Page 39 of Swamp Kings 1

She considered his request, and her astonishment returned about all of it. “So very many things!” she gushed, breathless still.

His gaze lowered to her breast and his hands followed, covering the modest mounds so easily. “Tell me every single one, Little Heaven.”

The idea to tell such a thing met up with the idea that she could and should. He was more than her husband, he was her soul mate. Truly. They spent so much time fighting each other she suddenly realized she’d missed himterribly. Missed the man she was supposed to become one with.

“Your current expression has me very curious,” he informed, his caresses on her breasts so very soft and tender. “I’m trying not to Fathom it because I want to learn these things from my wife’s beautiful lips.”

Those words replaced all the tension in her body with dreamy mushy bones.

“That’s better,” he mused. “Did you like it?”

His question brought her back to the moment of her orgasm, producing a gasp. “Like it!” Another several gasps flew out as her brain fired up. “It was just like you said, husband! I went beyond the universe, way way way past!”

His big smile melted her heart. “Do not spare a single exquisite detail.”

Joy surged through her as she squeezed his fingers, returning to the impossible moment. “When it happened, it was like… being taken up in an electrical storm. Truly!” she cried at his impressed raised brows. “Every… fiber of my being was its own little universe blowing apart! I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t hear or see! It got everything! My lungs and vocal cords and even my bones!”

She couldn’t keep back her giggles when his beautiful laughter came.

“But I had you,” he said, his smile soft like his hands on her breasts.

“And a good thing,” she assured watching him slowly sober as he stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers.

“I will always have my sweet light.”

His words pierced her through and through as she remembered her earlier revelation.

She quickly lowered onto him, needing to feel every inch of her magnificent husband. She turned his face to her and gave him the very best kiss she knew how to give and when she was done, she looked down into his blue, piercing gaze. “My light… is now your light. And I will always protect you from any darkness.”

He stroked her cheek with his thumb as he consumed her with the raw emotion in his gaze. “I never once Fetched such a thing, my Elenore. I never once Fathomed… this miracle.” He took her face in his hands and kissed her with heartbreaking tenderness, his breath hot and unsteady on her mouth. “My Little Heaven…” he whispered, the ache in his beautiful voice piercing her. “You have Finishedme.”

CHAPTER NINE

Beth’s heart and stomach ached to see Bishop like this. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him so tortured over something. She fought to be patient while he gathered his thoughts to tell her whatever he’d brought her up to their room to say. Initially, she’d thought he wanted to have sex but this was definitely not that. It was something to do with what he couldn’t tell her when she’d called him earlier. It had to be. She’d done as asked, assured everybody that everything was fine and the racket down by the long boat dock was purely mechanical and nobody was hurt.

The feeling in the pit of her stomach returned as he made his way to the bed where she sat on the top bunk because neither of them could bring themselves to change the place where so many of theirfirstshappened. Well, mostly it was her that didn’t want to disturb that perfection, but he was very accommodating.

“Take your time,” she whispered, when he lay his head in her lap, and she slid her fingers through his silky thick hair.

“Maybe I’m wrong about them.” He raised his head, his gaze locking onto hers. “Maybe they’re…” His thick brows pulled together with a light headshake. “Justlikeus. Not their men, I mean their…” He scrubbed his face with a deep breath, looking at the bed next to her.

“Robots?” she gently helped.

His head began to shake before he locked his dark eyes back on her. “That’s just it. They’renotjust robots. I watched him… try todieto save her.”

“Who?” she whispered, fear clenching her.

“His wife. The one called Kaphas. Something was wrong with her. Seer said it was demons and she… used the powers meant to protect her to protecthiminstead.”

Her chest clenched at the terror and turmoil in his gaze, still not understanding what all was in his heart concerning it. “Love transcends all creation, doesn’t it?”

“Shedied to protecthim. And…” His brows pulled together harder. “It… itbroke him,Beth.The pain and agony consumed him, he turned into something I could never imagine and yet could. His entire body became black like tar, his nails, his teeth, he… became some kind of war machine. I felt this… pull in the air, sucking at our skin and bones, and ourfuckingbrains.” He let out a gasp, looking at her. “We wereparalyzedwith his out of control power.”

“What happened?” she whispered, fighting the terror of what this all might mean to him and them.

“His brothers… they tackled him, every one of them. And those three other… triplets, they fought with everything to hold him down while he screamed…” Bishop swallowed and closed his eyes, his words lowering to a strained whisper. “He screamed… my angel, my angel, my angel.”

Tears burst from her eyes when the finalangelbroke and he laid his head in her lap, gasping for air. “I don’t know how but… I think they’remore…than any of us.”

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