by R. A. Boyd
Charlie ached for him. Her heart skipped in her chest, and her breaths shuddered as she exhaled. This wasn’t fair. How could this ever happen to anyone and be counted as fair? She wanted to comfort Simon, tell him it was okay now. But it wasn’t. He was still haunted by what had been done to them. It was in his posture, in his eyes. Hundreds of thousands of years had passed, and it still pained him.
His expression darkened. “You know how you don’t like people to pity you?” he asked, slowly unraveling the threads of the blanket. “I detest that shit. And you’re doing it right now.”
Simon didn’t seem angry with her, but she knew exactly what he was saying. It soured something in her middle when people pitied her. Giving him the same kindness he’d given her in Riley’s shop earlier that day, she raised her middle finger and even added a little more by sticking out her tongue. “You might be cute but you’re still an asshole.”
“That’s better,” he said. Simon pulled himself up on his hands and knees and crawled over to her like a prowling lion on the hunt. His wide shoulders rolled as he stalked her, and the muscles in his chest flexed as if demanding her attention. “Can I kiss you?”
Afraid her voice would betray her if she spoke, she nodded and started to sit up. Laying on her back while he mouth fucked her with his tongue if that’s what he’d planned on doing, was not a good idea. Charlie would be voluntarily snatching her clothes off before either of them realized what she was doing.
He hovered above her now. Her heart drummed against her sternum, and desire sparked beneath her skin. The memory of his kiss dumped liquid fire into her panties. Couldn’t shifters smell arousal? Well, that was embarrassing.
Simon licked his lips, and then his mouth was on hers. Her eyes slid closed as Simon filled her senses with everything that was him. Fire, strength, and a sexy dominance that made her surrender to him. This wasn’t the hurried kiss they’d shared in the alley. No. This was smooth and gentle and probing. Even though he already knew how to kiss her, he explored every inch of her mouth with his tongue. The slow burn in her body sparked an ember of passion as one of his thumbs caressed her throat. She moaned as she wound her arms around his neck and shoved her fingers into his hair.
She opened to him and took everything he was willing to give her. The feel of his large body moving to cover hers drove shivers through her core, sending an erotic call to her nipples as his chest moved against hers. She breathed his name on a sigh as his fingers found the bottom of her shirt and lifted it until his big hands covered the sides of her abdomen.
Despite all the self-confidence she had, this was usually the part where her insecurities took over and made her suck in her gut and lengthen her torso as much as humanly possible to take away from the roll of flab that circled her middle. But that didn’t happen with Simon.
His large hand massaged the skin there, and he groaned into her mouth as if her body was some sort of aphrodisiac he’d just discovered. Well, if he liked that roll he was going to fucking love the rest of her body. He pulled away, and the glow in his eyes mesmerized her, captured her. The knowledge that this big, sexy shifter could rip her to pieces should have frightened her, but it didn’t. How could it? He was gentle and adoring. Charlie hadn’t felt adored in as long as she could remember, and it was wonderful coming from him.
Simon stared down at her as if she was the only being in creation he needed, and he was every bit of that and more for her. His fingers trailed fire up her thigh as he pulled her leg higher up on his waist. His touch launched shockwaves of pleasure through her clothes and right into her flesh.
He leaned down and gave her lips three soft, sucking kisses. “Even without it, I can feel you.”
She didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but she was all for it. She pushed her fingers into his hair and pulled him down to her. His hand snaked around her leg, palming her ass and pulling her against his muscular body. His fingers dug into her skin. The pain shifted the pleasure his closeness brought to her body into a raging inferno. Simon kissed her like an attentive lover whose only goal was to make her crave him.
Charlie whimpered into his mouth as he ground his cock against her heated pussy. Even through the layers of fabric, she could feel his long and heavy length reaching out for her.
Welp. Promise be damned. If Charlie had her way, Simon was going to be taking her down to pound down in less than ten minutes, and she was going to enjoy the ride.
