“Yes, I did.” Even though I knew it hurt him to hear me say it, I wasn’t about to lie. Not here. The muscle in Gabriel’s jaw popped furiously as he dealt with my admission, and when he had moved past it, I told him about the wager I had made.
Raising his head, he stared at me. “But . . . why would you do such a thing?”
His face had the same look the demon had worn when he had asked me why I was prepared to sacrifice myself for Gabriel. It was eerily uncanny.
“Gabriel, I had no choice—he wasn’t going to let me leave unless I agreed to something,” I said in my own defense.
“No, I don’t suppose he would have.” His manner turned grave. “You had best tell me all of it.”
Now it was my turn to stare at the ground. Taking a deep breath, I recounted the terms, but when I came to the hardest part, how the deal had been sealed, my voice shook. Gabriel’s lack of response seemed to confirm that my behavior was tantamount to adultery.
He placed a hand beneath my chin and raised my head until I had no choice but to look at him. “You did not betray me, Rowan.”
“Then why does it feel like I did?” I retorted miserably.
“It was just a kiss. One you didn’t ask for and one you certainly didn’t initiate.”
“But I didn’t try to stop it either!” I confessed, jerking my chin from his grasp. “The truth is—I didn’t want to stop him!”
“I know.”
I flounced away in a swirl of torn tulle and began my own stomp around the clearing. It was difficult trying to figure out whether my anger was due to my own behavior or Gabriel’s understanding support. Part of me wished he would get in my face and yell about how disloyal I’d been, and the other part wanted nothing more than to feel his arms around me and have him tell me everything was going to be okay. What was done was done, but it was fixable. We were fixable. It was only a kiss, and it was not going to come between us.
Except it wasn’t only a kiss.
It was a kiss that I had wanted to last forever the minute the demon’s lips touched mine. Sharing the passion and desire, I had allowed myself to become so wrapped up in those feelings, I never realized he was stealing a piece of me . . . until it was too late. And now guilt was tearing me apart. Guilt at not fighting hard enough to keep that piece from being stolen, and I had betrayed Gabriel. As well as myself.
“He took a piece of me!” I sobbed, falling to my knees. “He took a piece of me . . . and I didn’t stop him!”
“Then we’ll take it back!” Gabriel declared, pulling me into his arms.
I opened my mouth to ask how, but Gabriel pressed his lips against my forehead, my temple, my tear-soaked lashes, and dirt-streaked cheeks. He kissed my nose and my jaw, and seared a trail of fiery kisses down my throat. And then he took possession of my mouth, invading me with his tongue and cleansing away every remnant of that other kiss. He invited me into the velvet warmth of his own mouth, and hungry for him, I followed, sliding my tongue between his fangs.
“Do you want to keep this dress?”
“I . . . what?”
“This dress.” Taking a piece of the dirty torn fabric, Gabriel held it up in his fingers. “Do you want to keep it?”
I shook my head and watched as he slipped his hands inside the bodice and tore it down the front. He pulled open the two halves, and I heard the breath catch in his throat as he stared at me. Gabriel had seen me naked plenty of times, so I knew my body held no secrets for him, but the way he looked at me now, it was as if he was seeing me for the first time. My heat rose beneath the intensity of his gaze, and, inexplicably, I felt shy and awkward. I lifted a hand to cover myself.
“Don’t,” he rasped, stopping my effort easily and taking me down to the ground.
He dropped his head to my breast, running his tongue across my nipple before pulling the stiff peak gently into his mouth and scraping it between his teeth. I moaned and arched my back, wanting more. His hand cupped my other breast, rolling and pinching that nipple between his finger and thumb until it was swollen and aching. He licked a path down to my stomach and then used his fangs to scrape over the sensitive place just below my hipbones. I shuddered and trembled as a different heat roared through me. My entire existence was concentrated on his touch, and when he pushed apart my legs and used his tongue to stroke the center of me, I exploded.
