CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Slowly the room came back into focus. She was groggy but her head didn't hurt or pound. Damali's sight zeroed in on movement behind an ornately tooled papyrus and silver screen. A male shadow drew her attention, and as she rustled the bed linen to try to sit up, Carlos walked around the room divider with a wide, foaming, smile. A toothbrush was jammed in his cheek.

"How long have I been out?" she asked, testing her voice, which came out in a rasp. She glanced around the room. This was not the burial preparation chamber they'd been in.

Carlos hadn't answered her. In the distant echo of her mind, she heard water run, heard him spit, but her gaze roved her new environs with awe.

Four solid alabaster columns rose from the corners of the sumptuous bed she was lying on. The ornately carved stone was etched with gold and silver markings that, if she stared at them long enough, seemed to breathe with a pulse of their own. Sheers draped the top, creating a canopy that was gently hued in dissolving pastels that were oddly backlit like butterfly wings in the sun. But she dared not trust her legs to stand yet. Where she sat felt so high up, and each side of the broad carved platform that held the bed flaunted rows of pyramid-like gold steps that terminated at the foot of the massive structure into a silvery pool.

Blooming lotus blossoms floated aimlessly over the surface, and thick ferns seemed to grow right out of the marble. There was an alabaster vanity and a huge white marble armoire, as well as several thickly cushioned loveseats and a chaise longue embroidered with the finest white silk.

"Fly, ain't it?" Carlos said, coming toward her with a fluffy white towel. "It's the New Pharaoh's suite."

"Whoa . . ." Damali pushed her locks back from her face, feeling too dirty and grimy to even touch the lush silk goose-down duvet. At least someone had taken off her Tims. Slow terror began to kindle in her stomach. "This is gonna sound like a silly question, but . . . if they're allowing us to see and use New Pharaoh's chambers, did we accidentally get smoked on the battlefield and just didn't realize it?"

Carlos laughed, but it wasn't his normal, booming, raucous brand of laughter. It was gentle as he sat down next to her and began wiping dirt off her face. "Almost . . . one of us did. Remember? So, yeah, they said I was so close and had died, and almost died, so many times that, at least for now, I could see what was in store for me later.Sort of a preview."

Her hand flew to her mouth, but he gently pried it away as tears rose.

"But I didn't. This is Neteru shore leave, so they said."

She closed her eyes and allowed her body to fall back against the mounds of fat silk pillows. Several slid to the floor and she didn't care.

He leaned over her and kissed the bridge of her nose, continuing his ministrations of cleaning battle grime off her face. "My dirty-faced angel," he said with a passionate rush of words. "You're beautiful, you know that?"

She opened her eyes and reached out to touch his cheek, feeling it as though she were blind.Just contacting the realness of his skin, the heat of life within it, made new tears rise along with her embarrassment. Never in all her yearshad she fainted dead-away like a girl. Her Neteru pride was injured from the experience, and the fact that she couldn't stop the relentless tears or make them burn away tortured everything warrior within her. It was also the first time she'd tasted real failure-the inability to save someone who was closer to her than second skin made her crazy.

Carlos kissed her before she could utter any words of self-defeat, and when he pulled away, she touched his chest. She didn't have to say it. He seemed to know what she was asking even without telepathy. He opened his robe to show her. She sat up and pulled the golden fabric off his shoulders, inspecting.

Gently, her fingers played across the once-damaged skin, finding no injury. She bit her lip to hold back a sob of relief and then opened her palm wide to splay it across the scar she'd left there while holding her Baby Isis so many years ago. She watched his lids slide closed under her touch and he pulled her into a loose hug, but kissed the crown of her head hard.

"I'm all right, baby," he said into her hair. "They got it all out, and purged you, too. Lemme clean you up so you can rest."

She held him tighter and spoke against his chest, a place that had almost split in two while she'd helplessly watched. "I can bathe at home . . . we have to get back to the house to protect-"

"Shush . . ." he whispered. "And that's exactly why you're wrung out and can't stop crying, and why I did some really stupid shit that laid me out flat on my back. We're burnt out, D. Face it. The Kings andQueens assured me that they'd put a reinforced barrier around the compound, plus have Father Pat on twenty-four-seven surveillance. They're giving us twenty-four free ones . . . said to sleep, eat, just chill and get back to center."

