“Are we going to have a war?” Abdiel asked remembering the last civil war that had taken place in Hell. That had been when Lucifer had revolted.
“Nobody’s formally declared it, but we are coming close. The council wants to either have total control of the Order or to disband it. As leader of the angel warriors, I cannot allow that. The Order is supposed to help balance the power while protecting mankind. The council members want to use it to promote their own agendas.”
“So what are you going to do now, Michael?” Cam was still shooting him dark looks as he asked his question.
“The better question would be what are we going to do?”
Cam gave him suspicious glare. “What are you talking about?”
“You, Raphael and I need to visit all the angel warriors’ homes and see where their loyalties lie.”
“You’re crazy if you think I’m going anywhere with you.”
“I think it would be good for you to get away from everybody and get your head together. This mission will do that.”
“So you get me back from Hell and all of a sudden you want to be my protective uncle now?” Cam shook his head in disgust. “Are you going to insist that we spend quality time together now? We could go to the ballpark, maybe go bowling together, or better yet I could sit on your lap while you teach me how to drive a car.”
Rachael let out a loud peal of laughter. When everyone in the room turned to look at her, she quickly recovered and coughed into her hand.
“Sorry about that.” She blushed. “I just got a visual of that last one in my head.”
Michael and Cam continued to give her identical looks of annoyance. Now that Abdiel knew that they were related, it was easy to see how much a lot of their expressions and movements were the same. In fact, Cam looked a lot like Michael, especially now that he had gone through the change.
Michael turned back to Cam. “The way I see it, is until you get a grip on yourself your dear Uncle Mike is going to be on you like white on rice, kiddo. I am not about ready to stand by and watch my nephew slowly destroy himself. You need to remember that you are the leader of the empaths now. You have responsibilities and other angels looking up to you.”
“I’ve been trying, Michael. I’ve been going to all those stupid council meetings, haven’t I?”
“Yeah, and you’ve been making a great impression too.” Now it was Michael’s turn to lay on the sarcasm. “Especially when you make that game show wrong answer buzzer sound whenever Jehel talks. Now get ready to leave because Raphael is waiting for us.”
“All right, I’ll go.” Cam snapped his teeth together. “But, just for the record, this totally sucks.”
“Noted.” Michael gave him a brief smile before he turned to the others. “I need to know where all of you stand. Are with me or the council?”
“You know I will always stand by you, Michael,” Abdiel said formally.
He bowed down to the chief showing his allegiance. The brothers followed suit, all swearing their loyalty and sword arm to Michael. Cam came up last, he bowed the lowest.
“Please forgive me for doubting you, Michael,” he said without lifting his head. “I swear to follow wherever you lead me.”
Barakiel was still sitting at the table. He looked over at Rachael and mouth, so much drama, before he rolled his eyes. She clapped her hand over her hand to hide the smile. Bear stopped grinning when he realized that Michael was looking at him.
“Sorry?” he tried.
Michael rubbed his head like it ached. “You need to formally declare your side too, Barakiel.”
“Oh, yeah right.” He hopped down and bowed at Cam’s feet, all of a sudden he became as serious as a heart attack. “I vow to always stay by your side, my Lordship.”
“Bear get up, you don’t have to bow to me,” Cam sputtered out.
“Yes, he does,” Ana said before she too bowed down to him. Since she was no longer a justice angel, she was now considered an empath too.
Cam had no choice but to awkwardly acknowledge their pledges of loyalty. It was clear that he had a lot to learn about leading and it seemed like Michael had decided to be the one to teach him.
“Who else do you think will be on our side?” Abdiel asked.
“The entire force of the enforcers, all the angel warriors, half the angels up in Heaven, and half the shifters.” Michael tossed the baseball over to Ana. She looked surprised but easily caught it. “The big problem is I suspect that Jehel has some rogues and demons on his side.”
“So do we.” Cam flashed his fangs.
“Were you really the original Control?” Gabi asked as Abdiel came and wrapped his arms around her.
“Yes, I was.” He looked at the Lehors. “I have never forgiven myself for losing your mother. When they destroyed her and your father, I decided that the next Control would be better prepared. That’s why I worked so hard to make sure Abdiel was ready.”
