by Brandi Evans
“Angels and demons?”
Did his voice just get higher? Or was it her imagination?
“Yeah,” she answered. “Angels and demons have always fascinated me. How they were the same until the War of Heaven. Now the fallen are forever separated. What’s not to find fascinating?”
“And you…believe in all this?” The hesitation in his voice was slight, but it was there.
She’d said too much. Her crazy beliefs probably freaked him out. She spoke quickly to assure him she wasn’t a nutcase.
“I don’t know if I believe it all in the purest sense, but the concept, mainly, is what captivates me. The idea all beings are created with lightness and darkness inside them.
Even angels. And we all have to fight every day to keep the lightness in our souls greater than the darkness, lest the darkness overtake us. What’s not to find fascinating?”
“Profound.”
“I’ve been known to have deep thoughts every once in a while.” She moved closer to him, leaned her head against his shoulder. “Mind if I ask you something?”
“Of course not.”
“I know you’re a cop, but what do you do on the force? Most cops I know don’t have long hair unless they’re undercover or something.”
He hesitated. “What I do is…complicated. I’d prefer not to discuss it right now. It’ll just put me in a bad mood.”
“If your job makes you so miserable, why do you stay?” She couldn’t stop the question from spilling out.
He laughed, the sound forced. “It’s been a long, long time since anyone’s even cared enough to want to know what’s going on inside my head.”
“Then talk to me. Get some of that horrible weight off your shoulders. I’m a great listener.”
“I want to,” he whispered. “I really do. It scares me a little how fast you’ve…”
He let his sentence trail off, but Lyndi knew what he’d been trying to say. “Me too,” she admitted. “What I’m feeling for you is strong. Stronger than it should be considering how long we’ve known each other.”
“Tell me about it.”
With a gentle push, he wedged her into the corner of the railing. His strong arms lifted her onto the wide lip of the barrier, and sitting on the chest-high railing—well, chest-high for humans of her stature—their heads were almost on the same level.
Seth’s lips took immediate advantage of the situation, his tongue slipping inside her mouth with leisure, as if they had eternity to explore each other. Passionate. Perhaps enchanted. That was the way he kissed her, as if she were the first woman he’d ever kissed and he wanted to enjoy and elongate every sensation.
The same heated sensation flooded her body, as if a sexual warmth passed directly from his mouth to hers. Like the man was pure sexual energy.
Then she stopped analyzing the sensations and started enjoying them.
“Have I told you how much I love the way you smell?” he whispered into her mouth, his hands sliding up and over her breasts, finding the top of her jacket’s zipper and tugging it away. “Vanilla honey. Intoxicating…”
Her traitorous zipper surrendered, inch by inch, until he was free to slide his hands inside without obstruction. Despite the frigid temp, her skin sizzled wherever he touched her—waist, back, belly, outer thighs, breast…
He hooked his left arm around her waist as his right hand eased aside the low-dipping “V” of her dress and exposed a naked nipple to the cold air. And to his hot gaze. The peak hardened, although she wasn’t sure if the cold or her anticipation was the true culprit.
“We shouldn’t do this here, Seth. My family—”
His thumb traced over the erect nipple, derailing her thoughts.
She sucked in a breath. Hundreds of electric pinpricks shot from the pebbled peak and he lowered his face to her breast. He didn’t go straight for the nipple like she’d expected. Instead, he laid his clean-shaven cheek against the mound. And sighed.
“I love the feel of your skin,” he murmured. “So soft. So pliant.” His breath filtered over her nipple. “Do you really want me to stop?”
She buried her fingers in his hair, pulled him even closer. With every nanosecond his bare skin touched hers, her intoxication grew. She never made good decisions when she was drunk. Might as well continue the tradition, right?
“No,” she finally answered, her lips brushing the top of his head. “I don’t want you to stop. Please. Don’t. Stop.”
“Don’t stop? Fuck, Lyn, I don’t even know what I’m doing here…”
He clamped his mouth onto her nipple and sucked her hard.
Oh sweet, beautiful fuck.
Seth mouthed her breast as if starving for something only her body could provide him. And damn if she didn’t want to give him anything, everything he needed. All of her body. All of her heart. The notion was insane, but she couldn’t have stopped the intense connection between them even if she wanted to.
And she didn’t want to.
His hand found the inside of her knee, dipped below the hem of her skirt and moved upward. His fingertips glided over her skin with spiderweb softness. The touch shot heat up her leg and straight into her pussy. Her core flooded with moisture, igniting her clit.
She pushed her legs as wide as possible, letting Seth have the access he wanted. And shit, shit, shit! The man didn’t disappoint. His enormous hand covered her panty-covered sex and squeezed.
“Heaven you’re so wet. I want…no need…can’t wait…”
With jerky movements, as if he were losing control even faster than she was, he forced his other hand up her skirt and ripped the crotch out of her favorite barely there thong.
“Shit. Seth, what are you—”
His lips recaptured hers and his fingers dipped into her wetness. He eased apart her folds, smearing her juices all along the length of her pussy in slow, thorough swirls, stopping only to give special attention to the super-swollen nub at the apex of her slit.