A low growl vibrated in Simon’s chest. The feel gently shook her breasts. Naked time.
“Wait. Charlie, please.” His voice, barely human, sounded ragged and sad. “I have to tell you something.”
They could talk about it later. Charlie was ready. She ached for him. She needed him to fill and pummel her pussy until her voice was hoarse from screaming his name. The slickness of her center called to his cock as he ground his hips against her core. He asked her to wait, but if he kept rubbing against her like this, she would orgasm with her clothes still on.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, reaching down to pull his shirt over his head. She could multitask.
He took a sobering breath and grabbed both of her hands in his. “You should know something before we go on.” Pulling her hands up to his lips, he kissed her knuckles and smiled as she opened her legs wider for him. “In fact, until I get it back, I don’t want us to go any farther.”
She felt a chill where his touch had been. Like a slow-leaking helium balloon, all the lust and excitement drained from her body. It was still in her lady-bits, though, and would be there until she took a cold shower or pleased herself later.
This was serious. Charlie didn’t know everything about Simon, but his expression worried her.
“Tell me anything, Simon. I won’t judge you. I promise.”
He lifted himself and brought her with him. “I—” he began, pulling her to sit between his legs. “Charlie. There is a big part of me missing, and until I get it back, I don’t want to do anything that will bind us closer. I mean, I want us closer, but I need to get it back.”
She raised her eyebrows in confusion and pursed her lips. Get it back? What the hell was he missing?
“Can I help?” she asked, pulling his hand to her mouth and kissing his palm. “Did someone take something from you?”
Who was crazy enough to steal from Simon?
He started to speak but then stopped. He started again, his piercing grey eyes searching her face as if the answer was there. “Charlie. I don’t have a soul.”
She could feel one of her eyes grow heavy. Her brother always made fun of her when she was confused, telling her that it looked like someone threw black pepper into her left eye. “I don’t understand.”
“Baby, I literally don’t have a soul. A dead gypsy in my attic has it. Well, she comes out of the attic now, but the fact remains that I don’t have a soul. Hell, I don’t even know how I’m able to feel you at all. I’ve been devoid of emotion for decades.”
Charlie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He didn’t have a soul, but a dead gypsy had it. She pressed her lips together and chewed on them, wondering if this was a riddle she had to figure out.
She took another breath and held it. “I must be missing something. Please, explain.”
“I don’t have a soul. Literally.”
Chewing on her bottom lip, she played with her fingers as her brain tried to process what he meant. “What do you mean? That’s not possible.” She thought of everything she’d learned tonight and made a clicking sound in the back of her throat. “I take it back. It is possible. But, wouldn’t you be a soulless, evil son of a bitch if you didn’t?” She drew in a deep breath as the realization hit.
Holy shit. Everyone treated Simon like he was a heartless bastard. His face was always broke down into a scowl, and people avoided him at the Town Hall. Hell, people even skittered out of his way at Riley’s shop. Was that why he’d looked so surprised when she gave him back all the snark he’d given her earlier? He wasn�
�t used to people standing up to him. Did that make her man a douche bag? Yeah. It kind of did.
“That’s why you suck!” she exclaimed, punching him on the chest. “Well, not now you don’t. Not to me. Not to me,” she said again, more to herself than to Simon. “Simon. Do people hate you?”
He rubbed his beard. “Yes. They do. But I don’t give much of a shit.”
“Why would you care? You don’t have a soul. Why? Did someone take it?”
His head did a slow wave from side to side. It reminded Charlie of a sunflower fully opened, waving to the Sun in a cool breeze. “No one took it. I gave it up. To save my family. To save everyone. We’ve lived a long life, and that can drive anyone insane. But sometimes the beast inside of us wakes up, tells us to destroy and kill. My brother Ronin did. He killed a lot of people and hurt Audra so bad she barely recovered. And I didn’t want to do that.”
So he gave up his soul to save the people around him.
“Simon, that’s the most loving thing you could have ever done. You sacrificed a huge part of yourself to keep everyone safe. You know that, don’t you?”
