“To take a shower in my commodious bathroom?” he said, smiling.
“Michael, could you…ah, cover yourself?”
“Why? You’ve been intimate with Adam. Surely you are acquainted with the male physique.”
“I am. I’m just not acquainted with your male physique.”
“There’s a difference?” He smiled at me as if I were a child. At the moment I felt like one, a kid in a candy store without any money to spend.
“Well, you’re more…ripped.”
“Ripped? I don’t know what that means.”
“It means you have a model perfect muscled chest. I need to…leave.”
Michael took pity on her and wrapped a towel around his waist. “Is this better?”
“Not much. I can still see those gorgeous abs.”
“I got them on special order,” Michael said, smiling.”
“Would you loan me that catalog?” I went out into the tiny living room, hoping that putting him out of my sight would make my heart stop jumping around like a rabbit and my body stop burning all over with…desire. Not just a little desire. A four alarm, flaming red-hot desire.
He followed me out, much to my complete dismay and settled down on the couch, his towel parting just enough for me to see all of those muscled thighs right up to the top of them.
“Michael, don’t you have any…modesty?”
“I guess not.” Humans were really a strange lot. They were given beautiful bodies and then developed a fear of looking at them.
“Maybe you should go back to that catalog where you ordered your abs and see if they have modesty listed under the m’s next to the mittens.” I found the far corner of the couch and sat down.
“What are mittens?”
“You’re from Ireland and you don’t know what mittens are?”
He did not know how to answer that, so he was silent.
Leslie sighed. “They are gloves with the fingers all together.” She held up her hand to show him.
“I see.”
“You’re not really from Ireland, are you?”
If he lied, Gabriel would ping him. If he told the truth, Gabriel would ping him. It was, in Jeremy’s vernacular, a lose-lose situation. “Does it really matter all that much where I come from?”
“No. It only matters that you tell me the truth.”
Inspiration hit. “Then no, Leslie, I’m not from Ireland. I’m from Florida, just as you are.”
“Why didn’t you say so in the beginning?”
“I guess…I didn’t think you would believe me.”
“I’m not sure I believe you now.”
“Was there a reason you came across the hall?”
“I…no…yes. I came to tell you that I have decided we shouldn’t get married. Just because my life is ruined, doesn’t mean I want to ruin yours.”
“You will not be ruining my life, Leslie. You will be enriching it.”
“Now, see? There you go. Saying exactly the right thing. Do you know how difficult it is to resist you when you always say the right thing?”
He smiled and rose from the couch. “Very difficult, I hope. Perhaps impossible.” He came to me and, watching my face for any sign of dismay, he brought me into his arms. “Please do not resist me anymore, sweet Leslie.” And he bent his head and kissed me. Unlike the first time, this kiss was slow and deliberate, a complete taking of my lips. Then, ever so easily, he slid his tongue across the opening of my mouth, asking for entry. Stunned by my body’s reaction to being held so gently in Michael’s arms, I did what he wanted and opened for him. Then he was inside, exploring me, tangling his tongue with mine. I couldn’t remember when I’d enjoyed the invasion quite so much. I hadn’t known I could feel this way, my mouth completely captured by his mouth, my lower body clamoring for more, more. I tightened my hold around his bare chest and splayed my fingers on his back, instinctively trying to absorb as much of him as I could through my fingers. I wanted all of him, his body, his soul. He was everything I’d ever wanted in a man, kind, considerate, beautiful, and best of all, he was willing to marry me.
His towel was slipping. Deliberately, Michael let it fall. He wanted to feel all of Leslie with his body. He pressed her closer until he was between her thighs. She made a soft little sound, but he didn’t know whether it was protest or relief.
I was violently hungry for him. I loosened my grip on him to slide my bikini panties down to puddle at my feet, and he broke off the kiss and murmured my name. “Leslie.”
“Michael,” I said, smiling. “You have something to say?” I took hold of him and positioned him so I could slide him inside me.
“Whatever it was, I have totally forgotten. Are you sure about this?” It killed him to say it, killed him to give her an opportunity to change her mind.
“There is one thing in favor of this.”
“What?”
“I don’t have to worry about getting pregnant. I only have to worry about making sure you enjoy this as much as I’m going to.” And she moved her body up to plunge him inside of her.
He expected the pings to be intolerable, but there were none. He knew now that there would be no turning back. He thought he just might die right here and now at the intense look on Leslie’s face as she watched him, and the insane pleasure that burned through his body as she clenched herself around him. She lifted one leg to wrap around his hip, and when he helped her balance by clutching her buttocks in his hands, she lifted herself off the floor and was totally entwined with him.
“Maybe we should go in the bedroom.”
“Yes,” he said.
He had a wonderful husky quality in his voice that I had never heard before. In the bedroom, I climbed down off him and while he positioned himself on the bed, I stripped off the lacy nightgown and, watching his face, I climbed on top of him and took him into myself again.
