Page 56 of Golden Darkness
His arms came around her carefully. “You are brittle.”
“I will get better. I am into a pattern now. It means that I can get one solid meal a day.”
“The medical team is worried about you.”
“Have I seen them?” She relaxed against him.
“They have been sent for when you have gone unconscious in strange places. The baby is healthy, but your health is fading.”
She snorted. “It will be temporary. I am strong enough to move around on my own, and I am still getting one meal into me.”
“Not good enough. I have come up with a plan to help restore you to health now, but you will need to trust me.”
Janessa looked up at him. “I do trust you.”
He smiled and stroked her cheek. “We will want privacy for this.”
He picked her up and snagged her tablet after glancing at it. “You are checking shipping manifests?”
“Yup. Trying to come up with a timeline for my travels. In Terran time, I have nearly been gone two years. It didn’t feel like that long.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “That is a long time for you, yes?”
“Yeah.”
“We are fixing that.”
He carried her back to their room, where flowers were strewn on the floors, fruit was sliced on platters, and there were cylinders full of juice.
“This seems like a romanticized re-enactment.”
He set his bag and her tablet down. “It is.”
He ordered soft music, and she giggled.
He set her on her feet and slid her dress up and over her head. He groaned and fell to his knees, kissing the developing marks with focus. Her belly was still flat-ish, but the marks were a sign that their extreme efforts had paid off.
He wrapped his arms around her hips and sighed. “I have missed you.”
She ran her fingers through his hair. “I missed you, too, you big bully.”
He chuckled and got to his feet, stripping out of the slit-backed tunic, the leather trousers and boots.
When he was as naked as she was, he dimmed the lights and picked her up, setting her on the bed and kissing her softly. He picked up a cylinder and held it to her. She caught the scent of lemon and strawberries. “You have got to be kidding.”
“Drink up; it’s good for you. Once you drink, I drink, and we will balance each other.”
She shivered as he put the cup to her lips and carefully tilted the cylinder toward her. She muttered, “Now that I know what this is, it is so weird.”
He grinned. “Drink up. Your body has taken it elsewhere rather gladly.”
“Quiet you.”
He laughed and kissed her forehead as she slowly drank the mix of berries and him until she finished the container.
He set the container down, kissed her, and moved down her body to settle between her thighs. He started licking, and the world went warm. His fingers slid into her, and she started bucking against his hand while his teeth sank into her inner thigh.
It was harder for him to drink there now. Her inner thighs were now lined with a soft, cushioning layer. Her weight loss had been confined to every part of her that wasn’t hosting the new life.