A Heart's Chance

by Paula Calloway

  Marija slid her hand behind his neck and her fingertips brushed his nape. His groan into her mouth accompanied by the glide of his hands around her waist surged fire though her body. She flung back her head and broke their embrace.

  He trailed his mouth down her throat. “Marija, don’t stop me, please. I love you and I wish us to be a part of each other. You’re the reason I exist, live and stand before you.” His licks and nibbles at the hollow of her throat pure adoration, he eased his hands under the gossamer fabric and shuddered at the smoothness of her creamy flesh beneath his palms.

  She moaned. His hands glided up her body and cupped her full breasts. “What are you doing to me?”

  “Exploring your stunning physical beauty.” Cáel circled her areola with his thumb. “You are so beautiful in so many ways.”

  When his lips trailed down her chest, Marija straightened and fisted his hair. The heat of his breath pulsed shivers through her body. His lips encircled the attentive nipple. She uttered a broken groan as his hot mouth closed and suckled through her chemise.

  He placed a kiss on her heaving mound then met her tearful gaze. Concerned, he froze. “Marija?”

  “I’ve never experienced anything so…” Content, she sighed. “Wonderful. Show me more, please.”

  Cáel rubbed his thumbs over the pebbled bud. “My pleasure.” His palms slid up and coaxed her arms above her head with her lifted chemise. He trembled at the revelation of her seductive figure as the released gossamer fabric fluttered to the floor. Awed, he admired the flawless angelic beauty seated before his hungry body. Pink peaks beckoned his mouth while the curve of her waist and the slight swell of her lower belly called his hands. The lack of her undergarments stirred his blood.

  “Slide back to the middle of the bed, my love.” His gaze swept over her delightful figure. Her compliance revealed the seductive curve of her breasts, the heavenly flair of her hips and the divine roundness of her backside. He yanked his shirt over his head, tossed it aside, rose to his feet then sat on the bed and pulled off his boots.

  Marija leaned back on her elbows and admired the rippling muscles of his sculpted body. Her gaze traversed his veined forearms, the bulging muscles of his biceps and the wide expanse of his tan shoulders. She shivered at the tautness of his flat stomach, the narrowness of his tapered hips and the power of his long, lean legs. The flicker of the fire sparkled on his platinum hair.

  Cáel reached for the lacings on his pants and hesitated, his voice husky. “Not yet.” The bed dipped with the weight of his knee. He reveled in the shiver that stole over her and scattered gooseflesh over her silken skin. His every move slow, he crawled on his hands and knees until he closed the distance. Her body compelled to lay back, he placed one knee beside her curvaceous hip and the other between her shapely thighs. With her lips claimed in a kiss of passion, his tongue ravaged her mouth in calculated plunges for a lingered time.

  Their oral embrace broken, he nibbled a gentle trail down her throat. He paused at the valley between her ample bosoms, nuzzled a creamy mound and, with a growl, licked his way toward the hardened nipple. Hunger overpowered his self-control. Eager, he latched onto the sinful peak and suckled with gentleness. His angel delighted his senses in more ways than he ever dreamed.

  Her heart thundered in her ears, the heat of his body warmed her and his gentle, yet insistent mouth, enraptured her senses. She managed a broken utterance, “Cáel.”

  “Marija.” He laved her pebbled bud with oral adoration while his breath flowed over her bountiful breasts. The feel of her sweet nipple captivated as he sucked and kneaded the desired flesh. His every caress seductive, he nibbled a path down her belly and compelled her legs apart until his lips brushed the feathery down shielding her most intimate feminine treasure. In the blink of an eye, he slid between her thighs, slipped his shoulders under her backside and wrapped his arms around her hips. Ever gentle, he parted her soft silken folds.

  “Every part of my angel is so perfect, so beautiful.” With his attention fastened on the small hooded pearl, he delivered a gentle kiss followed by a slow lap. Her unexpected jolt forced him to secure his grip. He licked the length of her satin slit, his growl possessive. His angel tasted of heaven and sin, of pleasure and pain, of eternity and mortality. When his mouth latched onto her tender clit and his tongue performed an erotic duel with the succulent morsel, he closed his eyes and savored the sensuous caress of her against his tongue.

