Page 272 of Red Ruin

I let him work out my knots.

Vhex will find us soon.

He always does.

While I have Remy to myself, I switch my grip and softly rub the back of his neck. His silks are still vibrating. “Is the egg bothering you? Or something else?”

“Egg.” Remy’s so bothered that he regresses to single syllables. “Danger. Threat.Male.”

“Male?” My fingers pause in his hair. It takes me a minute to roll through his tangled emotions, but I finally pluck out their underlying thread. “Wait. The threat isn’t another monster attack? You’re just worried about the egg hatching and… hitting on me?”

“It’s old,” Remy says. “Older than I.”

That doesn’t answer my question, but it does confirm my suspicion. I deflate, finally letting out of the last of theready-to-save-the-world-againadrenaline that’s always on tap these days.

“Don’t worry,” I reassure Remy, patting his neck and stroking his silks. “No one’s going near that thing, least of all me.”

I’m not looking to add a creepy, ancient monster baby to my growing list of responsibilities.

For once, I’m convinced that I’m doing enough.

“Yes. You’ll stay. With me.” Remy pulls off my sock and kisses the top of my foot. Then he moves to unlace my other boot.

Touching me, joining our silks, he reminds himself that I’m still here. His thoughts relax back to a Remy-flavored normal.

Seeming cold and hard to read, somehow both demanding and apathetic, Remy can feel like several men and monsters shoved inside one skin—but every one of his sides is always obsessed withme.

Slowly, carefully, Remy peels off my uniform, piece-by-piece. When I’m bare, and he’s kissed every inch of skin revealed, he carries me to the bath.

“No more work, my love.” He lowers me into the perfect water. “Your menstrual phase is here. I can’t have other Sentinels tasting your scent.”

“Tomorrow is my day off.”

“We need more time. A week, at least.” Remy’s shadows strip off his uniform in one smooth motion. I tilt back my head to watch him climb into the tub. Water sloshes against his lean frame, leaving his pale skin glistening.

Remy slips behind me and pulls me onto his lap. Sweeping aside my wet hair, he kisses my pulse. “I’ll drink every drop of you.”

Finally content, he strokes my belly with his thumb.

My head falls against his shoulder.

The Farguard has survived this long without me.

It won’t fall apart just because I take a sex vacation.

I’m on call if crisis strikes.

But if it’s not on fire, it can wait.

Gentle shadows scrub my skin. I wiggle when they tickle between my toes.

One circles my ring finger, snugly settling into the divot where I used to wear my ring. It solidifies into a band.

Remy plays with the shadow, twisting it around.

I sigh, feeling so close to complete.

My heart chugs a little faster as I catch an incoming psychic pulse.