"Husband, I love you, too," she whispered, her voice failing as it dissolved into a broken sob.
As the words left her mouth, the tattoo at his neck lit with pure blue-white energy, as did his eyes, and an arc from it splintered through the mist all around them. It connected with the energy bouncing off the posts, dissipating the fog in a fast-rolling, white-light scorch. Silver rain swept them as though they were barren savannah. His voice rent the air; the hard orgasm thundered through him first and then slammed her.
Mouth open, head back, tears streaming, his body heaved against hers as wave after wave of pleasure poured from him into her. Her hands at his back caught muscle spasms climbing up his spine, heating the fluid housed in his vertebrae. His mind had seized hers, bluntly pounding it the same way his fist had become an anvil against the scattered pillows-with all that I have and all that I am, oh God, woman, I love you!
Then he dropped, gasping, his full weight crushing her. Intermittent blue-white charges flickered over his skin, twitching his muscles and making his eyelids flutter. Tears rolled down the bridge of his nose with golden-silver sweat. It took several minutes for him to come to and shift his weight so she could breathe while hard, teeth-chattering shivers consumed her. But when he finally eased up, arms trembling from his own weight, she tightened her legs around him, arching to the strangely pleasurable sensation of uncomfortable warmth deep inside her.
He rolled them both over without withdrawing, so that he could gasp air and save her badly crushed wings.
"I'm sorry I lost it in here," he said with his eyes still closed, taking in huge breaths. "You were supposed to be getting a healing bath and resting . . . I don't know what-"
"Shush," she said quietly between deep inhalations. "I started it. I wanted to give you a gift."
"The King's Ransom was over the top . . . but my real plan, I swear, was to give you pleasure and let you relax. I was gonna fall back and just do you."
She kissed his chin and then the center of his chest with her eyes closed, listening to the powerful thud of his heart slamming against his breastbone. "That's all I wanted to do, too." She kissed one of his tight brown ni**les. "You hear that?"
He stirred, having dozed off just that quickly."Huh, what?"
She smiled. "That," she said in a soft voice, as her breathing normalized, then she placed her hand in the center of his chest."Your heartbeat."
He relaxed again. "Trying to crack a rib right though here . . . yeah."
"That is my most favorite sound in the universe, Carlos, to hear your heartbeat, literally, inside me," she said, lifting herself to be able to look into his eyes. "I thought this time . . ." She shook her head. "That's why I wanted this to happen, and I didn't care where we were. Ineeded to make love to you," she added quietly. "Wanted you to feel how much you're a part of me."
His fingers trembled as they traced her cheek. Silver was everywhere, making both their bodies glisten. "It wasn't until I realized where I was . . . and how scared you were this time, that it finally got through just how much my doing crazy shit affects you. I was trying to say I'm sorry and that I love you in the only way I sometimes know how." He closed his eyes and stroked her damp arm, releasing a weary sigh. "But you turned me out so bad that I even sorta messed that up."
"What in the world are you talking about, man?" She rained kisses all over his face, making him smile. "Are you crazy?"
"I had plans, old-school plans . . . like back in the day when I could hold my shit together for a minute." He chuckled softly and kept his eyes closed. "Problem was, every image I was holding for you was blowing my mind, and I could no more project us there than I could stop the inevitable-I must be getting old, girl. Damn, that don't makeno sense. That was sloppy. Mind stuttering, no foreplay,just straight animal." His hands trailed down her shoulders and then covered her br**sts. "I'll make it up on round two . . . I promise."
"You arecrazy, " she whispered softly against his mouth, loving his touch. "You almost had me swallow my tongue from a pleasure seizure, rained down King's Ransom on me till I shrieked like I was being murdered, and shot white lightning so hard that static was arcing between my fingers and toes . . . and you're doing postgame highlights?" She shook her head and dropped against his stone chest. "Go to sleep, man."
"White lightning-for real?"He pulled her up and looked in her eyes.
"Blue-white charge jumped from your tattoo to the mist to the bed and back, lit your eyes, and felt like it was blowing my back out when it hit."
He sat up a little more."Yeah? I guess I was working so hard I didn't notice at the time."
"Yeah," she said, laughing. The expression on his face was like that of a little kid. She cupped his cheek. "Trust me on that; I can still feel it warming my insides. Go to sleep."
"No shit?" He flipped her over and then kissed her slowly. "You wouldn't play with me about something like that, right?" He kissed her ear. "Baby . . . I was trying to give you everything in me to remember me by, in case one day something does happen to me. Know what I'm saying?"
She nodded. He'd definitely cascaded all her favorite images, ones she'd never forget, as well as some that she didn't know were so completely special to him.
"In our line of work, sometimes it just ain't your day, or night. So, I gotta know . . . no shit, you ain't just saying all this to make me feel better, right? The burn is way deep, right?"
"No shit," she finally said, chuckling. "Si, SenorRivera, I can still feel it,muy caliente .All right?"
He closed his eyes and nodded and then rested his forehead against hers, pulling her into a slow, tender embrace. His voice became so soft that it was a mere murmur against her ear as he spoke.
"Bueno."
His thoughts drifted as he peacefully slid away from her body and gathered her against him to rest. That was all he could do, he was spent, left merely a husk. Even money said it would be a boy . . . if she got theshivers, she'd probably have a girl.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Marlene tied her robe sash hard as she walked down the hall scanning the house for Rider. She could sense his energy coming from the kitchen, and had waited all night-on Shabazz's advice-to approach their Guardian brother once he left his suite. Rider didn't normally function at the crack of dawn; why he was up now truly disturbed her. It took all of the self-discipline she owned not to do a mind-invasion and just see what was going on. But she knew it was deep, given the vision directive she'd gotten from the Neteru Council camps. Yonnie was no longer barred from the property, even if the premises were off-limits. All of the seers in the house got word, which meant Tara got word . . . which meantTara and Rider had most likely hadwords . Second-sight was not a prerequisite to know how that particular news flash was received.