His face was serious, his nose long and straight, but under its stern length was an inviting mouth. His gaze was intense and she had that weird sense of knowing him, of having loved him once. When he put his arms around her, she found his body was ice. No wonder he needed her heat. She reached down, pulled the comforter over them and snuggled in close, putting her arms around his back under his wings, savoring the feel of his hard, muscular frame. Despite being an angel, he was more handsome than any man she’d ever seen, and he looked and felt all male. A forbidden thought came to mind. Did angels get erections? She tried to push the thought away.
He lifted his eyebrows and his lips raised in a half smile that made him look kissable. “What are you thinking?”
She certainly wasn’t going to tell him. Her bible teacher would turn in her grave. “I need you to explain to me what’s going on,” she said, trying to keep her thoughts pure.
Sadness crossed his face. “We had a life together once.”
“What do you mean? Like a past life?” Did past lives even exist? The logical side of her wanted to deny such a thing was possible, but the psychic side of her knew more, had seen more.
“Yes,” he said, his voice solemn. “Did you ever dream of me before I came to you?”
A sickening feeling twisted in her stomach. She put her hand to her throat. “I…I don’t know. I keep getting the feeling you were special to me but it’s on the edge of my memory. I also have this horrible recurring nightmare where men are dressed like that demon, Agrat. I’m living in a different time. A soldier has me by the hair. I can't see his face because he has a helmet on. He's wearing a breastplate and it's decorated with blue stones. There’s a king sitting on a dais in an amphitheater and I’ve done something to displease him. I’m terrified…because the soldier has a sword and I know he’s going to kill me. I’m calling out your name.”
A stricken looked crossed his face. “You were my wife in your past life. You served me with your love, your body and soul. It was the only time I knew real happiness.”
Her heart began to pound so hard she swore that he would hear it. “Your wife! But you’re an angel.”
“I was punished for marrying you.”
“The dream? It happened?”
He closed his eyes for a long moment. When he opened them they glittered with excruciating pain. He gave her a short, sharp nod. “Forgive me, Rachael. I couldn’t save you. You are the only woman I’ve ever loved. I promise you on my life that I will make it up to you. I’ll do anything you ask.” He crushed her to him, wrapped his leg around her thigh so that no space separated them.
How had she come to marry an angel? The very thought was ludicrous, and yet, her intuitive side resonated with the veracity of his words.
"I know you're telling me the truth. I can feel it in my body even though your story is so strange."
He stroked her cheek. "I am unable to lie and when I vow something, I must see it through."
Galaden loved her. She could feel it emanating from his body and yet, there was darkness there too. Surely an angel wouldn’t hold blackness in his heart? She put her hands on his chest and pushed back, knowing she had to look into his eyes. “Something’s not right. I can sense it. You haven't come here because of me.”
“I'm here to fulfill a promise I made to my father before he died. Agrat and I are half-brothers, sons of a king. My mother is an angel, his was a demon.”
“Go on,” she encouraged him.
“Phoebe, in her past life, was our father’s concubine and Agrat stole her from him.”
She frowned, trying to make sense of the story. “Why would he do that?”
“He was infatuated with her. My father punished him by turning him into a statue where he was to remain forever, but he has escaped and come back to claim her.”
Poor Phoebe. She must be terrified. Rachael’s heart skipped a beat as she thought of her friend’s terror. “You have to stop him.”
Galaden’s gaze became steely. “I’m bound by my oath to kill him.”
Her psychic sense tingled. Why did she feel he wasn't telling her all of the story? But he was an angel surely he had to tell the truth. “Thank God.”
His eyes moved away from hers and she had the sense that he was keeping something from her, but he had answered so many of her questions, she didn’t want to keep probing. Instead, she held him, comforted by his presence. “Galaden?”
“Yes?”
“Do you still consider me your wife?”
He turned to her, his gaze intense and cupped her face in his hands. “When an angel marries it is forever.”
A surge of wonder consumed her and she wanted him to make it real by touching her.
As if he knew her thoughts, he pulled her tee-shirt up over her head and threw it on the floor. “When I first met you I was wounded and you were tending to me.”
“Sounds like a familiar story.” The corners of her lips turned up.
“I opened my eyes and saw you bending over me. Your headdress had come loose and your hair was the color of the desert at sunset. I’d never seen hair that color on a woman and took it in my hands. I thought, perhaps you were descended from my kind, your coloring was so vivid.”
“Why did you fall in love with me?” she asked.
“Your hands were gentle on my body. I’d never known kindness from a woman until I met you. I heal faster than a human but the wound was serious and I spent many months with you. My kind is not affectionate in nature, but you held me when the pain was unbearable and healed me with your touch. You were all I wanted. You sat with me far into night and rubbed salve upon my heart, healing it, and in that time I gave it to you.” He caught her by the wrist and pulled her arm around the back of his neck. He leaned over and kissed her hard while his hand moved down, seeking her breasts under her bra.
A moan of ecstasy left her lips.
He peeled the bra from her shoulders, exposing her breasts and licked her bare nipples.
Rachael wiggled, wanting more, needing more. "I love it when you do that."
