Kassern (Archangels Creed)

by Azure Boone

  Confused, scared, sick to her stomach, nothing could stop her from pulling that curtain open.

  She stumbled back in shock. There was Karly, naked, plastered to Troy, likewise naked, her mouth over his.

  Karly dropped her legs from around Troy's waist and he firmly shoved her away.

  Despite the blind fury surging through her, Devyn noted some details. Karly's pinpoint pupils and slack mouth. Before she could see if Troy was affected, he'd yanked the shower curtain and covered his groin.

  Devyn couldn't speak. She was so fucking torn between fury and pain and confusion over the pain.

  The blank look on Karly's face broke with a sneering grin. "I wanted to fuck." She shrugged loosely, mouth going slack again. "He was here."

  Fury won over her confusion. "You leave him the hell alone!" She grabbed Karly's arm, wanting to break it off and knock her in the head with it. "He's off limits! You got that?" Flinging the offending arm away from her, Devyn stepped back, trying to steady her breathing. Damn. She had no right to go all jealous girlfriend on Karly. She had no claim on Troy. He could fuck anyone he wanted. But she certainly didn't want him to want anyone else.

  And, Troy didn't deserve to be attacked in his own home by a drugged up whore.

  "Devyn, please…" Troy yanked a towel from the nearby towel bar and wrapped it around his hips. "…I know it looks bad, but I didn't want this. She came in while I was in the shower." He turned and shut the water off.

  All Devyn saw was how the droplets looked on his smooth skin. What a body. She forced her eyes to his but was no better off when met with the honest intensity of hazel eyes. "Troy, you don't owe me any explanations." She forced herself to look away. "Karly, get dried off and into the bed. You need to sleep that shit off. Who the hell did you get it from?"

  Karly's face crumpled into tears. "I'm sorry, Devyn! I didn't mean to. It's just –"

  Devyn's patience ended and she grabbed Karly's arm. "Who did you get it from?"

  "I'm sorry. I –" Karly's eyes rolled back and her legs crumpled, but once again, Troy was there to save her. Scooping her up in his arms without a word, he lifted her and stepped out of the tub and brushed past Devyn.

  Following, and fighting down resentment that Troy had just rescued Karly for the second time, Devyn helped him get Karly on the bed and covered. It all seemed to take an eternity, and Devyn couldn't tear her eyes from Troy for even a millisecond. His smooth skin rippled with the play of underlying muscles, making water droplets glisten and reflect bits of light. For such a devout Christian, he seemed entirely at home in his skin.

  As if he'd read her mind, Troy stepped back from the bed to rummage in a small closet, and come up with a fringed blanket in a dark color. He slung the blanket around his waist, right over the towel, which suddenly left little to the imagination as the damp fabric clung strategically. Had he been aroused in the least bit by Karly’s sexual rampage? That bitch. A pang of jealousy hit her stomach.

  Even still, Devyn's insides flip-flopped as his unsteady hands tied the corners of the blanket. She swallowed hard, almost wishing he hadn't gone to the trouble.

  He was perfectly aware of her attention, if the flush of dark color over his high cheekbones was any indication. Nevertheless, he met her gaze steadily. "I'm sorry, Devyn. I didn't ask her to do that."

  She sure wished her heart would quit flipping every time he hit her with those intense eyes. "I know, Troy. It's just part of Karly. She's my best friend, the only person on earth I can count on to have my back, but sometimes…" Devyn lowered her gaze, "…sometimes she isn't friend material." Thinking for a moment, she came to a realization and nodded a little. "Actually, most of the time." Tears stung her eyes and she blinked them back furiously. It wasn't as if it were some new revelation or something.

  Troy came closer and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "No one is a hundred percent good. We have to take the bad, too, in order to enjoy the good parts of them. Come on, let me make you breakfast." Sliding his hand down her arm he left a trail of zinging sparks as he took her hand and tugged her after him.

