“And her kidneys?”
“Her creatinine clearance has fallen into a normal range. When we biopsied one of her kidneys, the cells appeared almost identical to that of a normal human.”
Ian grinned. “In other words, this cure is showing promising results.”
“Exactly.”
DAVIN HAD DINNER waiting when I got home that night. Since it was the weekend, Amy had flown back to South Dakota to visit Ben. My nerves tingled in anticipation at spending some time alone with Davin. We’d had no time to ourselves in the weeks we’d been in California.
Scents from dinner wafted in the air when I stepped into the kitchen. The sight that greeted me when I rounded the corner made my breath stop.
Davin stood in front of the stove. His broad shoulders strained against his t-shirt. Worn jeans hung from his lean hips while he stirred something in a pan. Steam rolled around him.
He slung a towel over his shoulder and glanced my way. In a blurred move, he was at my side. Pulling me to him, his arms slid possessively around my waist. “You’re finally home.”
I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his.
He tightened his hold even more. Parting my lips, his tongue grazed across mine.
A heavy longing pulsed in my lower belly. My six weeks were officially up. “I’ve missed you,” I breathed.
“Me too. These days are long without you.”
Rolling my neck, I again marveled that my injury no longer hurt. I finally felt healed. But will Davin agree that I’m healed, that’s the real question.
Something splattered on the stove, and in another blurred move, Davin was lifting the pan. “How was work?”
“Good.” I pulled out a bar stool at the counter and slid onto it to watch him. “Ian arrived today. He’s going to be managing the drug trials.”
Davin raised an eyebrow as he began to warm a pile of tortillas. “Ian’s here?”
“Yep, he flew in this morning.”
“So, do I finally get to meet this mystery guy?”
I smothered a smile at his tone. He was trying to act nonchalant, but I still caught the edge. “You have nothing to worry about. He’s just my friend.”
His brow furrowed as he flipped a tortilla in the pan. “Perhaps things have changed, but from what I remember, most guys are only friends with women if they think there’s a chance of being more than that.”
I averted my gaze so he wouldn’t see my guilty expression. Ian had definitely wanted to be more than friends once upon a time. However, he’d been nothing but a gentleman since I’d turned him down, but I still had a feeling Davin wouldn’t be thrilled to hear about Ian’s past interest in me.
I quickly changed the subject. “Did I tell you that Bethany’s arriving on Monday?”
Davin pulled out two plates and began dishing the food up. “She is? No, I don’t think you told me that.”
I nodded and stood to help get dinner on the table. “I’m hopeful the drug will help her. While we still don’t know if it’s 100% effective, it is effective enough to reduce physical Changes. Maybe that will be enough for her.”
He pulled two glasses from the cupboard and filled them with water. “For now, it will have to be enough.” Handing me my glass, he added, “I hope you like Mexican. I’m branching out with my cooking.”
I eyed the plates of steaming tortillas, blackened chicken, peppers, and onions. My mouth watered. Stretching my arms overhead, I again marveled that I no longer felt pain in my wound. Every evening and morning, I’d diligently done my PT exercises. It seemed to be helping.
My breasts strained against my shirt when I did another stretch.
Davin’s gaze dipped lower. His pupils dilated when my nipples hardened under his stare. Glancing at the calendar on the wall, he said, “You do know what today is, don’t you?”
My heart rate sped up. “What?” I asked the question even though I already knew the answer.
His gaze grew hooded. “The last day of your restrictions. Therefore, according to your doctors, you’re fully healed.”
My heart stopped. And that only means one thing.
“Are you hungry?” His hand brushed my hip when he passed me on the way to the table.
My nerves tingled at the contact. “Um, sure,” I squeaked.
He sat down and patted the chair beside him. “About that . . . I have a surprise for you.”
I sat down stiffly at his side. “A surprise?”
Leaning closer, he brushed the hair from my eyes. His feathery touch shot tingles down my spine.
“Since it’s the weekend, and you’ve worked every weekend since we’ve come here, I was hoping I could convince you to take this one off.”
“Take it off?” The repetitive question was all I could manage as anticipation built up inside me.
“Yeah.” His lips brushed my neck. “Can you take the weekend off?”
I closed my eyes and tilted my head to the side. “I suppose I could. What are we doing?”
He pulled back and grinned devilishly. “You’ll see.”
DESPITE MY CONSTANT questions over dinner, he wouldn’t tell me what he’d planned. I knew he had something up his sleeve from the excited gleam in his eyes, but he wasn’t letting on.
After we finished eating, in which I barely managed to finish half of my fajita as my nervousness consumed me, Davin disappeared from the kitchen.
Returning with two packed bags, he nodded toward the door. “Are you ready?”
