Angel in Waiting

by Sharon Saracino

  “Genghis Khan? You knew Genghis Khan?” Elle squeaked, attempting to pick up her head. Dimitri’s hand held her firmly in place. She knew he was hundreds of years old, of course, but she hadn’t considered exactly what that entailed before now. Truthfully, it freaked her out just a little, especially when she reflected on the very real possibility she faced the same fate. On the other hand, the life experience alone could provide the fodder for a great book. If she ever decided to resume her career when this whole mess was over, she might seriously think about exploring other genres. Against all odds, her exposé on Jack the Ripper had done remarkably well. It was certainly something to consider.

  “No, I didn’t know Genghis Khan,” he shot back in an exasperated tone. “Now do you want to hear this or don’t you?”

  “Sorry.” Elle snuggled back into his side. Any story starting with Genghis Khan as a lead in could not end well. This was a man who’d sat quietly in her darkened bedroom night after night for weeks just so she wouldn’t be frightened and alone when she woke from the nightmare. Now she was asking him to revisit a period in his life she suspected was going to be painful, whether centuries had passed or not. As much as she’d wanted to know, she was increasingly sorry she’d asked.

  “We’d heard the stories, of course, but weren’t particularly worried in our isolated little corner of the world. After all, what could we possibly have that anyone would want? Some grain? Couple of cows? We’d heard the Khan was heading back to the Mongolian steppes after defeating the Khwarezmian Empire. But we didn’t know he’d split his forces and sent twenty thousand men into the Caucasus on a mission led by one of his most trusted generals, a man named Jebe. Jebe’s troops encircled the entire Caspian Sea, destroying everyone and everything in their path.”

  “Including your family?” Elle whispered into his chest.

  Dimitri grunted his assent.

  “But you survived.”

  “Yeah. I survived. I’d sneaked off trying to avoid chores. I guess I didn’t take duty or responsibility quite so seriously in those days. I found myself a nice big tree a couple hundred feet into the woods and was just getting comfortable when the ground started to shake. I didn’t know what the hell it was so I just held on for dear life and waited. The Mongol’s troops passed right underneath me and never knew I was there. By the time I climbed down and ran back to our cottage, it was too late.”

  “You can’t blame yourself, Dimitri. You couldn’t know what was coming and you couldn’t have prevented it. You were just a little boy doing what little boys do.”

  “Our cottage was burning, my mother screaming inside,” he continued as though she hadn’t spoken. “That bastard sat there on his big white horse with his troops around him and watched it burn. Watched everything burn. I didn’t stop to think. I just turned and ran right through the front door with his laughter ringing in my ears. I guess he figured I was a goner anyway so he didn’t bother trying to stop me. I could hardly see through the smoke and breathing was damn near impossible. I crawled along the floor feeling my way until I found my mother. She was already dead. I tried to drag her out, but I was too young, too weak. I tripped over something and when I fell, she landed on top of me. Her body protected mine when the house collapsed.”

  “Oh my God.” Elle’s breath caught on a sob. “Why? What did he have to gain by attacking a village full of helpless farmers?”

  “Jebe, the Khan’s general, was a Fallen. I felt him as soon as I got close enough. Reconnaissance was probably the excuse he sold the Khan, but annihilation of Earthbound was his real motive. His troops were armed with Hell forged weapons though I doubt most of them knew the difference. I may have been too weak to stop him then, but I’m not weak anymore. If the bastard still walks this earth, I’ll find him eventually.”

  “You became a Defensori to avenge your family,” Elle whispered.

  “I became a Defensori to avenge every family the Fallen has destroyed, whether human or Earthbound.”

