"I didn't get a chance to last night. I was bugging so hard trying to get you healed up."
"How strong was it, Carlos?" she asked quietly, no judgment in her tone.
He closed his eyes and allowed his head to drop back against the headrest. "Damali, I felt something close to it on throne ascensions, all right. It was pulling my ass under in waves, sending fever up my spine 'til it felt like it would claw its way out the top of my skull if I didn't get laid. By the time I carried you into the bedroom, I couldn't even speak. Then the sensation flipped into war fury with you in my arms, and it took me to a place where I felt na**d without a blade in my hand. Then it zapped back again, and the next thing I knew, I was hol�lering and cumming and slobbering on my damned self." He opened his eyes and looked at her hard. "That ain't hardly me by a long shot, now is it?"
"No," she said quietly, kissing him gently. "You always cared about making sure I was half outta my mind,first, and then whatever you did, under any circumstances, it never hurt. Even in the desert on the ground-on gravel and rock, I never got a scratch."
"That's what I'm talking about," he whispered, his eyes searching hers. "Never. I worship your skin. Leave a scar that might keloid over my original marriage to you... oh hell no. Make you scratch my back to get me off you during a lovemaking feed? What? Have so much fang in your throat that you're practically choking on blood, not pleasure. Me? You were calling my name, gasping, but not the way I ever wanna hear it coming from your mouth again. Then I don't lis�ten, just put my tongue down your throat to shut you up-are you crazy, Damali? On our honeymoon?"
He was so outdone that he flung open the car door, walked ten feet down the deserted road, and then walked back to the vehicle. He leaned on the door, heaving air for a moment, and then got into the Hummer and slammed the door.
She kissed him again more slowly, wiped her finger over his damp mouth with the pad of her thumb, and smoothed her palm over his hair. "Let's go back to base camp, go in the house, make the greeting rounds, and then go get a private divination with our councils, be�cause-"
"Do me this one favor," he said, stroking her hair. "Not that I have the right to even ask you for anything right now. But I'm asking you this as your husband, all right?"
"All right," she said, studying the deep pain in his eyes.
"This time, let me have a man-to-man conversation with Ausar first. Just a one-on-one. I do not want the queens in this, or Marlene, or anybody else. But if there's a problem beyond some transitional flux, then we come clean at the house. Together." She nodded. "This is between man and wife."
The way Damali had said that she'd keep his concerns within their sa�cred union until he got answers made him even sadder. Just knowing that she unquestioningly had his back and always would made him need to dig harder for answers. It was all he could do to play the role when they walked in the door of the hacienda a few miles down the road.
Rider was on him like a pit bull, teasing him so hard he made the women in the house shake their heads as they spirited Damali away after she got quick hugs and love from the fellas.
"Well at least this time when you dragged your tired carcass over the threshold, you're legal, Rivera. How's it feel?" Rider slapped Car�los on the back and hugged him hard. "Four days wasn't long enough, I take it, because you seem a little reserved for a man who just tied the knot-like the gravity of it all is finally hittin' ya, or is it that your ass is so bone weary that ya need to lay down before you fall down?"
Carlos laughed as the house erupted in male mayhem and ribald humor. "A little of both, man," he said, dropping his grip on the floor with a thud and hugging Rider hard. "You're a sight for sore eyes."
"You're putting the pressure on, my brother," Big Mike said, laughing and hugging Carlos off his feet once Rider turned him loose. "I'ma hafta get a danged ring myself now," he whispered and then dropped Carlos down, still laughing.
Carlos shrugged, "Hey, man, what can I say? A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."
Shabazz shook Carlos's hand then pulled him into a lightning fast chest-to-chest hug. Carlos wasn't even sure the hug had happened.
"Glad y'all made it back without incident. Nights get a little tense around here and we was worried about you two all alone. Figured you both had your radar down, and that's a good way for a man to get smoked. But you da man. Aw'ight." Shabazz looked in the direction of the family room, where Damali and the other female Guardians had gathered. He beamed as he looked at her. "You actually married my baby... in a church." Shabazz just shook his head, swinging his long, shoulder-length locks as though the whole thing had just occurred to him.
"Like somebody was gonna get in between them," Dan said, shak�ing his head at Shabazz's comment. "Be serious."
Shabazz just laughed. "The newbies will be next, watch."
"Hold it, hold it," Berkfield chuckled, slapping a hand down on Carlos's shoulder. "They've got a ways to go, but you, my man, I don't know what to say. How's it feel?"
"Fantastic, man," Carlos said, jettisoning the pain from his voice.
Bobby nodded and pounded Carlos's fist. "Good to have you back in the house."
Carlos raised an eyebrow and motioned with his chin toward Jas�mine and Heather, and then glanced at Dan and Bobby again. "How's life treatingyou, is the question."
Bobby beamed and looked away. "Aw'ight."
Carlos cocked his head to the side as Dan's face lit up with a megawatt smile. "Cool."
"Everything's peace," Dan said with a bashful shrug.
Carlos shook his head with a huge grin. "Very cool. I'm im�pressed."
J.L. laughed and refused to look at Berkfield or Carlos. "Good to have you home, brother. Whew!"
Carlos laughed hard and slapped Berkfield on the back. "He'll do the right thing, man, relax. If I did, then shit."