by S. J. Day
Reed’s arms wrapped around her so fast, they felt like a steel trap snapping shut. His head tilted to better fit his mouth to hers. His aggressive hunger stole her breath and melted the chilled place inside her.
His fervor was far different from Alec’s. There was lust, yes. Passion in spades. But his desire lacked the bite of fury and shadowy darkness of Alec’s. With Reed, she didn’t feel as if she was a waterlogged life preserver for a drowning man.
Breaking the connection, he rested his forehead against hers. “Don’t use me to punish Cain.”
“No.” She pressed more tightly against him. “No Cain. Just you.”
He cupped her buttocks in his hand and lifted her feet from the floor.
Eve. . . want you..
His lips, so firm and sensually curved, were softer than she’d expected. The last time he kissed her, he’d been rough. Angry. This time, his tongue was velvety soft as it licked deep into her mouth. The plunging motion was so deeply sexual she grew hot and wet. Moaning, she rubbed against him.
Want you, Eve, want you..
Alec’s challenge echoed—”What’s more important? When someone wants you because they can’t help it? Or when they want you because they make the conscious decision to want you?”
But Alec was wrong. He didn’t want her— consciously or otherwise. He needed her, but this afternoon she’d come to realize that she couldn’t keep him afloat. Not in that sea of madness inside him. He would pull her under with him, just as he nearly had when he ascended to archangel. A Mark couldn’t survive that Change—Alec, a mal ‘akh, had barely survived it—yet, as his body had altered states, he’d dragged her down into the inky blackness of his agony. It was Reed who’d pulled her free and saved her from certain insanity.
Reed pivoted, pinning her to the door. Want you.
Her legs wrapped around his lean hips. Their chests heaved together, the sound of their labored breathing more potent for its rarity. Marks didn’t sweat, didn’t get winded, didn’t have racing hearts. . . except when gripped by lust for blood or sex. Stress didn’t affect them, nor did regular exercise. The rarity of physical reactions created a craving for them, part of the way God encouraged Marks to retain their humanity despite a life of killing.
He pulled back and pressed his hot cheek to hers. “Sometimes, I hate you.”
Eve felt that resentment occasionally, when he watched her and thought she wasn’t aware. If it’s any consolation, sometimes I hate myself.
“You wanted me before he came back into the pictore, then denied me afterward.” His hand cupped her breast, his thumb stroking across her nipple. Hot, dark eyes watched her pant and arch into his touch. They challenged her, mocked her.
“You damned me.”
Want me back.
His voice in her mind was different from the one that spoke aloud to her. It was rougher, deeper, his half-formed fleeting thoughts pushed away as quickly as they appeared.
“I want to walk away from you.” He rolled his hips so his hard length stroked directly against where she ached. “I want to fuck someone else and let you know that I have. I want you to lie in bed at night and wish you were beneath me. But you don’t.”
“I wish it now.”
“I’m here now.”
He continued to grind into her. The seam of her jeans became an added stimulation that coaxed a whimper of pleasure from her. She hadn’t been able to send him away the last time he had held her like this, that first day when she’d thought he looked so much like Alec Cain they could be brothers. Who knew? She’d trembled in his arms like she was doing now and begged for mercy, even as she craved more.
Want me back, Eve, want me..
She nuzzled her check against his. I do.
“Then let me stay. Now.”
Eve pressed her lips to his ear and breathed, “Yes. Stay.”
CHAPTER 9
Izzie’s blue eyes were wide. “You want me to seduce a seraph?” she asked in a voice inflected with a German accent.
If Alec were to guess, he’d say Sabrael might like it.
“If you can get that far.” He smiled at the way she bristled. “But I’d be happy if you can just keep him out of my hair for a while.”
The Mark clearly thought her charms were irresistible, which was another reason he’d approached her. In order to manage Sabrael, he needed someone whose confidence was bulletproof and who wasn’t afraid of a little pain. He suspected Izzie’s tough-as- nails appearance was more than just a fashion style. The gleam in her eyes when she was exposed to violence was a recognizable one.