  She noticed he never mentioned that when not killing the evil ones, he’d devoted his life to the sick, the wounded, and the weak. Like her. She suspected it was as much a penance as a calling. Elle propped her chin on his chest and looked at Dimitri through a thick veil of tears and saw him. Really saw him. The scars on his face were nothing compared to those he carried inside. Behind the bone melting sex appeal, under the massive, threatening, leather clad exterior, buried beneath the hard ass bad boy facade, lived a guilt-ridden little boy who believed he’d failed his family and had been trying to atone for it ever since.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he growled in a low, rough tone she’d never heard him use. Shifting free of her body, he jumped to his feet and stalked to the windows where he crossed his arms over his chest and stared into the darkness with his back to her. “There’re a lot of things I want from you, Elle. Pity isn’t one of them.”

  “Well, fortunately, I wasn’t offering any.” Elle cleared her throat and climbed slowly to her feet. Dimitri remained an immobile statue silhouetted against the window as she approached from behind and tentatively slid her arms around his waist, splaying her hands across the hard muscles of his abdomen and resting her cheek against his back.

  “Weren’t you?” He asked quietly. “I think maybe you were. God knows I’ve seen the look in my line of work more times than I can remember. Hell, I’m pretty sure I’ve worn it more times than I can remember. I’m usually pretty good at picking up on it.”

  Elle drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she pressed her lips to the back of his shoulder before continuing.

  “Okay, maybe there was a little pity involved. I’m sorry if that offends you, but I won’t apologize for it. I can’t ignore my heart to protect your pride. Anyway, the pity wasn’t for the man you are today, you don’t need it. It was for that little boy who lost everything and everyone and was left all alone to find his way in the world.”

  “Yeah, well…” His shoulders lifted and fell. “He did okay. Buried the dead, scavenged what he could, and eventually found a human couple who gave him a home and the semblance of a family in exchange for his labor.”

  “Buried the dead?” Elle whispered. “You buried them...your parents, your neighbors, all of them?”

  “There was no one else left to do it,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone revealing nothing of the horror he must have endured and Elle’s heart shattered into pieces all over again. It didn’t escape her that Dimitri spoke of the child he’d been in the third person, as though the child was someone else entirely. Clearly, he’d had to find a way to compartmentalize that period of his life, to keep the boy at a distance in order to survive.

  “There were some I never found, of course. Maybe they escaped, maybe they burned to ash.” He shrugged his massive shoulders as though acknowledging it was a puzzle he would never solve. “You hungry?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “What?”

  With an effort, Elle shook her head to clear her mind of the horrific visuals his story evoked and forced her thoughts back into the here and now. Obviously, Dimitri had revisited enough of his past for one night and was ready to change the subject. He turned in her arms and pulled her against him, resting his chin on the top of her head.

  “I mean no, I’m not hungry.”

  “Well, I am.” He cupped her buttocks through her jeans and ground his hips against her, making it clear without words the hunger he referred to wasn’t going to be sated by a couple of burgers and a chocolate shake. “I think I need to indulge in something very life affirming about now.”

  Elle tipped her head back and saw the heat in his dark gaze. Her pulse thrummed in response to the promise she saw lurking there. Breath rushed painfully into her lungs as a low, simmering heat curled in her stomach and spread outward causing a heavy ache in her breasts. As it moved lower, she pressed her thighs together and fought the urge to squirm. She imagined brushing her lips along the broad, smooth expanse of his chest, pressing them to t
hat delicious spot where his long neck joined his shoulder. She swallowed hard and a shiver rolled over her skin. He flashed a devilish smile that told her he was fully aware of her reaction and was enjoying it immensely. When he finally lowered his head to capture her mouth, Elle leaned into him with a sigh. One big hand slid under her sweater to cup an aching breast through the lace of her bra while the other snaked below the waistband of her jeans to cup her bare buttocks and pull her more intimately against him. He rocked his hips and desire consumed her right down to her fingertips as the hard evidence of his arousal ground insistently against the juncture of her thighs.

  His mouth slanted over hers again and again, his tongue probing, stroking, and tangling frantically with hers, as they stumbled across the room in a shameless dance. By the time the smooth fabric of the sofa caressed the backs of her legs, she realized her jeans were missing, her clothing was strewn across the floor, and they were both already too far gone to make it to his bed. His hands were everywhere at once and Elle went up in flames as she tugged at the zipper of his jeans to free his straining erection. When at last her fingers closed around the hard, pulsing length of him, his groan seemed to come from somewhere deep in his soul. She collapsed back onto the sofa, and he kicked off his jeans before coming down on top of her, supporting his weight on his forearms, and positioning himself between her thighs.

