by Weil, J. L.
“Angel Eyes, every minute with me is a minute treasured.”
I snorted. “Please stop now. Your cheesiness is causing me physical harm.”
The moment we got outside, I stuck out my tongue, catching the flecks as they melted in my mouth.
Chase shook his head, chuckling. “I’ve got better things you can do with your tongue.”
He was always trying to shock me, see how far he could go. When would he learn? After all the crap I’d seen, I was pretty much shockproof. I tugged his skully down over his eyes. “Will it snow all day?” I asked, staring straight up at the misty white sky. I thought about my mom sleeping inside, glad she was at home and not out in this slick storm.
Snowflakes dusted his ridiculously long lashes. “It kind of looks like it.”
“It’s so beautiful.” I blushed, realizing I must have sounded so lame.
Chase bent down, scooped a handful of powdery snow, and began packing it between his hands. “The first snow is always the prettiest, untouched. Once the plow trucks come out, sloshing and spraying salt everywhere, it all goes down the crapper.”
I rubbed my hands together and watched a puff of smoke exhale from my mouth. “You have such a way with words.”
He flicked the end of my cherry nose, and my teeth chattered through my smile. “And you look like Rudolph.”
I crinkled my nose. “Don’t even think about throwing that in my face. I will make you wish you’d never saved me.” It was an empty threat, but, hey, a girl has got to stand up for herself. As usual, my mouth got me into trouble one way or another.
Not that I actually thought I could intimidate him, so of course I spun on my heels, squealing, and took off running—a pointless endeavor. I would never be able to escape Chase’s speed or accuracy. I knew it, and he knew it.
His dark laughter was infectious, even as I was under fire. I wasn’t just hit with one snowball. I was ambushed. He could make and throw them before I could recover from my fits of giggles. When the attack finally ceased, I looked like the abominable snowman.
He flashed me a charming smile. “Only you could look sexy covered in snow.”
I rolled my eyes, yet a ripple of pleasure raced through me—mine and his. He dropped a warm kiss on my lips, chasing the chill from my frozen limbs like embers.
Despite the cold, I was having a blast. I dropped flat on my back, fanning out my arms and legs. We might have gotten only three or four inches, but I was going to make the most of it. He wanted a snow angel, so I was going to give him the best darn snow angel.
He plunked down beside me. “You’re a natural.”
My smile shriveled and died on my lips. Whatever I had been about to say got stuck on my tongue as the front door slammed shut at my neighbors, followed by Travis strutting down the driveway. It was the first time I had seen him leave the house. Actually the first time I had seen him. He wasn’t talking to anyone. Not even me, but I had to try…
“Travis!” I called, sitting up and ruining my snow angel. “Travis!”
His purposeful strides led him away from me without even a flicker of acknowledgment. My shoulders sagged. I didn’t want to let his icy treatment get to me, but it did. Understandable was his anger—I couldn’t blame him for that—but his rejection still stung. I was worried. I missed my friend.
Travis was different. The way he acted. The way he looked. The way he walked. Everything about him was hardened and less carefree. He had always been the less scary one and easygoing. It was hard for me to wrap my head around his transformation.
“Don’t let it get to you,” Chase encouraged, feeling my disappointment. “Travis is being a sourpuss.”
I still hadn’t gotten used to Chase being able to sense my emotions, or that we could feed off each other. “You miss him, too,” I said, realizing I wasn’t the only one who was hurting.
Standing up, he dusted most of the snow off his jeans and stared in the direction that Travis had gone supersonic, leaving behind a trail of snowy footprints. “Every day.”
I imagined, before I came, the three of them zipping around in the snow, having epic snowball fights that would probably seriously injury a normal person. Sometimes I wondered if my moving here had been the best thing for either of us. Look how much I had already disrupted his life. I loved him fervently. I wasn’t sure what we had was healthy, but part of loving someone was wanting the very best for that person. Was I the best thing for Chase?