Gabriel continued to worship me with his mouth, his silken hair sliding over my skin. Trailing a path along the inside of each thigh, he kissed and nipped his way to my core, where he suckled and licked, his tongue dipping inside my body while bringing me to the edge of ecstasy before pulling back. The third time he did this, I reached for a handful of his hair and snarled at him. Eyes glowing, he kissed me with a mouth that was glossy and slick and used his fingers to take me over the edge.
I was still rolling through my orgasm when I felt him inside me, each thrust of his hips more powerful than the last, and I wondered if I might come apart. But my body knew better than my mind, so hungry for my lover it wasn’t about to let him go. Stretching and wrapping myself around him, I pulled his cock deep inside me, creating a delicious friction each time he withdrew, coating him with my own silky essence as he returned. My hips began to move of their own accord, and I took him even deeper inside me, until, when he couldn’t hold back any longer, he bathed both of us in white-hot fire. And as I reveled in the glow of his climax, I opened my eyes and saw that above me, every thorny branch of the crucifixion tree had burst into flower.
CHAPTER 29
I don’t know how we got back to my house. There are some things it’s better not to ask. I was just thankful that whatever power had returned me home had also managed to re-dress me in my pajamas, even if they did smell faintly sulfuric. Laycee came bursting through the front door and threw her arms around me. Too emotional to speak, we cried as we held on to each other.
“Laycee, I—”
“No,” she said, putting her hand against my mouth. “Later. We can talk later. I’m just glad you’re back.”
She took hold of my hands and squeezed both of them with hers. With both of hers.
“Your wrist—it’s really fixed?” I gasped in amazement. I had been expecting to see a cast or lots of bandages, but it was as if the bones had never been broken.
“Oh yeah, it’s fixed.” She looked over her shoulder as Aleksei came down the porch steps. “He took care of it for me.”
I was stunned. “You can do that?”
“Yeah, I can do that,” Aleksei replied, looking slightly abashed. “Is good to see you have come back to us, Rowan.”
Leaning forward, Laycee put her lips to my ear. “You have some unusual new friends. This one I like, the other two not so much.” I stared at her and simply nodded, not knowing what to say. “I’m going to go home now,” she told me as she kissed my cheek. “We’ll have that talk later.”
I watched as she followed Aleksei to the big black car now parked in my driveway. He opened the passenger door for her and then got in on the other side. The BMW was gone, along with Ryiel’s car, and I was thankful to see there was no sign of Oscar’s body.
“Aleksei’s taking her home?” I asked Gabriel as we both watched the sedan drive away.
He murmured something under his breath. Probably a comment about my stating the obvious, but I was too exhausted to ask him to repeat it.
“Come, let’s get you to bed,” he said, picking me up in his arms and carrying me into the house. The last thing I remember was the sound of the front door being kicked shut . . .
This time when I opened my eyes, I knew exactly where I was, and I came awake in the very best of all possible ways. Rolling on top of me, Gabriel pushed himself deep inside. A fine sheen of sweat made his skin slick, making me dig my nails into his arms to hold on. I watched the pulse throbbing at the base of his throat increase with each thrust of his hips. He looked down at me, and I was bathed in a sea of blue and gold so bright it was almost blinding, and then his lips pulled
back and his fangs dropped. He was close to coming.
“Do it!” I urged as I danced on the edge of my own explosive climax. Dropping my hand from his arm, I pushed aside my hair, giving him free access to my neck. The walls of my bedroom shook at the sound of his possessive sexual snarl, and every muscle in my body clenched, throwing me headfirst into a storm of sensual release that came from both his cock buried deep inside me and his fangs at my throat.
I ran my hands gently down his back and sides, feeling him tremble above me as his own orgasm exploded through him. Slowly he retracted his fangs, sealed my neck, and then rolled off me and onto his back. We lay side by side, both gasping for air.
“That,” I managed to say when my breathing had resumed a more manageable flow rate, “was very intense.” And then my stomach growled.
