She shook her head against his chest, swallowing past the sticky lump of emotions in her throat.
“It’s okay. It’s fine. I just—” She leaned back and swiped her hand across her eyes. “You have a really great group of caring people here.”
“Yeah,” Ajax said, pulling her into a hug again. “Yeah, we do.”
She could hear the same awe and gratitude in his voice that she felt. She sniffed and pulled back, walking over to the playpen. She laid Jackson down and changed his diaper as Ajax looked on. He didn’t wake, didn’t move other than to make those little mouth movements that meant he was dream-nursing.
After a quick visit to the restroom where she ignored her exhausted reflection, she crawled under the sheets with a half-naked Ajax.
She put her hand on his bare, smooth chest as he pulled her close, wishing she had just a bit more energy.
Their second night together, and all she would be able to do was sleep.
But there was a lot to be said for cuddling. Ajax was cuddling her, both arms wrapped around her back, his head on top of hers, one leg of his wrapped around one leg of hers.
“I love you, Emory,” he murmured into her ear.
“I love you too, Ajax,” she whispered as fuzzy darkness took over her vision and her senses. But her heart…her heart was light as a feather.
Ajax laid there, watching Emory sleep as the sunrise painted the room in golden light.
Even he had been so tired that he’d slept all night with the exception of when Emory woke to feed Jackson. Rare for him.
Emory and Jackson had been sleeping longer, but he’d been content to just lay there and listen to their quiet breaths and reflect on how much things had changed. How lucky he was.
How fucking happy he was. He was a damn Disney princess on the inside.
He reached out and brushed the back of his fingers over Emory’s cheek.
If possible, she was even more beautiful to him than the first time he’d seen her. And what a ride it had been since that night. But she was finally, really his.
Her second full night in his bed, and they still weren’t naked together. But it was okay, because instead of a one-night stand, he was going to have a lifetime of mornings waking up to this woman. A lifetime of nights sleeping beside her.
His eyes slid over to the crib in the corner of the room where Jackson was beginning to stir. Ajax slid out of bed as quietly as he could and padded over to him, peeking in to see if he was asleep or awake.
Jackson’s head jerked toward him, and he smiled a big, toothless, wet grin. And Ajax might as well have been made of wax, because that smile melted him. He smiled back as he reached in and picked Jackson up, cuddling his warm weight close to his cheek. Jackson smelled sweet and warm and innocent, and he found himself just inhaling that scent as he kissed his head.
Even when Jackson grabbed a fistful of his hair and tugged, he didn’t mind. When he pulled the fistful into his mouth and gummed it, he didn’t mind. He just jiggled him in one arm while he grabbed a diaper.
“He’s awake? I’ll take him,” Emory said sleepily, pushing her hair back and blinking groggy eyes.
“Let me,” Ajax said, “You lay back down.”
She did, slowly, as they walked toward the bed, a sleepy smile on her face.
He laid Jackson down on the sheets and unzipped his pajamas, trying to wrangle all of Jackson’s wiggling limbs as he went for the diaper.
“It’s like an octopus popped out of there when I unzipped it.”
Emory’s laugh was light and sparkling as the sunrise, and he found himself laughing too. Jackson, caught by the sound, turned his head to grin at his mother.
“Good morning,” she cooed at him, rubbing his head.
Ajax took advantage of Jackson’s distraction and unfastened one diaper, wiped him quickly, and put the other one on.
“You’re already a pro at this,” she said, smiling.
“I learned from watching you.”
With the octopus contained once again, Ajax picked him up and kissed his head. His hair was immediately back in Jackson’s mouth.
“He’s hungry,” Emory said, propped up on her elbow, watching them with that soft smile gracing her lips.
Ajax sat on the bed and then turned until he was laying on his side, Jackson between them.
Emory lifted up her nightshirt and placed Jackson to her breast. Eagerly, he began to suckle, but then settled down to a gentle rhythm.
Emory laid down on the bed facing him as Jackson ate. He wanted to say something, to tell her how beautiful she was to him, how thankful he was to have them in his life now. But his throat felt full and the words wouldn’t come out, so he just leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
When he laid back down again, Emory reached across Jackson and threaded her fingers with his.
Her eyes said everything he’d wanted to tell her.
And they stayed like that until Jackson finished, talking softly, red and gold hair twined together on the sheets between them.
EPILOGUE
Emory propped her shoulder against the door jam, taking a couple of the precious minutes she had just to admire Ajax while he didn’t know she was there.
His hair hung down his back in a ponytail today, sweeping between the glyphs on his shoulder blades with every movement. He was doing his routine, practicing with his deadly blades. It was almost like a dance, the way he moved, almost floating across the floor. Such lethal grace. The shiny edges of the knives glinted in the sunlight from the windows with every turn of his wrists. Sweat glistened on his muscles like a dusting of fine sugar, but if she gave in to the urge she had to lick them, they’d be salty and not sweet.
Maybe she’d do it anyway.
She licked her lips, but didn’t interrupt him even though their time was limited. She almost forgot sometimes, but instances like this reminded her that he was still… unique. He looked and acted so human most of the time, but he wasn’t. He was Elemental. And all hers. And the way he looked, the way he moved, wasn’t even the best part.