“Why?” she asked.
“The ‘why’ is my part. The ‘how’ is yours.”
Keeping Sabrael busy would keep the seraph away from Eve and out of the way when Alec approached Jehovah about delaying his mother’s visit. Better for her to skip a year, than to be vulnerable at one of the most tumultuous times in history.
With his hand at Izzie’s back, Alec led her away from the shooting range.
“Can’t he hear you plan this?” Izzie queried.
“He could, if he was listening, but he isn’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he’s not here kicking my ass,” Alec said dryly.
Her mouth curved.
Alec used to seek out women such as her for sex, women who weren’t looking for more than a hot, hard rut. Only with Eve had he taken the time to savor the connection.
And look how messy that was. All that angst and grief.. . not worth the trouble.
Ignoring the voices in his head, he said, “We’ll get things rolling after I speak with Mariel about borrowing you for a while.”
Assigning the latest class of Marks to handlers had been one of his first archangel responsibilities. He’d placed Izzie with the easygoing Mariel for two reasons: One, Mariel had recently lost one of her Marks to a hellhound. Two, he sensed Izzie would manipulate a male handler.
Like Eve does Abel?
Izzie’s breast pressed against his arm. “How will I meet this seraph?”
Unwelcome heat flared across his skin. “I’ll arrange
“Why do you think I can seduce him?” Her voice was a throaty invitation to compliment her. Hit on her.
The part of himself that he was beginning to hate was considering it when a surge of lust burned through him.
Eve. She was achy and still aroused from his earlier handling of her. As he and Izzie reached the elevators, he glanced at the clock on the wall. An hour later and Eve was hotter than ever.
She’s yours. Go get her She’ll give in. . . eventually. And f she doesn’t, you can make her like it anyway...
His fingers stroked Izzie’s lower back. “Because you’re hot, Ms. Seiler’ he purred.
I might have something that would interest you, Hank rasped.
The interruption was irritating. Alec had other things on his mind. How interesting?
I think it’s significant.
Significant wasn’t a word Hank used lightly. Grumbling beneath his breath, Alec punched the button on the elevator. Eve’s desire was goading his, which had every instinct he possessed urging him to get to her and put them both out of their misery. She might think she was scared of him, but he could make her give in. He knew all the right buttons to push...
I’m on my way, Alec told Hank. But you better make this quick.
As the elevator doors closed, Izzie sidled up to him.
He arched a brow in silent inquiry.
“You are flushed,” she noted.
Yeah, he was aroused. He felt Eve as if she were in his arms, pinned to a wall and writhing against him. He felt her breast in his hand, tasted her flavor on his tongue, smelled the scent of her heated skin. The sensations were so vivid and so completely focused in his viewpoint that they felt like a wet dream.
A slow smile curved Izzie’s painted mouth. “You are either very angry, or very horny.”
Alec leaned back against the handrail and crossed his arms. “Ne
ither of those things concern you.”
“Once, they did.” She stepped closer. “In Münster, only a few years ago.”
Arrested by surprise, he barely registered the delighted, semimaniacal laughter echoing through him. Sweat dotted his brow and nape. The feel of Eve’s nipple rolling between his fingertips was so real he was slow to process what Izzie was saying.
Then the memories came rushing back, bringing with them an acrid taste in his mouth.
It had been only hours before dawn. The stinking blood of an Infernal coated his hands and pictures of hundreds of exploited children filled his mind. How long had the Ho ‘ok demon been running the child porn ring? How many kids had suffered? Why had the seraphim waited so long to end it? Disgusted, disheartened, and raging with bloodlust, he wandered the streets of Münster until a blonde whore with spikes at her throat and wrists stepped out of a shadowy doorway in front of him.
“Wollen Sie einen Begleiter?” she’d asked, licking her lower lip. Do you want company?
He’d pushed her back into the alcove, lifted her miniskirt, and fucked her until the thirst to kill had faded to a distant ache. Then he’d shoved a handful of euros her way and left her—and the memory— behind.
