“It’s not worth it. Let’s just go, okay?” Fresh tears rolled down my cheeks, and I swiped at them with my arm angrily. I was sick of crying. Sick of always being some sad damsel.
With one last look of barely contained violence at the theater doors, Blue nodded and started toward the car.
We drove home in silence. Azriel sat beside me, cupping my hand in his, making little circles on my palm with his thumb.
My past might be gone, and my present might be pretty perilous, but my future was full of love. And that was something worth fighting for.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Despite my resolution in the car, the sadness hung over me for the rest of the day. I missed Gus and Memphis, and Azriel seemed at a loss. Blue did what he could, but he solved problems with violence, not with emotions.
I was on my third bowl of ice cream when Azriel stood in front of me, in the way of my Golden Girl’s reruns. Right now, I didn’t care if the creamy, sugary goodness went straight to my ass. I was dating four guys, so getting a chunky butt from over consumption of ice cream just meant there was just more of me to love, right?
“I do not understand you, Hope Jones.” He sounded perplexed.
“Join the club, buddy,” I quipped back, but instantly felt guilty. “Sorry. What don’t you get?”
He continued to stare down at me like I was a puzzle again, like he had when we’d first met. “How you can be strong and fearless in the face of the Archangel, survive the very place designed to break you, yet you fall apart at the words of a selfish man-child? You are better than that.”
I spooned another mouthful of ice cream, holding Azriel’s gaze defiantly. He didn’t understand, couldn’t understand the connections I had lost, the years of memories that would forever be tainted. Unfortunately, in my defiance, I’d completely missed my mouth, dripping ice cream down my chin and all over my t-shirt. Dammit.
I sighed and grabbed a tissue, wiping at the chocolate syrup. That was probably going to stain. “You don’t get it. I’m not…” my words trailed off as he leaned forward to lick the ice cream from my chin. Woah.
“You are not what?” he asked, tasting the ice cream from the corner of my mouth.
I held my breath. “Strong. I’m not strong enough to say no.”
I wasn’t strong enough to say no when desire burned through both of us, Azriel’s feelings laid bare to me like an offering. He was so certain, although that certainty was colored by a fear of the unknown.
He pulled back a little until he was staring at me, the desire in his eyes like a punch to the chest. “Then say yes, Hope, and let me be your strength too. Trust in my sureness.”
We had the place to ourselves. Blue was out buying milk and coffee and every carbohydrate-laden treat I could fit on the shopping list. This was the moment. The moment where lives changed.
But Azriel was wrong. I was weak and I wanted it all.
I captured his mouth with mine, and suddenly my hands were furiously tearing at his clothes like they’d taken leave of my brain and were acting on their own.
I should take this slow, ease him gently into it, but I was worried if I wasn’t totally consumed by him, that I’d start second guessing him and myself. Luckily, Azriel was right there with me, muttering about stupid human clothes as he got my shirt stuck on my chin.
By luck or magic, I managed to get his shirt off. I stilled and sucked in a breath.
He was so damn perfect. The smooth expanse of his chest tapered down into his stomach, the light grooves of his abdominals just perfection above the cut V that led the way into the torn jeans he’d loaned from Gusion. His perfect white wings were spread out behind him, and looking at them took my breath away, halting my frenzied quest to get him naked.
“Are you sure?” I whispered. I wanted no regrets.
He stepped closer, until the warmth of his skin pressed against my hands. “I am very sure, Hope. What I feel for you is…” he frowned as he struggled with the words. “Right. It is meant to be.” He unclipped the front clasp of my bra, letting my breasts fall into his hands. His eyes went huge, and if this wasn’t such an important moment, I would have laughed at the look on his face.
Even so, I let out a gentle chuckle and led him back toward the bedroom. The first time wasn’t going to be on the couch like we were a couple of horny teenagers.
Blue had made the bed and straightened my room after our movie marathon. I don’t know when or how, but it was immaculate again. But that was Blue. He needed everything to be orderly, to be in its place.
