Ardeur (Abbey of Angels)

by Danielle Gavan

  “Okay, what's up?” The smile on my face faltered at the serious look on his. I hated that I was so insecure, but there it was.

  One of his big hands came up to caress the frown lines on my forehead. He smiled at me and bent to kiss the worry away. “What's wrong, Goldie?”

  “I'm sorry; I'm not good at this stuff.” I looked into the warm hazel pools of his eyes and thought how easily it would be to drown in them. “I know. Insecure much? Me? Shocker.”

  Strong arms wrapped around my shoulders and cuddled me close to his chest as he spoke into my hair. “Don't worry about that, baby, you're all I see.”

  “Really?”

  “You have no idea.” Brody sighed and it ruffled the thick strands of my hair below his chin. “I can't get you out of my head; you're all I think about, all I smell.”

  He tilted my face up to his and gave me a sweet, tender kiss designed to ease my worries and convey his emotions. It worked. “You make me feel, give me hope. I can't explain it, but I want you in my life. Can't imagine it without you.”

  It felt as if the skies had opened up and the angels were singing down on me. Brody had turned his face away from me and I could sense his fear of rejection. It made his energy hot and it sizzled up my spine like a live wire plugged into my nervous system.

  “You have no idea how happy that makes me, Brody. I never thought anyone would ever want me. I'm glad that it's you. I wouldn't want anybody else.”

  The kiss he gave me then was one of those that young girls sigh over in movies. The kind where, the hero puts one hand on the small of his lady love's back and the other in her hair before he bends her back and kisses her. A high-heeled foot pop was the only thing missing.

  I was waiting for the rainbows to shoot overhead when my stomach growled and the sound broke us apart. We laughed in surprise and fell to the grass together.

  “So what are we doing today, Goldie?” Brody grinned at me and pulled my hand into his. Puppy ran a steady one hundred and three degrees and holding hands with him was like holding the sun in my palm.

  You know, Puppy, that smile may just be the best damn thing on Earth. My stomach growled again and I flashed him a smile of my own. “Food. Steak and eggs. You game?”

  “Absolutely. If you're cooking, I'm all over it.”

  Nineteen

  Most evenings since my arrival at the Abbey, dinner was a raucous affair that consisted of everyone gathered around the large dining room table while fragrant platters and bowls of steaming food were passed around. I enjoyed these informal gatherings very much since they gave me the sense of family that I'd never had as I grew up.

  Remiele was usually the one who prepared our feasts, but tonight she was out on an errand that had called her away and she wouldn't be back until late. Her absence was what led me to be in the kitchen stirring a pot of rich, aromatic stew that I'd been working on since just after lunch.

  Almost everyone was either out on an errand or otherwise occupied, which left me to my own devices. Brody wasn't due back from his errand in town for another hour or two which gave me plenty of time to have dinner ready for him when he got back.

  Every waking moment my wolf and I had was spent together and our nights had come to be the same since the morning after Rae's attack on Brody. We'd moved my things to his room as if, by some unspoken arrangement, he had asked and I had agreed to move in with him.

  Technically speaking, we were just roomies who had an intense desire to cuddle with each other all the time. Our deciding to share a room when we did proved to be good timing when a group of elves appeared later that day in need of shelter.

  The hot sting of liquid burning my skin snapped me out of my thoughts when a bubble that had formed in the stew burst and splashed across the back of my hand.

  I was in the process of trying to heal my scalded hand when warm masculine laughter flowed over to me from the doorway.

  “You can't heal yourself.” Tate made his way over to where I stood by the sink and let his hand, glowing green with power, cover my own. The patch of raw skin was healed in seconds. “One of the few shitty parts about being an angel; you can save the world, but you can't save yourself.”

  “Thanks. Want some stew? I made enough to feed an army, or at least a hungry angel and a werewolf.”

  The big guy, who looked so much like his twin except for the jet black hair tied back in a tail at the base of his neck instead of wild and wooly like Rae's, sat down on a stool and glanced over at the pot that simmered and bubbled away on the stove.