I quickly finished washing the last plate from dinner before drying my hands. “Ready for what?”
“Come with me and you’ll find out.”
Goosebumps rose along my arms as I followed him onto the porch. Cool wind whipped around the porch. With the sun set, the temperature had steadily fallen.
I shivered.
“Cold?” Davin pulled out my jacket and handed it to me.
I shook my head in amazement. “How is it that you remember everything?”
He shrugged. “Since I’ve already applied to every school I’m interested in, my days now revolve around trying to make your life easier. If that means having your jacket on hand when I know you’ll be chilly, that’s what I do.”
I laughed. “I think I’m going to miss this when you’re in school.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Yeah, don’t get used to it. It’s not going to be like this forever.”
I laughed and slipped my coat on as Davin locked the door behind us. He disappeared from my side and reappeared a second later. Our bags were missing. I knew that meant he’d already packed them.
Sure enough, the car was running with the bags in the back by the time I approached the vehicle. I slid into the passenger seat and buckled my seatbelt.
A tingle of excitement raced along my limbs. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going now?”
His midnight hair gleamed in the moonlight streaming through the windshield. Shadows dipped across his features, making his high cheekbones even more prominent. “Have you ever seen the Pacific Ocean?”
IT WAS JUST over a two-hour drive to reach the coast. Stars shone overhead. Since it was a dark drive, I wasn’t able to enjoy the view. However, I knew when we reached the ocean.
Salty air whipped through the surrounding hills. The sound of crashing waves lapped the shore below.
Davin pulled into a small motel off Interstate 5.
When we stepped out, our slamming doors were the only sound in the quiet night. It was cooler here. I wrapped my arms tightly around me. “How did you find this place?”
In an instant, Davin was at my side. He pulled me closer to him, his body heat warming me. “It came up on an Internet search and seemed like the best place for our first romantic weekend together.”
Romantic weekend. I knew exactly what he meant when he said romantic. My stomach fluttered at what tonight would bring. I was currently a twenty-four-year-old virgin, but come morning, I imagined I wouldn’t be.
Davin checked
us in as I stood nervously behind him. The small motel was similar to our accommodation in Texas. It was run by a couple who had returned when the borders reopened.
“I have you in our best room. There’s a balcony that overlooks the ocean, and it’s very private.” The older innkeeper winked after she said that.
That small gesture had me blushing like a schoolgirl.
The woman showed us to our room, her skirt swishing around her knees. Like most accommodations, the room she led us to was simple yet clean. However, it was obvious it wasn’t the room that drew people here.
It was the view.
My breath sucked in when I looked out the large windows overlooking the coast. A huge glimmering ocean of water moved below. Moonlight reflected off it. Stars hung above. Dark waves rolled and dipped all the way to the horizon.
“I hope you’re happy with it.” She smiled pleasantly. “This was always our most popular room.”
I nodded. For a moment, I couldn’t speak. It was too breathtaking. “Um . . . Yes, yes, of course,” I stumbled. “It’s beautiful.”
Davin stepped closer to me and wrapped his arm around my waist.
The innkeeper’s cheeks were rosy when she turned. “I’ll leave you two alone then. Just let my husband or I know if you need anything.”
The sound of the door closing behind her filled the quiet room. The next thing I knew Davin’s warm hands were removing my jacket. He tossed it aside and set his hands on my shoulders.
I turned in his arms and tilted my chin up to meet his gaze.
“Do you like it?” His voice was husky.
“I love it.”
“Do you want to go out on the balcony?”
I knew he’d sensed my nervousness and was trying to put me at ease. I nodded and tried to stop my hammering heart. It felt like a thousand butterflies were flapping within me.
It was silly. Davin and I had been sleeping in the same bed for weeks now. However, he’d refused to budge in the sex department. But now that I was officially healed, that rule had changed.
I shivered in the cold wind outside. He stood behind me and pulled me against him. His tall body felt like a rigid plank. Already, the hard bulge below his waist pressed into my back.
Pushing my hair aside, he bent down and pressed soft kisses against my neck. I closed my eyes and let the familiar aching desire wash through me. Between the cool wind and his kisses, goosebumps rose along my skin.
“I brought a bottle of wine,” he murmured between kisses. “Do you want a glass?”
“Wine?” I kept my eyes closed when he nibbled on my earlobe. “Where did you find that?”
“I may have been scouring southern California while you were at work.”
Smiling, I turned in his arms. “Um . . . sure. I’ve never had wine before.”
He disappeared in a blurred move. The rush of air chilled me even more. Turning back to the ocean, I draped my forearms over the railing.
Below, pounding waves crashed against the rocks as the tang of salty air whipped through the breeze. Moonlight glimmered off the vast water as thousands of stars twinkled above.
