by Larissa Ione
“Fine,” she said. “Take your time. But I start shift in about forty-five minutes now, so the clock is ticking.”
She didn’t wait to see if her bluff worked or not. She started toward the administrative offices, hoping Eidolon had come in early like he usually did. If not, she’d wait outside his office door.
Revenant caught up with her before she made it ten feet. She was strangely relieved that he hadn’t gone with Shakvhan.
“Blaspheme?”
“What?”
“Why did you admit to your mistake? You could have lied and escaped punishment.”
“Someone would have been punished. Major mistakes like that don’t go ignored. Eidolon and his brothers don’t let shit slide, and they shouldn’t. I can’t let someone else pay for my incompetence.”
He gazed at her for so long that heat flushed her face and she started walking faster, as if she could escape his stare. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because,” he said quietly, “I’ve decided that I’m not through with you. Not any time soon.”
“Oh, come on,” she groaned.
He suddenly went taut, and she followed his gaze down the hall, where Eidolon was striding toward them, his expression stern, his eyes burning gold. Looked like Shakvhan had already called him.
“You want to tell me what the hell happened with the blanchier demon?”
“I fucked up.” She cursed the tremor in her voice. “I take full responsibility for what happened.”
Eidolon scowled at Revenant before turning back to her. “Can I talk to you in private?”
“Of course.”
A shadow passed over Revenant’s face, but he managed a forced smile of all teeth and fangs and no amusement. “I’ll wait here.”
Eidolon led her a few paces down the hall. “What’s going on, Blaspheme? That was a serious mistake, and it’s unlike you.”
“I know. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was distracted by everything going on with my mother and my… you know. I’m not excusing what I did,” she added quickly. “I’ll make it up. Take extra shifts. Take janitor duty. Whatever you need.”
“What I need is for you to get your head on straight.” Eidolon’s words were harsh, but his eyes had lost the angry gold glow. “Between work, your mother, and your… other issue, your attention is too divided. Starting right now, I don’t want you to treat patients. Administrative duty only until we find a way to repair your disguise.”
“What? Wait, no —”
“My decision is final,” he interrupted in a tone that discouraged argument.
Tears stung her eyes. Her work was all she had, especially now that her apartment had been compromised and her mother was in the wind.
“Look,” he said, his voice losing the stern edge. “This won’t affect your status here. You’re still in charge of the clinic. But you’re off your game. We need you at your best.”
He was right, but she couldn’t help feeling as if she’d let him down. She’d let everyone at UG down. All she’d wanted her entire life, even during the years when she and her mother had moved from town to town so they’d never be pinned down, was to be a doctor. The desire to help others had always been strong inside her, and equally strong had been the desire to belong in a tight-knit community.
Now she couldn’t help people, and that tight-knit community would surely see her as a screwup no one could trust. Hot tears burned her eyes, but she dashed them before they could fall. Gods, she felt like a fool.
“We’ve all been where you are, Blaspheme,” Eidolon said gently. “Sometimes personal issues interfere with our professional lives, and one of them has to be resolved before we can move on with the other.” He glanced over at Rev, who was watching them like a hawk, and lowered his voice. “I spoke with Reaver about the Gethel situation. He had an idea that might or might not work, but we don’t have a choice. Given Lucifer’s size, Gethel could give birth at any moment. Let me know when Revenant is ready to take someone on a house call.”
“That’s why he’s here now. He wants to take me to her.”
Eidolon gave a curt nod. “I’ll go.”
She gripped his arm, and she swore she heard a soft growl coming from Revenant’s direction. To be safe, she released the doctor. “He won’t deal with anyone else, and I can’t put anyone else at risk. I’ll go.”
“This isn’t your fight, Blaspheme.”
“Eidolon, you’ve risked your life a million times for this hospital. But you have a family now that needs you. I don’t. And Revenant… I don’t trust him with you, and he won’t take you anyway. If anyone is safe with him, it’s me.”
“Blaspheme —”
“Please don’t argue. You know I’m right.”
Eidolon closed his eyes and blew out a long breath. “Take the blue obstetrics bag in my office. There’s a specially marked syringe in it. It’ll have a thirty-minute delay. You’ll know what to do.”
“What’s in the syringe?”
“Something called solarum. It was Reaver’s idea.”
She’d heard rumors of an angel-produced evil-eradication substance created by liquefying sunbeams. Was solarum that product?
A page came over the intercom for Eidolon, and the rotating red lights on the walls began to flash, indicating an incoming emergency via ambulance.
“I have to go,” he said. “But Blaspheme, your suspension doesn’t change anything. You’re still a vital part of the hospital and clinic, and both Wraith and I are looking for anything that will help you with your issue. And be careful. Your safety is the most important thing right now. Understood?”
She nodded, mainly because she couldn’t speak around the knot in her throat.
“Good. Come straight here after you see Gethel. Got it?”
She nodded again. Eidolon took off, and Revenant was there instantly, so fast he must have flashed to her.
“What happened?” he demanded. “He made you cry. Do you want me to kill him?”
“No,” she croaked. “And please don’t mess with Shakvhan, either. To kill her or… otherwise.”