  He nodded and waited until I had served up a big, heavy bowl of stew along with a thick slab of crusty bread smothered in golden, melting butter.

  The surprise on his handsome face at the obviously homemade food put a smile and a blush on my own face.

  “Where did you learn to cook like this?” He took a bite of the bread and I watched the blissful expression spread over his face while he chewed. “Did Martha Stewart hold you captive?”

  “No.” I laughed and added butter to my own slice of bread. “I worked in a few soup kitchens over the years. Sometimes a local chef would come in to help out and give lessons to those of us who showed an interest in cooking.”

  Tate swallowed a mouthful of stew and nodded. “You obviously paid attention. This is the best stew I've ever had.”

  “Thanks.”

  We sat and ate in companionable silence for a while, mutually enjoying our dinner without feeling the need to spoil the mood with small talk.

  Silverware clinking against porcelain bowls and the noises of chewing were the only sounds that intruded on the serenity of the evening meal.

  The cool breeze that blew in through the bank of windows helped to dissipate the heat from the oven and brought with it the wonderful smells of late summer that I loved so much.

  Basil, thyme, oregano and all the other herbs and spices that grew in neat rows just outside the kitchen perfumed the evening air with a pungent, spicy aroma and brought a smile to my lips while I cleaned up the mess I'd made.

  “So - I hear you've been training with Remi.”

  I continued scrubbing the heavy ceramic pot the stew had been cooked in and shifted my eyes up to meet his. “I have. Why?”

  His fingers worried at the handle of the ridiculous lavender Bugs Bunny mug that held his tea. Something weighed on his mind, that much was clear. “You've been an angel for, what, two weeks now?”

  “I have, and again I ask, why?” The pot was clean but I continued to scrub it anyway. I needed somewhere to focus the anxiety Tate's hesitation brought out in me. My control over the new powers I had was tenuous at best despite the hours I spent working on reining them in with Remiele.

  “Has she told you about your duties? What you'll be doing and how that will affect your life?”

  Now he had my full attention and the pot lay forgotten in the sudsy water. Duties? Life altering duties? I blinked at him, waited for further explanation.

  “Shit. I can't believe she hasn't told you and with time running out like this.” Metatron set his mug aside and looked at me with eyes that were stormier than usual.

  “Tate, what the hell are you talking about? What duties?”

  He refused to meet my eyes after that. Tate rose from his stool and paced the room, like a caged animal prowling its limited space. The kitchen was not a small room, but his stride ate up the distance between one wall and then next in no time.

  I watched him for a few minutes, reading the tense set of his shoulders, the twitch of the small muscle in the side of his jaw and the clenching of his big hands.

  “I'm an angel of death, aren't I? Jesus.” I shouldn't have been surprised. I had been dealing with death my entire life and now I had the blood of a death angel running through my veins. Why not be one myself? “Well isn't that just peachy?”

  Bubbles, water and crockery shards flew everywhere as my anger lashed out and struck first the pot in the sink and then spread like wildfire. Glassware in the cupboards sh
attered and popped - the sound of it like gunfire through the cupboard doors.

  Cutlery rattled in the drawers, the metal clinking together to form a symphony of chiming offset only by the rattle of the big knives in the block on the counter. It was this last that finally set Tate in motion to calm me down.

  “Ardy. Relax. You have a choice.” He had to yell over the din that my anger was creating and came around the counter to shake me out of it. “You have a choice.”

  The rough shake brought my teeth down on my tongue and it was the pain of this, rather than the shake itself, that forced me to release the anger and refocus my attention. “What do you mean? How do I have a choice?”

  Tate drew me around the counter and waited until I'd sat down on a stool before resuming his seat. “You weren't born a full angel so you have a choice in what kind you become. You have four weeks from the day that you are turned to break the bond or you become the same as your foster. In your case, an angel of death, like Azrael.”

  It was my turn to jump off the stool and pace. My feet carried me back and forth across the tiles while every brain cell worked to understand what Tate had told me.

