Veiron appreciated that but he still wasn’t going to change his mind.
He envied Marcus for having Amelia and having contracted with her. Amelia was his master now and Veiron felt sure that if he died and Amelia lived, Marcus would be reborn as he was now, not as a guardian angel. If Veiron died, he would come back as an obedient soldier of Heaven and wouldn’t remember anything about his past lives until he inevitably fell and pledged himself to the Devil. He wouldn’t remember Erin, and that killed him. What sort of life could they have together?
Nothing but one filled with heartache and misery.
It was better this way. She didn’t need him. He was no good for her and would only end up hurting her. She had her sister now and Marcus, and as much as it hurt him, they would protect her in his stead and keep her safe from his kind and the angels. He couldn’t do that. He wasn’t strong enough. Amelia’s power far surpassed his own.
He would fail Erin and he couldn’t bear the thought of seeing her die. When she had been bleeding in his arms after the Hell’s angel had attacked her, it had felt as though his whole world had been falling apart before his eyes. He had felt as though he was dying.
He couldn’t go through that again. He couldn’t fall in love with her. No good would come of it. He needed to protect her and himself, and the only way for that to happen was to leave her.
“Veiron?” Marcus whispered.
Veiron shook his head. “I know you will take care of her, Marcus. You and Amelia both. She needs you, not me. I’m no good for her and we both know it. She’s better off without me.”
Marcus gave him a tight smile. “Are you trying to convince me or yourself, Veiron?”
Veiron frowned. “We both know it’s true. If she’s with me, she is constantly in danger, and I certainly don’t need the complication of having to babysit a mortal. She doesn’t belong with me. I will only get her killed... if not by giving away her location to those after her... then by my own hand. The Devil can use me against her... fuck, I don’t think I could handle that... and I don’t think I would be strong enough to fight him.”
Marcus made a low growling noise under his breath and his eyes brightened, beginning to glow an eerie blue in the dim light. “You think I did not fear for Amelia’s sake when I was falling for her? My mission was to protect her and I got her killed by Apollyon... and then I almost killed her myself... but the depth of her love for me and my love for her stopped me.”
“Erin doesn’t seem to like me that way, so let’s not go there. She’s barely looked at me since seeing Amelia again.”
Marcus scowled. “They haven’t seen each other in years and she is just discovering what happened to her sister. It is reasonable for the females to get wrapped up in each other... and I acknowledge that Amelia is not helping matters. She has stopped Erin from going to you several times this day... but Erin never stopped wanting to be with you. She did stop you from leaving, and I believe that what she said is what she feels. She cares about you.”
Veiron closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Marcus had a point and Veiron believed Erin too. She did care about him, and he cared so much about her that he wasn’t sure what he was meant to do or how he was supposed to react. The sight of her with her sister, the fact that she had barely looked at him and hadn’t spoken to him all day, had messed with his head, but she had come to him in the end and asked him to stay.
He had felt the truth in her words in his heart. She cared about him and her time with him had meant something to her, something strong and deep enough that she had gone against her own flesh and blood in order to come to him. She wanted to be with him.
He wanted to be with her.
It was no use fooling himself into thinking any other way. The truth bled through each time and Marcus was right, he was trying to convince himself that Erin didn’t need him and he didn’t need her, and he was failing dismally at it.
“Speak to her,” Marcus said and blew out a long sigh. “And do not let Amelia’s actions or anything colour your judgement. Just speak to her and see where it takes you.”
Veiron nodded and walked up the beach with Marcus, heading for the complex. Warm lights lit the path to the brilliant blue pool and the bar next to it. Erin sat on one of the stools lining the oblong thatched building with Amelia next to her, nursing a brightly coloured drink and wearing very little. The sight of Erin in nothing but a black bikini top and a pair of black shorts heated his blood but it was the way the men coming and going between the bar and the tables on the patio were ogling her that sent his temperature soaring. If it hadn’t been for Marcus walking beside him, his eyes glued to him, watching him, Veiron might have completely lost his head.
As it was, he had to fight hard to quell his raging desire to slaughter them all for looking at Erin with lust in their eyes.
Impulse control. He really had to work on it because with things so fragile between him and Erin, one wrong move would destroy everything they had built with each other. He didn’t think she would like it if he flipped out, unleashed his darker side, and savaged every mortal male who had dared to glance her way in the past few minutes, let alone the fact that he would alert the Devil to her location and likely bring some unwanted visitors to the island.
Veiron settled for glaring at them all whenever they looked at him, pinning them with dark looks that conveyed every bone-crushing and bloody thought filling his mind.
He slid onto the padded stool next to Erin at the bar. Amelia looked across her at him and then over her shoulder. Marcus played his part and lured her away, leaving him alone with Erin.
Erin continued to suck on the straw in her cocktail, her amber eyes fixed on the bar and head lowered enough that the short lengths of her black hair fell forwards and concealed part of her face.
Veiron wasn’t sure where to start. Speaking to her had sounded like a good thing and he had hoped to be calm and rational about everything but the sight of so many men looking at her had him riled and snappish. Not the best of moods for a heart to heart.
