“She is healed, Dayan, and completely ready to take up her life with you. I will examine the baby and get out of your hair,” Gregori drawled, knowing full well what was on Dayan’s mind.
As Dayan floated out of the earth with Corinne cradled in his arms, he cleaned both her and himself, examining Corinne’s lush body for marks or signs of her ordeal. Not a single mark marred her skin, not even the long, wicked cut where she had been opened to take the child from her body. He clothed both her and himself, knowing Corinne’s natural modesty.
Issuing the command to wake, he brought her safely to ground, bending his dark head to find her mouth, to capture her first breath. Corinne. His lifemate. ‘I want you, love, more than my body can stand.’
Merged so deeply with him that she felt the urgent demands of his body, she couldn’t help catching fire, her body perfectly attuned to his. She was aware that his body was full and hard, his mind dancing with erotic thoughts and images. He allowed the nightly reassurances from Shea to replay in his head, so she immediately knew the baby was thriving.
Dayan carried her swiftly across the chamber to the small area where Shea had enclosed the baby protectively. Corinne cried out at the sight of her daughter. She circled Dayan’s neck with her slender arms and burst into tears. She couldn’t believe she was alive. Her body was strong and supple, her heart beating in perfect rhythm with Dayan’s. Every cell felt alive, on fire. She wanted Dayan as much or more than he wanted her.
‘That is not possible.’ His voice was sinfully wicked.
She laughed in the midst of her tears, so unbelievably happy she couldn’t take it all in. “I have to hold her. I have to have her in my arms.” She looked up at Dayan with her heart shining in her large eyes. “Have you held her?”
He shook his head. “Only Shea and Gary have held her. Gregori and Darius have examined her daily, and all of us have been reassuring her, but it is you she wants.”
Shea smiled at her. “She is very strong, Corinne. She definitely wants her mother. It is not good to have her out of her protected environment for any length of time. Together, Dayan and I can provide a shield for her while she spends time with you. But only for a few minutes. It is better to be safe.”
“What is wrong with her?” Corinne asked anxiously.
“I want her immune system to be stronger. She has had a hard go of it and needs a little more time. Do you have a name picked out for her? Dayan thought you might want to call her Jennifer after John and Lisa’s mother.”
Corinne nodded, unable to take her eyes off her daughter. “She’s so beautiful. Little Jennifer, at last we meet.”
Shea lifted the baby carefully from the enclosure, placed the tiny body into Corinne’s waiting arms. Merged as he was with Corinne, Dayan shared the instant bonding between mother and child, the unbreakable tie, the exchange of love and tribute. It flooded all three of them. The acceptance. The love. Dayan felt tears burning in his eyes. This was his family for all time. Eternity.
‘We have it all, my love, I cannot believe our good fortune.’
Corinne crooned softly to the baby, rocking her gently back and forth while Dayan surrounded them both with his arms. “Look how tiny her fingers and toes are,” he marveled. “She has everything, like a real person.” He was almost afraid to touch the tiny infant; his finger looked very big as the infant clutched her fist around it.
Corinne laughed softly. “You’ve never been around a baby before, have you?”
He grinned at her, nuzzled her neck so that unexpected sparks seem to jump back and forth between them. “Does it show?”
“Absolutely. Do you want to hold her?”
Dayan looked like he might faint on the spot, and both women laughed openly at him. It was Corinne who sobered first. “I’m so sorry, Shea. Savannah told me you are expecting a child, and you had to make such a long journey to be here. I don’t know how we can ever repay your kindness. Is your baby okay?”