She relaxed and nodded slowly. "Twenty-four off duty . . ."

"Twenty-four off duty," he repeated, kissing her head again. She felt the warmth of his breath penetrate her scalp. "Eve said the twenty-four will feel like a week in cosmic time, and when we get shipped home it'll be tomorrow morning, our time."

The weight of his words made her body slump against his. Once she gave into the concept and stopped fighting the fatigue, the profound sensation of peace flowed through her until it felt like her bones were melting.

"C'mon, baby," he said quietly. "Let me get you out of the battle gear and into the pool. All I've gotta do is drop your clothes outside the door and they'll send staff to collect them, and then leave them for you, all clean, when we get the boot outta here."

She looked up into his warm smile and fresh, natural mint filled her nostrils. "I'm so dirty I can't stand myself," she said, cupping his cheek. "You should have put me on a bench with a towel when I passed out." She glanced at the bed. "This is so clean . . . and me . . ."

"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-"

She kissed him hard as her hands untied his robe sash, stopping his words midsentence. "It'stension in the muscles between my wings," she said in a breathy rush when he broke the kiss.

"Oh . . ." he said, silver glinting at the rims of his irises again.

She turned around and slowly pulled off her shirt with her back to him. He surrounded her waist with his arms and pressed first his mouth, then his cheek, to that hard to reach spot between her shoulder blades.

The moan she released came up from her gut and caught low and deep in her throat. "Yeah, right there," she said in a husky voice, turning into his therapeutic touch as his hot palms slid across her belly and then ribs. "It all hurts," she finally admitted, now feeling the body blows one by one. "I thought they got it all, but they didn't."

"That's 'cause they're merciful and wise," he murmured, allowing the heat from his hands to slowly rake up her back and then over her shoulders, kneading them gently. "They saved something for me to heal . . . because they know I love to be the one to make you feel better."

She closed her eyes and dropped her head back against his shoulder. "You definitely do that best."

"Yeah?"

She nodded as he found a set of bunched muscles in her right shoulder. "Oh . . . yeah . . ."

"Can I still watch?" he asked in a sexy tone.

"Uh-huh," she whispered, unbuttoning her fly.

"I bet your wings got dirty, too," he murmured against the top of her hair, sliding his hands over her hips to make her panties and jeans pool at her feet. "They might need a good soak . . . if your back is sore."

"Then I might just have to open them while I'm in the water," she whispered and stepped away from him just enough to torture him, then bent to pick up her soiled clothing.

The moment she felt his palms trace over the lobes of her behind, she pivoted around and held her jeans, underwear, and tank top up to cover her breasts, walking backward down the steps into the pool. Then suddenly she tossed her clothing at him, pushing them away from her chest as though passing a basketball. He caught the knot of jumbled fabric, but didn't take his eyes off her. She stepped one foot closer to the mercury-like water and nodded toward the door.

"Better leave them for the staff before you forget."

"Then, don't move," he said quietly, all playfulness gone from his voice. "I don't want to miss any of it."

She smiled and watched him walk across the room. For a moment he'd hesitated, looked toward the door, and then almost seemed to physically jolt himself out of the daze in order to move. He could have simply jettisoned her clothes to make them materialize on the other side of the door. But that was what she loved about him most-his ability to read her intentions just from her eyes, knowing that she was thoroughly enjoying messing with his mind.

When he returned from the task, he stopped at the large armoire and collected a new, thick, fluffy towel and brought over a silver robe that seemed to have the weightlessness of gauze. He carefully laid them at the edge of the large bathing pool, and then sat down on the top step to sprawl out like a huge, sun-soaked panther.

"Nowyou can get in," hesaid, his expression still so serious that it made her wonder.

She stepped down into the water, feeling tiny tingles claim her feet and ankles and then begin to slowly overtake her calves. She stepped a little deeper, and when the sensation captured her thighs, her eyes widened. That's when he smiled.

"You spiked the water with current, didn't you?"

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do . . ."

She stopped just short of submerging her upper thighs. He allowed his gaze to travel along her torso, stopping at the V between her legs covered in soft down that partially eclipsed his Neteru tattoo. She'd willed it back to the surface, every silvery-hot line of it. The sight of her offering made his mouth go dry. His gaze sought hers, stopping en route to admire her breasts. His palms ached to be filled with them, just as his tongue hungered to taste the tight, hard-pebbled flesh at their tips. She broke his concentration yet again as she gave him the gift of a breathy "Oh," of surprise when she dunked herself beneath the surface up to her navel.