“You knew all along that I was going to be the Control? What else do you know?”
“I know lots of things. Like that Cam should not offer his help so much because someone is going to take him up on his offer when he least expects it. I also know that Ana needs to pack an extra pair of pants with her before she leaves. Heck, I even know that Rachael should always make sure that she’s alone in the room before she dances to her IPod. The one thing I don’t know is whether or not we are going to be able to beat the council. We need to prepare for hard times. I cannot guarantee that all of us will survive.”
Rachael put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side. “You are one confusing angel, Michael.”
“He’s right about one thing,” Abdiel told everybody as he hugged Gabi tighter. “Even though we destroyed Douma and Forcas, that was just the tip of the ice-burg, and now we don’t just have demons to worry about. We are going to have to fight our own kind.”
Later that night, Abdiel laid in bed on his side with Gabi pressed to his chest. They had just finished making love, and they were both naked. His hand was slowly caressing her softly rounded hip. Up and down, up and down, his fingers gently teased.
“Are you worried?” she whispered into the darkness. Her voice was warm, like honey.
He leaned down so he could drink in her scent, roses. It mingled with the smell of their lovemaking. “I’d be a liar if I didn’t say that I worried about you and the baby, but I have no regrets.”
“None?”
“My God, female, don’t you realize I would walk through the fires of hell to be with you?”
“Yes I do.” She rolled over. Her long, slender fingers danced across his chest. “I just like to hear you say it.”
He responded by tickling her. She wiggled underneath him while she let out peals of laughter. When he finished, she lay under him panting for air. He let out a hiss as her movements made him aroused. When she realized this, her beautiful green eyes became dark with desire. He used his lips and teeth to tease the side of her neck, right where he knew she loved it.
“It scares me to think of how close I came to never having you,” he admitted. “If Michael had not sent me to be your archangel, I never would have realized how much I love you. I would still be sad and miserable if it were not for you.”
She cupped his face in her hands and drew him in for a deep, sensual kiss. “But he did send you to me, Abdiel. Neither one of us will ever be alone again.”
~ End ~
About Stephani Hecht
Stephani Hecht has loved reading and writing ever since she was a small child and she would watch her mother and aunts lose themselves in the latest romance novel. She is the mother of a hockey playing son and a ballerina daughter. She shares the joys of parenting with her husband of fourteen years. Rounding out the family is her dog and the ugliest cat in history.
Visit Stephani’s website at www.StephaniHecht.com . She can be reached at [email protected]
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Tamora cast a spell to meet the love of her life—
but found the love of many lifetimes.
Second Time Around
© July 2007 by Veronica Wilde
Tamora Blackwell wants what every young witch wants—a sexy soul mate who’s passionate about both the Craft and her. But when a love spell brings two gorgeous brothers into her life, Tamora is flooded with memories of the past life in which they shared a painful love triangle—a medieval European life where one condemned the other two to burn at the stake for witchcraft.
The sexual attractions are fast and intense. But as Tamora struggles to understand the mysteries of reincarnation, she finds herself falling in love with one brother while falling in bed with the other. As temptation, jealousy and red-hot lust threaten to engulf all three, a shocking new tragedy settles the karmic debts between them—and teaches Tamora that true love never really dies.
Editor’s Note: This title contains very explicit sexual scenes and multiple partners.
Enjoy the following excerpt:
Trent’s voice broke the silence. “So what did she mean by a love spell? Was she, ah, implying that you…” His voice faded with embarrassment.
“Yes, she was implying I had worked my magic on you. Her assumption being that no one would side with me over her unless witchcraft was involved.” She glanced at him to see if he suspected her. Would Trent begin to question his interest in her?
“That’s crazy,” he said with a snort. “You all don’t really believe that, do you?”
“Believe what?” she asked. It was raining harder now and she pushed her wet hair over her shoulder. “In spells and magic?”
“Well—yeah.”
She stared at him. “Trent, we’re witches. Your mother was a witch. Not only do we spend a lot of time on our spell craft, but we know it works. We see the results in our lives every day.”