  “So damn soft,” he mumbled against her breast. He rolled a hard nipple between his lips and bit down gently. Then he eased the sting with his tongue before focusing his attention on her other breast. His clever fingers caressed her from waist to her hip, back and forth, over and over, until at last his hand slipped between their bodies and began stroking her to the verge of madness. She couldn’t think, couldn’t speak, couldn’t feel anything but Dimitri and the delicious sensations gathering with painful sweetness at her core. She arched against him seeking release but suddenly he propped himself up on one elbow and stilled, gazing down at her intently.

  “Are you sure, baby?” he whispered tightly. Beads of perspiration dotted his forehead as he struggled to hold himself back.

  She picked up her head and her eyes widened in disbelief.

  “Now? You’re asking me that now? You’ve got to be kidding!”

  “I just …there’s something you should know first.”

  “Can you please give me the condensed version?” she panted impatiently.

  “This thing between us…that is, I don’t know how much Gatewick or Kat told you, but it’s different for Earthbound. If we make love and you’re my bound mate, my other half, as I suspect you are, you’ll pretty much be stuck with me. We’ll be tied together for a long, long time. I just don’t want you to have any regrets.”

  Elle took his face in her hands and stared directly into those dark, loving eyes. She’d never seen Dimitri anything but completely confident and the uncertainty she saw lurking in their brown depths touched her heart in a way nothing else could. Though surrounded by people, he’d been alone for so long, yet he’d still been willing to sacrifice his happiness for hers. Any doubts, any hesitation, any question of whether binding herself to this man was the right thing to do evaporated into the mist, put to rest by the depth of emotion reflected in her warrior’s eyes.

  “Dimitri Radchenko, you big lug, I love you. Yes, I do,” she nodded emphatically when his eyes widened. “I mean, I know it all seems to have happened very quickly and you don’t have to say it back or anything, but the only thing I’m going to regret at this point is if you can’t finish what you started.”

  “Is that a challenge?” He arched a brow and grinned, leaning forward to feather his lips along the line of her jaw before capturing her lips in a tender kiss. Then he buried his face in her neck as though it hurt to look at her and took a deep, shuddering breath.

  “Afraid you’re not up for it?” She reached between them and curled her fingers around his rigid flesh, her lips twitching into a smug grin when his breath hitched and he shifted uncomfortably.

  “Oh, I think I’m up for it,” he growled and resumed his attentive stroking of her sensitive, moisture slicked nub with renewed enthusiasm. “I just hope you are. And Elle? Baby, I love you, too.”

  The declaration alone nearly put her over the edge. With a groan, Elle closed her eyes and gave herself up to the exquisite sensations reverberating through her body as her thighs quivered and her stomach muscles tightened in anticipation of the coming storm.

  “Dimitri?” she panted breathlessly. “In me. Now.”

  She didn’t have to ask twice. Elle moaned as she arched toward him and he filled the emptiness within her. An emptiness that transcended the physical. A gaping hole in the very fabric of her being she hadn’t even known was there. He grasped her hips and as soon as her muscles began to relax and accommodate his size, he hammered hard and deep, quickening his pace as her thighs quaked and her body tightened around him. She bit into her lower lip and dug her fingers into his shoulders as she locked her ankles behind his back to draw him even closer. They were both covered with a fine sheen of sweat and Dimitri’s eyes were glued to her face as though he was reading every expression, every nuance. Clenching his jaw, he adjusted his angle, thrusting deeper and faster.

  “Come with me, baby,” he growled roughly. “Come. With. Me. Now.”