"What's in here?" she asked, her lids becoming heavy as she hugged herself.

"King's Ransom," he murmured, watching her slowly drop her head back.

"Seriously . . ." she asked again, beginning to tremble. "What's it called?"

"I told you . . . that's the name they gave me."

"The Neteru Kings?" she said, lowering her body with her eyes still closed. She cupped the iridescent waters in her hands and thendrizzled it over her breasts."Oh . . . God."

"Yeah," he said so quietly that, for a moment, he thought he'd said it in his head.

"What's in it?" She lowered her face to the pool's surface and inhaled then shuddered. "It smellsso good . But it feels . . ." She looked up and then closed her eyes tightly and spoke in an urgent murmur. "Like you're touching me everywhere at once . . . gentle caresses. How . . ." Another soft shudder claimed her as she submerged to her neck.

"A brother can't give up all his secrets."

She inhaled sharply through her nose and then allowed her head to drop back until her hair was fully submerged. Her voice became a deep moan that traveled through his groin, and then suddenly she dipped her head under the water and came up shaking, her glorious white wings spread.

He materialized shea butter soap in his hand and leaned forward. She opened her palm and called a strangely blue-white-lit oval into it. Within seconds the scent registered in his sinuses.Oil of Hathor. He briefly closed his eyes and set down the soap he'd been holding.

"You said we'd share this," she murmured, lathering her palms."A little for you, a little for me." She smoothed her soapy palm along her arm and then shuddered so hard she dropped her soap. "What does King's Ransom do? Warn me a little at least."

Watching the silvery sheen on her skin and her trembling, nude body temporarily stole the function of speech. Agony shimmered in her eyes as she waited for his answer, but slowly she brought her soapy palms over her breasts with a gasp.

"It ransoms your sanity for pleasure," he finally said in a hoarse murmur. Spellbound, he watched her palms slide across her caramel, sun-glazed skin, teasing her nipples until it made his cock bounce. "There's healing crystals in the water for the injuries . . . but to help you relax, they gave me this."

Small beads of perspiration were forming on her brow and upper lip, and he watched Damali stick out the tiny pink tip of her tongue to moisten her lush mouth. The heat in the chamber felt like it had suddenly risen to sauna levels, and condensation had begun to form over the pool's surface in a fine mist. As she stared at him with her large, pleasure-haunted brown eyes, it took all he had not to go to her-but that had not been their bargain. So he honored it.

This time when she submerged he felt it, shuddering so hard he had to clench his jaw to keep from biting his tongue. When she broke the surface, she had the Oil of Hathor in her hands again, the sensual fragrance nearly lifting him from the steps with a hard arch.

"I'd like to renegotiate terms," he said inDananu , not caring if anyone heard. The throb in his groin was a skin-splitting pulse now.

"No," she said, soaping her hair and covering her naked breasts with her wings. She leaned back, massaging the suds into her locks, breathing through her mouth, and then slowly rubbing some lather into a feathery appendage until the sensation buckled her.

He stood, had to before he slid down the steps. But she shook her head and then rinsed her hair and wings by going under again. This time when she came up for air, she cried out, waded toward the shallow end, and held on to the side heaving in breaths.

"Okay," she whispered, looking up at him, clutching the marble.

He was in the water before she could change her mind, robe and all. The gossamer gold fabric floated to the surface around him, disturbing the lotus blossoms. Within seconds, the mixture of Oil of Hathor in the water stunned him in a blinding shudder that made him drop fang.

Her hands seemed to touch every available surface of his skin as she waded to him and climbed up his body. The Oil of Hathor was wearing him out, the elixir soaking into hisskin, tightening his groin in pulses beneath the water's surface the moment Damali welded herself to him. She was trying to kiss him, but he couldn't even get himself under control enough to retract fang. He literally had to turn away from her soft, soft lips, not wanting to cut her, to find her neck to punish, making her cries more insistent as she tried to position herself to take him in.

Super slick from the Oil and her own emulsion, every near miss made him grip her tighter, made them crazier, while he began to walk them backward, blindly searching for a wall. The scent was all in her hair, all in her wings,all in the water, all in his sinuses, all over her skin,por Dios . Her tight fist around him made him begin to stutter,oh, baby, the Oil of Hathor was all in her palm.