I grasped his wrists and spread his arms out, putting every inch of his beautiful chest on display. He smelled delicious, like sandalwood and cinnamon. I ached to taste him. I bent down to lick his nipple. He groaned. I licked again and then lifted to look into his face, even while I circled my belly, riding him. It occurred to me then, that for a mature man, he was overly willing to let me take the lead. I stopped moving and examined that beautiful male body spread out before me. No. It wasn’t possible. And yet…
“Michael.”
He loved hearing her say his name in that breathy voice. “Yes, Leslie?”
“It isn’t possible…oh, this embarrasses me terribly.”
“What could possibly embarrass you now?” He flashed that wondrous smile that only he could produce.
“You aren’t…no, you couldn’t possibly be.”
“Be what, Leslie?”
“Be a virgin.”
“Does it seem to you like I’m a virgin?”
“Well, yes, kind of.”
“Because I am letting you have your wicked way with me?”
“I wouldn’t exactly put it that way.”
“This was your idea, was it not?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“Then continue. When you are finished it will be my turn, yes?”
“Yes,” I said, extremely relieved that he hadn’t admitted he was a virgin.
I leaned back and placed my hands on his chest directly over his nipples. While he lay looking up at me with those luminous eyes, I palmed those intriguing little circles of flesh, feeling them harden. I leaned forward to lick each one greedily.
He didn’t understand how anything that felt so good could, at the same time, be nearly unbearable. Her hair drifted around his shoulders with its flowery scent. Her mouth created sparks of lightning within him.
I moved my hands slowly down over those tightly ripped abs. He was so incredibly well defined, it was as if I could feel each muscle. I leaned down and put my mouth where my hands had been, nibbling and licking. He moved his hips, as if I were making him uncomfortable. “Michael, are you all right?”
&
nbsp; In answer, he took hold of my arms and pulled me up to him to take complete possession of my mouth, his hands on my back pressing my body into his so that he felt my breasts against his chest.
When he released me, I pushed myself up to see him better. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“What was the question?”
I began working him, slowly rolling my belly over his, taking him with me in an erotic dance. I loved the feel of him inside me, filling the empty space that seemed made for him.
“I asked you if you were all right.”
“I seem to be. Except that I have this urge to…” He rolled over with me, grasped my buttocks, and brought my hips off the bed to plunge into me as deeply as he could.
I thought briefly of the child I carried, but I knew it was far too early to be worried about harming the baby.
He took long, slow strokes into me and then withdrew, leaving me crying out his name. “Michael, no, no.”
“My darling Leslie. Be with me. Just…be with me.”
The teasing, for I realized now that’s what it was, intensified my ravenous hunger for him. How could I have thought he was a virgin? Only a highly experienced man had the control for this long, careful seduction of me.
His agonizing game of plunging repeatedly as if he were a primitive man claiming his woman and then withdrawing from me to leave me feeling nearly tortured from wanting him brought me to such a height of sexual ecstasy that when at last, he plunged into me to remain and make me his own, my orgasms began and went on and on, as if they would hold me in their grip forever.
To Michael, he had never known what it was like to have every cell of his being reverberate with erotic pleasure. No wonder human beings were always going about having sex. Was there anything on earth that could compete with this sensation of utter abandonment into ecstasy?
He lay on top of her, resting, only wondering how soon his body would be able to perform this wonderful thing again. Even while he thought this, Leslie wriggled out from under him, climbed out of bed and disappeared into the bathroom.
Michael lay there, thinking that his whole life had changed. He had made love with Leslie. Yet what else could he have done? The thought that he might actually love Leslie terrified him. What did he know of love? He knew about caring for people. He’d come down to earth to care for Leslie. But loving her as her husband? That was a whole other matter.
He didn’t want to think about it.
He heard the shower running in his bathroom. This was what humans did, made love and then rushed to cleanse their bodies of any tell-tale signs of the incredible act? There was so much he needed to learn.
With her body wrapped in a towel, Leslie came out of the bathroom, snatched up her clothes and disappeared back behind the closed door. Here was another puzzle. He’d seen every part of her beautiful body, engaged in the most intimate act that humans engaged in, and now she didn’t want him to see her unclothed? Truly, this was all mind boggling.
It seemed that there was nothing for it but to get dressed. Perhaps he should make some coffee.
He was fully dressed and standing inside his minuscule kitchen when Leslie came out of his bedroom and made straight for his door.
“Leslie. Would you like a cup of coffee?”
Leslie stopped in her tracks and looked guilt stricken. “No, thank you, Michael.”
“Are you upset about what just happened?”
She turned to him and he could see that she had been crying. “Just happened? Just happened?” she echoed in an agonized tone. “It didn’t just happen. I…accosted you. And you were too much of a gentleman to stop me.”
“Was that what I was?” His smile was both kind and seductive.
He came to her and took her in his arms. Immediately she buried her head on his shoulder. “If I were a true gentleman, I would have stopped you.” He pushed her away enough so that he could look in her tear-streaked face. “Are you going to cry every time we come together?”
“There won’t be any more times.”
He pulled her close. “Oh, my dear Leslie. When you marry me, there will be many more times.”
“I can’t marry you,” she said into his shoulder. “I’m a horrible person. I’m pregnant and I took advantage of you because you’re so sweet and kind.”