  In the kitchen, he asked her to wait a moment, and disappeared into another room. When he returned three minutes later, dark blue pajama pants, of some thin, incredibly soft looking fabric clung low to his narrow hips. A snug wife-beater tank formed the perfect show-case for the rippling muscles and raw angles of his torso. God. And he seemed totally oblivious to the carnal image of perfect masculinity he presented. Very unlike his normal neatly pressed jeans and polo shirts. Devyn could easily get used to looking at him.

  Hmph. Who was she kidding? She already loved looking at him, and having her heart skip a beat before pounding her ribs.

  He paused in the midst of setting ingredients on the counter, and turned to face her with a mouthwatering grin. "I hope you like pancakes and bacon?"

  Transfixed by the way the faint stubble of beard emphasized the angle of his jaw, Devyn couldn't reply for an instant. Finally, she managed. "Uh, yeah. Of course. Doesn't everyone?"

  The satisfied smile that crossed his face just before he turned away of course made her stomach do another of those funny little flips. Good grief! She was behaving like a thirteen year old with a crush! She vaguely remembered those, but the real life nature of relationships and sex made itself known to her and took care of those childish fantasies.

  And of all the stupid times to develop a crush! Karly's pimp/boyfriend threatening them, losing their home, an angel making them part of a war with Satan, and Karly back riding the needle. Not the best time to go all juvenile.

  After a few moments of comfortable silence, during which Troy efficiently combined ingredients and a pan sizzled over a flame on the stove, Troy looked up at her and grinned. "My mom used to make pancakes every Saturday. It's the one thing I miss most about living at home."

  "Hmmph." Devyn didn't mean to sound bitter, but she couldn't help it. She was bitter. "I barely remember living at home. My parents were killed when I was twelve."

  He went totally still for a moment, staring at her, making her uncomfortable. She got up from the table and put a few dishes in the sink, feeling suddenly cooped up.

  "I'm sorry that happened to you Devyn." He turned back to his work, flipping a pancake expertly, and giving her a little privacy for a moment. "So, you what? Stayed with grandparents? Other relatives?"

  Devyn bit back the nastiness in her response as she turned and leaned her back against the counter. "No, I went to foster care. There weren't any living relatives, or close friends. So, I went through a series of foster homes, some good, some not."

  "Oh. Did anyone… Was anyone… Were-"

  "No one molested me, or anything like that, if that's what you're wondering. Or even abused. But most of the foster parents didn't do much in the way of parenting, and some of the kids were pretty messed up. That's how I met Karly. We sort of followed one another from foster home to group home to foster home." She sighed and combed her fingers through her hair. "Wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been." But it still brought those damned tears, every time she thought of it. She closed her eyes to squeeze them away by sheer willpower.

  "I'm glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been."

  Warm breath brushed across her cheek and Devyn's eyes flew open to find Troy right in front of her. She stared, almost spellbound, as he opened his arms, offering a hug. When was the last time someone offered her a hug, just because she could use one? She didn't remember, but a very long time. Astonishing herself, she went right into his embrace.

  Chapter Ten

  His clean, masculine scent worked its way into her consciousness, reminding her that he was the first person she had willingly allowed to come so physically close. Loneliness struck and her tears refused to be held back. She broke with a sob against his shoulder. He held her tight and made soothing noises until the storm passed, which was an embarrassingly long five minutes that felt like forever.

  When her tears started to fade, he slipped his fin
gers deep into the hair at her temple, sending warm tendrils of comfort across her scalp. Shifting carefully, he changed her position enough to give his mouth access to her forehead.

  Devyn moaned, helpless, as the silky heat of his lips slid across her brow and made their way to her temple. Her heart fluttered as he continued to nibble soft kisses down to her jaw. Devyn nearly fainted when his hot lips teased at her earlobe, sending a current of heat to her nipples.

  Troy's harshly indrawn breath signaled his awareness of her hardening nipples. He let one hand drop to the curve of her ass, holding her firmly in place. The other hand, so very hesitant, skimmed her ribs to gently cup her breast. She couldn't keep from arching and pushing her breast into his palm, never needing anything so badly. He moaned and tightened his fingers on her ass.