Davin reappeared at my side as if out of thin air. Wine from the glasses he held sloshed over the sides.
A wry smile lifted his lips. “Whoops. Forgot that could happen.”
I laughed and took the glass. In the dim light emitting from our room, the wine appeared deep red. I lifted it up. “Red wine?”
He raised his glass to mine. “Yeah, a cabernet. It’s from before the First Wave.”
My eyes bulged. “That must have cost a fortune!”
Shrugging, he clinked his glass against mine. “Perhaps, and don’t ask how long it took me to find it, but it seemed worth it for the occasion.”
Hearing that made nerves flutter again in my belly. I hastily took a sip. The dark fruity flavors rolled across my tongue. “Hmm . . . it’s different from anything I’ve drunk before.”
Davin sipped his too. “Some say wine is an acquired taste.”
I took another sip and then another. “It’s not . . . bad.”
He chuckled. “You’ll get used to it, if we keep buying it.”
Davin placed his free arm around me and drew me to his side. Standing next to one another, we gazed out over the balcony at the ocean below.
Leaning into him, warmth from his hard side kept the chill away, and as the alcohol spread through my veins and swam in my mind, I became more at ease.
Seeming to sense the change in me, he took our empty glasses and set them down. “Are you feeling more relaxed now?”
I nodded and entwined my arms around him. “Yes, that was exactly what I needed. Thank you.”
He pulled me closer and leaned down to kiss me. The familiar throbbing and steady need began to fill my belly.
“I’ve been waiting for this for months,” he whispered.
“Me too.”
He lifted me in one of his lightning-fast moves. My head spun. The next thing I knew, we were back in the room and I was on the bed.
He left me just long enough to dim the lights. Then, he was back at my side, his weight sinking the mattress. He kissed me again as we slowly shed our clothing piece by piece.
My eyes drank in the sight of him. His shoulders were so broad they seemed to fill the room, and his chest was as hard as steel.
And what happened next became a flurry of desire and spiraling need. Hands everywhere. Skin on skin. Limbs entwined. Davin took me to a realm I didn’t know existed. The galaxy exploded behind my eyes when I shouted my release. His crushing embrace followed as his shout filled the room.
Minutes, hours, days later, I didn’t know—my eyes fluttered open as his heavy arm lay across my abdomen. The night sky bathed the horizon out our window. Sweat licked my body as Davin hauled me against his chest. Time stood still. I trailed a finger along his forearm, the soft hair tickling my fingertip.
He pressed a kiss against my neck. “I love you,” he whispered.
Contentment rushed through my veins as a feeling of absolute completeness settled within me. “I love you too.”
THE NEXT MORNING, I snuggled into Davin’s hard length as he spooned me from behind. My entire body ached in the most delicious way. Muscles I never knew I had felt sore and stiff, but my shoulder and chest felt fine. I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.
Davin pushed up onto a forearm and smiled down at me. The morning sun glowed outside our window while the Pacific lapped below.
“How do you feel?”
I trailed a finger across his chest. “Sore but in the best way.”
He chuckled. “Was it as good as you’d hoped for?”
I tenderly brushed a stray lock of hair from his forehead. “Better. I can’t believe we waited that long. Now that I know what I’ve been missing, you won’t be able to keep me off you.”
He laughed deeply. “Good.”
In the morning sun, his bronze skin glowed, reminding me of the powerful warriors he’d descended from.
“What are you thinking?” He trailed his finger along my jawline.
“Just you. How much I love you and how I’ll never get sick of this.”
His finger stopped. “I meant it at the hospital the other week, when I told you I’d never leave you. I’ll stay with you forever if you’ll have me.”
Tears formed in my eyes as a strong surge of love filled my chest. Sometimes, I loved him so much it was hard to breathe. “You’re it for me too, Davin. I’ll stay with you forever if you’ll have me.”
He smiled cheekily. “I suppose that’s settled then.” He leaned down and pressed his lips against mine.
I closed my eyes thinking he would draw it into a long, morning kiss. However, he pulled back and began pressing soft kisses against my jaw and then down my neck.
When he reached my collarbone, he paused. My eyes fluttered open to see him staring at the scar on my chest.
Instinctively, I reached up to cover it.
He gently
clasped my wrist and pushed my arm away. “Don’t.”
Pulling the sheet down farther, he studied the wound before drinking in the rest of me, his gaze growing hungrier by the second. For the most part, my skin was smooth and soft, thanks to him. From my recent weight gain, I’d developed curves in areas I’d never had curves before. His pupils dilated while he looked his fill. But when he reached my thighs, a flash of anger crossed his features.
The Complete Makanza Series: Books 0-4 Page 106