“Perhaps it was the other way around. Perhaps I took advantage of you.”
“Don’t be nice to me, Michael. I can’t bear it. Now I have to go back to my apartment and face Marian…”
“Don’t do that. Stay here with me. Spend the night in my arms.”
“Oh, Michael. What did I ever do to deserve you?”
“You were born into this world,” he said and lifted her off her feet to carry her into his bedroom.
I felt the strength of his arms and his caring and thought how little I deserved his concern for me.
He laid me down on the bed, slipped my shoes off, and pulled the covers up over me. “Sleep,” he said.
She looked up at him with those eyes still shimmering with tears. “Aren’t you coming to bed with me?”
“Not just yet. I made coffee. I think I’ll have a cup before I join you.”
“The caffeine will keep you awake,” she said, snuggling into the pillow, her eyes already closing.
“It won’t be the only thing.”
When he closed the door and stepped into the living room, Gabriel was there. He stood gazing out the window, studying the night view of the city as if his eternal life depended on it, his back to Michael. “To say I’m disappointed in you is an understatement.”
“I know. Since you are in human form, would you like a cup of coffee?”
“What I’d like is to shake you until your teeth rattle out of your head.”
“It is not like you to have such violent thoughts, Gabriel.”
He swung around to Michael, and his face had the look of a thundercloud. “You knew what the rules were and you deliberately broke them.”
“I have already trespassed. What do you want from me?”
“Some common sense would do for a start.”
“My mind is made up.”
“What? You think you can just cast aside your angel wings for a long period of time without a by-your-leave from anyone? You have to face the council, Michael.”
Michael cast a look at the bedroom door. “Then best we go now and get it over with.”
“An excellent idea.” Gabriel shed his earthly body to become an ethereal spirit with huge wings. Michael had a fleeting thought to shake his head and send Gabriel on his way alone, but a hundred years of obedience prevailed. He grasped Gabriel’s hand and allowed Gabriel to touch his shoulder. Two giant wings appeared on Michael’s back. Gabriel grasped Michael’s hand and the two spirits descended heavenward.
It didn’t seem possible, but Michael had forgotten how beautiful heaven was…and how peaceful. He supposed he’d gotten used to the noise of the city. But just because this was heaven did not mean all would be roses and cream up here. If the council decreed it, he would stay here and never see Leslie again.
The council quarters floated ahead of him and when Michael and Gabriel went inside to face them, they sat on the circular dais. They were all there, Timothy, Guinevere, Peter, Paul and…oh, dear. There sat Sarah in the end chair. They’d brought his sister up especially for his trial.
As a human, he’d learned to feel fear, and he felt it now. He folded his wings and walked forward. It did not seem fair to him that they had brought Sarah to sit in judgment of him. He tried to catch her eye, hoping he would see some sympathy there. She turned to look at him and there was coldness in her face. No. His sister Sarah would not be sympathetic to him at all.
“Do you understand why you are here?” Gabriel asked him.
“No,” Michael answered. “I thought I had gone beyond the pale and my fate was sealed.”
“As it happens, that is not the case.” Timothy sat there gazing at him with a smug look. Michael had never liked
Timothy. He was too self-righteous by far. “This is where the final decision will be made, with us.”
“You cannot decide my fate, Timothy. You are not the Eternal One.”
Timothy’s face darkened.
Gabriel rushed in to keep this from becoming a full blown battle of the minds. “This is true,” Gabriel said quickly. “I’ve brought you here, Michael, to make sure you understand the consequences of what you’ve done. This is your first transgression. You can still ask for forgiveness and be reinstated in your angel status. If you do decide to return to the fold, the one thing you will not be able to do is watch over Leslie. You must never look at her again.”
Michael didn’t have to think twice. “No.”
“No? You wish to become a mortal with all a mortal’s problems, aches and pains and death?”
Michael thought for a bit and then said slowly, “It is true that in comparison to the serenity we have here, the mortal state carries a number of drawbacks. There is trouble…but there is also great joy. I have made a commitment to Leslie. She is having a baby by a man who has rejected her. She is depending on me to see her through this difficult time in her life. I know that I am ill-equipped to be a husband and a father, but I hope to learn as I go along.”
“Your time on earth has corrupted you,” Philip said. His next words were to Gabriel. “He is already lost to us. Let him go.”
“Think about what you’re doing, Michael,” Sarah cried. “Think about all you are losing.”
“I have,” Michael said quietly. “I’m very sorry that you will be a part of what is lost to me.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Paul said, earning him a sharp look from Gabriel for his choice of words. “Let’s just vote to do what Michael wants and let him go. It’s obvious to me that sitting here talking about it isn’t going to change his mind. He has chosen his fate. So be it.”
The clouds above them parted and a voice said, “Even though Paul is precipitous in his words, I believe he is right. Go, Michael. Take care of Leslie. And try to do no harm.”
While Michael stood quietly, Gabriel stepped to him and removed his wings. Michael bowed his head, knowing what a favor he’d been given. “As you wish.”
Some Kind of Angel Page 8