We stood beside the bed awkwardly. The frantic energy was gone, but the desire and need were still there. For the first time, Azriel looked out of his depth. I stood on my toes and kissed his lips softly, and when he kissed me back harder, I let him take control. I was with him every step of the way, but he was setting the pace.
His hands grabbed my hips, and slid up over my ribs until they sat just under my breasts. He pulled back and looked down as his hands cupped both of my boobs and squeezed lightly.
“Why are these so amazing? My brain knows they are just another piece of human flesh but every other part of me thinks they are the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. And I have seen a lot of things, Hope,” he argued. I wasn’t disagreeing. Actually, I was trying not to laugh as he moulded them with his hands.
I ran my fingers through the light blonde strands of his hair. “You know, it’s even more fun if you put them in you mouth,” I said as he ran his thumbs over the hard peaks of my nipples, making me shiver. He laid me back on the bed, and I giggled at his comical look of delight. But all mirth left me as he wrapped his lips around my nipple and sucked hard. Holy hell.
My giggles turned to moans and his wonder morphed into male satisfaction as he moved from one breast to the other.
Suddenly we were both too clothed. I arched against him as he licked and sucked at my nipple, and when he scraped my the sensitive bud with his teeth, I shuddered.
He grinned, his face still pressed into my breast. He seemed to notice there was more to my half naked torso then just than my breasts and moved downwards, his lips brushing along the slight swell of my stomach, his nose dipping into my navel.
I reached down and stroked the underside of his wings, and was reward with a full body shudder. “That feels very nice,” he mumbled against the skin over my hip. He’d reached the waistband of my jeans and stilled.
I hooked my fingers under his chin. “Are you sure?”
He nodded, and flicked open the button. I lifted my hips so he could tug them down and I kicked them off over my feet. Kneeling on the bed, he stared down at me, mentally cataloguing me, his eyes intense as they travelled over every inch of exposed flesh. When he got to my plain black underwear, he hooked them in his fingers and dragged them down excruciatingly slowly.
I had a moment of panic, of self doubt that I wasn’t enough. He was perfect, and he was about to fall from perfection. He needed someone perfect. I had scars, both physical and emotional.
He let out a low noise in his throat, his eyes no longer impassive. He knelt between my legs, and began his slow, inexplicably erotic exploration downwards. There was something both arousing and unsettling about another person studying what made you aroused with almost academic proficiency.
When Azriel reached my center he pulled back, staring at the most intimate part of my body not like an angel, but like a man. “Is this also more fun if I put it in my mouth?” he asked, the quirk of his lips telling me he already knew the answer and was just teasing me.
“You can always try it and find out,” I said, my voice more of a breathy gasp than teasing.
He took his time, leaning down, studying my vagina like it was a brand new species and he was David-Freakin’-Attenborough.
Finally, he leaned close enough that his breath cooled the wet heat of my pussy. His tongue darted out, rolling over my clit with pinpoint accuracy. Well, score one for the angels, I thought as I rolled my hips against his mo
uth. He was nothing if not thorough, and his tongue went to work, exploring, tasting and teasing me until I was a writhing mess. Maybe a clever tongue came with the wings.
My fingers were twisted in his hair as he continued, and my moans were hitting a desperate pitch.
“Azriel,” I gasped out as my orgasm climbed. He made a low growly noise against my clit and that was it. I was gasping as pleasure flooded through my body in waves. I panted as Azriel rested on his elbows, his wings spread wide across the bed as he watched me come.
I grabbed his face and pulled him up my body, hissing as the rough fabric of his jeans pressed into my sensitive flesh. They were going to have to go ASAP. I kissed him hard, tasting myself on his lips, and it was so erotic I felt heat pool low in my belly all over again.
“You need to lose the pants, Angel-Boy,” I laughed. He stood, grinning at me. That smile transformed him. Lifting his wings from the ground, he shucked his jeans.
I gasped. Not at his dick, which I wasn’t going to lie was as perfect as the rest of him.
