Karen Robards - Desire in the Sun

Inside, the room was shadowy. The promised brightness that was dawn had so far barely penetrated.

Lilah lay on his bunk, a small mound under a pile of covers. He thought she was asleep. Her eyes were closed, her lashes black fans resting against cheeks that were as white as death.

He felt his heart turn over. She looked so young, so very small, so defenseless lying there. Only the cropped head of golden curls seemed to belong to the dauntless girl he loved.

"Lilah?" It was a husky whisper as he approached the bunk. Her eyes slowly opened. For a moment she seemed to have trouble focusing. Then she saw him.

"Joss," she breathed, and smiled faintly. Then her lips quivered and her face crumpled. "Oh, Joss, I lost our baby!"

Tears coursed from her eyes to roll down her cheeks like rain. Shaken to the core, Joss dropped on his knees beside the bunk, took her gently into his arms.

"Don't cry, sweetheart," he whispered tenderly, stroking her hair as she wept. "It tears the heart out of me when you do. Please don't cry, Lilah."

"I've been so frightened," she murmured. "I've missed you so. Hold me, Joss."

Joss slid into the bunk beside her, careful not to jar her in any way. She clung to him, never even noticing that he was dirty and half naked and probably smelled. She burrowed her head into the hollow between his shoulder and neck and told him everything, weeping until she had no more tears left. Then she drifted off to sleep.

Still Joss lay there, holding her slight weight against him, filled with a fierce tenderness the likes of which he had never felt before.

He stroked her cheek, her hair, kissed the silky top of her head.

"I've got you safe, sweetheart," he whispered. "I've got you safe now, Lilah my love."

One year later almost to the day, Katherine Alexandra San Pietro lay in her mother's arms, nursing contentedly as she was rocked sleepily back and forth. Katy, as she was called, was not quite six weeks old and had not yet developed any concept of day and night. Consequently, she was unaware that it was three a.m., or that she was in grave danger of being dropped on her head as her mother nodded and all but fell asleep in the rocking chair.

"Here, sweetheart, let me take her. You go back to bed."

Joss's voice roused Lilah enough to prevent Katy from taking a tumble. She blinked, smiled sleepily up at her husband, and allowed him to take the baby. Then she stumbled back to bed.

It was broad daylight when Lilah woke again. She opened her eyes to the sun pouring through the bedroom window of the big, comfortable house in Bristol, and realized with a rush of horror that Katy had not wakened her with the chickens as was her wont.

Had something happened to the baby?

On that horrible thought Lilah was ready to leap out of bed. Then she heard a contented gurgle and looked around.

Joss lay beside her, sprawled flat on his back, which was surprising. Her husband usually slept on his stomach, and hogged two-thirds of the bed, too.

The gurgle came again. It could be his stomach, but she didn't think so.

Pulling aside the blanket, Lilah had to smile. There, stretched out on her papa's hairy, muscled chest, lay Katy, wide awake and cooing contently as she bobbed her head up and down.

"Oh, you precious thing." Lilah smiled, leaning down to scoop up the baby.

"Dare I hope you are referring to me?" Joss was awake after all, Lilah discovered as he opened his eyes and grinned.

"Certainly," Lilah said obligingly, leaving Katy where she was for a moment longer to plant a kiss on his mustachioed mouth.

His hand slid behind her head, pulled her mouth down for a heartier sample. Lilah felt the familiar heating of her blood, her hand came up to rest on his chest…

And Katy promptly howled.

Joss released her, Lilah sat up, and this time succeeded in picking up the baby.

"Spoilsport," Joss grumbled to his daughter, hitching himself up against the pillows.

"But we love you," countered Lilah, smiling at him.

"And I," said Joss, eyeing his two golden-haired, blue-eyed ladies as they cuddled and cooed on his bed, "love both of you."