  “Why am I just hearing about this now? I've got two weeks to break this bond and I have no idea how.” I stopped in midstride and whirled to face Tate. “Do you? Know how, I mean?”

  “No. It's different every time. The only problem is that to break the bond, you have to find the one thing that will have the most power to destroy it.”

  The synapses and neurons in my head were firing at maximum velocity to figure out what was powerful enough in my life to break the kind of tie that bound me to Azrael.

  Wheels crunching on gravel and the grumble of a powerful engine announced Brody's return before he even set foot inside the kitchen.

  Tate squeezed my hand and stood to leave. “Talk to your wolf and figure it out soon, Ardy. If time runs out, you'll be an angel of death and you won't be able to see him for a very, very long time.”

  He walked away as Brody entered the kitchen and was gone before I could ask him to explain further.

  “Goldie? Are you alright?”

  The back door closed with a snick of metal on metal as Brody's strong arms wrapped around me and cuddled me against the broad warmth of his chest.

  Hot, angry tears slid from my eyes and were absorbed by the thin cotton of his t-shirt. “Hey, don't cry. Tell me what's wrong baby and we'll fix it together.”

  “I don't want to lose you.” I clung to him and tried to absorb some of his feverish heat into a body that had gone cold with fear. “I don't want to face a life without you in it.”

  Brody stepped back and tilted my face up to his. Worry and confusion warred for space on his features; the telltale golden glow of his wolf backlit the hazel of his eyes. They searched my face for an explanation and came up wanting. “What are you talking about? I'm not going anywhere and if I were, I'd be taking you with me, sweetheart.”

  A fresh wave of tears started as I shook my head. “I'm leaving. If I can't break the bond between me and Rae in the next two weeks - I'll have to leave.”

  “What?” Angry and confused energy fizzed over my skin. The flare of his emotions heated his body, made me gasp and pull back again when it seared me everywhere we touched.

  I led him to the stools at the counter and had him sit while I explained what Tate had told me minutes earlier about the choice I had and what it would take to break the bond.

  “So - I have two weeks before I'm forced to leave you.”

  Brody did what he always did when he was nervous, he rubbed the back of his neck and the simple, familiar action brought a small smile to my face. “We'll figure it out. I won't give you up without a fight, Goldie.” He smiled at me and it warmed my heart like nothing else could. “You're mine and this wolf doesn't give up anything easy.”

  “I'm yours, hm?” I smiled back at him and quirked an eyebrow in question. “I don't recall you putting a mark or anything on me to make me your mate.”

  A low growl started in his chest, his eyes backlit again by the golden glow of his wolf pacing just below the surface. “Mine.” The voice was Brody's but it was underlined by the rough growl of the wolf and the possession in his tone sent shivers down my spine. “Mine.”

  I knew if I backed down, the wolf in Brody would lose respect for me so, I stood my ground and thrust my chin out defiantly. “I'm not wearing your ring or your mark.” The gold in his eyes filled out until it obliterated any trace of his normal hazel. “You're wooing me, but you're running out of time, Puppy.”

  “You. Are. Mine.” Each word punched out between us in more of a growl than I'd expected.

  A surprised yelp echoed through the kitchen as Brody picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and spun on his heel toward the door.

  Brody's heavy boots thundered on the polished oak floors and up the stairs. The heat of his hands, one across the back of my thighs and the other on my ass, burned through my jeans as he steadied me while he all but ran us to his room.

  I watched his foot kick the door closed from my upside down vantage point and shook my head, the golden ends of my hair brushing the backs of Brody's denim clad calves. His other hand came up to palm my ass and the next moment I was sliding down the front of him. My thighs wrapped around his waist and gripped tightly.

  Judging by what I bumped up against - I was in for one hell of a ride.

  Twenty

  Brody growled Ardeur's name while his nose and lips ran up and down the arch of the most gorgeous neck he'd ever seen. He wondered how his luck could ever have changed to be good enough to, not only have found her, but to have her love him as well.

