“I don’t care what you look like.” He walked into the room and stopped at the edge of the bed. “I just need to see that you’re all right.”
She had to smile at his blunt honest words. “Can you at least give me some dignity and use the table lamp instead?”
He nodded. The light turned off by itself and the table lamp came on. She was never getting used to his tricks. He waved a hand towards the door and it closed.
Veiron sat beside her on the bed, facing her, and she noticed for the first time that he was fully dressed, wearing a black dress shirt that emphasised the breadth of his muscled chest and stretched tight around his biceps, the sleeves rolled up his forearms, and black jeans. He pressed his left hand into the mattress and reached across with his right. Erin stilled as he brushed his thumb across her cheek and she realised that she had been crying too.
She hated that she probably looked truly weak to him now, shaken by a dream. He had called her weak when they had been in Hell. What was he thinking about her now?
He opened his hand and cupped her cheek in his large warm palm.
“Do you want me to stay?” he whispered and relief washed through her, steadying her heart and stopping her trembling.
Erin nodded.
Veiron stood, set his blade down, and removed his boots. He rounded the bed to her right side and laid on the mattress beside her, his head propped up on the green pillows, and rolled onto his side to face her. He stretched his left arm out. Erin stared blankly at it.
“Come,” Veiron husked and Erin settled on her side, facing him, and rested her head on his upper arm.
She stared into his eyes, his face illuminated by the bedside lamp behind her. It was so peaceful. Her heart remained steady, drumming softly against her chest, and her eyes remained locked on his. They were dark and gentle, no trace of red in them now. Her breathing slowed to match his.
Comforting.
It had been a long time since she had felt so at ease and safe.
Veiron made sure that feeling ran deeper, until she felt calm to her core, by curling his arm around her. His hand settled below her ribs and he held her.
“You can talk to me about it,” he whispered, soft voice warming her and backing up his words. “I’m here for you, Erin.”
She couldn’t remember the last time she had talked to someone about the things she saw in her dreams. She had stopped speaking to Amelia about them after their mother had died. She didn’t know why. She had just closed herself off.
Erin dropped her gaze to his chest, staring at the small V of skin and muscle she could see beyond the open top buttons of his black shirt.
“It’s been a while since I had two dreams back to back.” She toyed with the first closed button on his shirt, rolling it between her fingers, focusing on it. “I saw London burning. I thought it was Hell, but it wasn’t. Someone was carrying me... an angel.”
“What did he look like?” Veiron murmured and moved his hand to her hair, stroking the short black lengths and soothing her rising panic.
“White hair and green eyes, and he wore armour like yours but it was blue and silver. He said that he was my guardian angel.” She looked up into his eyes to see if it was possible that she had a guardian angel.
“I wore armour like that once.” He smiled but there was sorrow in it.
“You wore it in my dream too... and you had short hair and no tattoos. You attacked the angel and he said something... what was it... something about he should’ve put you down before.” She didn’t like the thought of that or what had happened afterwards. She wanted to close herself off to him again, didn’t want to talk about what had happened and dredge up the pain she had felt in her nightmare.
“It sounds like me.” His smile held more warmth this time and she knew in her heart that he was trying to cheer her up.
She wished she could smile too.
Erin dropped her gaze back to her hands and flipped the collar of his shirt back and forth, trying to find her voice again. It was hard. The wave of emotions she had felt in her nightmare pressed down on her and her pulse spiked again, fingers shaking and cold sweat prickling down her spine. Veiron held her closer, his strong hand clasping the back of her head.
She slowly undid two more buttons on his shirt and parted the material with her fingers. She stroked the smooth skin of his pectorals. There were no marks on his flesh but sometimes when she blinked, she saw him cut and bruised, bleeding.
“You were you again in the next part. There was a huge black fortress and this sort of amphitheatre or something around it. A wall of black spires. The Devil had you and I couldn’t get to you. He hurt you, Veiron, and I tried to make him stop, but he—” Erin cut herself off, unable to go on without breaking down.
“It’s okay, Erin,” Veiron murmured and stroked her hair. He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t... I fought back. I did something... I don’t know what it was but it scared me.” She pressed her hand to the bare patch of his chest and felt his heart beating steadily against her palm. It comforted her. Veiron was strong. It was just her feelings for him that made her fear that someone would hurt him. Wasn’t it?
“Have you ever dreamed things that have happened later?” Those words chilled her.
“No... maybe,” Erin said and undid another button on his shirt, revealing the first muscles of his abdomen. “There are times when I see things in my dreams that do happen, but they’re always a little different. Recently, my dreams have all been strange... about my sister and a man.”
“Marcus?”
“I don’t know. He’s tall and has dark hair and pale blue eyes, and has wings tattooed on his back.”
“That’s Marcus. He was an angel sent to watch over your sister.”
“A guardian angel?” She looked up into his dark eyes, torn between pursuing discovering more about Veiron and the man called Marcus, and asking him whether he honestly thought that she had precognitive dreams. “Like that other man in my dream and you?”