It didn’t really matter now, because we were tied in ways that were outside our control, and even if we could break those ties, I wasn’t sure that I would.
I was selfish with Chase’s affections.
There had to be a way to fix this, turn things back the way they used to be. Why hadn’t I been mutated with the ability to turn back time?
My mood took a turn south after that. Chase offered to make me dinner, his way of trying to cheer me up—food. Mom had gone out with Devin, which still grossed me out most days. Thoughts of her dating him made my stomach churn. Not that Devin wasn’t a catch in old people terms—it was just weird.
I had been waiting for the right time to bring up my plan about Emma, the one where I thought it was a good idea to compel her—erase her memories. There never seemed like a good time to tell him, especially when I was sure that Chase was going to go nuclear. But he had to see the benefits. Travis would probably be able to get Emma back. He wouldn’t be flipping out, going demon bonkers and doing God knows what. Chase wouldn’t have to go out after him, fight the raging demon that took possession of Travis nightly. Plus, it would get Emma off our backs.
Sounded like a win-win situation.
Chewing my lip, I jumped up on the kitchen counter, watching him dance between the stove and fridge. “Chase, I have the most superb idea.”
“Superb, huh? Why do I feel scared?” He set down an armful of ingredients, half of which I didn’t even know the names of. His hair was still damp and had a messy wave to it. Only Chase could look even hotter after romping in the snow all day.
“Shut up and listen.” I crossed my legs, the heel of my foot hitting the underneath cabinet. “This shit is good.”
He groaned. “Angel Eyes, your definition and my definition of good are on totally different spectrums. Now I am truly terrified.”
I smacked him on the arm and was rewarded with one of his yellow-demon glares. It was sizzling…and distracting. I bit my lip unable to stop thinking about his mouth, which suddenly looked way more edible than whatever concoction he was cooking.
“You’re thinking about kissing me,” he said, as cocky as ever.
“Am not,” I rejected.
The lips in question curled, earning him a dry look from me.
We were getting way off topic. “I’m really starting to dislike being bonded to you. The point is—”
He pulled out a cutting board and gave me a sideways glance. “Wait. There is a point to this?”
“Ahh,” I growled. “Will you stop and just listen for a minute before I strangle you?”
“Hmm.” He pursed his full lips. “That sounds…fun.”
“Damn it, Chase. This isn’t some kind of warped foreplay to get in your pants. Trust me, I am not that subtle.”
He rocked back on his heels looking holier-than-thou. “Don’t I know it.”
Glare of death aimed at Chase, I said, “What I have been trying to tell you, you douchebag…”
His brow arched.
“…is I think I have found a solution to our Emma problem.”
“You want to plot her death, too?” he asked genuinely, as he chopped veggies.
I rolled my eyes. “Can you be serious for one minute?”
Silver eyes dancing, he replied, “I was being serious.”
Good Grief. “That’s what I was afraid of. I am thinking of something less illegal and not so messy.”
“I love it when you talk criminal.” He stopped what he was doing and roamed his hands up my thighs.
It was apparent he was darn determined to distract me, and it made me want to scream. “All right, jerkwad. I am only saying this once, so listen up.”
Silence.
About time. I took a deep breath. “I want to compel her.” There. I’d said it.
His hands stopped moving, and his brows slammed together. “No.”
“No?” I echoed. Not the answer I had been expecting, but really I should have known better. It was not like I was dealing with a rational individual. Heck-to-the-no.
His fingers tightened through the material on my jeans. “Did I stutter? Absolutely not.”
Okay, now he was pissing me off. “Why not? It is a great idea and solves everything.”
“And puts you in danger, which solves nothing.”
“Grrr. You are so aggravating.” I jumped down, my feet smacking the tile.
A spurt of yellow laced his eyes. “Right back at you, babe.”
“You are not the boss of me.”
“Angel, we can talk about all the reasons this is the worst idea ever, after dinner. I am irrational when I am hungry. Let’s eat.” He gave me his back and returned to the stove of simmering pots.
