"Ruined that dish for me for life, you know. Damn!" She coaxed her mind and line of vision away from his groin.
Carlos laughed. "I couldn't watch Rider eat the mac and cheese and forget brown rice or white rice, period, for a long-ass time."
"But I feel Rider, though," Damali said, flinging the towel away from the bed in a sudden rush of annoyance. "I feel violated by all of this. Like . . . WTF, ya know?"
"Right-and since Ayana's not in the room," Carlos said, sitting down heavily on the edge of the bed, "whatthe f**k! "
Damali stretched out her legs and fell back with her arms outstretched. "I know, I know, I know . . . and the team is gonna freak when we tell them-like I'm already freaked out that all this is happening while all this is happening, kiss my ass-what are we gonna do?" She didn't even want to say the wordpregnant out loud now.
Carlos shrugged. "Make it up as we go along, like we always do. If you haven't noticed, I'm trying very hard to keep my head on straight, keep doing this by the numbers like we always did . . . that's why I'm going to sleep-will get up for our shift, just have to keep on the grind." He lay next to her on his side and leaned down to kiss her. "One thing I'm not gonna do, though, is stay up for eight hours and worry, then try to deal with this bullshit fried. Even vampires and whatever stop and regenerate, so you know we mere mortals need to. Get some rest, baby."
"We didn't used to roll like this," she said, giving him a sly smile as he fell back against the pillows.
"You didn't used to be pregnant."
"I take exception to that."
He closed his eyes. "That's just a statement of fact. I'm not trying to argue or get philosophical. It is what it is and I'm very happy that it is.Grateful. But after what we saw today, been through today, I just want to close my eyes and blot anything negative out for a few. Cool?"
She snuggled in closer to him and leaned up on one elbow. He glanced at the light and made it turn off with an agitated twist of his mind.
"I can see in the dark, you know."
"Baby . . .please . . . .For real."
"We used to think outside the box, get creative in solving anything they threw at us. We used to take risks, stay up all night, and figure out a solution-like you should have seen how horrified Krissy was today. That poor girl was watching the news reports getting overwhelmed to the point of tears-it's horrific what's happening. But I have a theory."
"Music, I know," he said in a weary tone and then slung his forearm over his eyes. "Makes sense, 'cause Fallon is seriously pissed off and his mate, Lucrezia, is the queen of poison. The way me and Yonnie figured from the old days, Fallon probably stepped up because he was the only one on the council that was really hip to Yonnie's potential double-cross . . . so it makes sense it would be coming from his old empire strength. Thing is, we've gotta isolate where he's rebounding from-and like I said, we ain't gonna figure it out tonight."
"But-"
Carlos leaned up and kissed her quickly and then flopped back against the pillows.
"We could make a reconnaissance run to-"
"Are you crazy?" Carlos removed his forearm from his eyes and stared at her in the dark.
"Well, yeah . . . you used to love that about me.Thought it was sexy."
For a moment the two of them stared at each other and Damali finally cracked a smile.
"You were just messing with me, right?"
"Okay, yeah . . . dang. You're so serious."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but thisis serious."
She traced his chest with one finger. "I know . . . but . . ."
"Baby, if I didn't know better, I'd swear you were high." Carlos sat up and looked at her hard, his brows knit.
Damali giggled and threw her head back, allowing the blue-white moonlight coming in through the skylight to wash over her. "I feelfantastic all of a sudden . . . just full of energy-bursting with it."
"I knew it . . . oh, shit, they got to you.Poisoned my wife!" Carlos started to get out of bed but she held his arm tightly.
"No . . . this is normal. The rush Aset said I'd get once I got past the first dicey month." She smiled widely and then hugged Carlos. "I never got my period. The baby's gonna hold. Endorphins are making me giddy and I feel like I could run a marathon!"
He held her back, searching her eyes in the dark with a silvery gaze."You sure?"