  His onslaught of pleasure filled her senses and spilled over her like a fierce firestorm in search of more. And more she desired. “Cáel.” She fisted his hair and tugged his head down. Her hips thrust up and met his plunge.

  His tongue delved deep inside and stroked her silky inner walls while he sucked with an eager hunger. Her convulsions accompanied her screamed orgasm and he collected every succulent drop of honeyed cream his angel proffered.

  Her fingers still woven through his long platinum locks, she tugged to direct him up her body. “Cáel.”

  “Yes, Marija?” Her actions ignored, he plunged his tongue deep and plundered her silken sheath with an appetite for her nectar yet unsated. The buck of her hips buried his face in her glistening folds and he relished her shuddered climax. Her grip on his hair lax, her body quivered with his touch, even his breath. He licked her clean and inserted his finger as he needed to widen her narrow passage for his swollen cock.

  Her breaths indicative of her impending release, he inserted a second finger and milked her toward an orgasm. He looked up at her and swiftly undid his pants with his unoccupied hand. “Trouble, my love?”

  She adored how his silver gaze mesmerized. “Cáel…”

  “That’s my name, Marija.” He slid up her body while he shucked his pants. A tremor pulsed through his veins at the feel of her hot folds against his stomach. “What do you wish, my lady?” Desperation shone in her emerald eyes. “Please what, my angel?”

  “Fix this… emptiness… this hollowness I feel growing in me.”

  His lips claimed hers in a kiss of passion as he plunged his tongue inside her mouth. He ravaged and savored her taste while the head of his shaft nudged forward until nestled at the velvet entrance of her inviting pussy. The overpowering sensation stole his breath and, with her shoulders held, he buried his face in the curve of her neck.

  She bucked against him. “Please…”

  “Patience, my angel.” He battled his need to plunge his hardness inside her when the desire to join them as mortals seized his very being. Aware only her confession of love for him united them in the celestial realm, he kept his penetration slow. At the point where fast meant less pain, he nipped her shoulder and thrust his thick length completely into her satin tunnel.

  She clutched his biceps and ignored the warm trickle where his skin broke. His blood washed over her fingertips and down her hands while she battled the stab of pain. “Oh god, Cáel!”

  “Marija…”

  “I’m all right.” She met his concerned gaze. “The emptiness is gone and the pain is fading.”

  He treasured the way her body held him and adjusted to his pulsing erection. “Hurting you was not my intention. And said pain only happens the very first time when a woman grants a man entrance.” Her slight shift earned his tremble as he closed his eyes and fought his urge to withdraw and plunge. His voice was rough, husky, “Marija, please, don’t do that. You’ll drive me beyond control.” With his blood willed from her hands and his outer body, he healed his small wounds.

  Perfectly still for another moment, she gasped when his veined shaft pulsed inside her body. His shudder rippled his skin beneath her palms. The feel of his thick, hard and long cock buried deep pulsed shivers through her body. She wiggled again. “Perhaps that is exactly what I want, Cáel.”

  “Forgive me, my love.” Pushed over the edge, he withdrew and slid back into her erotic sheath with a strangled groan. “You have no idea how good you feel, my love.” His hands gripped her shoulders and he repeated his action. The u
pward thrust of her hips met his downward plunge and earned his growl.

  “I want more.” She wrapped her legs around his waist and clutched his arms with her hands. “I want all of you.”

  “Woman.” He pulled all the way out and slid back into her velvet passage. “More?” Her nod compelled his reaction and he slammed deep. His every stroke buried his engorged hardness in the tight erotic pussy of the angel who could save his immortal soul from death with a declaration of love. “Give me you, Marija.”

  “Take me. Make me yours, Cáel!”

  “You are everything to me, my angel.” He pumped his ravenous thick length and stroked her hungry inner walls. When her muscles clenched down on his pumping erection, he clutched her shoulders and drove into her, his every thrust dynamic. Her climax slicked his rigid shaft and stole his control. At her mercy, he filled her with his seed and milked them dry.