  Impatient to taste him, Devyn turned to bring her mouth to his. Not needing further encouragement, he angled his lips over hers, teasing her with tender nips.

  Playing her hands across his chest, exploring the delectable skin, she turned the tables on Troy by flicking her thumb over his tight nipple. He gasped and jumped, worrying her that he would leap entirely away from her.

  Surprised at the extent of his reaction, Devyn drew back a little, remembering in amazement, his inexperience. To think this hunk of a guy was new at this made her all the more eager to have him for herself.

  The scent of burning bacon penetrated between them, dispelling the heady arousal she swooned with. Troy noticed it at the same time she did. "Oh, God!" Bolting toward the stove, he slid a lid over the skillet to cut off the tide of billowing smoke rising from it.

  The horrified look on his face suddenly struck Devyn as hilarious, and she leaned against the counter, laughing her ass off.

  He glanced over at her and rolled his eyes. "What do you find so funny about burnt bacon? Now I get to start all over." He set the pan in the sink and started a new batch of bacon, Devyn watching him with a smile, chewing on her lower lip. Damn she wanted him.

  All business once more, he flipped another pancake and tended the new bacon before turning to face her, his hip against the counter. She hoped he'd come back and continue where he left off. "So…if it wasn't so bad, why… why did you and Karly turn to the life you did?" He lowered his head and shook it a little. "No, don't answer that. It's none of my business. I'm just curious about why people do the things they do." He opened the cabinet and took out plates.

  "No, it's okay." Devyn didn't normally care what the fuck people thought, but with Troy, she did. Although it was hard to focus when her lips still tingled from his sweet kiss. As did other parts of her body. "When Karly was sixteen she snuck out and went to a party. I never asked for all the details, but it was apparently a frat party. She snuck back in, and got caught. She'd been gang-raped, brutally. Instead of taking her to the ER and letting her file charges, the parents punished her for sneaking out. It really fucked up her head. She got into hard drugs and bad guys."

  Troy scowled, shaking his head. "They didn't even have her checked for STD's?"

  "No. They punished her for needing an extra pack of pads that month, from bleeding so much after, and took away her TV and game privileges instead. After she was on her own, she got cleaned up for a little bit. Found a decent guy and a good job. I stayed with them for a few weeks after I aged out, before I started college."

  Troy tried to hide his look of amazement by coughing. He compensated by handing her a cup of coffee. "Wanna set the table?"

  Devyn smiled slightly, enjoying the whole cooking together thing. "I'd love to." She could get used to doing things like that with him or someone like him. No. Only with Troy.

  He directed her to everything, while he finished up the food and moved hot platters to the table, while Devyn made every attempt to brush up against him. Teasing him was… fun. Yes, that was the word. Fun. Something she'd never before associated directly with sex.

  Devyn took a deep breath, the scrumptious smells catapulting her back to childhood, in the shoebox kitchen of their shabby little apartment. One evening a week, her mother would make breakfast for dinner, since there was never time for a sit-down breakfast as a family.

  Troy interrupted the memory before the tears came, thank God. "Do you think we should try to wake Karly?"

  She considered a moment. Solid food would be good for Karly. But time to talk with someone who didn't want to fuck her or pinch her nipples was such a rare luxury Devyn didn't want to give it up just yet. "She probably won't wake for hours yet. She usually doesn't when she's so deep in the nod."

  Troy pulled out her chair. "We can save her a plate for when she wakes up, then." He held the chair for her and waited until she sat, then took his own seat across from her. After he prayed, he started passing her platters heaped with food.

  Devyn filled her plate with light pancakes, fluffy scrambled eggs, crisp unburnt bacon, and fresh peaches, thinly sliced. When she had enough to feed her for a month, she started eating, ready to finish their talk. "It surprised you to hear I'd gone to college, didn't it?"

  Troy shook his head with one of those sexy half smiles, filling his fork. "Of course not. You're obviously intelligent."

  The compliment warmed her to the bones and made her want to explain everything to him. "Right before my senior year of nursing school, my boyfriend talked me into sharing an apartment to save money. He came home drunk one night after promising to stop. When I tried to leave, things got violent. I spent almost a month in the hospital, and had months of recovery after that." Just talking about it made her ache deep inside, where broken ribs had punctured her lung.

