by Brandi Evans
She tried again to lighten the mood. “I didn’t think angels were allowed to curse.”
That did the trick. His smile might be subtle but the left side of his mouth did tip up for a fraction of a second. “Been hanging around with you too long,” he said.
“Yeah, I do tend to have that kind of effect on people.” She sat on the sofa and patted the seat next to her. “Have a seat and let’s talk.”
He sat beside her but wouldn’t make eye contact, which was probably a good thing. The intensity of those brown eyes would probably do her in. She’d break down and beg him to stay with her, tell him she didn’t care if he were the Devil himself, she loved him. Not how she wanted him to remember her for the rest of eternity.
“You know about the War in Heaven right?” he finally asked.
She nodded. Keep it light. Keep it light. Don’t let him see how painful this is for you. “In theory, but I’m sure nothing happened the way we mortals have heard it.”
“Probably.” He took a deep breath. “Eons ago, a group of angels grew disillusioned with the way of The Divine. They thought humanity, who had become wicked and selfish, should be wiped out, leaving the angels free to just…be. The Divine, however, made it very clear humanity was under His protection and that anyone who challenged Him, challenged His rule or harmed any human would forever be damned and cast down, forced to coexist with the peoples they despised.
“At first, it seemed as if The Divine’s edict had been successful, but that was only on the surface. Followers of The Divine’s most vocal opponent, Leviathan, continued meeting in secret and his numbers grew. And when their numbers grew large enough, they struck, causing a great flood to swallow the Earth.”
“Demons caused the great flood?” She shook her head, thinking back to all those Sunday school lessons she’d had to endure as a child. Somewhere along the way, “they’d” really gotten that little detail wrong. “I thought the flood was God’s way of cleaning the world of evil and starting over.”
Seth shook his head. “The Divine, in His infinite wisdom, had foreseen the flood and had taken precautions to ensure humanity would survive.”
“Noah’s ark?” she asked. Surely not…
“The flood served as the official beginning to the War in Heaven. A vicious battle ensued but The Divine’s power is absolute and the resurrection was quickly put down. Even with their numbers, the rebel angels never stood a chance and because of their insolence, they were cast down.”
Lyndi caught on to one important word. They. “You weren’t on the side of those who tried to slaughter humanity?”
“Yes and no.” He closed his eyes against the shame that seized his face. “I ended up on the wrong side of that fight, yes. And I don’t say ‘wrong side’ because they were defeated. I say ‘wrong side’ because I didn’t even believe in what they were fighting for. I only cared about keeping her safe.”
“Her?” The one-word question lodged in her throat. What her? Another angel. How was she supposed to compete with an angel?
“Her name is Kaia, and I was crazy about her. I mean stupid crazy, hence my banishment.”
Was. Past tense. He was no longer crazy about her.
Something Seth had said on the night they met came back in a rush.
I lost everything because of her.
This Kaia must be the her he spoke of then. Poor Seth. Lyndi’s chest ached for him, for the pain weighing him down. He looked wounded, mentally exhausted. She couldn’t stop herself from gripping the hand nearest hers. She knew she’d done the right thing when his fingers tightened around hers.
“I swear, Lyn, I wasn’t fighting against The Divine. I was fighting to keep her safe, and all that mistake cost me was my home and, as fate would soon reveal, her too.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, meaning it from the bottom of her heart.
“The other fallen turned selfish, greedy, everything completely opposite of what I’d always lived for and believed in. They interfered in the lives of humans, caused discord and strife. The pain and grief you were feeling the day you ended up on the lighthouse? It was caused by demonic mind games designed to blackmail me into doing something reprehensible. And I almost did, Lyn. I almost murdered an innocent man to keep you from dying.”
I can’t let you die, Lyn…
That was what he’d been talking about. Keeping the demons from killing her? But why would demons want to kill her? What was she? Before she had a chance to ask, Seth continued.
“I walked away from it all. From them—from Kaia. I spent the next…shit, I don’t even know how long alone. Utterly alone. I couldn’t go home and I wouldn’t become evil. Eventually, I went to work for the Angels of Death, hoping to redeem myself somehow.”
She listened in wonder as he told her how and why he’d gone to work for the Angels of Death. Just as she’d always imagined, the beings were morally neutral.
“You can’t imagine how alone I’ve been, Lyn. Nothing except regret and shame for company. And then I met you and for the first time in longer than I could remember, I wasn’t alone.” He paused for a moment, as if he were fighting tears. “When I made the decision to break Code and show myself to help you, I could never have imagined how drastically that one decision would change me.”
Her lips scrunched together as she fought tears of her own. She couldn’t break down in front of him. She had to let him say his peace and then after he left, she could cry for what never could be.
Before she took on the role of sacrificial party, she whispered, “It changed me too, Seth.”
“You’re the reason I got my wings back, you know?”
She didn’t understand. “Me?”