She jumped, her hips moving against his hand, seeking more contact and forcing her to plant both hands on either side of her to keep from falling.
“So wet…” he mumbled into her mouth, his tongue as explorative as the fingers probing her clit.
Fuck, she had to put a stop to this. At least until they found a private location. A little petting in public was one thing, but…God, she was already so close to coming—
No! Not here…
Her toes curled. Her fingers clamped around the railing as the first eddies of her climax swirled in her womb.
She pulled back from Seth’s blazing kiss. “Seth, stop. I’m about to—”
Too late. Like a blowtorch to a rain-starved wheat field, she went up in flames.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” Her head rolled back, her back arched, every muscle in her body going stiff as an orgasm rocked her. Hundreds of detonations went off simultaneously, strategic explosions set up for her complete and total destruction. And they worked. She definitely felt demolished.
Air huffed in and out of her lungs as she fought to regain control. Her too many months without sex acted like an intense accelerant to the sensations Seth’s experienced hands created.
The sound of an unbuckling clasp forced her eyes open. Seth’s belt was already undone and he was working on his pants.
Her pussy hummed with the need to take him inside her, to ride him—or be ridden by him. But not here. Not with her family less than fifty yards away.
“Seth,” she panted, “we have to—”
A high-pitched scream cut through the night.
Chapter Three
Seth had never been so thankful for a catastrophe in all his life.
If Traci’s little dog hadn’t made a run for it and sent the residence into a panic, he was certain—absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt certain—he would have taken Lyndi right there on the deck. In her parents’ backyard. He’d been so caught up in the pure physicality of the sensations he’d experienced that he’d lost the
ability to think straight.
Her scent, her skin, her purrs of pleasure. Not to mention how incredible it had felt when she’d touched him.
Damn this body!
Now everyone except super-pregnant Traci was pounding the cobblestone on puppy patrol, and Seth was grateful. Maybe he’d be able to regain some of his teetering control.
He looked to the Heavens. Everything he’d done up until this point had taken him one step closer to his goal. To return home. Tonight, however, being with Lyndi and her family, he’d actually forgotten about his quest and how much this one night could cost him.
Showing himself to a single human, let alone a family, could sabotage everything he’d worked toward. If anyone ever found out…
No, he didn’t want to think about what would happen. Angels—Archangels, Seraphs, or Angels of Death—were forbidden to reveal themselves unless instructed otherwise by The Divine. Yet, to his surprise, when he pictured Lyndi’s flushed face on the railing beside the ocean, he didn’t regret his choice.
Yet.
He glanced at Lyndi as she walked beside him. Romantic relationships between angels were different than relationships between humans—less physical and more emotional. More like communing rather than raw, sweaty bodies locked together, an act he knew but didn’t know.
He fought back the physical urge stiffening his cock and tried, unsuccessfully, to banish thoughts of how Lyndi’s juices had coated his fingers when he’d slid them inside her.
What would it feel like to lose himself in Lyndi’s softness, in the slight vanilla and honey scent of her body as he sank balls-deep into—
Heaven, what was wrong with him? If he kept having thoughts like these, his cock would never stop aching. Shit, he was a cart rolling downhill and nothing short of his sheer destruction could stop him now. He should be stronger than this.
But how strong could he be if a single, incredible woman could bring him to his knees?
Again.
Lyndi turned to him in the near darkness, her voice hesitant. “What happened earlier…on the deck…that wasn’t part of some insidious plan to make my family think—”
“No,” he said, realizing what she was asking. “My actions weren’t a ploy to assure your family we were an actual couple. None of it, Lyn. I mean… I didn’t expect for it to happen. I apologize for—”
“You don’t have to apologize,” she said. “I just wanted to be sure.” She stopped walking and turned toward him. The overhead light illuminated the seriousness in the blue of her eyes. “You’re gonna break my heart, aren’t you?”
Her directness stabbed at his chest. He didn’t want to break her heart but how could he not? He wasn’t even human.
“I don’t plan to, Lyn, but—”
“How long are you planning on being in town?”
Truth time. At least white lie time. “I don’t know.”
I shouldn’t be here at all…
He looked away from her examining stare. Her emotion-filled eyes were so intense, as if she could look into his soul and see the entire pathetic truth. He was a fallen angel destined to spend eternity trying to find redemption for a past he’d never be able to change.
“Okay, here’s the thing, Seth. I like you. You know that. But I don’t want to move forward thinking we have a future when, in reality, we only have a week or two. Or even one glorious night. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
He nodded.
She tucked her auburn hair behind her ears. “Give me a ballpark. A couple days. A week.”
“This…vacation was impromptu, so I don’t know how to answer your question, Lyn, because I honestly have no idea how long I’ll be here in town.”
“Okay, then. At least now I know.” She turned and started walking again.
Seth’s chest ached. He was hurting her and her pain was the last thing he wanted, but maybe it was for the best. Hurt her now, before things went too far, before he caused her a much greater heartache. If he were a better angel he would go…
But he wasn’t an angel anymore.