“No,” he said, holding her hands over his racing heart. “It was selfish. An angel’s soul can do so much damage if it falls in the wrong hands. But I did it. I shouldn’t have, but I did. There are only two options when we go off like that. One is death, and the other is being put down. Some of our fallen angel brethren who chose to fall joined the Coven of the Fallen. They have the power to take all that rage from us.”
She shrugged and squeezed his fingers. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“They put you in a coma and bury you until all that rage and hatred is bled out and used to strengthen the Earth.”
Wow. That did sound bad. And scary.
“But I’m selfish, Charlie.” His voice was harsh. If she didn’t know him, didn’t trust him, she knew that fear would be running through her veins. “I knew giving up my soul could have horrible consequences, but I did it for you. I didn’t want to miss you. The promise of you. I didn’t know when you were coming, but damn-it, I didn’t want to miss out on you.” He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers.
She nuzzled his nose and then kissed it, so happy he waited for her. “I’m glad you didn’t miss me. I would be so sad if I hadn’t met you. What could happen if the wrong person had your soul?” Pulling one of her hands from his grasp, she curled her arm around his neck and brought her body closer to his.
He sighed, and all the tension seemed to melt from his body. “Bad things, Charlie. Catastrophic, war-inducing things. A human soul is nothing but pure energy and light from the Creator. The light and power from my soul is from the start of creation. Pure. Powerful. Imagine someone getting their hands on an angel’s soul. They could rule and destroy. Hell, even Miri is getting stronger from holding on to my soul.”
So the dead woman’s name was Miri. She had to be one of Simon’s most trusted friends for him to entrust her with it. And she was haunting Simon’s house.
“Well,” she said, pushing him over to crawl up on his lap to straddle him. “How do we get it back?”
He was so close now, and with his warm breath caressing the sensitive skin below her ear she had to force herself to think straight. He wanted to wait until he had his soul to get intimate with her. It made sense. She wanted all of him present when they made love for the first time.
Wow. Made love. The idea of making love to someone was so foreign to her now. She’d had a ton of great fucks, and a good amount of not so great ones when she was screwing her pain away, but this experience with Simon would be different. He was her mate.
“Come to my house tomorrow so you can meet Miri. Maybe she’ll give it back. She wouldn’t give it to me the last few times I asked. She called me an asshole and told me to find my mate.”
Charlie didn’t even know the woman, but she liked her already. “Here I am.”
“Yeah,” Simon said, a shy smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Here you are.”
Chapter 5
Simon watched Charlie as she slept. The sun was starting to shine through the spaces in the curtains, and the rays illuminated the soft strands of her hair. Even though her thick, tight curls were silvery-grey right down to her scalp, the light reflected on different sections and shown an auburn color. Her skin, a vibrant clay color that reminded him of the gleaming walls of the Great Library of Alexandria made her look like a star come to life.
She was beautiful.
Now, more than ever, he was so happy he hadn’t given in and been put down. He would have slept right through her life, never knowing how wonderful she was. Charlie didn’t know it yet, but her soul was big enough to fill all his empty spaces and make him feel whole again. It was as if his soul had been scanned into his body the moment she put her small hand against his chest.
He bent down and ran his nose along the bend of her neck, watching the trail of goosebumps that hopped up in the wake of his touch. Even asleep she was receptive to him. He couldn’t wait to bury his cock inside her sweet, wet pussy and make her his. He was already hers.
Last night, the aroma of her arousal had called to him. She had offered herself to him. It took every ounce of willpower he had in his body to stop himself from taking her. When they finally made love, he wanted to feel her in every way he could. Mind, body, and soul.
Especially soul.
This woman lying next to him was the reason he’d taken a dangerous path and given up his soul. Just so he could hold her and love her.
Trying to settle down and go back to sleep, Simon took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He placed his face in her hair. The scent of coconut and vanilla would forever give him a raging hard-on now. He wrapped his arm around her middle. She moved and molded herself to his body. He was happy. Completely and truly happy.