“The unconditional love you awakened inside me transformed me, united me—mind, body, and soul. I became more than one of the fallen, more than someone seeking redemption. My love for you transformed me and allowed me to ascend to the one place I’d been trying to get back to for millennia. Imagine their surprise when I asked to leave.”
She stopped breathing. Surely he wasn’t saying what she thought he was saying. “Asked to leave?”
Seth moved closer, his brown eyes locked on her. She didn’t—couldn’t—move away. “I asked The Divine to make me human.” His big hands captured her face in the most careful, tender touch she’d ever experienced. “Heaven wasn’t Heaven without you by my side.”
“Human?”
“Yes.” He brushed his lips against hers. “If mortality is the price I have to pay for loving you, it’s a debt I’ll take on tenfold.”
The tears she’d been fighting scorched down her cheeks and she kissed him.
From the absolute bottom of her soul.
Chapter Twelve
Nothing in the universe compared to Lyndi’s kisses. The way her arms clung to him with desperate need. The way her kisses tasted of the salty tears she kept shedding. The way her body pressed against him as she pushed her way onto his lap.
Now, this was Heaven.
His cock—his human cock—filled with the need to claim Lyndi as his own. Once and for all.
He devoured her kisses, the heat of their frantic mouths evaporating the lingering remorse in his chest. Guilt for everything he’d done to hurt her. Guilt for the things he hadn’t told her.
He didn’t want to lie to her, but knowing how close she’d come to dying because she’d been targeted by an Angel of Death who’d teamed up with Seth’s demonic ex-lover in an attempt to blackmail him into committing murder…
Yeah, that was knowledge he wanted to spare her from.
Lyndi pulled away, breathing hard past the passion that had exploded between them and whispered, “I can’t believe you gave up Heaven, immortality. Everything you’ve been working toward. For me.”
“I did it for us, Lyn.” He wiped away the tears streaking her face. “For our future. If…you still want a future with me? I know you probably don’t trust me right now and I understand that. But I promise I’ll do whatever it tak
es to make this up to you.”
She laughed through her tears. “Do you think I’d fucking kiss you like that if I didn’t want you? Did that angel-ectomy you had scramble your brain? God, Seth, I’ve been sitting here wishing you’d take me back.”
She still wanted him. The realization humbled him but he wasn’t about to let up, not until he’d said everything he needed to say.
“I want you completely, Lyn. To build a home, a family with you. To have you at my side for the rest of our lives.”
“I want that too,” she admitted, tears streaming one after the other down her face. “I want that too.”
Joy filled his chest. Part of him had feared, even after he’d given up everything for her, she still wouldn’t take him back. Or at the very least, he’d have to earn the privilege of calling her his. That she’d forgive him and without regret or hesitation…
There were no words.
“I want you in every way a woman can have a man,” she whispered, eager hands inching down his torso to grip his rigid length through his pants. “Every way.”
When he’d been an immortal who’d taken on a human body, the absolute bliss of her touch, her kisses, her warm, wet core as he slid in deep had been beyond incredible. Experiencing her while being fully human?
The anticipation alone almost had him creaming his pants.
“I’m afraid I’m not going to last long,” he warned, peeling her hands away from his cock. “I’ve never had sex completely mortal before. I’m not sure what to expect. Then again, before that time with you in the shed, I’d never done it in a human body either.”
Her expression turned from fiery to stunned. “You were like a-a virgin before that night?”
“Not exactly,” he said.
When he noted a question forming in her eyes, he distracted her with another kiss. They’d have time for explanations later. Right now, he needed to consume her.
His impatient hands found the zipper of her dress. She looked beautiful in the dark red number, with its straps and slits, but the sight would be nothing compared to what he’d find when he peeled the damn material away.
“Shit, it feels like it’s been years since we last fucked,” she whimpered into his mouth.
He laughed. Beautiful Lyndi with her angelic face and her devil’s mouth. The woman he’d sacrificed everything for. “Let’s not make a habit of this, okay?” he whispered.
When the last strap of her dress surrendered, Lyndi pushed to her feet. The dress slid to the ground in a sparking crimson flash. To his feral delight, she only wore a wispy pair of black panties.
She held her hands toward him. “Come on, Seth. Take me to bed.”
She’d get no argument from him.
Seth put his hand in hers and followed her very, very eagerly to the bed, a bed they’d probably have to replace soon if their last round was any indication. Even now, he doubted he had the ability to take her gently. The bubbling, just-out-of-hibernation need in his body was almost uncontrollable. Maybe in a few years he could find the self-control to bring restraint into the equation.
Maybe.
By the time they reached the bed, they were both naked. Lyndi crawled onto the mattress and settled in the center, her legs spread in invitation. His gaze floated between the enticing sight of the moisture clinging to the wiry hairs of her pussy and the passion glimmering in her eyes. Passion for him, despite how he’d lied to her, hurt her, almost gotten her killed.
He closed his eyes. For a brief moment, he let the awe consume him. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness, let alone her love and her luscious body, yet she offered both to him. And Heaven willing, he’d get the next seventy-five years or so to make things up to her.