  Chapter Twenty

  Cáel nuzzled into her neck and reveled in her thundering pulse beneath his lips. “We were meant to be together since the beginning of time and my love for you has been steadfast since then. I love you.”

  Marija bit her lip and stroked his hair while she summoned her courage. “You’re nothing like my mother said a man is.”

  His heart plummeted at her evasion. “Your mother suffered a rough young life and never let go of her past. She denied your father a fair chance. You must not hold it against her, my love.” He longed to show her his true form, to share with her his wings, to give her the immortality her soul long ago surrendered in exchange for the experience mortal life offered. If only his angel returned his feelings. When the push of her hand against his shoulder signaled him to rise, he complied.

  She sat up. Magnificent remained an understatement for the handsome man in her bed, the man she married and the man who took from her all physical traces of girlhood. A fire surged through her and a barrier inside her crumbled.

  Cáel stood, crossed the floor and stared out the window. “I love you.”

  Marija stared at his back. “Cáel?”

  “Yes, my love?”

  “I love you, too.”

  The mere whisper of her words snatched his breath and Cáel froze. His heart skipped a beat. Hope filled him for if her words were real, he would be free to save his angel from death’s grip.

  Marija slid to the edge of the bed. “I mean that.”

  Fearful any move he made, even the attempt to wipe aside the tears that trekked his cheeks, might send her fleeing from the room, he licked his lips. He closed his eyes, his voice strained, “Do you?”

  She stood, crossed the distance between them and faced him. A teardrop on his chin and another at the corner of his mouth ripped through her heart. Ever gentle, she reached up and wiped aside the one on his chin then slipped her hand behind his neck and drew him down. Her adoration unspoken, she kissed away the salty droplet at his lips, met his gaze and was drawn into the silver pools. “You’re crying.”

  His tremble uncontrolled, Cáel swallowed hard. “You’re words are a dream I feared never hearing, a dream I feared losing, a dream I never wish awakened from.”

  Marija smiled. “I love you, Cáel.”

  He dropped down on his knees, grasped her waist in a desperate hold and clutched her close. “Don’t leave me.”

  The very fact this man knelt on his knees, his hold tightening with every breath his lungs heaved, tore through her soul. “I can’t.”

  Cáel looked up at the loveliest creature to ever grace heaven and earth. “Two years ago, a young girl barreled into the woods in fear and anger. She fell from her charging horse. I took on the form of Frost, a snow dragon, and saved her from some hungry wolves. She asked for my help in keeping her from being traded in the game of wealth and power.” He lifted the haze implanted over the memory and waited until recollection stole over her face.

  Marija blinked. “We met before?”

  He nodded. “I kept my word. I waited until your freedom was threatened by a greedy man.”

  “You shifted into a dragon?”

  Cáel sighed. “I possess the gift to change my form as needed.”

  Marija pried his hands from around her and stepped back. “What is your true form?”

  “What you see except for one thing.”

  Uneasy, she stepped back again. “What thing?”

  Cáel stood. “Wings.”

  Marija shivered. “W-wings?”

  “I’m a seraph, my lady.”

  “What exactly is a seraph?”

  “An angel of the ninth realm. One of the highest ranked celestials.” Cáel willed calm over her and welcomed the visibility of his wings unfurled from behind his back.

  Marija stared in awe and eased behind the prince. Tentative, she approached and eyed the feathered white wings. Hesitant, she touched her fingertip to one feather. She snatched back her hand. A shudder rippled his muscles beneath his flesh. Ever so gentle, she trailed her hand over the bend then down part of the length of one wing. Each soft and downy feather was softer than anything she ever encountered.

  His whisper was affectionate, “You’re tender touch has been missed so very much, my love.”

  “You felt that?”

  “I feel everything you do to me.” Cáel shuddered when her palm glided over his back and between where his wings anchored at his shoulder blades. His muscles again rippled under her caress and he fought the urge to sweep her into his arms and hold her forever. The absence of her touch left him lonely.

