Page 77 of Inked Athena

She turns away to hide a smile, though I still catch a glimpse of it. Then, schooling her face back into steely disdain, she pokes a finger into my ribs. “Let me check your bruising.”

I bite down a grunt of pain and snag her hand before she can shiv me with that fingernail again. “You’re heartless.”

“Actually, ‘heartless’ is risking your life when you have a child on the way,” Nova snaps. “‘Heartless’ is scaring me half to death by throwing yourself into a lake in the middle of a freaking thunderstorm. ‘Heartless’ is making your baby’s mother and your best friend wade into cold, dark waters to drag your ungrateful ass back to shore.”

I press her warm knuckles to my lips. “Did I not apologize for that last night?”

“Not anywhere close to my satisfaction.”

I turn her hand over and press another kiss into the center of her palm. “I guess I’ll have to think of a way to make it up to you.”

“It might take a long time.”

“I can be patient.”

She snorts. “That would be a first.”

“For you, I can be.”

There’s a beat of silence then. Not an angry silence, not a hateful silence. But just the tiniest pocket of space to let me know that not all is lost. That I didn’t abandon hope for a less-than-happy ending at the bottom of that godforsaken fucking loch.

That we might still make it after all.

“Good to know,” she says suddenly, pulling her hand from mine. The loss of contact aches more than my bruised ribs as she pushes herself to her feet, one hand automatically steadying her changed center of gravity.

“Where are you going?” I ask as she retreats.

I can’t help drinking in the sight of her. The pale pink slip she’s wearing catches the morning light, clinging to the new curves of her changing body. Her breasts are fuller now, her hips softer, her belly a gentle swell beneath the fabric—every change a reminder of what we’ve created together.

My body may be battered, but my hunger for her is working exactly as designed, and then some.

Nova pretends to be busy with a cart of medical supplies stationed against the far wall, her back to me. “I promised Mrs. Morris I’d help her with harvesting today,” she says as she rearranges bottles needlessly. “I figured I should throw the poor woman a bone after you nearly gave her a heart attack with the peep show of yours. Though she did mention at breakfast that you’ve been holding out on her all these months.”

I lunge for her when she passes closely by the bed, but I don’t even get halfway there before the pain forces me to lie back down. Every motion is sending lightning bolts of pain up and down my side and Nova into a fit of giggles.

“Nuh-uh. Stay in bed and rest,” she scolds, wagging a finger in my face. “That’s an order.”

“I’m the one who gives orders around here.”

“For the next few days at the very least, the only thing you’re doing is lying down in that bed. Understood?” Then, with a sparkle in her eye that says trouble is coming, she sashays over to the bureau and strips that slip of hers right off.

It lands in a pink puddle at her feet, not that I’m paying much attention to the garment. My eyes are fixed on her body, tracing every curve, every line, every inch of skin I want to taste and touch and press my lips into again and again.

I never thought I’d see something this beautiful again. Last night, with dark water surging everywhere, even the thought of warmth and softness felt too good to be true. Now, it’s there—just out of reach, but closer than I deserve.

She’s tempting me with it. Teasing me with it. And that’s fine—I deserve that, too.

But I’m going to fucking make it up to her. I’m going to take the punishment I’ve earned and then give her the apologies and the happy endings thatshehas earned.

Because Nova Pierce is my woman, goddammit. She is my family and my future and I’m never going to leave her alone again.

Not.

Fucking.

Once.

She twists just enough to look at me over her bare shoulder as she steps into a clean dress and shimmies it up over her hips.

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