  Small hands bunched in his shirt and pulled upward to bare the ridges of his stomach. “On the bed. I want to feel your skin on mine, Puppy.”

  Those words and the grind of Ardeur's hips against the hard, thick bulge inside his pants turned him around to prop the delicate woman wrapped around him against the door. He growled and pulled off her shirt, his hips parrying with hers thrust for thrust.

  “Your rules, Goldie.” Brody's shirt hit the ground right behind Ardy's and he leaned in to kiss her while backing them toward the bed.

  His hand explored the concave dip of her belly up the creamy soft skin of her ribs. Brody knew she was ticklish there but Ardeur gave no indication of laughing as his fingers brushed over her skin. He cupped the swell of a breast; the dusky pink tip of it was hard against his palm.

  The wolf was chomping at the bit to stake its claim. Mine. Brody dipped his mouth to claim Ardeur's in a heated kiss. Their tongues meshed, teeth bumping in the urgent need to get inside each other. He was trembling; his need to claim her held tightly in check. Slow. Can't rush or scare her. Slow.

  Keeping calm was becoming harder and harder with each touch of her hands on his chest, the ridges of his abdominal muscles. He felt alive under her touch as they stretched out on the bed, their bodies aligned as if made for each other.

  Ardeur moaned softly when he broke the kiss to trail smaller ones down over her throat. His blood was rushing so hard and fast that he almost missed it when she spoke. “Puppy.” She hesitated when his eyes flicked up to meet hers. “Those rules I mentioned?”

  “Anything you want, Goldie. Anything.” It was killing him to keep his body still while he waited for her next words but it was all worth it when she spoke next.

  “Ignore every damn rule I ever made about keeping clothes on. Please?”

  Her feet hooked in the waistband of his jeans and nudged them down over his backside.

  “Wait.” Brody turned and sat to remove his pants with his back turned to her. There was something in the pocket he'd been surprised she'd missed while their bodies ground together and he pulled it out now. He sat looking at the small, black velvet box until he felt a light touch in the middle of his back.

  “Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?” He heard the fear and uncertainty in her voice and felt like shit for putting it
there, but it couldn't be helped.

  He turned and faced her, his eyes devouring the beauty of the woman sitting half-naked on his bed. She was beautiful; her skin flushed with desire, her breasts rising and falling with each breath. “You didn't do anything wrong, baby. I did.”

  Ardeur's eyes rested on the box in his hand and he couldn't help but smile as he flipped it open and pulled out the antique diamond ring.

  “This belonged to my Ma. She told me that when I found the right girl, no matter how much my head fought it, my wolf would know it the minute we found her.” He smiled and held out his hand to her. “I don't think the wolf and I have ever been more in agreement on anything in my life than we are about how much we want you with us forever.”

  The light touch of her hand in his was all the answer Brody needed. He slipped the ring on the third finger and leaned down to kiss it. “It fits. Perfectly.”

  I looked from the ring on my finger to the man who'd put it there and back. I closed my fingers around his much bigger ones and tugged.

  “Come here and kiss me. Make love to me, Brody.”

  His eyes had gone back to hazel while he'd proposed and the gold flashed back into them at my words. Elation ran down my spine at the sight of his golden irises. I'd done that. Me.

  I ran my hand down between the two of us and brushed my fingers over the bulge in his underwear. The groan he gave up and the shudder that racked him told me just how much he wanted what I had offered. “I want you. All of you all over me.”

  “Thank God.” The words where whispered against the curve of my neck. Brody took his time with the removal of the remainder of our clothes. He left me in nothing but my bare skin beneath the heat of his gaze.

  Brody ran his hands over my legs, his touch slow and gentle on the way down. I watched with anticipation as he kissed his way back up my calf, over my knee and, finally my thigh.

  It was all I could do not to burst into a full body blush as his eyes stared at what lay at the apex of my thighs. His lips on my skin as Brody worked his way up my legs were like a brand searing his name everywhere they touched. “Brody, please.” I didn't know what he planned to do next, but I was so ready to find out.