He smiled and stroked her cheek, but his tone turned emotionless and detached. “I haven’t been a guardian in a long time, but I started out like Marcus and then we went our separate ways.”
There was pain in his eyes as he said that, a haunted look that told her not to ask about it. She touched his cheek but the barriers had come up again, shutting her out. Whatever had happened to him, he didn’t want to remember it or feel anything because of it. He had buried his pain deep.
A noise sounded from below and Erin tensed.
Veiron brushed his knuckles across her cheek, drawing her back to him. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She stared up into his eyes, her fingers stroking his chest. “What about you and what I saw? If I... if my nightmares are things destined to happen... then... Veiron, I don’t want that to come true.”
“I won’t let that happen either. You don’t have to worry, Erin. We will find out more about this power of yours and we will find a way to change things. You might see only the future as it stands now. It is constantly changing. The slightest action might alter it completely.”
That was comforting. There had been times when she had thought her nightmares and dreams were more than just her imagination running wild, instances where things had happened that had been very close to what she had seen during her sleep. She had never imagined that she would be lying in the arms of a fallen angel, a demonic angel, when she realised that what she had was a power.
Erin only wished that her power had been as useful and fantastic as some of the ones Veiron had. The knowledge that she could see the future in her dreams left her cold to the bone and she never again wanted to sleep without Veiron close to her.
Erin looked into his dark eyes for long seconds, and then whispered, “Can I see your eyes again?”
He didn’t hesitate this time. His irises changed, glowing like embers in the low light.
“They’re amaz
ing.” She stared at all the threads of gold in the crimson, making them her sole focus so she could push away the creeping fear about what Veiron had called her power and the things she had witnessed. “They’re like fire... can I see your wings too?”
Veiron nodded. He slipped his arm out from beneath her and she sat up with him. He moved to kneel in front of her, unbuttoned his black shirt, and peeled it off. His body distracted her, all delicious hard muscle and masculine strength that she wanted to run her hands over and kiss. Erin dragged her gaze away from it, back to his eyes. His wings slowly appeared, growing out of his back, the crimson feathers shining in the light. He stretched them, flapped once, and then brought them to rest. The longer feathers brushed the mattress on his right side and the floor to his left.
Erin held the covers around her with one hand and reached out with her other. She ran her hand down the soft feathers of his left wing, following the curve. Veiron closed his eyes and sighed.
“Does that feel good?” she whispered, shaky and nervous. It looked as though it did. She’d had a few lovers in her time but they had all been human. Veiron was an angel, whether he was in service of the Devil or not. She wasn’t sure what angels liked or what sort of things would give him pleasure. If he could feel such a thing. The blissful look on his face said that he could and the woman on the floor below, his ex-lover, had told her that Veiron was a fantastic lover, and a very protective male. That had left Erin feeling a little ill. She didn’t like the thought of Taylor with Veiron, or the thought of trying to best that woman. If Veiron had left Taylor, how was she supposed to find a way to convince him to stay with her?
“I haven’t been touched like this in a long time,” he murmured and swallowed when she flattened her palm and stroked the layers of his feathers.
“Since Taylor?” She hated that thought.
Veiron’s red eyes flicked open. He shook his head. “Before her. She never touched me like this. I don’t think anyone has ever touched me the way that you do.”
Erin swallowed, suddenly aware that the only thing that stood between them was a thin duvet. Her pulse raced and blood heated. She kept stroking his crimson feathers, feeling their softness and warmth, savouring the way her touch had Veiron struggling to breathe. His chest heaved, muscles straining, and his eyes burned into her, hot with desire, pupils dilated and reflecting the hunger that she felt within her.
She shook, afraid of where this was leading but unable to bring herself to stop. Veiron was so handsome and strong, so masculine and powerful, immense, and she had felt drawn to him from the moment they had met. Taylor was right about him, but the woman didn’t know the depth of his feelings and warmth. Erin knew. When this man loved, he gave all of himself, and would do all in his power to protect the one he cherished.
Erin wanted to be that one for him.
She wanted to be the one who held him and gave him strength, and made him feel it was all right to let down his guard with her because she would never hurt him. She would cherish him, would do all in her power to protect him, just as he would her.
He reached out to her and she inhaled sharply as he caught her arm. He moved it aside and the covers fell away to reveal her bare breasts. Erin closed her eyes and swallowed when his hot hands moulded over her breasts and he groaned.
“I want you,” he husked and she moaned, nodded, shivered right down to her soul.
“I want you too.” She barely finished her sentence before his mouth swooped on hers and he had her pinned to the bed beneath him, kissing the breath from her.
CHAPTER 12
Veiron’s hands came to rest on either side of Erin’s head and pressed hard into the mattress, his body poised above hers. Erin lay beneath him, her eyes fixed on his, mesmerised by how the fiery flakes swirled against their blood red backdrop. Strands of his crimson hair fell down to brush his cheek and caress his forehead, giving her an excuse that she was quick to take. She raised her hand and swept them away, her fingertips lightly brushing his golden skin.
Crimson wings framed him, spread wide so they drifted down on either side of her, blocking her view of the room and keeping her focus solely on Veiron.