On the tips of his wings was a burnt orange color smudging the edges, the color of the last rays of a sunset. It was as beautiful as it was devastating. Subconsciously, I knew his wings would change when he fell. Well, I at least suspected they would. But the physical representation of his falling was a harsh reminder.
Azriel stared at the color staining his wings, and smiled. Actually smiled. Boobs had obviously fried his brain. My Azriel was a rule follower, he didn’t smile at evidence of his fall from grace. “Why are you smiling?”
He knelt back on the bed and crawled up toward me, nestling his delightfully hard body between my thighs. My brain fuzzed and I almost forgot the question. “I was worried they’d be an ugly color. Like sewer brown or slush covered snow.”
“You aren’t sad?”
He looked at me quizzically, then his gaze traveled downwards, between our naked bodies. “I am the opposite of sad.” He took a deep breath, his body lining up with mine. Then he stilled.
“Uriel made a child.”
Well, that was a completely unsexy thing to say. “Yes?”
“What if I…”
Oh. Well, I guess it was probably something we should consider. But I’d been making love to Memphis and Gus for weeks and I wasn’t knocked up by demon spawn just yet. I was reasonably sure that whatever voodoo had made Uriel suddenly fertile had less to do with Uriel and more to do with whatever the hell Sera was.
I wasn’t 100% sure, but I was willing to take the risk I was wrong. Would a tiny little Azriel be the worse thing in the world?
“It will be fine. We’ll discuss it with Gus and Memphis when they get back,” I said, rolling my body against his, because quite frankly, I couldn’t help it.
He leaned forward and kissed me. There was no doubt on his face, nothing but carnal desire. I pushed against his chest, stopping him one more time. “Are you sure?” There might be still a way to go back, if that’s what he wanted.
In answer, he slid into me in one smooth glide until he was buried balls deep. I let out an involuntary moan, and threw my head back, but I made myself keep my eyes open. I wanted to watch his face as he experienced this sensation, and for a moment, he let his walls completely down. I felt everything; the pleasure, the restraint, the raw emotion he felt when he looked at me. Unguarded passion.
It was beautiful.
He slid back and thrust in again, finding a rhythm that came naturally to even angels. Soon, I was too caught up in the moment, in the sensation of our combined emotions and the feel of our bodies dancing, to worry about whether I was going to go directly to hell for killing an angel and making another fall. It felt too right to be wrong.
I wrapped my legs around his waist, pressing him closer to me. His thrusts were getting harder, more ragged, and I was climbing.
“Hope.” His guttural plea was the best thing I’d ever heard, and my nails dug into his shoulders as I held on, my orgasm sweeping through me, tearing me to pieces and putting me back together again as someone different. Azriel let out a long, low groan as my orgasm coaxed his own, and he buried himself in me, our bodies so connected I could feel every hitched breath and the rapid thud of his heart.
It wasn’t the wildest sex, or some kind of marathon. But I felt our souls knit together in a way that scared me.
He buried his face in my neck as he heaved in breaths and I searched his emotions for anything resembling regret. I found none. But there was fear. I hugged him close to me, my arms banded around his back.
“Azriel…” I started, needing to fill the silence. But he lifted his head, and he looked perfectly content.
He leaned forward and kissed me. “I understand.”
“What?”
“Why they fell. Why Luc went to such great lengths to return Acerezeal to her place. Why they hate me so.”
He rolled so he was lying beside me, and I snuggled into his chest. “There is always time to change. And they don’t hate you.” He raised a single eyebrow. “Okay, maybe a little, but it is just hurt feelings. And that you stole Ace’s soul. And that you stabbed my Mom. It’s all water under the bridge now.” I looked over his shoulder, and gasped again. “Your wings!”
They were no longer just dusted with burnished gold. They were the colors of a fiery sunset. Deep indigo up near his shoulders, slowly changing into a deep orange color before being golden on the end. They were magnificent.
He looked over his shoulders, his heart thundering against my cheek. Finally, he nodded once and turned back to me. “They aren’t bad.”
