Page 112 of Edge of Oblivion (Night Prowler 2)
He stared at her blankly. “I don’t understand.”
“Dominus. He was the head of the Expurgari. We found him, so...”
“The head of the Expurgari,” Xander repeated slowly.
She shook her head. “I’ll explain it all later. Right now you should rest. You look a little pale.”
He caught her wrist and held it, pulling her closer to him. He sat up in bed and ignored the searing pain along his spine. “You mean—we’re not fugitives? This trip—this boat—”
“Oh!” she said, startled. “No! God, no, we’re not fugitives. All five of us have been completely cleared.”
He stared at her. “All five of us.”
At that exact moment, heavy footsteps pounded over the roof above his head. A smile flitted over Morgan’s lips as she watched him follow the sound with his eyes as it moved overhead, growing softer then louder, thumping down what sounded like a flight of stairs. A dark head popped in the high, round window, then disappeared; someone had jumped up to look in.
A heavy hand knocked on the door.
Then to Morgan’s amused “Come in,” Tomás and Mateo burst through the door.
“Hey, asshole,” Mateo said, smiling. “You look like death warmed over.”
Tomás nodded a greeting and leaned his huge frame against the wall. “Fuckface.”
“Bartleby is on deck, making dinner,” Morgan said gently, seeing Xander’s open-mouthed astonishment. “Your friends here are quite the fishermen.”
“So far I’ve caught blue marlin, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, even sailfish,” Tomás bragged.
“Kadavu is amazing!”
“Kadavu,” Xander repeated, finding it hard to know where to look. His brain wasn’t translating information properly. He had to be hearing this wrong.
“Fiji,” said Mateo with an eye roll, as if it should have been obvious. “Seventy-five miles of pristine barrier reef with water so clear you can see the bottom of the ocean from the boat. Jungle-
covered volcanic hills, mangrove bays, snow-white beaches...what?”
He trailed off because Xander had closed his eyes. He was sure he was deathly pale.
Morgan leaned close to his ear. “I told you I always wanted to see a sunrise in Fiji,” she murmured, her hand on his arm. “So now I’ll get to see one. Or...” she giggled, and it made his blood sing, “...maybe two or three.”
He opened his eyes and saw her devilish grin and began to laugh, a hoarse, shaky sound that hitched in his chest and caught in his throat and made Morgan’s grin falter. His laughter died, and he roughly pulled her against him and buried his face in her hair.
“Jesus, woman,” he said, ragged, all restraint gone, “do you have any idea how much I love you?”
She pulled back and gazed down at him, eyes alight. “Probably not as much as I love you,” she whispered, then bent to kiss his lips.
“Jeez, get a room,” grumbled Tomás, but Xander hardly heard it. Against her protests, he hauled Morgan on top of him and wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the ache between his shoulder blades and in his chest, caution at last thrown to the wind. He heard the cabin door close softly and the sound of footsteps receding.
“Marry me,” he said between breathless kisses, struggling to rid her of her dress.
“I doubt there’s a priest on this island,” she replied with a low laugh, then sat up and pulled the dress over her head. It was discarded to the floor, and she lay back against him, her skin warm against his. “There are just beaches and coves and coconut trees. And anyway, you’re in no shape to stand at an altar, my love.”
He took that as a challenge and pulled her close. “Allow me to demonstrate exactly the shape I’m in.” He took her hand and maneuvered it beneath the covers, to the straining hardness between his legs.
She laughed again, and it was like honey to his ears, sweet and dark and delicious. “Oh, how I do admire an ambitious man. But you’re still healing. A few more days and then—”
“And then you will be sore for a week,” he growled, nipping at her neck.
She allowed him that much, relaxed back against him so he could trail his hands over her bare skin and inhale her scent and kiss her, and all the while she smiled at him like a cat with all the cream.