“I must claim you. It has been so long since I've known what it is to have you."
“Please.”
Galaden's hand moved down to between her legs. Sliding his fingers under her panties, he found what he sought.
She rocked her hips, responding to him as if she'd always known him.
Galaden kissed the sensitive skin of her throat down to where her neck met her shoulder.
“I must have you inside me,” she said. "I need you."
"And I you. Only with you do I understand love." Galaden moved between her legs and thrust slowly into her, never taking his eyes from her face."
"I love you." This act was like nothing she'd ever experienced. It was like being wrapped in a soft blanket of pleasure as she matched his rhythm.
When he increased his pace, the ecstasy bloomed through her body, until she arched and the wave of excitement intensified leaving her gasping.
Galaden groaned.
She moaned.
He shuddered and slumped over her, his face buried in the crook of her neck. Finally, he raised her face to hers. "It was too fast. Over too soon."
Rachael stroked his face. "And yet my body responded as if it knew you. We'll find time for us so that I can be yours again and again."
He raised his face and kissed her.
She touched his cheek and his whole body glowed, his face gentle, contented. “I need your help,” Rachael said.
“Ask so that I may serve.”
“I think the demon has Phoebe. I don’t know how to find her.” She absent-mindedly fondled the gold filigree necklace Phoebe had given her for her birthday.
At the mention of the demon, Galaden’s eyes narrowed in hatred. “The demon has cloaking powers. I need something of Phoebe’s to track her. Something precious.”
She held up the necklace. “Could you use this? It was Phoebe’s but she knew I loved it and gave it to me.”
He s
at up, reached around the back of her neck and undid the clasp.
“Please find her for me. I’m terrified that demon will kill her,” Rachael begged.
Galaden’s eyes glittered dangerously. “I vow to do so.”
Rachael licked her lips, her mouth suddenly dry. Something was desperately wrong. What was he not telling her?
Chapter 7
Phoebe was locked in the most erotic dream of her life. She was a princess in a different time. Her naked prince lay partially on top of her, his lips at her throat kissing and sucking the tender skin. His muscled weight pressed her into the bed as his hand moved between her legs, stroking and teasing her, keeping her on edge. In a moment, she'd climax and then he would claim her.
He slipped one of his fingers inside of her and brushed his thumb around her clitoris. She tightened around him, wanting him, needing him. Steamy heat built at her core as she moved in time to the magic of his fingers.
She sucked in a gasp of air and then his lips found hers, his tongue probing and mating. Opening her legs, she thrust upward as his thumb lightly grazed her clitoris. She thought she would burst into flame when the orgasm hit her. Writhing and moaning, she arched her back, thrilled that his touch could delight her, so much so that she opened her legs wide to encourage him, wanting more, needing more.
This was their last chance to be together. Something horrible was going to happen but she couldn't remember what it was. She groaned, the pleasure receding and in the manner of dreams, the scene changed. A monkey-faced demon had entered the room. Short, sharp terror seized her.
Phoebe's eyes snapped open. Lying on top of her was over a hundred pounds of rock-hard male, his erection pressing into her thigh. His eyes glimmered with the light of the morning as he moved between her legs and took his cock in his hand to guide it in. "Get off me." She slammed her hands onto his chest but there was no budging him. Vulnerability stilled her heart. Agrat, the prince in her dream, had her pinned to the bed and with her body on erotic overdrive, she wanted to wrap her legs around him.
This was not the time to listen to her hormones.
There was a wild urgency in his face and he didn't move. "Don't make me stop." His voice was husky, low and dangerous.
Fear kicked in as she raked his chest with her nails but he didn't seem to feel pain. There was no way she could make him do anything if he didn't want to. Instead, he jerked his hips forward and his penis nudged at her entrance.
She was hot, wet and furious. "You said you don't rape women."
"I don't." With a groan of frustration he rolled onto his back, allowing her to scramble off the bed.
"Then what do you call what you were about to do?" Looking down she realized she had no recollection of taking off her clothes. Her head swam with confusion.
"You begged me to make love to you."
"I saw what you did to the cop. I was out of my mind. You mesmerized me!" She was aware of moisture oozing between her legs and the sensuous full feeling in her abdomen. That orgasm had been real. God, she was about to do the wild thing with a demon. She must be going crazy.
"I commanded you to sleep." He turned onto his side, his hot gaze moving over her.
"How convenient. I slept, while you stripped off my clothes and touched me all over." His body was more powerful than she remembered carving him. Glaringly dark and dangerous with arms that packed bulging muscles, Agrat looked like he had the power to strum her body and never get tired.
"I asked you to remember what we had together when you loved me." There was a sorrowful catch to his throat. "You remembered our lovemaking."
"How convenient." Sexual frustration made her mean. She knew she wanted him just from the way her nipples peaked with him close, but there was no way she was going to let him near her. He might be a prince in her dreams, but vague imaginings didn't cut it.
"You were to be my wife!"
