved her tongue in his mouth. "They healed that," she said, coming away from the kiss breathless.
"Then tell me about the wince. I ain't blind, I saw it, baby.Don't much get past me, and I know what I'm-"