  His fingers dug into her hips and she rose to meet every thrust as he slammed into her over and over, erupting inside her as she tightened and pulsed around him, crossing a pleasure threshold she’d never even come close to and couldn’t ever have imagined existed. She floated somewhere beyond rational thought, losing herself, anchored only by the intense pleasure of Dimitri’s hard body moving inside her. Shields down, mind completely open, she allowed Dimitri to experience everything she was feeling, stunned to realize that in that moment, she could sense him as well. It was a moment of incredible completeness and as she drifted slowly back to Earth, she had the odd but unmistakable sensation of invisible threads wrapping around them and binding them together heart, mind, and soul.

  “Shit! That was…wow. Just wow,” he groaned against her neck as he finally stilled. A shudder went through him and he picked his head up to look at her, his dark hair forming a curtain around his face, the ends brushing against her shoulders. His eyes burned with some intense emotion she’d never seen there before. Stroking her damp hair away from her forehead, he lowered his head and pressed his lips there. Her eyes filled reflexively at the unconsciously tender gesture.

  “Hey, you okay?” he asked gently, his brows slamming together. “I planned to go slow the first time, but the feel of you… damn, I just… lost it. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  “You planned? So you’ve been giving this a little thought, eh, Big Guy?” Elle laughed softly, tucking a damp strand of dark hair behind his ear. “For how long exactly?”

  “A while,” he muttered evasively. “Can’t you ever just answer a damn question?”

  “No, you didn’t hurt me, okay? In fact, if I felt any better I might just dissolve into a puddle.” Stretching up, she pressed her lips to his, loving the salty taste of him, and bit back a smile at his relieved expression. “There at the end, did you feel that?”

  “Sweetness, I’d have had to be dead not to.”

  “Not that, you idiot,” she slapped playfully at his shoulder.

  “The binding? Yeah, I felt it.”

  “So that means we’re…?”

  “It means we’re bound mates. It means you’re stuck with me for the rest of our natural lives, however long they may be. It means our souls are two halves of a whole that have finally found their way home and even if you leave me tomorrow, no one will ever complete you the way I do. In short, it means you’re mine. I did give you a chance to change your mind.” Dimitri grinned, looking happier and more relaxed than Elle had ever seen him.

  “Never let it be said I don’t like to live dangerously.” Elle grinned back as she twined her fingers in his hair and tugged his head down. But as his li
ps touched hers, her smile faded and she pulled back as a thought occurred to her. What if she didn’t have Earthbound longevity and was destined to live a brief, mortal life? Not that she’d ever had any other expectations before tonight, but what about Dimitri? He as much as said he’d fought the bond between them when he believed she was human and would die. Had he only given in to his feelings completely once they suspected she might be around longer than anyone originally thought? And if that was the case, what if they were wrong?

  “Listen to me,” Elle tugged at his hair until he raised his head. “I need you to promise me something.”

  “Yeah, we’ll make it last all night next time if you want.”

  “Not that,” she thumped his chest impatiently, smiling despite herself at his cheeky response. “I’m serious.”

  “Okay, shoot.” He let out a long, pained sigh and shifted to his back, rolling her over on top of him and pulling the throw from the back of the sofa to settle it over both of them.

  “It’s just…well, if we’re wrong, if I have nothing more than a few good decades in me, I want you to promise me you’ll be okay. We have no way of knowing if I’ll have longevity like the rest of you and I don’t want my death to be one more sorrow you carry around after I’m gone. Gah, I just realized how arrogant that must sound. I mean it’s not like you haven’t suffered losses that makes losing me look like peanuts. It’s just when you thought I was completely human…”

  “Now you listen.” Dimitri buried his hands in her hair, cupping her face in his hands, and staring directly into her eyes. “Whether I lose you tomorrow or a century from now, it’ll never hurt less. And don’t ever think losing you would amount to nothing more than…what did you call it? Peanuts?” His lips twisted in a faint grin. “Apparently you still don’t fully understand what I feel for you, woman. The bottom line is, either of us could die tomorrow or both of us could live for centuries. Nothing is guaranteed. It took me a long time to realize that and understand nothing I do can change it. What matters is now, so how about we let tomorrow worry about itself?”