Eat? Eat? Was he nuts? “I’m not hungry,” I snapped and spun on my heel.
I don’t know how far I expected to get, but one day, I was going to pull a fast one him. On the downside, I never could storm out of a room without him spoiling the effect, like now. Two strides toward the door and he was in front of me, blocking my path.
“Angel eyes, I don’t want to fight, not today. It’s the first time I’ve felt halfway human since…”
He didn’t need to say any more, and, just like that, he defused my temper. “I know,” I said, laying my forehead on his broad chest. “I’m just tired. We can revisit the idea later.”
He shook his head. “You are relentless.”
I wasn’t giving up on the solution; however, for tonight, I wouldn’t press him. He deserved that. Tonight we would just enjoy the quiet evening without all the demon crapola.
We ate his pretty darn amazing fettuccini alfredo and, afterwards, migrated to my room. He held me for a while as I dozed off and then pressed a light kiss on my forehead. I squeezed my arms around him before he snuck out for the night. I felt him leave, but he was never far and that was a comforting thought.
Tonight was the first night the dreams started.
Chapter 4
I’m not normally one of those people who remember their dreams when they wakeup. I couldn’t recall the last time I had a dream. Like all things in life, we evolve and so had my dreams.
So had our bond.
I sleep like the dead. Chase, not so much. Maybe it was part of his demon senses that had him constantly on alert. He could also survive on two hours of sleep and wake looking gorgeous and chipper. I, on the other hand, would have taken everyone’s head off for just looking my way. My sleep was precious.
Except tonight.
The sound of my name, whispered through my slumber, penetrated my head. Dim and foggy at first, I was teetering somewhere in between sleep and consciousness. Again it came, ribboning through my mind like silk. It was a voice I’d recognize through the perils of Hell itself.
“Angel Eyes.”
“Hmm,” I murmured.
“Angel.”
“Go away. I’m sleeping,” I garbled, still out of it, and curled into a ball. My voice was groggy and short as I snuggled deeper under the covers.
A finger ran down my bare arm, leaving behind a trail of electric tingles. “You are going to miss all the fun if you don’t open your eyes. And I desperately want to see your eyes. I want to watch them go dark when I kiss you.”
Wait, what?
If I wasn’t awake before, I definitely was now. “Chase, are you sleepwalking?” I mumbled, feeling awareness seep into my body as his fingers ran back up my arm and to the side of my neck. Pushing the covers aside, I was suddenly roasting.
Soft lips replaced his wandering fingers. “Hmm. Your skin tastes like peaches. Why do you always taste so sweet?”
“’Cuz I’m dipped in sugar.”
The deep timber of his chuckle felt like satin against my throat. His hand caressed my cheek, sending a thousand tiny volts of tingles at his touch. But it was his lips teasing mine with a light kiss that had me thinking this was the best fantasy I’d ever had.
This was oh too real. I had a good imagination, but nothing this vivid.
My eyes popped open, staring into orbs of gold and silver. I was unable to move. I was mesmerized. “H-how did you get in here?” I stuttered, incapable of forming coherent thoughts, let alone getting my tongue to speak them. However, this time it was more because of Chase’s presence in my bedroom, in the middle of the night, than it was from being rustled from a deep slumber.
He was propped up on an elbow, looking down at me. “Do you have to ask?”
That killed the whole he-must-be-a-dream theory. Words of such smugness only came from Chase’s mouth.
Shit.
I thought about his mouth. Instantly, my eyes were drawn to his full lips—lush lips. “How could I forget? Doors and locks never keep you out.”
The pad of his thumb brushed the bottom of my lip. “That’s right, Angel Eyes. There is nothing that could keep me away from you.”
Staring into his face, I was struck by how unbelievably hot he really was. And how rare his sweet side was, except with me. I might just be the only person in the universe who got to see the softer side of Chase.