Take her
Alec stood frozen as the darkness surged up within him, curling around the lust inspired by Eve and hardening the entire length of his body. The elevator doors opened on Hank’s floor, but he remained rooted in place. The raucous arguments of the many Infernals in the waiting room intruded into the once quiet space. Then the doors closed again, leaving him and Izzie alone with his inner demons and an instrumental rendition of “Copacabana” drifting out of the speakers.
He felt the phantom sensation of Eve arching against him the same moment Izzie’s hand cupped his erection.
“Is this for me?” she purred, stroking him.
Fuck her
The gritting of his teeth was audible. “No.”
She shrugged and reached for the fly of his jeans with her other hand. “I will only borrow it, then.”
As the first button popped free, the elevator began to ascend.
Forget Eve. She wants your brother She’s denied you for him.
Alec caught Izzie’s wrist, staying her hand. Her gaze lifted. For a moment he saw almond-shaped eyes of soft brown. Then he blinked and stared into eyes of cool Nordic blue.
“You don’t want what I’m ready to dish out,” he warned.
“I do. I have for months.”
Want you, Eve’s voice whispered. He shifted to his office.
But it was the beast in him that pinned Izzie to the wall.
Reed tossed Eve to the bed. She bounced with a soft cry of surprise, then reached for the fly of her jeans. Her limbs were lithe and perfect, the lines of her body slender yet generously curved.
Temptress, he’d once called her. And she was. A trickle of sweat coursed down his spine.
“Hurry,” she urged, kicking free of her pants. A sexy-as-hell black lace thong was wriggled off next.
He remembered the one time he’d had her. Sent to mark her, he’d expected to merely toy with the woman his brother had spent a decade pining for. Then he’d passed her in the Gadara Tower atrium and found himself wanting her regardless of Cain.
Her gaze had followed him, filled with such hunger he felt it lick across his skin. That look had made him so eager to fuck her, he’d ripped the clothes from her body. Hurry, he had growled. The encounter had been over almost as soon as it began, yet it haunted him to this day.
Shifting out of his clothes, he left them puddled on the floor. He loomed over her. Eve paused in the act of pulling up her shirt, staring at his body with a mixture of awe and desire that swelled his dick further. She licked her lower lip and he groaned, fisting himself to buy a little time.
Did she see Cain in him? He almost probed her thoughts to find out, but resisted the urge. How she viewed him now wouldn’t be the way she viewed him when he was done with her.
Eve reclined, half dressed, her pupils dilated from the Novium. She’d been scorching hot as a mortal. How much more intense would it be with her mark- enhanced body?
Reed’s lips twitched, incapable of a true smile with his mouth so dry. She was impatient to have him, to the point that she couldn’t be bothered to finish undressing.
“I won’t fuck you until you’re naked,” he warned.
With two hands, she caught the rounded collar of her pretty pink shirt and ripped it straight down the middle.
That single act hit him straight in the gut. His breath hissed out between clenched teeth. He cupped her knees and widened the spread of her legs, wanting to see what he’d coveted for the last few months. She trembled under his gaze, her lower lip caught nervously between her teeth as if fearing he would find fault with her.
He wished he could.
“Slide back,” he said roughly, following her retreat with one knee on the mattress, then the other. He pursued her across the California king until she reached the headboard and had nowhere left to go.
“Reed.” Her breathless voice dragged his gaze up to meet hers. “Don’t wait.”
She was panting, and he hadn’t even begun. Pressing his lips to her thigh, he hummed in chastisement. “Relax. This is going to take awhile.
“I have people here!”
He licked at the back of her knee. She shivered. “I wouldn’t care if all the archangels were here. I’m going to get my fill.”
Hurry up, damn you. She sounded winded in his thoughts, which told him how hot for it she was. Hot for him.
He pushed his hands beneath her buttocks. I’m going to do everything to you. Everything. As he lifted her to his mouth, her back bowed. I’m going to push so deep into you that you’ll miss me when I’m not there.