“Lyn, wait.” He took her by the arm and pulled her back to him. Body to body. No air between them. “I’d like to go into this relationship without a looming expiration date on anything we start. I want you to know my being noncommittal has nothing to do with my desire for you. It’s just…I have…obligations that dictate my life and—”
“Are you married?” Her face remained neutral.
He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the question, but to her, the concern was legit. “No,” he breathed, leaning down and resting his forehead against hers. “There’s no one else. No one who makes me feel like this, Lyn.”
“God, I really love the way my name sounds in your voice.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, intent on pulling his mouth down to hers.
He stopped her. He still had more he wanted to say. “I’ve been alone so long I’ve forgotten how to open up, how to share myself with someone else.”
Lyndi didn’t hold back. “There was another woman, wasn’t there? She hurt you. Badly. It’s part of the reason you can’t—”
“Yes,” he answered before she finished her question. He had to be careful. He could only tell her so much. “I lost everything because of her.”
“Tell me about it. Share your pain with me.”
“I want to.” And he did. “But I don’t know how to—”
“I guess that’s good enough for now,” she interrupted, tightening her arms around his neck and pulling his mouth down to hers. For the briefest instant, Seth froze before meeting her full-on. The softness of her mouth, of her lips, flash-boiled the tiny amount of control he’d managed to regain and he melted into her.
Melted. Damn good way to describe this. He could hardly discern where he ended and Lyndi began.
He traced his tongue along the flesh of her bottom lip and her mouth opened in immediate surrender. With no hesitation. And he claimed what he wanted.
Lyndi Garrison.
She tasted of unrestrained desire. The way her tongue slid along his, as if she wanted to crawl inside him, sent a jolt of need straight to his groin, a need he wasn’t afraid to let her feel. Running a hand along the length of her back, he cupped her ass through her jacket and yanked her against his straining cock. Shit. He was going to explode.
“Mmm,” she moaned into his mouth. “I think we need to, to find some privacy, don’t you?”
All he could do was nod—all he wanted to do was nod.
Taking his hand, Lyndi tugged him away from the road and all its evenly spaced lights and toward the dark space between the two nearest houses. Too bad he couldn’t poof them somewhere private. The Eifel Tower. A mountain resort in the Andes.
Lyndi’s bed.
Hell, he would have if his mode of transport didn’t have one lethal drawback. Lyndi wouldn’t survive the molecular reintegration process. Human bodies were too fragile.
Damn pity.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“The house to our left. That’s the Maybrooks’. Every August they leave for Ireland for two months.”
She stopped next to a small shed, a miniature replica of the main house. Cute but with one big problem for them. “It’s locked, Lyn,” he felt compelled to point out. Like she didn’t notice the—
His spine tingled. His mind hummed with a warmth that betrayed the presence of another immortal. Like earlier, the sensations fled at almost the same instant he’d experienced them—as if someone purposely got close enough for him to sense their presence. Which was crazy.
He shook his mind clear. What was up with his senses tonight? Oh, yeah, the beautiful brunette in front of him.
Lyndi’s voice called to him. “And the Maybrooks used to hire me and other neighborhood kids to tend their yard while they were gone. They’d clean their shed out, leaving only the bare essentials for lawn care and change the lock combo so we could
get in.” She punched the numbers one, two, three, four, fiv
e and six into the digital keypad. The lock flashed green and the door opened.
The tiny room was nearly pitch black. In the near darkness, he noted a workbench to the left, empty shelves along the far wall and a lawn mower and a couple rakes sat on the right. Bare essentials had been an apt description.
Her smile was pure sin as she tugged him inside. “I know this isn’t exactly romantic but—”
“I don’t want to wait either.” He pulled her into his embrace. “I can’t wait…”
“Good.” She kicked the door shut.
Absolute darkness encased them. Not one sliver of light slipped through around the door or the base of the shed. Good thing he already held her or it might take him a moment to find her, a few precious seconds that would have kept him from touching her the way he hadn’t earlier.
The way he shouldn’t.
But he was tired and he was lonely. He wanted to feel something other than the sorrow that bred the constant misery in his chest. Tonight, he was just a man—figuratively—with a woman he couldn’t resist.
What the fuck was wrong with that?
“Lyn,” he breathed, pinning her against the door. His impatient fingers found the zipper of her jacket, tugged the hook free, and she rolled her shoulders, letting the coat fall away.
“Oh my God!” she gasped. “It’s fucking freezing in here.”
He grinned, his lips against her neck. “Tell me. How is it such a beautiful woman has such a dirty mouth?”
She laughed. The sound was beautiful, almost as beautiful as her voice. “The short version? I grew up on Marine bases.”
“Ah. You’ll have to tell me about that. Later.”
Her dress fell away. She pushed his jacket off, pulled at his shirt. “Much later,” she agreed.
Lyndi pulled him down for another amazing kiss. His hands explored her body. Greedy palms slid over the curves of her hips, her waist, the firm swell of her ass, and he pulled her against him, his throbbing cock caught between them.
