Agave Kiss

After Eva hugged him again, we turned toward the exit. The warehouse looked like hell, but it had been almost this bad before we invited Armageddon out to play. No collateral damage, so Twila wouldn’t come gunning for me. Chance matched his steps to mine, his arm tight about me. He’d hardly let go of me since Kel died. At the Pinto, Booke tossed me the keys, and Shannon handed me the bag. My dog popped out, safe and sound. He had had the brains to hide while the worst shit was going down. To my amusement, he lunged from the purse toward Chance, who caught him, accepting the Chihuahua kisses as his due.

“I’ll give Booke and Shannon a ride,” Chuch said. “We can catch up tomorrow. I figure you’re all heading out soon?”

Booke nodded. In the starlight, his gaze was already far away as he planned his world tour.

Shan said, “No way. You’re stuck with me.”

“We’ll go as soon as she’s ready,” Chance murmured.

He guided me into the passenger seat, then ran around the car to drive. Anxious nausea rose in my throat. Please let the baby be all right. Please. If it turned out that I had chosen Chance over our child—I cut the terrified thought, but I felt sure he knew my worry as he pulled away from the warehouse. First, we stopped at a gas station so I could clean up a little. The way I looked, I was afraid I’d be admitted whether I needed it or not. Then Chance found a twenty-four-hour clinic.

There were a hundred questions, but with his natural charm, he came up with a story that satisfied the doctor on duty at this hour. The lateness made it so we didn’t have to wait. They ran a few tests, listened to the baby’s heartbeat, which Chance heard for the first time. His expression melted, tiger’s eyes liquid with love and wonder. He pressed a palm to my belly, his gaze locked on my face. At his request, they also checked my thigh beneath the wrap.

“You’re a lucky woman,” the doctor told me, warming up to a lecture. “No more hiking in dangerous areas. I understand how you daredevil types are, but you’ll have to put off the adrenaline rushes until after the baby’s born. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” I said meekly, amused at the cover story Chance had devised.

“Take her home. See that she rests and drinks plenty of fluids. Her throat will heal in a few days.”

He thought I’d strained it screaming for help after a fall. Of course, the doc also thought I was an idiot for hiking and climbing on a bum leg while pregnant. But I was sure there were people that stupid in the world. It was definitely more plausible than the truth. In short order, we were back in the Pinto and heading to a hotel.

Any will do. The closest one.

Maybe it was an incomprehensible, unforgivable reaction, maybe it was hormones or a need to affirm the fact that we were alive and together, but I wanted to get naked with Chance. He rushed through check-in, and then he carried me through the lobby. He had no luggage. I had a few things in a backpack and a dog in a purse; that didn’t deter us. The elevator moved like a snail up to the third floor. This wasn’t a posh place, but the relentlessly airport lodge decor in the room couldn’t distract me from my need to touch him.

Evidently he felt the same way. As I was unbuttoning his shirt, he pulled mine over my head. With shaking, eager hands, we undressed each other. I led him toward the bathroom because after everything that had happened tonight, there would be no sex without a shower. Well, I needed one anyway . . . and I never turned down a chance to see him with water glistening on his tawny skin.

With tender hands, he unwrapped the bandage on my palm, then the one on my thigh. “I hate how much it hurt you, bringing me back.”

“Living without you would’ve hurt more,” I whispered.

He went for me with a growl, his mouth ravenous. His body felt incredibly good against mine, hard and hot, throbbing with need. Chance lifted me into the warm spray, then stepped in behind me. I went for a washcloth but he plucked it from my fingers with a laden look.

“Let me.”

“I could be persuaded . . .”

With deliberate care, he washed me all over, lingering on my breasts and between my legs. I moved against his fingers, maddened by the teasing, but he shook his head. “You need a bed, not shower sex.”

“But I like shower sex.”

He groaned. “I want to. But your leg.”

Yeah, the muscles in my thigh probably weren’t up to that level of acrobatics, however hot it sounded. A flash of a memory heated me all over. He’d taken me in Sheol like an animal—on desks, against walls—even when it was Ninlil, it was still me. Maybe I should be jealous of her, but she was gone, and I was here. He’d come back for me. And I’d enjoyed the rough sex every bit as much as she did. Talk about weird, orgasms in stereo.

He swept me into his arms, wrapped me in a towel. I submitted to the caretaking because I knew he needed to assert himself, put his stamp on me. As he dried me, I warned, “I won’t put up with this forever.”

“Until the baby’s born?”

“Maybe. It depends on how crazy and/or cranky I get. And right now, I want you so bad, I can’t stand it.”

“God, me too.” He shook with it. “Ever since I came through, it’s all I can think about. You. Mine. Baby. I think my brain’s short-circuited.”

“Too much testosterone. You weren’t used to it over there?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care.” Yeah, he was out of patience.

Thank God.

No foreplay. There would be years and years for slow, seductive sex. This, this was raw and primal when he came down on me, taking me in one powerful stroke. He cupped my hip, drawing my good leg around his. I left the other straight, as it hurt enough already. The pain added a layer of spice to the pleasure as he pushed. His thrusts lost their cadence, going ragged and fast straightaway. I matched him as best I could, pushing hard, my fingers digging into his shoulders.

Chance kissed me as the intensity ramped up. His tongue moved in my mouth as he did within me. The hint of passivity of my straight leg and his wildness drove me higher. It had never, ever felt this good—and we’d had some amazing sex. He sensed he was outpacing me and he reached between us, strumming so I arched, working against him with agonized, delighted gasps. He broke the kiss when he lost control completely, but he didn’t avert his eyes or hide his face. As he came, he stared down into my eyes, giving me everything.

No barriers. No doubts.

My whole body clenched, rocked in gradually diminishing waves. He didn’t let go of me, even afterward. He eased off me, on my good side, and wrapped me up in his arms, hands gentle on my back. I peppered his face with kisses, unable to stop, as if we broke physical contact for even a second, then this reality would dissolve.

“I’m not going away again,” he promised.

“Me either.”

For just a moment, I closed my eyes, head on his chest listening to his heartbeat. This man gave up godhood for you. He died for you. Part of me still felt I didn’t deserve him, but that girl was mostly gone. I did deserve to be loved; I wasn’t a cipher, insignificant and unworthy of joy. Contentment laced with sorrow swelled in me—I’d always grieve quietly for Kel.

I didn’t mean to sleep, but the day’s events overwhelmed me. The next thing I knew, it was late morning . . . and I was alone. Panic spiked, but there was definitely an indent on the pillow beside me to promise I wasn’t crazy. Then I heard the shower running.

He’s still here. This is real. This is my life.

I pushed out a long breath, then joined him. The shower was long and messy, and the housekeeper probably wouldn’t thank us later. But I managed shower sex. Afterward, I dressed in clean clothes while Chance put on what he’d been wearing the day before. I gave Butch his breakfast and a drink in his collapsible travel dishes. Then we took him out for his morning business.

Just in time, it seemed.

Once the dog was settled, Chance said, “Let’s swing by Chuch and Eva’s. Then I’m ready to go home if you are.”

“One stop before that.”

“Oh?” He cocked his head in a heartbreakingly familiar gesture.