by Erica Ridley
“The rules—”
“To Hades with the rules!” Her wings unfurled in anger. “How can you imagine I would want to return to a life in this world or any other, having finally known true love and having it ripped from me moments later? Javier Rodriguez might’ve been a mere human, alive for only a handful of decades, but he was a force to be reckoned with and an angel in his own right. He performed more miracles in a single day than the Governing Council has in the past year, and we’re all the poorer for not having him with us. He was a better angel than any of y—”
“Careful, Miss Phimm.” Dom’s velvety tone was laced with warning. “This council has guarded humans since the moment of their existence. Don’t you think we have a Grand Plan?”
“I think your plan sucks.” Without waiting to be formally dismissed, she turned and stalked toward the exit.
Just as she reached the doorway, Abram Junior swooped down to block her path.
“What?” she demanded, not caring if he smote her for her insolence.
He did not. His eyes held... understanding? “Just a moment, Miss Phimm. Angels out in the field are not privy to the design from above. But we’ve been watching you.” His gaze pinned her. “Why were you assigned to Mr. Rodriguez?”
“To keep him alive?” Her feathers ruffled. What kind of question was that? It was a guardian angel’s sole responsibility.
“Why were you meant to keep him alive?”
“Because he had a ‘destiny,’” she answered bitterly. “Something that made him more important than little children.”
“What do you think his destiny was, Miss Phimm?” Abram Junior’s voice was sharp, but his eyes kind. “Given the shortage of guardian angels.”
She stared back at him in dawning comprehension. There was a Grand Plan. “To… help those children? As a human guardian angel?”
Abram Junior inclined his head. “Mr. Rodriguez would not have stopped with Bolivia. Between now and his seventieth year, he would have saved countless more lives than the Heavenly Alliance of Guardian Angels could look after on our own. That was his destiny.”
And now he was gone. Thanks to Sarah.
“But… the children…” she stammered. “The bus would have… If I had been allowed to help others too, if Javier and I had been allowed to work together from the very start—”
Dom and Raphael swooped down to flank Abram. “Because of men like Mr. Rodriguez, the Governing Council has been convening to create zones of operation for teams of guardian angels, rather than individually assigned clients. The heads of each zone will need to be able to make hard decisions, and always keep human lives the utmost priority. You have passed the test.”
“The… test?” she echoed in disbelief. “The past few decades was a test?”
“The past few centuries,” Dom clarified. “It was your Renaissance work that made us think you were due for a reassignment.”
Raphael conjured a clipboard. “How do you feel about operating in an advisory capacity, and perhaps heading up the recruitment division? With Mr. Rodriguez, of course.”
“What?” she gasped. Or meant to gasp. Nothing had come out of her mouth, not even air.
Abram Junior’s eyes almost smiled. “If my daughter hadn’t fallen in love with a mortal, I might not have believed it possible. But no one of this world or any other can stand in the way of true love. You deserve to spend your life with yours. If you’ll come with me, I’ll take you to him now. We can discuss the changes to your benefits package on the way.”
Sarah’s heart beat so fast she was certain it would explode with joy and surprise and wonder. “B-benefits package?”
Chapter 16
Javier cracked his eyes open carefully, and immediately squeezed them back shut.
Light. Too much light. Impossible light. Blindingly bright, as if he were surrounded by stars, or had somehow fallen inside of one and managed to stay alive long enough to go half-blind.
Wait. Alive? The sinkhole. The landslide.
“Am I dead?” he croaked.
“Yup,” came the suspiciously cheery reply, which sounded equally suspiciously as if it had come from Sarah.
A slight pressure to his palm indicated someone was holding his hand. He risked cracking his eyes back open, just a slit, just to see.
He smiled. Definitely Sarah.
With wings.
How the hell had she saved him? He could’ve sworn it was all over. When the ground had disappeared beneath him and the tree had fallen on top, shattering his ribs with the force of—
His ribs. They felt fine. They actually didn’t feel like anything, which was how they usually felt when they were fine.
