Page 25 of Valley of the Shadow
He smiled against her skin, and Natalie breathed an internal sigh of relief. Smiling Baojia meant he wasn’t pissed off about the tattoo. Smiling Baojia meant that her world regained alignment.
“It’s beautiful,” he whispered. “Really, Red, I love it.”
“It’s the moon phases when—”
“When you told me you loved me the first time.” He kissed the skin under the crescent moon on her right shoulder. “The moon the night Jake was born.” He tapped the second. “When Sarah was born.” He ran his fingers over to the fourth moon on her shoulder, the full moon. “And a full moon for when you turn.”
Could she love him any more than she already did? It didn’t seem possible, but he kept proving her wrong. “You remember the moon on all those dates?”
“Of course I do.” He bent down and kissed her shoulder again. It still felt raw, but his lips were soft. “Those are the most important nights in my life. I love it.”
“Glad you’ll be able to see it every night for the next three hundred years?”
He slid over to her side. “I only get three hundred?”
Natalie turned to face him and blinked away tears. “I really love you.”
“I really love you.” He frowned. “I’m sorry I haven’t dealt well with all this. I’m trying—”
“I know. And I know you don’t like change. This is a big one, maybe the biggest we’ve ever been thrown. But everyone keeps telling me I’m doing the right thing. And since I’m super emotional right now, I just decided to listen to them and not myself. That way if anything goes really wrong, I can blame my friends.”
He smiled, and the corners of his eyes creased. She reached over and traced the small lines that marked the geography of his face. She knew every inch of him. Every quirk and corner.
“Trust you to make a joke about all this,” he said, “when I’m doing my best not to go crazy.”
“It’s not a joke.” She put her fingers on his chin, watching his profile. “It’s nothing even close to a joke. Do you think I’m not scared?” She blinked hard.
Baojia turned to look at her. “You’re never scared.”
“I’m scared to death.” Natalie swallowed hard. “But I’m more scared of leaving you and the kids. Or getting so sick I want to die. I don’t want that. I don’t want to even get close to that.”
He traced his finger around her lips. “You will always be hungry. You’ll always crave blood. You’ll learn to control it, but it will always be there, sitting in the back of your mind, like an addict craves a drug.”
“The way I crave you?”
He turned to her and took her lips, kissing her hard. He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her into his body. His hand came up to cradle her face as he thoroughly and utterly owned her kiss. She breathed into him, and he angled her head so he could go deeper.
“The sun…” She gasped for breath.
“We have time.” His hunger enveloped her, and Natalie felt his amnis prick her skin like an electric charge.
Baojia pushed down the comfortable pants she’d been wearing, and Natalie kicked them off her ankles. Her shirt was already off—she’d removed it so it didn’t stick to her healing tattoo—but he unhooked her bra with experienced hands and tossed it off the bed.
Her warm breasts pressed into his cool chest, and Baojia held her, slowly heating his amnis to keep her warm.
“I love that you can do that.” She kissed his neck. “You’re like my own personal space heater.”
He was careful with her shoulder, keeping his hands off her back and rolling her up until she straddled him. He ran his hands up her body, his fingers tracing over the lumps and bumps she could be self-conscious about. He didn’t see that. He didn’t see any of it.
“Beautiful.” His mouth said it. His eyes proved it. He watched her as she reached down and unzipped his pants, pushing them down until they were skin to skin, her thighs spread over his hips and their bodies aligned.
“We have to be quick.” She glanced at the window. “This is daring for you.”
Baojia surged up and caught her mouth again. He put his hands on her hips, lifted her, and Natalie sank down on him as they both let out a satisfied breath.
The corner of his mouth turned up. “I promise I won’t fall asleep before you come.”
“Oh no.” She laughed. “You better not. I’m not rolling you to that closet, George.”