"Dreams. They were just dreams." On the floor were her jeans, belt, panties, bra and tee-shirt. Bending so fast that her head spun, she gathered them up as quickly as her shaking hands would let her. Dressing rapidly, she glanced around the room, careful to keep him in her line of sight. His erection was enormous, almost reaching his navel. The line of his face was hard and from the way his stomach muscles were laced, he looked like he could spring from the bed and have her on her back in an instant. Part of her, like the whisper of a memory, wanted to be there.
"It was so much more than that."
Her heart missed a beat at the depth of truth in his eyes.
"Where am I?" she asked, choosing to ignore his comment. Fear skated along her spine. In the burgeoning daylight that illuminated the space through a crack in the blinds, she saw she was in an ordinary room with cream walls and brown carpet, but she had no idea how she'd arrived there. She didn't dare cross the room to look out the window because it was within his arm's distance and just standing close to him was like asking to be touched. Stroked. Savored. Loved.
"In the safe house on the outskirts of Salem." He moved his large hand to cover his penis, but his hand didn't quite do the job. His testicles, which lay nestled at the juncture of his thighs, looked drawn up and tight.
She could smell sex or at least her own aroma. Pushing the ensuite bathroom door open, she washed her hands to get rid of the scent. A shower would have been better, but there was no way she was getting naked again with this male so close by. Drying her hands, she pulled the towel off the rail, walked back into the bedroom and threw it at his hips.
He took the hint. Instead of wrapping the towel around his hips, he pulled on the shift, his body armor and sandals.
"Just how long do you expect me to stay holed up here with you?" she asked.
Agrat strode over to the window, pulled up the blind and looked out into the early morning gloom. "Until I kill Galaden."
Her whole body shuddered with horror. "How can you kill an angel?"
"I will take off his head and grind his body to dust and scatter it so that he never finds form again," Agrat said, his eyes beginning to glow.
"Why?" She fought the urge to step back, disgusted by his relish of the proposed deed. After going to church so many times reverence for God's angelic forces was ingrained into her.
"He took everything I loved; you, my kingdom. I will not let him harm you in this lifetime," he growled. Sparks flared off his body.
"Why would the angel want to hurt me?" she asked. What he had told her in the studio seemed surreal. If she hadn't seen the angel and the demon trying to destroy each other she wouldn't have believed Galaden was capable of such deadly power. He appeared to glow with an enticing goodness.
"You were my father's concubine, but when we fell in love, we were both cursed. I was turned to stone. My father cursed you with death, if I escaped my stone prison. It is Galaden's duty to fulfill the curse."
"But why does he have to? Your father's long gone."
"It's complicated. Galaden's mother is a fallen angel. She's evil."
Phoebe shuddered and sheer, black horror spiraled within her. "Fallen angels are real?" Part of her didn't want believe a word of what he was saying, but unfortunately she was facing a demon herself, his eyes glowing with wrath, so it wasn't a great mind jump to make.
"She's from a treacherous branch of the angelic race, where the females are often more devious than the males. They seek power by infiltration, which is why Galaden's mother married my father and bred him a son. Galaden is malleable. He follows orders and believe me, he will follow the curse through."
Phoebe pressed her palms against her temples and rubbed them back and forth. "But I still don't get it. What does he get out of killing me?"
"He must fulfill the curse from our father. Angels are bred to obey their sire. Plus he knows it will destroy me if anything happens to you and his hatred of me goes bone deep."
"So it's really about punishing you." Her hands dropped to her side. That made more sense to her than Galaden mindlessly following a curse. In the snippet
of her dream, she didn't remember him that way.
"He was the second son of my father and an ambitious, unscrupulous angel mother. When he was young I took care of him, trained him to be a warrior. I thought our shared blood, my love for him would keep him loyal, but there was too much of his mother in him."
"Wait a sec. You loved Galaden?" Phoebe put her hand up to stop him, trying to digest what he was saying. Hatred for Galaden, she understood. She'd seen the brothers do battle, but love?
"He was my younger brother. My nursemaid was instructed to show me no affection so that I became a warrior prince, but Galaden had a sweet nature when he was young. He was always by my side," he said, his voice gruff.
"So you cared for him," Phoebe added.
"Even a poisonous snake is harmless to strike until its fangs grow strong. When he grew older we became rivals, but he could never best me with strength or fighting skill." Agrat's mouth turned down and he clenched and unclenched his fists. "I didn't reckon on Galaden's cunning. He was weak. A coward. I heard he stood by his father and watched as a soldier slit Rachael's throat."
"Rachael? My Rachael? Is that how she's bound up in this?" Phoebe clutched her own throat with revulsion.
"Galaden will claim Rachael again and her end will be just as violent if she imagines herself in love with him."
A cry of anguish left Phoebe's lips. "But Rachael hasn't done anything to deserve it. She's the most loyal friend I have." The swirling sinking feeling claimed her and her knees almost buckled. How could she stop this?
"Galaden has the ability to attract love. Humans are drawn to his glow."
"Like a moth."
He gave a short, sharp nod. "His energy is so enticing Rachael could lose her ability to question him. Instead, she could be consumed with love and he will use that to drain her."
Her Demon Prince (Forbidden Fantasy) Page 7