Midnight (43 page)
“Sure, but . . . she’s leaving?”
“She confided that she’d been on her way to someplace in the Everglades when flesh traders picked her up. Now she’s healthy again and ready to move on.”
“The Everglades? Did you ask why?”
“You know I wouldn’t,” she said with an indulgent look.
“You’re better at that than I am.” He touched her lips, tracing that soft fullness with his thumb. “Then why were you smiling? Valle just lost three citizens.”
“We saved her life. We helped her heal. Then we gave her what Peltz never did—a choice. I’m proud of that.”
“As you should be.” He pulled her against his chest, indulging in the sweet, warm comfort of her body, firm along his. “All of this, Rosa. You made your territory into something wonderful.”
She looked up at him. “
Our
territory.”
Our
territory.”
Such amazing eyes, dark with mystery but more expressive now. They shone with a love that humbled and inspired him.
“No, that’s where I beg to differ. This is yours.” He waved a hand at Valle, at the expanse of desert beyond. The homes, the lives, the hope in this foreboding place—they owed their existence to the determination of one woman. Then he settled his wide palm over her womb, where his child grew. “This is the only territory I claim,” he said against her temple. “You and this baby of ours. I don’t want anything else.”
With a laugh, she nuzzled his neck. “Good thing I have bigger ambitions for her.”
Chris stilled. The thump of his heartbeat faltered.
“Her?”
“Her?”
“You haven’t dreamed of her yet?”
He swallowed.
Sweet Jesus, a little girl.
He’d never even imagined being a father, not once in the long years before Rosa, but she made it a beautiful privilege.
Sweet Jesus, a little girl.
He’d never even imagined being a father, not once in the long years before Rosa, but she made it a beautiful privilege.
“No,” he said then. “No, I haven’t.”
“Ah, you will. Or you can wait to meet her.” Rosa smiled even as a shimmer of moisture brightened her eyes. “Either way,
amorcito
, you won’t be disappointed.”
amorcito
, you won’t be disappointed.”
He exhaled. The prospect was still too much to face head-on. He had another few months to get past these jitters.
Rosa seemed to read that in him, returning her hands and her mouth to more overtly sexual pursuits. She kissed his jaw, his chin, and up to his mouth. Feather-light fingers tickled down his ribs until she found the waistband of his jeans. She gave a suggestive tug.
He grinned. “Lately my dreams have had a one-track mind.”
“So no different than your waking mind.”
“No different at all.”
“Then take me to bed, Cristián.”
He glanced around. The town pulsed with the regular activity of a day winding down toward night. There was the changing of the guard to come, and dinner to be served, and night patrols to supervise.
In other words, there was all of Valle to run.
But Rosa’s hands became more eager. She threaded her fingers into the tight curl of hair at his nape. Chris’s blood fired to life. His heart beat with the thrill of yet another hunt, this time for pleasure. It was a talent they were so damn good at sharing.
From up on one of the gate’s watch posts, Jameson cleared his throat. “Get a room, you two. I don’t get to go home for another hour.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Chris whispered against her lips. “Don’t you?”
“Absolutely. Valle will be here in the morning.”
“That it will.”
She tilted her head, thoughtful. “Bee predicted all of it, you know. ‘Valle burns. The world is born again in fire.’ I wish we could get her to tell us what else is to come.”
“We’ve seen enough, I think.”
Chris put his arm around her shoulders. The pride of that moment hit hard against his heart. His woman was strong, strong enough that she could let go. She trusted. She shared the burdens. With one hand cradling the shape of their unborn child, she walked through the town she’d wrested from nothing.
More miraculous, she’d pulled him out of the wilderness and made Valle his home too—a home he would never need to leave, a home he’d always fight to protect. For the first time in his life, his love and his work came together in a single satisfying passion.
“I love you, Rosita.”
She led him into the casita they shared. “Come show me how much.”
Chris closed the door behind them, happy as he never would have dreamed possible at the start of this Dark Age, but with Rosa in his bed, midnight was the sweetest hour of all.
Berkley Sensation titles by Ellen Connor
NIGHTFALL
MIDNIGHT
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