  Marija circled and stood before her lover. “You really should have said six things since you have three pairs of wings. You told me where a seraph is from and what they are, but not why.”

  He smiled sadly. “In the celestial realm, we split eons ago. The masculine stayed as the curious and nurturing feminine explored. So few of you returned home, we became forced to hunt you, to track you. The feminine, an angel, compliments of corporeality, passed to a new body when the old expired. The masculine, a seraph, was granted one immortal body for all time. We lost many and fast realized without the feminine, the masculine died. Many a seraph suffered horribly without their beloved angel.”

  “How terrible.”

  Cáel refrained from embracing his angel. “If a body possessed by an angel is murdered, a seraph’s wings blacken and fall. He is then mortal, ages and dies. Neither is complete without the other and such absence is promised death. If the male finds his soul mate and she confesses her love, his shielded wings unfurl. When death claims her body, he sheds his, wraps her in his wings and takes her to their celestial realm.”

  Marija shivered. “Was exploring so important everything must be risked?”

  “Yes. As celestials, we watched over humans and longed for the emotions they shared or endured, the physical things they enjoyed or suffered and we wanted a better understanding of the beings we protected as such helped us rationalize why humans made the choices they did.”

  “We loved humans enough to sacrifice our own hearts?”

  “Celestial beings possess a strong love.” Cáel paused. “For not revealing the truth from the start, I beg your forgiveness and, in the name of all that’s fair, offer you the right to dismiss me. Do you wish me gone, my lady?”

  Marija stared. Something older than time itself stirred long buried memories inside her soul. “Why would I?”

  He pushed a strand of hair from her face. Her eyes aged with wisdom while her soul recalled a long lost past. “For fear of what was hidden, of what else I might be hiding, of what I may hide in the future.”

  She stepped close, pressed her breasts against his chest, captured his hands and pressed his palms to her waist. Her arms slipped around his neck and she leaned against his body. “To keep me from slipping away now and forever more, embrace me.”

  His response swift, Cáel wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tight. “I can’t live without you. I chased your soul across many realms and times, through wars and more.” He slid his hands to her hips, dro
pped down on his knees and gazed up into her lovely face. “Please don’t leave me for such condemns me to hell.”

  Marija cupped his face. “How can I leave a man who did all you have for me? Hold me.”

  On his feet in the blink of an eye, he embraced his angel. “Forever.” He spread all six of his wings and enfolded her in the soft warmth of his downy feathers.

  She glanced over her shoulder at her white shield. Her touch gentle, she brushed her fingers over his feathers. “So soft.” With her head and hand rested against his chest, she smiled. “I think I like being your wife.”

  Cáel nuzzled the top of her head with his cheek. “I’ll do everything in my power to keep you happy, my love.” He relished the opportunity of their aging together for only when the mortal coils of her body fell away and unleashed her soul could he shed his earthly shell and collect her soul to him for their ascension into the celestial realm to share eternity.

  Content more than ever before, Marija tilted her face and met his silver gaze. “Make it official with the grand ceremony you spoke of.”

  “Done.” With a wave of his hand, he willed her dressed in a gown of fairytale dreams, unearthly shimmer and celestial beauty. His outfit matched to hers, he stood them in a meadow of wildflowers as roses and orchids marked their pathway.

  The cerulean blue lake rippled by the white of the rushing water from the falls on one end created a crystalline centerpiece. She glanced down at her dress then his clothes and finally his face. “This really is paradise.”

  His adoration openly reflected on his face, Cáel smiled. “Of all that dwells in the celestial realm, nothing compares with the beauty of the wife I have. I love you, my angel.”

  Marija cherished how her heart danced at his words. “And I love you, too, my seraph.”

  About the Author

  Born in Pennsylvania in 1963, Paula Calloway became an army wife in 1989 and has one daughter born in 1991. Residing in Tennessee with her husband, Garrett, and daughter, Carole, and nephew, Logan, she enjoys computers, gaming, ponding and writing.