Her legs fell open, offering herself to him. His first lick was slow and soft. Deliberately teasing. She was slick and burning with need, writhing within his grasp.
She keened softly as he pierced her hard and fast. Don’t stop.. . don’t stop...
A quick flutter over her, then he stiffened his tongue and worked the tiny bundle of nerves at the apex, relishing her throaty pleas for more. Don’t stop...
He groaned and ground his hips into the mattress, knowing that he had to get her off now, fearing that he was too far gone to be able to bring her to orgasm later. He was spurred by the knowledge that this was Eve, the woman he wanted for reasons unrelated to sex. Now she was right where he wanted her—spread and willing, mewling with helpless pleasure. They were in the moment together, connected body and mind. He hadn’t known he was alone—an angel who stood apart—until he wasn’t alone any longer.
Reed grew more fervent, fueled by gratitude and an odd.. . joy. Afraid to be too rough with her, he siphoned the surfeit of lust through Eve and out to
Cain, where it could be disbursed to the others in the firm. The tactic bought him some control, allowing him to be gentle with her as he hadn’t been before.
Eve climaxed with her hands fisted in her comforter, her thighs shaking, the tender pink flesh beneath his lips spasming with a greed that might equal his own.
He rose to his knees, grasping her legs when they threatened to fall to the bed. He wiped his wet mouth against a perfect calf and the feel of her skin stirred the need he’d denied for months. Denied for her.
“My turn,” he bit out, shifting both of her legs to one shoulder and taking himself in hand.
Pliant and drowsy-eyed, she touched his thigh with gentle fingers. He froze, wondering if she’d changed her mind now that the Novium was appeased, and whether he could stop if she had.
The look on Reed’s face made Eve’s eyes sting with unshed tears. The hand gripping her ankles was flexing convulsively and his throat worked as if he wanted to speak, but couldn’t.
“I want you,” she whispered. Inside me.. . with me.
Take me, then. He lunged forward with a snarl.
Her resultant cry was both pained and pleas
ured. She had forgotten how he felt inside her, so thick and long, nearly too much. Before she could catch her breath, he launched into a pounding rhythm, surging into her with a force that shoved her into the headboard. Placing her hands above her head, she pushed back when he pumped, shoving him so deep it ached in just the way she needed.
Today, she was as greedy for him as he’d always been for her. He was raw, without artifice, with none of the steely control Alec usually displayed. Reed climaxed immediately and unabashedly—his head thrown back, his neck taut, his abdomen rippling with working muscles. He roared as he came, his wings bursting free in an explosion of white, his thighs straining as he took his pleasure in her willing body.
Eventually he slowed, his chest heaving. He spread her legs, wrapping them around his hips and settling over her. His mouth moved over her face, kissing her, his gusting breaths a separate caress over her damp skin. One arm slid beneath her shoulder, anchoring her. The other hand cupped her breast, kneading. Beneath her calves, she felt his steely buttocks clench and release as he propelled himself into her. Slow, steady, and deep.
Reed—the ferocious one, a man known for his penchant for rough sex—was making love to her. The relief and. . . joy of being connected to someone brought tears to her eyes, but she blinked them back.
“Mmm. . .“ He purred like a contented panther. A drop of sweat dripped from his brow to her cheek and he licked it away, then nuzzled against her. “That was worth waiting for.”
His luxuriant, leisurely thrusts made her moan and arch upward. “Reed,” she gasped, shivering into a violent orgasm beneath him.
His smile held a hint of male triumph. His eyes were dark and intent, his biceps flexing as he rolled her nipple between talented fingertips. Against the backdrop of white feathers, Reed’s skin was golden, glistening with a fine sheen of perspiration that told her just how aroused she’d made him.
He pressed his lips to hers and whispered, “Now we can get started.”
***
Alec stood before the wall of windows in his office and ran an agitated hand through his sweat-soaked hair. The air smelled of sex and fury, as did his skin. His shirt was torn and wet. He yanked it over his head and tossed it aside, then shoved down the boxer briefs he’d lowered only enough to free his erection.