“Be careful when you go back,” she said without looking at him. “I don’t like the thought of you going down there, not after what I saw, but I won’t try to stop you.”
“I can take care of myself. I have done for centuries.” Veiron shrugged and leaned one elbow on the bar and swivelled to face her.
She didn’t move to face him. Her gaze stayed glued to her drink and she prodded at the ice and chunks of pineapple with her black straw. Not quite the response he should have given her. He should have told her that he would take care and that he was going there for her sake as much as he was for his. She needed answers and he would get them for her. She might have liked to hear that. Maybe he could have hooked her hair behind her ear and touched her cheek too. It would’ve been better than sounding like a heartless bastard.
“I don’t care,” she whispered and then sighed. “I just want to hear you promise you’ll be careful.”
Veiron shrugged. “I’m a demon. We’re not big on promises.”
Erin sighed again, her bare shoulders lifting with it. He wanted to kiss that milky patch of skin, desired to worship it and ease her pain. If he did, she would know that he felt something for her and that leaving her was the last thing he wanted to do, but he wasn’t sure what he was doing or how he was feeling or what were the right reactions to it all.
“I had that one coming.” She lifted her head and looked across at him, her eyes full of hurt that he had heard in her soft voice. “I forgot where you were from and I shouldn’t have said all those things about your home. I wasn’t thinking. It’s just... you’re nothing like the ones who held me captive and I don’t think of you as one of them, so I didn’t think that what I said was going to hurt you... but I should have... and I’m sorry I said it.”
Veiron stared at her in silence. She swallowed and her gaze slowly fell to her drink again, and she started poking it with her straw.
“Don’t worry about it.” He bru
shed the hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear and savouring how soft her skin was beneath his fingers. Skin he wanted to kiss every inch of so she would know that she was precious to him and he couldn’t get enough of her. “You’ve been through a lot and you’re entitled to your opinion. I don’t hold it against you.”
Much.
He shouldn’t hold it against her at all but he couldn’t shake the voice that kept telling him that whenever she cursed Hell and his kind, she cursed him too.
“But I hurt you.”
Veiron didn’t acknowledge that. She already looked miserable enough without him adding to it by confirming that she had wounded him with her thoughtless words.
He flagged the bartender instead. “Double whiskey.”
The man poured it for him and slid it across the bar, all without his gaze straying to Erin. Wise man. Never a wiser one in existence. A fight, even one using mortal strength, would make Veiron feel a whole lot better right about now and he would be quick to take anyone up on the offer they made by looking at Erin.
Wouldn’t that just impress the beautiful woman beside him?
He would probably seal his fate if he lashed out at any of the mortal males in the vicinity, even if he did withhold most of his strength. Erin would think him a monster.
“I thought you wouldn’t be able to drink,” she said, oblivious to the dark thoughts that were probably showing in his eyes, ringing them with crimson.
Veiron laughed. “I refer you back to my earlier comment. I’m a demon.”
“A demonic angel.”
Veiron swirled the whiskey around his glass, staring at the amber liquid. “Something like that... I think the popular term is Hell’s angel... most just call me a demon.”
Erin flinched. “I’m sorry.”
“About what?” He looked across at her. Something told him she wasn’t apologising for her outburst on the boat now.
“About letting Amelia keep me occupied all day when all I really wanted to do was take you back to our villa and get wild with you.” She smiled but it was short lived. “She kept telling me things and I think they were meant to drive a wedge between us but they only made me want to see you and be with you even more.”
Veiron smiled now. That sounded like his Erin, the rebellious woman who probably liked him more because of the bad things he had done. He kept trying to be a good man for her, to prove he had a good heart and was what she needed, and it turned out she wanted the bad boy instead.
“What did she tell you?” He sipped his whiskey and enjoyed the burn as he swallowed.
“She told me about what happened to you all and then Marcus told me more... about what Heaven and Hell did to you... and I understand why you want to get your own back.” She took another long suck on her straw, draining the last of her cocktail. “I’m worried about you, Veiron, and I know you’ll just tell me not to in that gruff way of yours and that you can take care of yourself, but that isn’t going to stop me from worrying when you go to Hell... I need to know that you’ll be safe because I... I care about you... a lot.”
Veiron’s eyes widened. Was she saying what he thought she was? He stared into her eyes, trying to see it in them, but she lowered them to her bare knees.
He smiled even though she wouldn’t see it. She didn’t need to feel awkward about what she had said, but if it made her feel better, he could confess his feelings in a roundabout manner too. “You know, I thought you hadn’t been wearing much when I first met you but this little number... fuck, do I want you when you look so sexy... and I want to kill every man who is looking at you... because you’re mine, Erin.”
She blushed and bit her lower lip, a beautiful touch of shyness that tugged at his protective side before she lifted her eyes and met his, sending a hot jolt through him that rocked him to his core. Damn, he wanted her right here and right now, regardless of the audience.
Erin reached across, all hint of shyness gone as her pupils ate up her irises, swamping her eyes with desire and passion that he had tasted firsthand and wanted to taste again, craved like a drug. She laid her palm on his bare chest and his heart beat wildly, blood rushing through his veins. Her caress was fire and what she said knocked the air from his lungs and made him want to wrap her in his embrace and fly away with her.
