{Reipon}
Waves rolled, and foam sprayed. Tameka’s skin glowed with warmth from the sun—
Sun?
She awoke with a start, with one arm stretched across the patio chaise. Still dressed in only a short robe and matching panties, she smiled at the blanket thrown over her. But where was Xelan?
Almost frantic, Tameka sat up and glanced around the balcony, but there was no need. He was across from her with Korac’s Verse in hand. Closed. Finished.
With his head hanging low, Xelan looked wrung out and left to dry on a bed of emotional glass. More firmly than she expected, he said, “I didn’t want to wake you.”
Tameka readjusted her robe and tied it on her way over to Xelan. “Always wake me.” After she noted the crease lines in her arms and the state of her braids, she smiled. “I think I needed the rest, but so did you.”
“I’ll rest. I promise.” Xelan looked up to find Tameka standing over him. “It’s a new day, and it was quite a sunrise.”
She sat on the ottoman beside him and assured, “I’ll catch the next one.” After a moment in silence, Tameka asked, “Xelan, how was his Verse for you?”
Xelan’s back and chest expanded before he let out a heavy sigh. “Life changing, but I expected as much. Did you know Rayne used to sneak out at night to sing in dive bars?”
Tameka let her brows go up. “No way?!”
He opened to the scene and pointed at the page. “Way. But don’t tell anyone. I think they redacted this part from the public copy.”
“Oh, why?”
Xelan answered with a frown, “Because Korac implies Rayne was in love with Nox at the time and invited him to hunt her—”
“Please. No more.” Tameka put a hand against Xelan’s chest to stop him from speaking. “I’m so sick of that narrative. Did you know that three months ago, Andrew tried to convince me Rayne let Nox into her conscience? And that’s why he kept making cameos in our dreams with her after she’d killed him?”
Xelan froze. Stiff and by inches, he turned to ask, “What?”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Tameka explained Nox’s appearances in their dreams with Rayne, and how in Andrew’s dream, Rayne said Nox was allowed in her conscience and was no longer a danger to her.
“I… No.” Xelan stood and set Korac’s Verse on the table firmly. “No. I refuse to give that thought anymore of my time. It’s a new day, and we have a briefing to start.”
Right. Phase II.
Tameka stood with him and held out her hand. “Ready for this?”
Taking what she offered, they walked inside their suites to prepare. “I am. We are. This will be the last phase before we storm Enki.” With a grin and a crook of his brow, he asked, “Are you ready, Ms. Phillips?”
“Yip!” Tameka blurted as Xelan dragged her into the walk-in closet by her robe.
Catching her under the chin, he brought her eyes to meet his. “These last few months, I’ve put thoughts of you out of my mind to stay on mission, to bond with Pax, but right now all I can think about is the secret you’ve kept from me.”
Did he know? Did Xelan see it somehow? A little breathless, Tameka whispered, “What secret is that?”
Xelan pulled the sash open on her robe and went to his knees, eliciting a gasp from her. With warm hands she’d missed so much, he glided up Tameka’s ankles, calves, knees, and thighs before stopping at her hips. Specifically, where her gold-laced tattoo stood out in contrast to her naked brown skin.
Wingmaster.
Tameka blushed.
Xelan beamed. “You honor me.” Kissing above the tattoo. Below it. One side. Then the other.
All the while, she closed her eyes, inhaled his scent of honey and leather, and let out a shaky breath. The sight of Xelan was too intense to stare at. Like the sun. But Tameka wanted him to know she understood. “I know you’re in the leadership role again, and you’re so wonderful with Pax—Don’t worry about me. Give to me what you want.”
“At the moment…” Xelan kissed the inside of her thigh. “I’ll take from you what we both need.”
Tameka opened her eyes to snicker at the sexy grin on his face, but stopped as reality kicked her in the teeth. “What about Pax?”
“For now, we’ll have to be quiet. Later, you can ask Sagan for a gag—”
“Boy, stop.” Tameka swatted Xelan playfully and grinned at him as he settled on his knees. Her grin faded into an anticipatory gasp when his eyes changed.
“Quiet.” He held a slender finger against his lips and shushed at the same time his free hand brushed against her panties, nearly buckling her knees.
Three years. Three years without sex or proper feeding, and there Xelan was shushing Tameka with that extremely self-satisfied grin on his face.
When he teased her with his tongue and raised a challenging brow, she said through gritted teeth, “Wait until it’s your turn—”
“Mommy? Daddy? Where are you?”
Xelan barked out a warm laugh. “We’ll need locks, I think.”
Tears almost fell from Tameka’s eyes. Frustrated tears. Happy tears. Loved tears.
This was a beautiful family. Now, if only she and Xelan could manage some mommy and daddy alone time. For love and for sex, tonight, Tameka would do the unthinkable. She would ask Korac and Sagan to watch Pax.
In the meantime, she spared Xelan a damned frustrated smile. “You run interference with the kiddo, while I get dressed.”
“I got this.”
She smiled with her back to him at the use of his catch phrase.
Before exiting the closet, Xelan called, “Tameka?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t forget to change your panties.”
The son of a bitch slipped out of the closet before Tameka could swat him another good one.
Sexy jerk.