His head didn’t hurt, either.
He distinctly remembered taking a tree branch to the cranium, right before he’d gotten a lungful of mud instead of oxygen. But his head didn’t hurt and his lungs weren’t crushed and... He could wiggle his toes. How bad off could he be if he could wiggle his toes?
Dead, he reminded himself. That was pretty bad off. “Am I in Heaven?”
He expected an easy yes or no to that one, but it appeared to be a stumper. A heated discussion quickly arose around him.
“...Only on the technicality, but how far are we from the Palisade line?”
“...Okay, sure, it’s a suburb, but if all the angels live in the same suburb, couldn’t you agree that...”
“...But if nobody knows for certain, then you can’t say that it’s not. Am I right?”
That did it.
Javier opened his eyes.
He was immediately blinded by an overabundance of light, but within seconds, the dazzling brightness had given way to vague shapes, and the vague shapes shimmered into splotches of color, and the splotches of color finally sharpened into people. Three people.
Not people. Angels. All three of them had wings.
“I am in Heaven,” he breathed in wonder.
“Well...” Sarah wiggled her hand in a so-so gesture. “We couldn’t decide.”
He squinted past her. “Who’s ‘we’? I mean, obviously not we. I know who ‘we’ are. I mean—”
“Him?” She gestured. “That’s A.J. He was my boss’s boss until yesterday, and now he’s my regular boss. He’s also the cofounder of the Heavenly Alliance of Guardian Angels. And no, he’s not gassy, that’s just how he looks. He doesn’t smile much.” Sarah gestured to her other side. “This is Arabella, his better half. She’s the High Chair of the Fairy Godmother Committee, and kind of a big deal. If their daughter weren’t an ex-tooth fairy, he might not have come to our rescue. Luckily, they’ve been down this road before.”
Javier tried to make sense of that. Couldn’t. Moved on. “I thought you were fired?”
“Well, I would’ve been. I mean, I was. I guess. On the other hand, it was more...”
“A lateral transfer,” Arabella-the-fairy-godmother put in helpfully.
“Exactly,” Sarah agreed. “Completely lateral. Finding my One True Love—that’s you, if you weren’t following—would’ve disqualified me anyway, even if witnesses hadn’t seen me use the Superman pose to fly the school bus to safety. I had to. It was iconic. Even if they’ve already forgotten.”
Javier focused on the part he could understand. “DC Comics, issue number seven-oh-eight? The one with Diana?”
Sarah shook her head. “Superman the movie, circa 1978. The one with Christopher Reeve.”
Arabella wrinkled her nose. “You can’t pull off ‘iconic’ while wearing an elf costume.”
“You weren’t there,” Sarah answered primly. “It was epic.”
Javier waved a hand between them. “Wait a second. If you’re not a guardian angel anymore, what are you? You still have wings.”
Sarah and Arabella exchanged amused glances. A.J. remained expressionless.
“I’m a recruiter now,” Sarah explained with obvious pride. “For the Governing Council of Heavenly Beings. It’s way better than being a guardian angel. Er, sorry, A.J.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “But it totally is. I have business cards and he doesn’t.”
Javier was starting to feel drunk. “What does a heavenly recruiter even do?”
“Recruits people,” she answered, as if it were the most obvious thing on earth. “The Heavenly Council has been working on a major restructuring for centuries. Instead of a one-to-one watcher-to-client ratio for guardian angels—which, as you yourself noticed, leads to uneven disbursement of miracle workers—the force is slowly being reallocated to zones instead of individuals. Just like tooth fairies!”
Javier could think of nothing to add to any of that. Instead, he asked, “When do you start?”
“I already did. We’re assigned to Bolivia. But that’s not the best part! They’re not going to separate us. Nothing can separate true love. You’re mine forever!”