“You’re mine, too, Veiron,” she husked and dropped her gaze to his lips before dragging it back up to his, sending another white-hot bolt of hunger through him. “And I’m never letting you go.”
Veiron growled, wrapped his arm around her back and dragged her off her stool and into him. He claimed her mouth, crushing her lips with his and kissing her with all the force of his desire and need for her. She moaned, her hands pressing against his bare chest, searing him down to his soul.
Mine. She belonged to him now, hadn’t denied him and had claimed him as hers too, and had vowed to keep him.
He wanted to be hers.
Needed it.
He would give all of himself to her and take all of her in return, and nothing would stand between them.
Not even the Devil himself.
CHAPTER 19
Erin walked the shore hand in hand with Veiron. She had wanted to go straight back to their villa and make love with him but he had insisted that they walked a while, and while she had been annoyed at first, she was glad that he had suggested it. It was strangely peaceful on the empty beach under the moonlight, Veiron’s fingers locked tightly with hers, his large hand engulfing her smaller one and keeping the chill off her skin. Palms fringed the sweeping shore and the warm water washed over her feet, the sound of the shallow waves steadily puncturing the near silence. The noise of people at the complex was nothing but a distant hum this far along the beach. The only competition the waves had was the occasional party at one of the villas and they had left the last of them behind a few metres back.
A breeze blew in off the ocean, carrying the scent of saltwater, and Erin shivered.
Veiron stopped, untangled their hands, and wrapped his strong arm around her, pulling her against his bare chest. Erin snuggled into him and looked up, meeting his gaze. His eyes were black in the moonlight but not dark. They were warm and soft, full of feelings that she felt mirrored in her own heart.
She lifted her hand and cupped his cheek, sweeping her thumb over his lower lip. She wanted to tell him again to be careful when he went to Hell but couldn’t find her voice, didn’t want to spoil this moment between them. It wouldn’t be their last. Nothing would happen to Veiron. Marcus would go with him and together they would be safe.
Erin kissed him instead, tiptoeing and gently capturing his lips. She kept it light, bare brushes of her lips against his, her emotions running wild with her. Veiron surprised her by doing the same, sweeping his mouth over hers and holding her close to him, his hands gentle against her back.
He drew away, breathing hard as though he had run for miles rather than stood still on a beach and kissed her. She was breathless too, alive with emotion and warmth, with all of her feelings for Veiron.
“I keep thinking about something,” he said and he sounded so serious that she pulled further away so she could see his face. He smiled wickedly. “Hot tub.”
Erin laughed. “It’s like you read my mind.”
His smile became a grin and he slipped his hand into hers, entwining their fingers, and started back along the shore with her. She walked beside him, letting the waves lap at her feet. Obviously she wasn’t walking quickly enough for Veiron’s liking because suddenly the world spun before her eyes and she was staring at his backside.
“Hey.” Erin punched his bottom and sighed to herself. So firm. The man had buns of steel.
“You’re slowing me down again,” he said with a smile in his voice.
His backside shifted as he strode purposefully along the beach with her slung over his shoulder and the cute dents either side of his spine on his lower back called to her. Erin hooked her hand into his belt, pushed herself up to relieve the pressure o
n her organs and fingered one of the dips with her free hand. Veiron practically purred.
The world whirled past her again and she was in his arms, cradled close to his chest.
“Damn, woman, you drive me crazy,” he growled and then kissed her, hard and rough, so passionate that her knees would have buckled had she been standing.
Erin wound her arms around his neck and returned the kiss, trying to make him growl again. He kept striding onwards and she had to wonder how he knew where he was going. Some sort of supernatural awareness of his surroundings?
He cursed under his breath and she looked down to see he was knee-deep in the sea. Maybe not. Erin giggled. Veiron growled. Not the sort of one she had wanted to hear. This one was born of frustration rather than desire.
“I said you drive me crazy, that includes scrambling my senses until I can’t think straight around you... fuck, I need you, Erin... tell me you’re mine. Tell me you’re only mine and I’m the only one you want in all the three realms.” The look he gave her was pure animal hunger and Erin melted, her blood heating to a thousand degrees, burning for him. “Tell me and I will swear to you that I am yours, now and forever.”
Heavens, could this man get any better? He growled, snarled and fought like a wild thing, like a warrior, but he had the heart of a poet. A heart that she was beginning to think now belonged to her.
“You’re the only man I want, and the only one I need.” Erin stroked his cheek, clearing a rogue strand of crimson hair from it, and looked deep into his dark eyes. They blazed red at the centre, highlighting his dilated pupils, a sign of his desire.
“Say it,” he growled, a command this time, one that made her heart flutter.
“I’m yours, Veiron, and only yours... now and forever... and you are mine.” The way he looked at her made her feel as though she had just made him the happiest man in what he had called the three realms and left her feeling as though they really were newlyweds, only they had just wed each other on this moonlit shore with words that promised eternity.
Her Angel: Eternal Warriors Romance Series Complete Series Box Set (Books 1-5) Page 53