“Seth?” she whispered, “are you okay?”
He smiled, his eyes finding hers again. “Actually, Lyn, I’m wonderful. Better than I’ve ever been. And it’s all because of you.”
Fuck, he sounded like a cliché, but his words must have touched her.
A single tear slid from her eyes. She didn’t even bother to wipe it away. “You scared me there for a moment,” she said, her voice wobbling. “I thought maybe you were having doubts about your decision.”
“Never.”
Seth crawled onto the bed with her and knelt between her open legs, his gaze settling on her wet sex. The sweet, musky scent of her core reached up and drew his mouth down for a quick taste.
Okay, maybe not quick.
The flavor of her honeyed juices excited his taste buds, the same yet different than the last time he’d sampled her. Being human now would give him the rare opportunity to experience her again for the first time.
He moved his attention to her ripe clit, the bud so swollen she jumped when his tongue slid over the tight knot. Her back arched, pressing her pussy against his face, widening her slit as he pressed two fingers inside her dripping center.
“Not that I’m—oh fuck!—not enjoy-enjoying this,” Lyndi panted, her fingers slicing through his hair as his fingers found and teased the tight grouping of nerves on the front wall of her pussy. “But can we…save the…the oral for r-round two? I need you inside me. Now.”
Seth peered up at her over her panting chest, his fingers continuing to stroke her G-spot. Her words reminded him of something she’d said to him before. “What’s wrong, Lyn? Don’t consider yourself lucky yet?”
She laughed, her beautiful breasts shaking with her merriment. She sat up and grabbed him by the dick. “Get up here and fuck me, you sweet, wonderful bastard! Or I’ll take you by force.”
The smile Lyndi gave him told him her taking by force line wasn’t figurative. She wanted him fast, hard and as soon as fucking possible.
Fuck, he really loved this woman. Strong, determined and with a sex drive that just might kill him.
He moved over her, forcing her back down on the mattress. Lyndi didn’t let the change in position affect her hold on his erection.
Her legs widened and she guided his cock to her entrance. She slid his head through her juicy folds. Heaven, had she always felt this slick, this hot?
His dick stiffened. His balls tightened. At this rate, he just might come on her hand. “Let go,” he groaned when she didn’t release him.
“No.” She kept circling his glans around the edges of her pussy, sliding his tip around like he was her personal dildo.
Seth positioned his weight on his left elbow then reached between them with his free arm and took hold of her wrist. Still, she didn’t let go.
The new position gave him control over his own cock again. He tilted his pelvis forward, sliding into her channel, stopping only when her grasping hand didn’t allow any more entry. And started thrusting. Soft, shallow penetrations that had her back arching to increase the contact, her legs wrapping around his waist.
“Condom,” she whispered, flapping her free hand toward the nightstand even as her legs tightened around his hips.
“No.” Releasing her hand, he braced his palms against the mattress, his thrusts increasing. He wanted a future with her, a family. What better time was there to start than the present? “No more condoms. I want you pregnant with my child.”
“Seth…” She tried to open her eyes. Judging by her out-of-control breathing she was close to losing it.
Just like him.
“Let me come inside you.” The first eddies of his climax tingled his balls. “I’m so close, Lyn.” His hips pumped faster, harder, driving into her pussy, crushing her hand between their joined bodies. “I need to know. Now.”
“Yeeeees,” she screamed, releasing his dick and wrapping her arms around his neck. She held him so close her entire body lifted off the mattress. Her inner muscles clenched around his buried length as he pounded into her.
His own climax seized him, sending jets of hot, wet cum spilling into her, lubricating their lovemaking. “Lyn…”
When the last quivers of orgasm eased, Seth collapsed on top of her, content to stay here, skin to skin, bodies locked to
gether, for the rest of time.
Slowly, Lyn’s hands started moving over his back, sketching slow circles that, despite their non-sexual movements, had his cock hardening again. “I love you,” she whispered.
“Love you too.” He lifted his head just high enough to see her beautiful, flushed face. His woman for the rest of his life. “I was thinking we could go to Italy for our honeymoon. There’s a lot of great art there. You’ll enjoy it.”
“Presumptuous much?” she asked with a laugh that was meant to hide the fact she was suddenly crying. “I don’t remember you proposing.”
“I gave up Heaven for you, told you I wanted you pregnant with my child. I would have thought marriage and forever were a given at this point.”
Tears streaming down her cheeks, she nodded. “I think Italy sounds perfect.”
About the Author
Brandi Evans is a stay-at-home mom with a serious addiction…the compulsive need to tell sexy stories to whoever will listen.
She brings to life fun, flawed characters with kick-ass-and-take-no-prisoners attitudes who challenge her every step of the writing process. Whether inspiring a hot-and-heavy contemporary, a pulse-pounding suspense or a dark-and-decadent paranormal romance, her muse knows no boundaries. And she likes it that way. When veering outside the box, she never knows where her next story could take her.
Brandi welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
Tell Us What You Think
We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can email us at [email protected].