Page 56 of The Royal Gauntlet
“It’s been a minute,” I tell her, which is quite possibly the understatement of the millennium. This earns me a chuckle from the elusive goddess.
“As much as I’m loving this touching reunion, my pregnant wife is in pain. Can you help her?” Essos looks imploringly at Callie.
Her brown eyes shift from me to him, and she nods and sets aside her giant purse. One wouldn’t put healing in the wheelhouse of beauty and sex, but she once said it was an important skill to have when married to the God of War and Suffering.
“Of course. What hurts?” She pushes Essos out of the way, and he practically snarls at her. He moves around the bed to his side and sits where he usually sleeps, and it feels like déjà vu when he grabs my hands.
“Xavier said I may have fractured my hip, and I did something to my ankle,” I inform her. I hate the strangled sound Essos makes, but when I look at him, his face is perfectly calm. He lifts our joined hands to his mouth and brushes a gentle kiss along my knuckles.
Callie gestures at the covers, peeling them off when I nod. She does the same things that Xavier did, her only tell a small wrinkle in her brow as she examines my ankle and hip. “I didn’t know that Xavier was a healer.” Her tone is neutral when she firmly grasps my hips.
“The things you don’t know about him could probably fill a book,” I say with a forced laugh. At every turn, it seems another layer of Xavier is pulled back and revealed.
“This is going to hurt for probably just a second, and then I need to undo what Xavier did to your ankle.” There is a pitying look on her face when she says this.
“Will it hurt the baby?” Essos asks before I can.
“No. Daphne has a hairline fracture in her hip, which could be problematic if she were giving birth right now, but she’s not. Trust me.” Her tone is so confident that I do, even without knowing where she’s been all this time.
“Go,” I order, bracing myself against the pain. Her hands warm as she presses them down. My teeth clench and I close my eyes, not wanting Essos to know just how much it hurts, but he can feel it as I squeeze his hand. He uses his free one to brush the hair from my face.
“This is just practice. We’ll be ready for when you have the baby. I already know where I have to be and what I have to do,” he declares, whispering in my ear. I can almost envision it, my feet up, sweat dotting my forehead as I push.
Before I can have that, I need to kill Posey.
The pain ceases abruptly, and I’m able to breathe again. My breaths are haggard and shallow, and Essos moves so he’s sitting behind me, cradling me to his chest.
Like Xavier the night before, Callie lifts my ankle and places it on her lap. Essos’s lips brush the shell of my ear, and I melt further into him.
“Do you want to tell me how this happened?” he whispers just for me, but Callie lifts her head to hear my response.
“It’s a long story. Can I get a macaron first?” I mutter, squeezing Essos’s hand in anticipation of the pain. Callie doesn’t delay, getting right to the business of healing me. When she’s done, I’m panting from the pain of having her undo what Xavier did, but Callie looks as effortlessly lovely as before.
“I’ll give you two a minute. If you need me, I’ll be in the kitchen getting a coffee.” Just as quickly as Callie reappeared, she’s gone again.
Essos gently slides out from under me and presses his lips to mine with a fervor unlike the gentle kiss of earlier. It’s deep and consuming, and I want to keep giving and giving and giving all of myself to him. I pull him back onto the bed, onto me.
We lie there for a while just holding each other, relishing in an intimacy that goes beyond sex. Do I want my husband between my thighs? Absolutely. Do I want him to just hold me, in a small assurance that we’re both okay? Also, absolutely.
“I missed you.” He nuzzles his face into my neck.
“You’re just saying that because we’re in bed together.”
He lifts his head to meet my gaze so there is no mistaking his intent. “I am saying that because you are mywife. I am saying that because I have missed you for a thousand years, and every minute, every second away from you chafes at my soul.”
My heart breaks again for him, for what he’s lived through. There are emotional scars that are too deep for anything but time to heal. It doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying with every kiss and every touch. I try every morning, every night.
“I missed you too,” I assure him, pulling him back down into my arms so I can hold him and just enjoy the feel of his body next to mine.
When we get these quiet moments, we have to enjoy them, because we don’t know how long they’re going to last.
* * *
It’s still morning,but barely, when we finally emerge, showered and clothed. Everyone else is gathered on the back porch. Cat subtly gestures at my neck, and I scowl, feeling the tender skin that Essos had been so focused on before we came down.
Essos isn’t looking at me now. He’s back to being all business, including dressing in a suit. I changed into a loose, flowing floral skirt and oversized sweater. Something about the last few days has made me want to hide myself, hide my bump and my baby from all dangers.
I tense up even though we’re among friends and family. Essos doesn’t miss a beat, slipping his hand into mine.