Taking charge, Gabriel got out of bed, giving me a spectacular view of his ass as he went to find breakfast. Returning with toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, and coffee, he insisted I not get up. I wasn’t about to argue, even if it did mean crumbs in my belly button.
“How long was I out for?” I asked, cradling a mug of coffee in my hands.
“Almost forty-eight hours,” he told me.
“You didn’t stay here, did you? I mean you can’t, not in the daytime.”
“I did think about taking you to my place, but Laycee wouldn’t allow it,” Gabriel said with a smile. “It’s good that it’s winter and the nights are longer. I didn’t have to be gone from you for that long.”
“Where is Laycee?”
“I called and told her you were awake. She will be here in a little while.”
Taking the now-empty mug from my hands, he put it with the rest of our breakfast plates on the tray he’d left on the dresser, and then got back into bed with me. I lay in his arms, twirling a lock of hair around my finger, watching as the curl straightened and then bounced back . . . straightened and bounced back.
Gabriel put his hand over my mine. “What is it?”
“There are some details about the wager that I haven’t told you.”
“I know that you’re not going to age any more, that he fully expects you to default, and it was never my soul he wanted, but yours.”
I twisted around to look at him. “How could you know any of that?”
“I felt the change in your body the moment I took you in my arms in the clearing. As for the rest”—he shrugged—“I know him, Rowan.”
“You know him?”
Taking my hand, Gabriel put it to his mouth and brushed his lips across my knuckles. I put my head on his chest and inhaled deeply, letting the scent of his skin soothe me like a balm. For a long time he didn’t say anything, his only response the lazy sweep his hand made up and down my back.
And then he sighed, kissed the top of my head, and said, “Did you know that angels are created in pairs?” I stared up at him, wondering if this was his not so subtle way of avoiding my question about knowing the demon. “I thought, perhaps, Sebastian might have mentioned it,” he added.
I shook my head. “No, Sebastian never mentioned anything about it. So why is that?”
“They didn’t used to be.” His hand paused in the downward motion. “The first angels were each created from a single orb of Light, but in doing so an unexpected imperfection was revealed.”
“What kind of imperfection?”
“One that made an angel believe he could be thought equal to the Creator. As a result he was cast down.”
Cast down?
“Oh my God, you mean like when Satan was cast out of Heaven . . . ?” Gabriel nodded slowly. “Satan, Lucifer, the Devil. He answers to many names, though I doubt he would recognize his own if it was spoken aloud. Still, it is enough that you are aware of his existence, and because of his action it was realized that an orb of Light was too powerful for any solitary creation. The potential would be better served if divided between two celestial beings.”
“You mean like angel twins?”
A small frown puckered his brow. “Not really. There are no common traits to be shared, although an awareness of the other always exists, even if opposite sides are chosen.” The gesture I made with my hand said further clarification would be much appreciated. “From the moment angels are brought into awareness,” Gabriel continued, “they are given the choice to walk in the Light or the Dark Realm. Some choose right away, some take longer—”
“And some have a hard time making up their minds,” I said, thinking of Sebastian.
“It is not an easy decision, Rowan, and once made, it can never be reversed.”
This time when he did not speak, I understood the reason why. His silence told me exactly who the demon was, and why he had wanted me. “He was created with you, wasn’t he?” I said softly. “You shared the same orb of Light, only he has always belonged to the Dark Realm.”
“Yes . . . he was drawn to the Dark from the very first.”
Now I knew why the demon had seemed familiar to me, and why I had allowed him to kiss me as I did. And there was something else too. A catch in Gabriel’s voice told me who it was that had supplied the means for his capture so long ago—a capture that had culminated with a terrible disfigurement and abandonment on the thorny limbs of the crucifixion tree.
“No wonder he wouldn’t use your name,” I murmured.
“No, I don’t suppose he would,” Gabriel said, leaning down and kissing me lightly on the mouth. “There is, however, one thing about the wager you have not told me.”