He needed less sleep than a normal human. He routinely took Jackson in the mornings and let her sleep in.
“Like what you see?” he asked with a smile in his voice, still turned away from her facing the big windows.
She sighed with a smile of her own. So much for him not noticing she was here.
He turned to her with a lopsided grin that made her heart flutter. “I caught your scent the moment you walked in.” He gestured with his chin as he put his knives away and picked up a towel. “Where’s Jackson?”
“Brooke’s watching him for a little while.”
He stopped wiping his face, a wrinkle appearing between his brows. “Why?”
“Because she’s pregnant and loves babies? Because she’s enamored with every little thing Jackson does? Because she’s freaking out about being a mom and wants to make sure she can do it?” And boy, she could empathize with that. Issues with your own parents tended to make you terrified of becoming one.
Those were the reasons Brooke had given her, anyway. But it was probably more due to the fact that Brooke was a smart woman and knew that sometimes couples could use some time together. Alone.
She’d be sure to return the favor after Brooke’s baby was born.
“Huh.” He shrugged and swiped the towel over his abs. “Okay.”
Emory walked closer and took the towel from him, helping him wipe the sweat away from his skin. He stood there, hands falling loose at his sides, and let her.
For a tough guy, he sure liked it when she petted him. She liked it too, but she had to speed things up or they’d run out of time.
She tossed the towel in the hamper and wrapped her arms around his neck, placing soft kisses on his lips and jaw.
“Get a room!” came a gruff yell from the hallway, and Emory pulled back from Ajax, blushing, just as Levi walked past with a grin. Ajax tensed, and she could practically feel him glaring at Levi over her head. Levi
just laughed as he made his way to the elevator.
But she wasn’t about to let embarrassment steal her time with Ajax. After finally making love with him again, she couldn’t get enough. Their second time together, she’d been nervous, hesitant. But in typical Ajax fashion, he’d kissed all her misgivings away. But since then, there hadn’t been a whole lot more opportunities. They were soon moving into a larger suite with an extra room, but it wasn’t ready yet.
And she was.
She turned back to him. “You want to take a shower?”
“I will soon. But if Brooke has Jackson, I want to spend some time with you.” He put his arms around her hips, kissed her forehead.
“I was kind of hoping you would. In the shower.” She felt the blush rising even as she looked him in the eyes with a small smile. His eyes sparked as he pulled her closer.
“Oh yeah? Maybe I will shower now, then.”
He started kissing her shoulder, her neck, settling his growing erection in the cradle of her thighs.
When he got to her lips, he kissed her hard, his goatee pricking her chin. Not that she minded. She wound her arms tighter around his neck, their tongues rubbing and sliding in a way that made her breath short. His fingers brushed between her legs and she pulled away from his lips with a gasp.
“This isn’t the shower.”
He nipped her ear, chuckling, while his fingers moved over the seam of her jeans. “Really?”
Two could play this game. She put her hand on the front of his thin workout pants and stroked him, brushing over his head the way he liked.
“I’d like to kiss you here,” she whispered in his ear.
He rested his forehead against hers, his heartbeat throbbing out of control against her palm.
“Okay. Shower. Now.”
He grabbed the hand she’d been using on him and pulled her behind him almost at a run.
A giggle trickled out as he pulled her down the hall to his suite, all the way to the bathroom, slamming doors behind them.
He turned on the water and stripped without a word, and she followed his lead. He stared, unblinking, as she tugged her clothes off and dropped them at her feet. She felt her skin flushing under his gaze. Being with him hadn’t cured her shyness, but his hungry look made her waver between wanting to hide herself, and arousal. With a deep breath, she picked arousal and walked to him. He met her halfway and pulled her into the shower. The door was barely closed behind her before he had her pressed against the wall, his mouth hungry on hers, every naked inch of him against every inch of her from lips to ankles. Several of those inches pressed between her legs.
Oh yes.
She brought a leg up, wrapping it around his hips and brushing her sex against him. With a flex of inner muscles, he arched against her, the water making them slick. She moaned into his mouth, her hips arching at the feel of his slippery strokes.
He kissed her hard again before kneeling slowly between her legs, still holding up the one she’d wrapped around him.
She saw his intention in his eyes as he stroked her slick flesh with his fingers.
“What about you?” She hadn’t been kidding about wanting to kiss him there.
“You first,” he said, sealing his mouth where his fingers had been.
She threw her head back and cried out, losing herself in the feel of his mouth for several hot, hazy minutes while the water streamed around them. Before she let it take her over the edge, she tugged on his hair. He stood gradually, his mouth sucking water off her skin in places on the way up, like he would drink her down if he could.
“My turn,” she murmured, kissing him in the spray.
They turned around until it was him against the wall, and she knelt down, grasping him. He slouched against the tile so she could reach him comfortably on her knees. She stroked him, but didn’t make him wait long because he was so hard in her hands. She sucked the water off of his shaft, and his hands appeared in her hair as he moaned. Already.