He was beautiful.
Black pupils swallowed some of the colour in his irises, conveying his desire as clearly as the rigid length pressed between her legs. All that separated her and his delicious body was a thin sheet and his jeans, and Erin wanted to tear both items away. She ached with the hunger to run her fingers over every inch of Veiron’s bare flesh and to follow her hands with her mouth, tasting his skin and putting all of him to memory. She burned to explore him and seek out the things that gave him the most pleasure. What would make him close his eyes and hiss in satisfaction? The brush of her nails over his pebbled nipples? The swirl of her moist tongue over the soft blunt head of his cock? A rough thrust of her hand down his rigid length? Did he like a gentle lover or a savage one?
Erin wanted to know it all.
She wanted to know all of him.
Veiron leaned down towards her, his long dark lashes falling to shutter his beautiful irises. Erin raised her hands and gently ran her palms down the arch of each crimson wing, delighting in the softness of his feathers. Veiron stopped dead, his breathing a trembling unsteady sound that equally delighted her. Taylor was wrong about this man. He didn’t need a strong lover, not in the way Taylor had meant. He needed someone strong of heart, someone who shared the depth of his emotions and his need for more than just physical contact when making love.
He needed someone who accepted all of him, who felt as strongly as he did, ruled by their emotions and desires.
Erin was that woman.
She lowered her hands, brushing his feathers, and dropped them to his shoulders. From there, she coursed them up his strong thick neck to his cheeks and settled them close to the straight cut of his jaw and held him, waiting for him to emerge and look at her. His lashes slowly lifted, revealing his breathtaking eyes, and they locked with hers.
Erin gently drew him down to her. He moved slowly and with infinite care, lowering himself to his elbows and supporting his weight off her. She held his gaze, bringing him closer, until his breath mixed with hers and she could no longer focus on him. Then she closed her eyes, raised her head and swept her lips across his.
He moaned and shuddered, his reaction more intense than when she had touched his wings for the very first time.
Erin kept her hands against his face, holding him at a distance, stopping him from seizing control of the kiss. She had no doubt in her mind that he could if he truly wanted to, but he seemed content to let her have her way. She lightly brushed her lips across his, teasing him with the whisper of contact, and savoured the taste of him, all masculine heat and spice. He groaned, fisted his hands in her short dark hair and ground against her. That was cheating. Erin’s attempt to keep things high in the emotional side of intimacy failed. She swung straight over to the physical, driven by the feel of his long hard cock rubbing between her thighs and his fingers tangling in her hair. She tried to keep the kiss light but slipped and found herself craning her neck and plunging her tongue into his mouth.
Veiron snarled, tugged her head back and kissed her. Really kissed her.
Erin couldn’t remember the last time a man had dominated her and she had enjoyed it so much. His tongue thrust past her lips and teeth, hot and probing, forcing her into submission and stealing her breath. One strong hand left her black hair and pushed beneath her, settling in the arch of her back. He dragged her up to him, so hard that not a wisp of air remained between them and she could feel every sexy inch of naked steely muscle pressing against her bare flesh. His fingertips dug into her back, his grip sending thoughts of him holding her forever and never letting her go through her mind.
Possessive.
It thrilled her.
Veiron slanted his head and kissed that thought away. Every rational thought left with it, vacating her head, forced out by an intense need to surrender to her passio
n and desire for this man. If she did, it would be the most incredible experience of her life.
“I need to taste you,” he whispered against her lips, voice roughened by passion, hunger filling each syllable.
Erin could only moan her response, feeling his need echo deep in her veins. She needed to taste every inch of him too.
He devoured her jaw, mouth hard and rough, and followed the line of her neck. He paused near her collarbone, licking the flickering pulse point on her throat. Erin shuddered and couldn’t stop herself from wrapping her legs around his hips. He groaned and she tightened her grip, thighs pressing hard against his hips, feet hooked over his backside.
Veiron pulled on her hair again, bending her head right back, and pressed his tongue into her vein.
“Fuck, I need to taste you.” He growled and wrapped his lips around her throat, tongue laving and teasing, hot and wet against her flesh.
A light clicked on in Erin’s head. He wasn’t talking about the sort of tasting she was. Simple licking and kissing, and maybe the odd nip with blunt teeth wasn’t at the forefront of his mind.
Veiron wanted to bite her.
Taylor had never mentioned Veiron doing such a thing during lovemaking. Had he never done such a thing with her?
Erin swallowed and didn’t respond, fearing that if she so much as moaned at the wrong time he would take it as an invitation to sink razor-sharp red teeth into her flesh and suck her blood.
He moved on, kissing down her chest, descending towards her breasts. He groaned when he reached them and released his grip on her back and her hair, sending her sinking into the mattress. Erin idly stroked his wings, her knees against his waist, and watched him as he pulled one beaded nipple into his mouth and covered her other breast with his hand. He squeezed and kneaded it, all the while suckling her other nipple, a look of sheer bliss on his face.
What was wrong with this picture?
Erin wouldn’t have thought it but the wings put it right there in her head.
Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 5) Page 13