He’d understood maybe two percent of anything she’d said so far, but you’re mine forever was clear as crystal, and exceptionally good news. Even if he didn’t quite grasp how it could be possible, it seemed like the sort of announcement that would deserve a kiss. He couldn’t imagine how he’d even managed to go this long without kissing her. He leaned upright and reached out his arms...
And felt an unfamiliar pull at his shoulder blades as a pair of snow-white wings unfurled from his back.
“What. The. F—”
Sarah swooped in to kiss him. “None of that, babe. You’re an angel now. Angels are pure of heart and soul and mouth.” She lowered her lips to his ear. “Just kidding. You can talk to me as dirty as you want as soon as my boss is out of earshot.”
“I’m an angel?” He was so dumbfounded, he could barely speak. “All this is really real? You’re mine, forever?”
“Forever,” she agreed with a sexy grin. “Till never ever do us part.”
He pulled her into his arms and held her so tight he was afraid he would break her. But she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed back even harder, as if she, too, couldn’t stand even a hairsbreadth of space between them, and an eternity of loving each other wouldn’t be nearly enough time.
“I love you,” she whispered fiercely. “I’m sorry I didn’t say it fast enough before. I felt it, though. From the beginning. I’ve always, always loved you.”
“I love you, too.” He buried his face in her neck, horrified at the sudden sting at the edges of his eyes. “Is it okay for a brand new, very manly angel to cry a tiny bit, if it’s tears of joy?”
She hiccup-laughed into his shoulder. “You can do whatever you want. It’s Christmas!”
Christmas. He’d almost forgotten. It was time to celebrate it right.
Javier claimed Sarah’s mouth with a highly unangelic kiss and then held her close to his heart, silently giving thanks to all the angels and fairy godmothers and Santa Clauses of the world for the most precious miracle of all.
True love.
THE END
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In order, the Magic & Mayhem books are:
Kissed by Magic
Must Love Magic
Smitten by Magic
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In order, the Gothic Love Stories are:
Too Wicked to Kiss
Too Sinful to Deny
Too Tempting to Resist
Too Wanton to Wed
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In order, the 12 Dukes of Christmas:
Once Upon a Duke
Kiss of a Duke
Wish Upon a Duke
Never Say Duke
Dukes, Actually
The Duke’s Bride
The Duke’s Embrace
The Duke’s Desire
Dawn With a Duke
One Night With a Duke
Ten Days With a Duke
Forever Your Duke
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In order, the Rogues to Riches books are:
Lord of Chance
Lord of Pleasure
Lord of Night
Lord of Temptation
Lord of Secrets
Lord of Vice
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In order, the Dukes of War books are:
The Viscount's Tempting Minx (FREE!)
The Earl’s Defiant Wallflower
The Captain’s Bluestocking Mistress
The Major’s Faux Fiancée
The Brigadier’s Runaway Bride
The Pirate's Tempting Stowaway
The Duke's Accidental Wife
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Acknowledgments
As always, I could not have written this book without the invaluable support of my critique partners. Huge thanks go out to Darcy Burke, Emma Locke, and Erica Monroe. You are the best!
Lastly, I want to thank my Historical Romance Book Club and my fabulous street team. Your enthusiasm makes the romance happen.
Thank you so much!
About the Author
Erica Ridley is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of paranormal romantic comedies and historical romance novels.
In the 12 Dukes of Christmas series, enjoy witty, heartwarming Regency romps nestled in a picturesque snow-covered village. After all, nothing heats up a winter night quite like finding oneself in the arms of a duke!
Her two most popular series, the Dukes of War and Rogues to Riches, feature roguish peers and dashing war heroes who find love amongst the splendor and madness of Regency England.
When not reading or writing romances, Erica can be found riding camels in Africa, zip-lining through rainforests in Central America, or getting hopelessly lost in the middle of Budapest.
* * *
Let’s be friends! Find Erica on:
www.EricaRidley.com