She smiled as she licked her way to the head. This powerful Elemental reacted to her touch so readily. It made her feel almost as powerful as he was.
She looked into his hazy eyes as she enveloped the head with her mouth, sucking gently. Then she pulled away until her lips barely touched him, and opened wide and sucked him slightly deeper.
There was the barest teal flash before his eyes fluttered shut, his moan muffled behind his clenched teeth. Oh yes, she had him.
She closed her own eyes as she sucked him deeper, focusing on the way the tip of him felt against her tongue, the insides of her cheeks. The way he bucked slightly when she stroked the underside of his head with her tongue.
It was as easy to lose herself in pleasuring him as it was the other way around. She loved it, loved his pleasure. Loved him.
She opened her eyes again and watched his face as she took him deeply, his reactions as she loved him with her mouth.
Ajax was hers. She loved him like crazy, and was so glad the promise of their one night together had come true. They were soul mates.
He opened his eyes and met hers, and then grabbed her hands and laced their fingers together, watching her movements.
She saw the same love and lust combination in his gaze that she felt. Knew he saw it in her eyes too, because he pulled her up by their joined hands and kissed her. Softly, gently. Sweetly…
Before he turned her back to the wall and hooked both of his arms under her legs, lifting her and entering her in one movement.
She held on for dear life as he pressed up and into her, the sensation of him filling her making her cry out and clench her eyes shut. Then he pulled most of the way out, and did it again, grinding against her on his upstroke.
Over and over.
His strokes grew longer, harder, until she lost her breath and every exhale was a whimper. Emotions and sensations swirled within her until she cried out. When she opened her eyes, the shower mist was slowly swirling around them too, in a gentle, swirling cyclone.
Having Air powers wasn’t as scary as she first thought. It was kind of magical, really, and she didn’t have the strength to do anything alarming. Most of her manifestations had been like this one; gentle and slow.
Even if it did increase in speed as he brought her closer to the peak.
She tightened her shaking arms and legs around him as her orgasm coursed through her. Before it was over, he joined her, pushing his hips high and tight against her and holding them there.
“Fuck,” he groaned into the curve of her neck.
She pushed her fingers into his wet hair as they both caught their breath in the hot, humid air, the previously suspended drops falling down like misty rain.
Ajax let go of her legs slowly until she was standing, and then pressed her back up against the shower wall with his body. Which she was thankful for, because her legs were jelly.
“Emory?”
Emory pushed her hair back from her eyes and met his. “Yeah?”
He leaned in close, nuzzling her neck. “Will you marry me?”
Emory leaned back so suddenly that she smacked her head against the tile. She rubbed the spot as Ajax pulled away.
“Not the reaction I expected,” he said with a crooked, downcast smile.
“No!” Her heart was suddenly pounding throughout her entire body with heavy beats, and he looked at her with a brow raised. “That’s not my reaction. I mean it is, but that’s not all of it. It isn’t a no!”
She had her hands against his chest and looked down at them, trying to catch her breath, organize her thoughts, her words. Her emotions. Did marriage fit in with her dream of love and family? With a quick search inside, she decided that yes, it did.
“Tell me something, Ajax.”
“Anything.”
She looked up at him, met his eyes that were the color of the clouds before a soaking rain. “Are you just asking because you think it’s something that I want?”
Ajax stepped back, pushed his fingers through his wet hair. H
is gesture of frustration. He met her eyes again. “Yes, and no. I’m asking because I know that’s how human families usually do it. But there’s more to it.”
“Yes, but usually the marriage comes before the baby carriage.”
“I know that, too. I just…if it’s something you want for us, for Jackson, then I want it to. I love you, and I don’t see any reasons not to.”
‘No reasons not to’ wasn’t exactly what she was looking for. Emory took a minute more before replying.
She loved him so much, and had no doubt of the depth of his love for her. That little whisper of feeling that she’d had inside when they first met had grown into a sweet hurricane, and grew more every day.
“I would love to be your wife—” and she really would, “—but I don’t want to say yes if you’re only asking because you think you’re supposed to.” He wasn’t human, she couldn’t expect him to care much for or value human customs. “Marriage is supposed to be a union for life. I don’t want you to just offer it out of a feeling of responsibility.”
He crowded her in that sexy way he did, pressing all of his wet body against all of hers, bringing his mouth within millimeters of hers. “We’re already bonded for life. For eternity. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love you, I want to be joined with you in every way possible.”
Tears pricked her eyes as her heart swelled. That was more like it. She smiled into his eyes. “Okay, then. Yes.”
“Yes? You want to get married?”
“Yes!” she said, putting her arms around his neck and pulling him even closer, until their lips met in a bruising kiss.
He pulled back with a smile, cupped her cheek, and then kissed her again.
“Wait. What’s your last name? Do you have one?” Would she have to leave her and Jackson both with her maiden name, the same as her parents, one she felt no real tie to?
“My legal last name on this world is my Elemental name in my home-world.”
Her eyebrows went up.
“Aria.”
She smiled, relief at such a normal-sounding name. And a lovely one, really. Ajax Aria. “That’s beautiful.”
Rise (Elemental Hearts Book 2) Page 20