Just as the stillness of sleep began to take him over, three quick knocks on the door jolted him from his rest.
Voices. Familiar, feminine voices. His sisters.
Trying to make sure Charlie slept as long as she wanted, Simon inched out of bed and tipped over to the door.
He snatched it open and snarled at the women. “What the actual fuck do you want?” Didn’t they know he wanted to keep Charlie all to himself for a few more hours? Hell, even if they did, none of them would give a shit. “She’s still asleep.”
“I’ll put you to sleep if you talk to us like that again,” Cass said, her voice and innocent face as sweet as honey. Her dark, coily hair was in a big, puffy ponytail on top of her head. It bobbed as she sweetly threatened him. Whiskey brown eyes sparkling, she said, “We’re here to meet her. Stop being mean and let us in.”
“Or not,” Audra said, taking a step forward. She played with her long braided hair that fell down to her waist. She was the smallest of them all but was evil ass-hat incarnate. “We can let ourselves in, dear brother. You might not like that.”
He knew he wouldn’t like it at all. “Look, can’t you just—”
“I’m awake,” Charlie said from the bed.
All four of his sisters looked around him, but Riley was the one that got him moving. She used her pointer finger and shoved it into his ear, giving him a wet-Willy. The urge to slap her hand abated quickly as Cass quietly warned him to be nice.
He stepped out of the way too slow and was pushed to the side by all four women. They were all smiling like a group of rabid maniacs. Why were they so excited to meet his mate?
“Because we’re happy,” Cass said, doing that weird thing where she sensed the emotions of the people in the clan.
“Yeah,” Paige whispered as she gave him a sideways hug that made him severely uncomfortable. “Happy you get to get it back?”
What the fuck! He didn’t want to talk about his missing soul in front of everyone.
“Get what back?” Riley asked, sitting down two bags.
Damn-it! Riley was the only woman in the clan that didn’t know.
“His decenc
y,” Paige said, poking him in the stomach. “Maybe he’ll stop being such a butthole once he gets back his grace.”
Riley blew a raspberry and started digging through her purse. “One can only fucking hope. You’re worse than Liv is when she’d PMS-ing.”
“No, I’m not!” he yelled, storming past the women to sit on the bed near his mate.
Dear Creator, can’t he just die now? Riley’s step-daughter was fifteen, and Simon did not want to hear about her monthly lady-issues.
Sorry, Riley mouthed as she put her hands in the air. The snarky smile on her face let him know that she was indeed not sorry.
Charlie laughed so hard she had to bend over on her hands and knees just to get out bed. “Give me two minutes while I change and brush my teeth. You ladies are going to be fun.”
“You have no idea,” Riley sang. She dug around in her purse a little more and then gave a fist bump to the air, apparently happy she’d found whatever the hell she was looking for in there. She handed a stack of papers to Charlie. “Those are your tax forms and all that good stuff so you can actually get paid once you start working. I did say you were hired, right?”
Charlie nodded and took the papers from her. “Yes, you did. Don’t you want to talk to me and make sure I’m not a serial killer or pastry stealer?”
Audra leaned her head on Riley’s shoulder and gave a smile that would frighten small children. “You’re family now. We’ll take you as you are. I mean, which one of us hasn’t killed someone who deserved to be dead?” Where did she get her logic from?
“I haven’t. At least, not yet,” Cass said, shifting from side to side.
Yeah. Cass still had a ‘someone’ to kill, and Simon only hoped he could be there to keep her firm when she did it. Louis Erin, the bastard who’d murdered Cass, was still on the run. Cass had plans for him.
“It’s okay,” Audra said, rubbing Cass’s arm. “We’ll get him.” Giving a sorrow filled smile that deadened her brown eyes, she looked over to Charlie and Simon. “He killed Cass last year. But our brother, the Angel of Death, brought her back. You have so much to catch up on.”