Diana Gabaldon · @Writer_DG
16th Jun 2013 from TwitLonger
#DailyLines #MOBY #WRITTENInMYOwnHEARTSBlood #Book8 #OutMarch25 #thisonesforBruce
“Shall I tell you something?” I said, after a bit of mint-scented heavy breathing. “The mosquitoes won’t bite your cock.”
“I dinna mind if they carry me off to their lair to feed to their bairns,” he murmured. “Come here, Sassenach.”
I pushed damp hair out of my face and settled contentedly in the hollow of his shoulder, his arm around me. By now, I had reached that sense of accommodation with the humid atmosphere, where I stopped trying to keep track of my own body’s boundaries and simply melted into sleep.
I slept without dreaming and without moving, until a touch of cramp roused me enough to shift a little. Jamie raised his arm a little, then replaced it as I settled again, and I became aware that he wasn’t asleep.
“You…all right?” I murmured, thick-tongued with drowsiness.
“Aye, fine,” he whispered, and his hand smoothed the hair from my cheek. “Go back to sleep, Sassenach. I’ll wake ye when it’s time.”
My mouth was sticky, and it took a moment to locate any words.
“You need to sleep, too.”
“No,” he said, soft but definite. “No, I dinna mean to sleep. So close to the battle…I have dreams. I’ve had them the last three nights, and they get worse.”
My own arm was lying across his mid-section; at this, I reached up involuntarily, putting my hand over his heart. I knew he’d dreamed—and I had a very good idea what he’d dreamed about, from the things he’d said in his sleep. And the way he’d wakened, trembling. _They get worse._
“Shh,” he said, and bent his head to kiss my hair. “Dinna fash, _a nighean._ I want only to lie here wi’ you in my arms, to keep ye safe and watch ye sleep. I can rise then with a clear mind…and go do what must be done.”