She was burning up, he was burning up-he dragged his nose along the bend in her throat and stopped moving, hoping she would try to mount him again.Where was the damned wall? Panting against her throat he realized he'd been so messed up he was walking in circles.

"Mi tesoro, por favor,"he said harshly into her ear, unable to tell her more.

Wings spread, fanning the water in small, splashingwaves, she circled his neck with one arm and guided him into her slowly with a groan.

The pleasure shock buckled his body from the midsection as a low moan thundered from his insides. Short, shallow pants seized her and suddenly she pulled her head back and stared at him, irises slowly turning silver.

Just witnessingthat made his tattoos feel like molten brands. Her mouth suckled the one at his throat while her body hotsheathed the other, causing him to stumble back, his spine finally hitting the wall. His hands slid over her slippery, soft backside, her toned calves pulling against his ass, guiding their rhythm, her breasts bouncing against his chest. Tears leaked from his eyes as he fought not to bite her-not up here, this was raw enough. Then she bit him hard on his sweet spot and made him see stars.

Pure animal instinct made him round on her, knock her head back with his jaw to find that place he knew would send her over the edge-but he only nipped her, making her cry out and fist his hair.

"Do it," she said between quick bursts, moving against him hard.

He shook his head, eyes shut tight. "Not here, we-"

She took his mouth hard and he tasted her blood, but couldn't resist the urge to put his tongue halfway down her throat. He needed to release so badly his sphincter twitched. She'd snuck him, had soaped herself under the surface. The Oil of Hathor sent jags of lightning through his scrotum every time he slammed against her mound. He could feel the tattoo at his base literally coming alive, pulsing with its own need to return to her sheath on every thrust. Unable to stand it any longer, he flipped her to press her hard against the marble,then at the last second remembered her wings. A quick transport to the bed remedied the problem.

Disoriented when her back hit the soft duvet, she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on for the ride. He hadn't missed a beat, had dug in,tightly gripped her around the waist for leverage, practically snorting silver. Golden-silvery sweat leaked from his pores. His voice had become a hard staccato refrain of guttural utterances with each hard return. She could feel him building, his body trembling so violently as he stroked that it sent blue-white pleasure currents to race over her skin, through her hair and feathers, until she screamed.

Her Sankofa tattoo felt like it had fled the small of her back, melting into her spinal fluids. Silver left his eyes, running the metallic spectrum, first darkening to bronze, then gold, and finally settling on solid platinum. The images he sent split her head in blue-white pleasure novas-quick-moving snapshots of everything he appreciated about her, but was too overwhelmed to say right now.

The beach, her laughing, their first time.La casa,her music.Their first time.Her mouth, her legs, her taking off her bra. Their wedding, herI do, their first time.Her pulling herIsis , her opening her wings . . . their first time. Vanishing point dovetailed into Creation Point, then their first time. Her nails scored his back.Jesus compassion! Water was evaporating from the pool; wet, heavy mist blanketed the entire room. Colors from the sheers cast hue on the mist. She could feel the pulse of the bedposts quicken to meet theirs. Weeping, hollering, their first time. She thrust a song into his mind-"Remember, Baby," then "Wounded Lover" . . . and he shot back, their first time on an audible groan. She opened the cosmos, knocking his head back with galaxy shudders. He brought her the mountainside in Tibet, a burning kiss against the compound wall . . . his fingers splayed against the glass from outside, hers mirroring that . . . returning them to their first time.

She was crying, writhing, reliving their past in acute cellular memory, his thrusts relentless, creating cascading orgasms so blinding that all she could do was arch and hold him. She wanted him to have everything within her;Justtake it, her mind shrieked as her voice fractured in soprano.

Then it became so eerily still as pleasure seemed to rapidly draw back, receding from her body so harshly she gasped like a woman cut.

For countless heartbeats, all she could hear was their breathing and erratic pulses. He stopped moving for a moment, causing her to stare up into his agonized gaze. He then stopped breathing. His eyes slowly slid shut as he turned away from her almost in slow motion. A quiet storm had gathered, blue-white charges releasing hard in the mist around them. Three seconds of torturous delay felt like thirty.

"Mi esposa, te quiero."

"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 nipples. "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 breasts. "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.