  "Was he punished?"

  Devyn looked up at the hard edge in Troy's tone. His mouth had tightened into a firm line.

  "No. He called 911, said he'd walked in on the attack. He accounted for all his cuts and bruises by saying he fought off the assailant. I was unconscious for days, and couldn't tell anyone otherwise. By the time I did, he had a rock solid timeline that put him showing up at the end of the assault. He fixed it all up to look like a home invasion, and himself the hero." Lifting a forkful of scrambled eggs, her hand trembled with the memories.

  Troy’s gaze locked on her hand, noting the tremor, but, to his credit, he didn't say anything about it. The angry tic in his strong jaw comforted Devyn more than anything he could have said. "And no one countered his story, or bothered to look closer?"

  "No. There had been break-ins in the area, and everyone assumed that's what it was. The few times I mentioned it was him, to cops and to friends, I was gently reminded how severely I'd been injured, and how I must have mistaken his fighting the perps and confused it all to think he'd attacked me."

  His fork clattered onto his plate. "Seriously? No one even considered the idea?"

  Shaking her head, Devyn fell silent for a moment, collecting her thoughts, deciding if she wanted to continue, and how much to say. "Normally, I could have just started school again the next semester, but because it happened right before midterm, I didn't maintain the GPA I had to have to keep my financial aid. I could have been awarded special consideration because of the circumstances. Unfortunately, the administrator of the nursing school was my ex's step mother. My scholarship expired. There was nowhere to turn." Devyn pushed hair behind her ear. "I called Karly and she took me in again, but things were bad for her too."

  She stopped again, rubbing at her hand as flashes of Ellis's heel grinding her hand into the tile floor came.

  "When I couldn't find other work, I took a job dancing with her." She gave a dry laugh. "Just kept going downhill from there." That was enough. He didn't need all the dirty, nasty little details and she sure didn't feel like educating him on the brutal facts of some people's lives. Besides, they'd finished eating. "Um, I'll clean up, then see if Karly's ready to wake up and eat something yet."

  Troy finished his coffee and nodded. "I'm off work today and tomorrow, so I need to earn my rent. My parents buy houses that need repairs, I move in and fix things up, then they
rent the house out." He shrugged one shoulder. "Better than living at home."

  He had no understanding of how much Devyn would love to live at home. Nothing in his life gave him a frame of reference for her situation. Even as a grown man, if things got rough, he could go home. She'd never had that security.

  By the time Devyn finished setting aside a plate for Karly and cleaning up, Troy had returned. The grungy jeans and faded button-up shirt with the sleeves ripped out combined with the tool-belt riding his hips to emphasize his leanness.

  Oblivious to her awareness, Devyn watched intently as he started removing the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. Images of his lips on various parts of her body made her tummy flip.

  Troy looked up to catch her watching and grinned when she flustered like a teenager. "Kind of waiting for you to look away so I could have a turn staring at you."

  She chewed her lower lip as desire burned through her. So damn odd and new for her. And scary. She tossed her thumb behind her, unable to meet his gaze. "I should go check on Karly." Not waiting for an answer, she walked off.

  Chapter Eleven

  As soon as she entered the bedroom, Devyn knew something wasn't right. Silence lay over the room, instead of the sounds of Karly's deep, measured breathing. Shit! The bed sat empty, Karly's clothes no longer over the footboard, and the window still a couple of inches up. The bitch had snuck out!

  The sheets where Karly had lain were cool and dry, so she'd been gone a while. Probably to find another fix, or another man to fuck, or both.

  Shit. A hollow feeling struck the pit of Devyn's stomach. Hands shaking, she checked the pocket of her jeans. Empty!

  Fuck! She should have hidden the damned money! But too tired and not knowing how long she'd be there, she hadn't taken the chance. Idiot. She should have sealed the money inside a condom and carried it the way women had carried secrets since time began. She stood there feeling numb and stupid with tears threatening.