I shook my head. I kissed his chin and tucked myself right along his body.
“Not bad at all,” I whispered back, and kissed him again. Maybe I’d introduce him to doggy style.
When we emerged a few hours later, because quite frankly I was starving, I was surprised to see Gus and Memphis were back. They lounged on my couch, watching baseball and drinking beer with Blue. It was the most domesticated scene I’d ever witnessed. They all looked in our direction, and I felt Azriel tense for a fight. Blue gave me a smile and went back to watching the baseball, but Memphis and Gus stood, coming over to kiss me.
“I missed you guys,” I said to Memphis, who pressed a kiss to my cheek and then my lips. “How is Luc?”
Memphis shrugged, and let out a long sigh. “There is no cure for those kind of nightmares, Hope. Not even time. But I’m pretty sure Estrella and her consorts have taken refuge, because Acerezeal’s version of therapy involves having coitus on every available flat surface.”
Gus laughed. “And a few unavailable ones. Hence why your twin has had to barricade off their wing of the palace.” He wrapped me in a hug that lifted me off my feet. “I’m jealous, Pretty Girl.”
My eyes widened. Of all the men in my life that I thought would be jealous of Azriel, Gusion had been at the bottom of the list. “Gus–”
“I’m jealous his wings are prettier than mine,” he interrupted, mock pouting.
“Stop fishing for compliments Gusion, you all have beautiful wings,” I laughed.
“Except the Mulligan,” Memphis stated.
“I just have a beautiful dick.” Blue added. “I’ve got nachos in the oven. Sorry, I don’t know how to cook. I can kill a man in under ten seconds without a weapon, though.”
Azriel’s lip quirked. “An enviable life skill,” he said. He turned to Gus and Memphis. “Did Blue fill you in about the girl?”
All mirth left their faces. The timer for the oven went off and I walked into the kitchen. I got a couple of beers from the fridge, and made a quick garden salad to go with the nachos. Of course, Blue may only make nachos, but it was meticulously prepared. I was fairly certain even the corn chips were symmetrically aligned. Blue wandered into the kitchen, his eyes dipping to the spot where we made love on the floor. Hot images of our chase through the apartment heated my cheeks. We were definitely going to have to do that again very soon.
Apparently, Blue had the same idea
, because no sooner had the thought entered my mind, then I was backed up against the island bench, one leg over Blue’s hip and his mouth all over mine. He kissed like he fucked; with absolute control and dominating precision.
“Soon, Princess.” It was a simple promise, but then I was back on two feet, slightly out of breath and holding myself up with my elbows on the bench. He grabbed the plates down from the shelf and walked back into the living room, but I saw the bulge in his black jeans. Yeah, I wasn’t the only one a little revved from out stolen kiss. I grabbed the salad and followed him, and stopped in the doorway. They all sat around the table, all four of them, the angels with their wings hanging over the back of the chairs, and Blue looking completely at ease. This could work. I could make this work.
But first, Uriel had to die.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Eventually, Luc had to return to the apartment. Ace came first and made sure we had the sword well hidden. I’d stuffed it in my laundry hamper, so deep under my dirty clothes and Blue’s stinky socks that not even a sniffer dog would be able to track it down.
Memphis watched the whole ritual with a horrified expression. Azriel had to actually leave the room. The blasphemy just kept rolling in my apartment.
Finally, Luc appeared. He looked uncomfortable, almost embarrassed. I wanted to hug him, but that was probably a one-off thing. Instead, I handed him a beer, even though it was only one in the afternoon. The rules of propriety didn’t really apply to the Devil.
He thanked me, then looked over my head to Azriel. Because I stood so close, I could hear his sharp intake of breath, but otherwise there was no outward display of shock at Azriel’s fall.
He smiled, looking between us. “Welcome, Brother. It is nice to have you back with us, finally,” he looked down at me. “But if you hurt her, I will tear your wings off and feed you to the Specters in the Seventh Circle. Clear?”
Hell's Redemption- The Complete Series Boxset Page 85