She couldn’t believe she’d just asked him not to have sex with the succubus, but then, she couldn’t believe she’d almost killed a patient, either.
“Then what? I don’t like to see you…” He trailed off, cursing, as if he was beating himself up about admitting to having feelings like normal people. “You’re upset. I need to do something, Blaspheme.”
She turned to him, desperate for anything he could do to take her mind off what she’d done. She’d made a nearly fatal mistake, and now she’d lost her job. Even if the suspension was only temporary, probably a matter of days given how fast her False Angel enchantment was failing, it felt like she’d been fired. People were staring at her already, looking at her like she was a murderer.
“My office,” she said. “I need to get away from here —”
Suddenly, they were standing next to her desk. “What else?” His hand snapped out and caught her by the chin. She inhaled sharply at the possessiveness in his gaze, the way it heated her skin like an erotic sunburn. “Please, Blaspheme. Let me help you.”
“Why?” she rasped. “Why do you want to help me? Why are you so fucking obsessed with me?”
“I don’t know.” He smoothed his thumb along her jawline, and she leaned into it, more starved for contact than she’d like to admit. “Something about you draws me. False Angels are always dark, but there’s a light in you that seeps out and warms me.”
She should be terrified that he had noticed yet another frayed thread in her disguise, but it occurred to her that every time he pointed out something that made her different, it was a compliment. He liked that she wasn’t a standard-issue False Angel.
Dipping his head, he brushed his lips over hers. “I haven’t been warm in a very long time, Blaspheme.”
His words were like a balm, a caress that both soothed her and aroused her. She suddenly knew what she wanted, and al
though she knew it was wrong, she couldn’t bring herself to care. Regrets were for later.
“Fuck me,” she said. “Make me forget about all of this.”
Instantly, his arms came around her. “You sure?”
“I’m sure.” At this very moment, crazy as it was, she’d never been more sure of anything.
Twenty-One
If Revenant could lock this moment away in a time capsule, he would. If he could stretch this moment out and make it last forever, he would.
Not since his mother had been alive had a female needed him. Truly needed him, and something inside him shattered.
This was why he’d truly saved the blanchier demon. Not because he wanted Blaspheme to owe him, but because she’d needed him, even if she hadn’t known it at the time. And something about her made him want to do good, even if all he did was save the life of a demon who probably wouldn’t have lifted a finger to save anyone else.
He looked down at the beautiful female standing before him, her eyes liquid with the pain that was so clearly tearing her apart, and he knew he’d do anything she asked. He was an idiot – an idiot who was still ignoring Satan’s damned summons – but right now he didn’t care.
This was a noble female he didn’t deserve, and he knew that for sure after watching her admit to a major error that she could easily have covered up. Instead, she’d faced her boss like a warrior and accepted her punishment.
She was unique, not only among False Angels, but among most demons.
In that moment, she’d become the person he trusted most in the world.
He felt the impact of that knowledge all the way to his soul, damaged as it was, and he had the strangest urge to fold his wings around her in the most intimate of angelic embraces. He’d never done it before, but what made the desire truly odd was that angels only experienced the impulse when their partner was another angel. He hadn’t thought False Angels counted.
“Revenant, hurry.”
His heart pounded at the sight of the desperation tangling with desire in her liquid gaze.
“No rules, right?” His hands made quick work of her scrub top and pants. “No stupid no-touching rules.”
“No,” she moaned as he lowered his mouth to her breast and licked a nipple through the delicate lace of her bra. “No rules.”
“Fuck, yeah.” He pushed her back against her desk and dropped to his knees to kiss the smooth, bare expanse of her belly. “Spread your legs.”
Bracing her palms on the edge of the desk, she obeyed, arching against him as he kissed his way down her abdomen, admiring the honed, rippling muscles that flexed as he worked his way to the elastic of her low-slung beige panties. His cock pushed painfully hard against his leathers, but he ignored the needy son of a bitch as he used a fang to rip her underwear down the front.
“I liked those,” she muttered.
“I like them better in the garbage.” She was bare to him now, and unlike when they were at his place and his hands were fisted at his sides, he now had no idiotic rules to restrain him. He dragged his palms down her hips to her sex and used his thumbs to spread her wide.
She was ready for him, glistening with arousal already. His blood caught fire, burning with the intensity of the sun’s surface. He’d been desperate to taste her before, but now he knew how she tasted, and his mouth watered.
He didn’t waste another second. He buried his face between her legs, pressing the flat of his tongue hard against her core, using his own pulse to thud against her with a steady but gentle beat. The pressure made her squirm and pant as she gripped his head and held him as if afraid he’d suddenly stop.
Not gonna happen.
Adrenaline surged through him, hot and potent as he dragged his tongue through her valley in a lazy sweep and slid one finger inside her dripping core. Her deep moan vibrated his mouth as he began to lick her in earnest now, relishing her unabashed noises and pleading whispers.
“I love this,” she breathed. “You’re so… good.”
Maybe, but he knew for a fact that he’d never been this into it, this hungry for female flesh. He kissed her deeply, drawing her pulsing bud between her lips, flicking his tongue over the tip, and then he sucked. Hard.