He rolled his eyes—privately, to himself, but she caught it. “Oh, I see,” she said. “Because you’ve never experienced it, it couldn’t possibly be real. We’re all just deluded crazies.”
“I didn’t say that,” he told her.
“But you were thinking it.”
“Oh yeah? And how do you know that—you read my mind with your witch power?”
They stopped in front of his house and glared at each other. His cold face glistened with rain, his stormy eyes brilliant in the streetlight. That thunderous sexual current began to ricochet between them, making her desire him one moment and despise him the next.
She shook her head furiously, her wet hair clinging to her shoulders. She was not attracted to Trent. She was not. He was close-minded and arrogant and materialistic and—
He grabbed her shoulders and kissed her then, his lips hot and strong and strangely familiar. Despite a voice of warning screaming in her head, she felt her body fuse with his, melting into the body heat radiating from beneath his clothes in the cold rain. Everything in the spring night, the fresh scent of wet daffodils and the damp earth and the collar of his shirt rough against her skin, faded away to the one sensation of his warm tongue shyly probing hers. Then he pulled away, leaving her breathless and desperate for his full mouth on hers again.
Without a word he led her inside his house. Ryder’s jacket was tossed carelessly on the kitchen table. Suddenly she came to her senses. What was she doing? She didn’t even know her true feelings for either of these men yet. Yes, she was attracted to Trent, but tonight was moving way too quickly to make such an irrevocable choice. Then she saw something else. A red leather purse on the kitchen counter. Another purse spilled beside it. Two pairs of high heels kicked across the floor. And on the living room sofa, a discarded black lace bra.
Both of the girls were here with him. Ryder was actually having a threesome with Ashley and Brianna! As if in confirmation, a muffled female giggle rose up from down the hall.
She swallowed, sick with feelings of jealousy and rejection.
“My bedroom’s at the other end of the house,” Trent told her, oblivious to the toxic emotions flooding her body. “This way.” Taking her gently by the hand, he led her through the darkened rooms to a bedroom that smelled pleasantly of cologne and something masculine.
The bedroom door shut with a click. For a moment, she wanted to run out of the bedroom, out of the house, and never see either of the Jameson brothers again. Then she took a deep breath. So Ryder didn’t want her. So what? She had cast a love spell, dammit, and if he preferred some slutty coeds to her, then she’d have her fun with his brother.
She kicked off her heels and stepped onto the softness of the carpet.
A warmth behind her raised the tiny hairs on her arms. Then Trent’s hot mouth was on her neck, gently biting the tender pulse beneath her skin. Shivers ran down her spine as his hands encircled her waist, sliding her wet shirt up over her bra. For a moment his hands lingered on her breasts, squeezing them with a long, frustrated groan. Then he pulled off her shirt, kissed her throat and shoulders, and turned her to face him.
She was breathing hard. He was shirtless too in the dark. Tentatively she ran her hands up and down the hard swell of his pecs. Just enough streetlight slanted through the blinds for her to see the statue-like perfection of his bare chest. She traced the outline of his torso, sensing the animal instinct pulsing in his muscles. His skin was hot and silky under her fingers and it made her ache for the rest of his body. As her last fingertip came to rest on the button of his jeans, another surge of arousal dampened her panties.
With one deft move, he unhooked her black lace bra and let it drop to the floor. Her nipples hardened in the air-conditioned chill as he cupped each breast, moving his thumbs over her flushed areolas. Carnal need began to stir deep inside her.
Trent raised his head. The lust-drunk passion in his eyes shone in the dim light. “All my life I’ve been dreaming of a beautiful redhead who would make me feel like this,” he whispered. He fondled her breasts with an avid groan. “It’s like you stepped out of my dreams. No girl has ever affected me like this, Tamora.”
She cut him off with a kiss, aching for the soft push of his tongue again. As his mouth commandeered hers, she felt another moan reverberate through their lips and realized it was coming from her. That electric charge coursed through her, bringing her nerves alive in an erotic zing of excitement. Everywhere Trent brushed against her, she came alive with fire, and all the while, a fervent ache was building between her thighs.
“So beautiful,” he whispered and reached between her legs.
*
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