And then he began to cough. Little gurgling coughs and gasps that sounded like he was sucking air. I wrinkled my nose. I didn’t remember him making those sounds when I was holding him.
He did it again.
It was so close… like it was right beside me.
My entire body stilled as I sensed movement behind me. I leapt up and spun around, clutching the blanket around my shivering shoulders, my tired eyes searching the dark.
He was easy to see.
His pale skin was like a neon light in the shadows.
“Tarek?” I whispered, knowing full well I could be hallucinating.
Hell, I might even be in shock.
The little bundle wrapped up in his arms threw out an angry fist and gave a yell.
“There’s your mommy,” he whispered. The lyrical quality to his voice washed over my frayed nerves.
A sob caught in my throat as I dared to believe.
Tarek took a step forward, his long legs eating up the distance between us. “You have me,” he whispered, his voice carrying through the night like a bedtime lullaby. “I belong to you.”
My heart burst, a great waterfall of emotion surging forward inside, and I was propelled forward, tripping over the blanket as I rushed at him. He shifted the baby in his arm and held open his other one, completely enveloping me into his embrace.
A torn sob pressed against his chest as I gripped onto the front of his T-shirt. Tarek clutched me against him so tight I was afraid I might not be able to breathe.
But that was okay.
Because if I ever stopped, he would breathe for me.
Right next to me, my son began to cry with great force, and Tarek let out what sounded like a relieved sigh. “He’s very hungry,” he whispered.
Overcome with joy, I pushed back and took the baby, cradling him in my arms and cooing all kinds of silly words I hadn’t realized I knew. I let the blanket slip down over my shoulder to expose one achingly full breast.
He latched on almost instantly, barely needing any guidance, and ate hungrily. I watched him for long minutes, so thankful he was here, realizing how close I came to never seeing either one of my loves ever again.
Finally, I ripped my eyes away from the baby and up to Tarek. He was staring at me hungrily, tense lines around his eyes.
“What happened?” I whispered as I rocked gently on my feet. “I thought… I thought you were dead.”
He cupped the side of my face in his palm, and I pressed into him, marveling in his touch. I swayed on my feet, and he frowned, scooping me up, barely disrupting the baby and his gentle feeding. “You’ve been through too much.” He strode quickly up to the apartment. “Your skin is like ice.”
I leaned my head against him as I carried my son, and he carried us both. Inside the apartment, he brought me into the bedroom and sat me on the bed. I tossed aside the blanket and lifted the baby off my breast. He fussed, wanting more, but I rubbed his back gently until he was ready to feed on the other side.
Once he was contentedly suckling away, Tarek crouched down before me and lifted my arm, the one that was hastily wrapped in my ripped dress.
“What the hell happened, Soph?” he asked.
I shook my head. The thought of retelling it all was almost as horrific as going through it.
“Shh,” he said. “You can tell me in time. It doesn’t matter now. It only matters that we are back together.”
Carefully, he unwound the wrapping, exposing an angry red slash that was surprisingly still oozing. The skin around the cut was hot to the touch, and I knew it was probably infected. Tarek’s eyes turned very dark as he studied the damage, and without saying a word, he wrapped both hands around my forearm and closed his eyes.
My entire arm began to heat, like it had been submerged in a tub full of hot water. The area tingled and began to itch. After several minutes, he pulled away.
The knife wound was entirely healed.
“Where else?” he asked softly.
I lifted my feet. Anger turned his lips into a hard line as he looked at the various cuts and embedded glass. He went to work quickly, somehow using his telekinesis to pull out all the glass slivers and then healing my wounds with his hands.
“Thank you,” I said when he sat back.
The baby had unlatched from my breast and had already fallen into a peaceful-looking sleep. “He looks just like you,” I whispered, feeling my heart swell with love.
“The sight of you holding him is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen,” Tarek replied, moving to sit beside me.
“He needs a name,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder.
“Do you have one in mind?”
I nodded. “I’d like to call him Axton.”
Tarek repeated the name, trying it out on his tongue. “I like it,” he said. “Very different.”
I nodded. “It’s unusual here too, but I think a unique name suits him.”
Tarek kissed the top of my head, and I smiled. “You need a warm shower and rest. Once you’re cleaned up, I can heal you from the birth as well.”
“I want to hold him just a little bit longer,” I whispered.
Tarek chuckled and gently pulled me and Axton up onto the bed, where he arranged the covers around my legs and wrapped an arm around my waist.
“What happened up there?” I asked. I needed to know how he managed to come back to me. Then another thought had my muscles going rigid. “Are they going to come for us? Do we need to run?”
“No,” he said, pressing me back against him. “You’re safe. All three of us are safe.”
“How?”
“Only a small percentage of whatever was in the syringe actually made it into my bloodstream. I managed to get the man away from me before he could depress it all into my body.”
“But if he had…?” I asked.
“If he had managed to get it all in me, I would be dead.”
I turned my face into his chest, the thought just too horrible to imagine.
“But he didn’t. And after a while, I came to. Everyone thought I was dead, so no one was watching me.”
“Then what?”
“I heard the baby crying, and in between, he was gasping for air.” I tipped my head back so I could watch him while he spoke. “They were already traveling to my planet, a trip that would have taken years to complete.”
“But?”
“But as soon as we left Earth’s atmosphere, little Axton here couldn’t breathe.”
I gasped.
“They hadn’t expected that. They thought as a Sapien, his lungs would have the capacity to breathe like the rest of us.”
“But he isn’t all Sapien,” I said.
He shook his head. “No. He’s also part you.” His eyes warmed and the silver specks shone like glittering diamonds. “And you, my love, wouldn’t be able to breathe on my planet.”
“And they just let you have him?” I asked, surprise coloring my tone.
His jaw tightened. “They put him down on a table and left the room. They were just going to let him die.”
Rage set fire to my insides, so much so that I tried to jump off the mattress.
“Easy,” he murmured. “As soon as they left, I picked him up and I breathed for him, just like sometimes I do for you.”
“You did?” I whispered.
He nodded. “Teagan found me and the baby. I thought I was going to have a fight on my hands, but it wasn’t like that at all. She helped me slip into a small emergency craft, and I flew it back here.”
“So they don’t know you got away?”
He shrugged. “By now, they might suspect.” He griped my arm, anticipating my reaction. “But it doesn’t matter. They won’t come back.”
“But why?”
“Because Axton can’t live on their planet. He’s of no use to them.”
“What about revenge?” I worried.
He smiled. “Sapiens are too cold and emotionless for revenge.” Tarek tucked me into h
is side, brushing his thumb over the cheek of our sleeping child.
“You’re safe. We’re all safe. That’s the way it’s going to stay.”
“You really think so?”
“I know so.”
I let the warmth of his body seep into mine and the soft breathing of our child fill my ears. “Tarek?” I asked softly.
“Hmm?”
“Thank you for abducting me.”
He chuckled. “Oh, love, the pleasure was all mine.”
Cambria Hebert is the author of the young adult paranormal Heven and Hell series, the new adult Death Escorts series, and the new adult Take it Off series. She loves a caramel latte, hates math, and is afraid of chickens (yes, chickens). She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major, and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and children (both human and furry), where she is plotting her next book. You can find out more about Cambria and her work by visiting http://www.cambriahebert.com.
Want more romance from Cambria Hebert?
Check out her Take It Off series.
Distant Desires: Part 3 Page 9