“What?”
“How much time did you get him to agree to?”
Unable to believe that I had overlooked such an important detail, I told Gabriel what I had asked for, as well as how it was to be converted, calculated, and measured. He stared back at me, his expression completely unreadable.
“What is it?” I asked, pulling back from him. “Aw shit, I screwed up, didn’t I?”
I threw back the covers and had one foot on the floor when Gabriel’s strong arms pulled me back on the bed and rolled me beneath him. He kissed me long and hard, leaving me almost breathless when he was done.
“No,” he said, grinning down at me. “You didn’t screw up.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him how long he had been crucified, but I stopped myself. I was afraid it wouldn’t be enough. Instead I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that if the lesser beasts had not petitioned the Dark Realm, then Gabriel would be suffering still. There was an outside chance the demon might not know how long Gabriel had suffered, but I didn’t believe that. I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that I was missing something, thinking that perhaps he had been a little too quick to agree to my terms regarding the amount of time needed.
“What is it, love?” Gabriel cupped my chin in his hand as I shared my concerns. “You may never have dealt with someone like him before, Rowan, but remember, he has never dealt with anyone like you.”
I surrendered myself to another long, hard kiss.
“His arrogance may prove to be his downfall. It would not be the first time,” he added darkly.
“I guess I’m just worried that there’s something I’m not seeing,” I confessed.
Taking me in his arms, Gabriel smoothed the hair from my face. “You are returned to me, and that is all that matters.” His lips brushed mine in a gentle, featherlike kiss. “In the meantime, you have given Ryiel enough time to begin his search.”
“Ryiel? What’s he got to do with this?” I asked, startled.
“I told you he has all those ancient texts. He is certain one of them dealt with the nullification of demonic wagers.”
“Will it also make the demon return what he stole from me?”
“I don’t know,” Gabriel answered honestly, “but he wanted a part of you.”
He didn’t say anything else, he didn’t have to. Though he tried to hide it, I could read the worry in his eyes.
“And you think Ryiel has the answer somewhere in all his books?” Gabriel nodde
d. “But how does he even know about it?” I asked.
“I told him. He feels responsible, love, and he wants to help.” Gabriel stroked his fingers lightly up the inside of my thigh, making me quiver. “Let him do this, Rowan. There really isn’t a better vampire to help us.”
“Can I ask you something about Ryiel?” I stayed his fingers with my hand.
“Of course.” Curiosity made him frown slightly.
“Ryiel is a Fallen . . . hasn’t he found his Promise yet?”
Picking up my hand, Gabriel threaded our fingers together. “Ryiel found his Promise many centuries ago, but he chooses not to make the necessary connection in order to free his soul.”
Now it was my turn to frown. “Why not?”
Gabriel shrugged. “His reasons are his to keep, and right now I couldn’t be more grateful for his desire to remain a vampire. He always was the most knowledgeable of us.”
It was the first time I had ever heard him refer to the other Fallen, and while I wanted to bombard him with questions about them, I knew this was not the time.
Tucking me back against his side, Gabriel turned thoughtful. “Are you sure you’re okay with not aging?”
As it seemed there was nothing I could do about it, I didn’t see the point in the question, but I answered it as honestly as I could. “I think it’s going to take a little while to sink in, but yeah, I’m okay with it. Why do you ask?”
“It can be a difficult adjustment to make.”
“Well, let’s just take it one day at a time, okay?”
He kept silent as I snuggled back against him, beginning to comprehend some of the radical changes my life was about to undergo, changes that were more complicated than simply replacing my diurnal lifestyle for a nocturnal one. Of course, I would still be able to go out during the daytime, but it made more sense to me to keep my waking hours the same as Gabriel’s.
“I’m not going to be able to live here for much longer, am I?” There was an unexpected lump in my throat at the thought of leaving the house my great-great-granddaddy had built.
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