“Holy… shit… Rev… I’m going to —” She broke off with a cry. Her fingernails scored his scalp, and her channel clenched around his fingers as she rode his hand and tongue.
She looked down at him, catching his gaze as he finished her off, easing his finger out of her as he continued to stroke her lightly with his tongue. Her mouth was parted with panting breaths, and her cheeks were flushed with passion. The sight of her like that made his cock strain inside his pants, demanding release.
Then, as the sexual glow waned, the sadness in her eyes reappeared.
Fuck that. He wasn’t going to give her one more second to think about anything but him.
He stood, gripped her hips, and tugged her hard against him. Her heat scorched him even through his layers of leather.
“Now,” he growled into her ear, “we do this my way.”
Blaspheme really hoped Revenant’s way was rough and raw, because right now, that was what she needed. Wanted. Craved.
The room spun as Revenant wheeled her around so her spine was against his chest. “Your wings,” he growled into her ear. “Show them to me.”
It didn’t occur to her to refuse, even though the last time she’d summoned her False Angel wings during sex with him, they’d flickered in and out of existence.
Careful to not release any remaining aphrodisiac powder, she let her gossamer wings flare out, filling the narrow space between their bodies. Revenant groaned, and she closed her eyes as his hands drifted from the base of the wings all the way to the tips. His warmth surrounded her as they stood like that, plastered against each other, with him caressing what no one else had ever touched.
She never took her wings out during sex. They were a tool abused by False Angels to seduce and deceive, but right now, she was the one being seduced.
And she reveled in it.
Too soon, she felt the telltale weakening of her aura, knew the wings would disappear. Reluctantly, she made them fade away, and Rev’s hiss of displeasure vibrated her spine.
“I didn’t tell you to put them away.”
She reached back and dug her nails into his thigh. “You don’t get to tell me to put them away.”
His breath was hot against her cheek as he took her earlobe between his teeth and bit down hard enough to make her gasp. “This is my show, angel.”
There was no warning. All at once, he stepped back and bent her over the desk with a hand on the back of her neck. Her palms and cheek slapped the wood at the same time, enough to sting, but not hurt. Holding her down with one strong hand, he drove the other between her legs, cupping her swollen sex. She was still throbbing from her climax, and when he slipped a finger between her folds and rubbed her, the first stirrings of a second one began.
Just as she pushed back against him, desperate for more pressure, he tightened his grip on her neck and withdrew his talented fingers. She moaned at the loss of sensation, felt his knuckles brush her rear as the sound of a zipper rang out.
Anticipation made her pant so hard she saw her breath form condensation on the desk’s surface.
The blunt tip of his penis pushed into her, lingered, and then he slammed home. She cried out in exquisite pleasure. He pulled back and thrust again, harder, and her desk slid on the floor. He didn’t seem to notice, kept up the delicious onslaught.
He knew exactly what she needed. No downtime. No talk. No emotion.
The squeak of her bare skin on the wood joined the erotic sounds of Rev’s panting breaths and the slap of his thighs on the back of hers. Her hip bones banged on the desk, and she knew she’d have the bruises to show for it, but oh, what beautiful bruises they’d be.
“Is this what you wanted?” His guttural voice sent tingles across her skin. “Do you want more?”
“Yes,�
� she rasped. “More.”
“That’s my angel,” he whispered.
Abruptly, he yanked her upright, and a piercing, searing pain tore into her neck, followed immediately by an ecstasy so intense that she screamed. She’d never been bitten before, had never wanted to be that vulnerable. She hadn’t known what she was missing, but she wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Pleasure spiked as his arm came around her waist to hold her while he fucked her, lifting her off the floor with each powerful thrust. The smooth rub of his leather against her skin was like an erotic caress, and the thought that he was fully clothed was the last straw. Her orgasm crashed over her like an ocean wave, tumbling her endlessly in ecstasy and drowning her in bliss.
Nothing had ever felt like this before. She’d had a lot of sex and a lot of orgasms, but this was more than a physical release. It was emotional as well, and as Revenant stiffened and his hot seed splashed inside her, pressure filled her chest cavity.
The sex had been amazing and exactly what she needed, but it had only delayed the inevitable, the realization that her life had gone to hell in a handbasket, and hope was all she had left.
Twenty-Two
That, Revenant thought, had been some of the best sex of his life. He’d always liked to fuck the way he fought; messy, with no holds barred, and this definitely counted. Blaspheme’s desk had skidded across the room, shoved into a now-dented file cabinet, and her neck was streaked with blood. When he pulled out, his seed would spill out of her, marking her with his scent.
Normally, now would be the time when he would zip up and leave the female sated and sleepy, and he’d go find another.
But he didn’t want another. And he didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want empty sex with females whose names he didn’t know or wouldn’t remember ten minutes later.
It made no sense. Well, it did if Blas had used her False Angel powers on him, but he’d watched, waiting for her to engage her charm or aphrodisiac, and nothing had happened. She’d asked him for sex, but not to seduce him or even to have a good time with the closest dick. She’d needed him, had laid herself bare, giving him access to her body and soul.