Then he was kissing me senseless, and I wasn’t thinking about Chase being soft, only about his hard body pressing into me.
I was helpless to do anything but kiss him back. In the dark, my hands roamed from underneath the covers and into his silky hair. The fierceness of his lips on mine made me shiver. I sunk into the kiss, into him. He was the embodiment of all my fantasies, rolled up into a sexy, dangerous package with killer abs.
Things went from dazed to steamy in ten seconds flat. Dream or not, I wasn’t about to let the chance to kiss Chase slip away. There hadn’t been enough making out lately.
His lips moved, smoothing over mine as we tangled tongues and limps. I couldn’t tell where he began and I ended; our bodies melded together. When he kissed me, I swear he had the power to align the stars. He had me soaring higher and higher, from one sensation to another. His name tumbled from my lips.
“I want you,” he murmured.
“God yes—”
Then I woke up.
I stared at my ceiling in the pitch-black room with beams of moonlight shining patterns overhead. What the hell? I immediately reached out, feeling the space next to me. Cold. Empty. Sheets.
What was that? A dream within a dream? I guess when I did have a dream it would have to be completely off the wall and mind-blowingly hot. My body was still humming from his touch. I felt alive. Each touch, each kiss had been so very real.
I groaned, running frustrated fingers through my hair. How was I supposed to fall back asleep after that? I felt like a live wire. The smallest of touches would send me up in flames.
Prickles edged down my spine, and my tattoo singed. This night just kept getting more interesting. My head turned toward my doorway with the sneaking suspicion I was being watched, and I sucked in a sharp breath. Amber eyes blazed through my darkened room, and the sound of my heartbeat pounded through the silence. I barely had time to process that it was Chase standing in my bedroom when he was suddenly looming on top of me. His rock hard abs pressed to my soft belly. He ground his hips against mine, and I bit the inside of my cheek as a moan escaped my mouth.
Holy moly.
His glowing eyes were unwavering, fixed on me. I was still caught in the erotic dream, and the feel of his body sent me into orbit. Every part of me was highly sensitive, and I couldn’t have cared less if this was real or not. I just didn’t want it to end.
I stared into his golden eyes, searching for a slice of silver, anything to assure me that
Chase was in there, but his demon growled and crushed his lips to mine in a searing kiss, branding me his. At first I was too stunned to do anything. One hand was already up my shirt and the other was tugging on my waistline.
Feelings of longing so intense rose up in me. Heat blossomed between us, and a thrill ran through the length of my body. He rubbed against me as his hand glided down under my thigh and lifted my leg, wrapping it around him. I drank in the intoxicating scent of him.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that this wasn’t Chase driving me blind with need. Yes it was his lips, his body pressed to mine, but it wasn’t him in control. His demon growled against my mouth as he pressed his lips to mine in another soul-shattering kiss.
I’d seen Chase lose control before, but this time I wasn’t sure I wanted him to stop. It was only a matter of seconds before my shirt would be on the floor, probably in shreds. I couldn’t believe that I was actually contemplating halting the steamiest make-out session of my life. I wanted him. I wanted this. Then why was I so concerned that I might go all the way with his demon?
This was where I got confused.
They were one and the same, but at the same time I knew they could be completely different. It was almost like he had two souls living inside him. Sometimes working together, other times struggling against each other.
I wasn’t even sure I had the willpower to stop.
His fingers were pushing the material up, skimming the bottoms of my breasts. I closed my eyes and moaned, lifting up into his touch. He was making it nearly impossible for me to think, to reason why we weren’t supposed to be doing this.
In the end, I realized I didn’t just want his demon. I wanted them both, a blend of both of them. I didn’t even know if that was possible, but I loved them both. And right now, it was his demon making the moves.
And boy could he make the moves.
Tearing my lips from his, I said his name, but he wasn’t easily diverted. Before I even called his name, he had already moved those sinful lips to my ear and down to my neck. He was making it nearly impossible to speak, let alone stop. My entire body was purring.