She stepped over to the large double-width shower cubicle, slid the glass door open and turned on the water. Erin slipped out of her skanky black shorts and ruined tank. She grabbed the razor, walked into the shower cubicle and slid the door closed. Hot water beat down on her body. Bliss. She took her time showering, scrubbing every inch of skin three times over with the strongest smelling gel she could find. When she had done that, she took care of her legs and armpits with the razor. Three shampoos later and her hair felt somewhere close to normal. She sighed.
Water was the sweetest ambrosia now and a shower was a gift from the gods. All the things she had taken for granted before her captivity in Hell were now the things she craved most.
Erin shut the water off and stepped out of the cubicle, dripping water all over the white floor tiles. She grabbed one of the large white towels and wrapped it around her body, tucking it closed under her arm, and took one of the smaller towels for her hair. She scrubbed it against the wet black lengths and moved in front of the mirror.
The room in the reflection had a new addition.
Veiron.
He sat on the bed, hands splayed out behind him and bare torso on view. Tempting. Terribly tempting. Water dripped from his scarlet hair onto his chest and he had shaved, revealing a strong jaw that only made him even sexier. The thought of him naked and wet, showering at the same time as she had been, put thoughts into her head about water conservation and doing her part for the environment by sharing the shower with him. Erin pushed them away, not in the mood for such thoughts right that moment, not when so many things were playing on her mind and ninety percent of them involved the gorgeous man reclining on her bed.
When she turned, he picked up a tray of food and offered it to her. Her stomach turned at the gesture, mind flashing back to the food the Devil had offered with a similar flourish, and she took a step back, her bottom hitting the vanity unit.
“Are you all right?” Veiron said and a frown pinched his red eyebrows together. “I just thought you might want to eat something. There’s water too.”
Erin wasn’t a fool. She knew a peace offering when she saw it and she appreciated the gesture and hoped it meant he had accepted her apology. She nodded.
“The last thing someone offered me like that turned out to be the final unicorn,” she said as way of an explanation for her reaction and Veiron grimaced.
“You didn’t eat it did you?”
She nodded, still feeling a little sick from the knowledge that the Devil had made an entire species extinct just to feed her.
“Bet that was nasty.” Veiron smiled, causing subtle dimples in his cheeks, and she was glad to see his teeth were white and blunt. “Taylor only had fruit and healthy rubbish. I don’t know how Einar eats this crap.”
He picked at the grapes in the platter.
Erin’s palms sweated and her heartbeat picked up. “So, how long have you been nursing that broken heart of yours?”
His head shot up, eyebrows raised high on his forehead. “Excuse me?”
“I saw the way you looked at her... how you couldn’t bear to see her with him... how you played with that charm you love so much.” Her voice hitched on the last sentence. Damn. She had almost got a perfect score from herself for sounding so calm about it all.
She took the plate of fruit from the tray and nibbled on a slice of apple, trying to look unaffected and fine with the fact that Veiron had brought her to his ex-lover’s home and was clearly still crushing on her.
“I was the one who left her.” He rose to his feet.
She didn’t like it when he towered over her so she moved away, taking the fruit with her. Her heart leapt around all over the place in her chest. Her fingers shook.
“And?” She turned to face him, keeping the bed between them so she didn’t feel as small. From this distance, he didn’t look as tall or imposing. “I’ve been there and done that too, and it still hurts to see the bloke with another woman.”
He frowned, crossed the room in three long strides and took the plate from her. He set it down on the bed and settled his hand against her cheek. His dark eyes met hers, flitting between them, soft with understanding.
“You want me to take care of it for you? If it was the guy at the club, just say the word and he’s dead.”
It was a poor joke considering the things she had seen him do but she laughed anyway. “No, I’m over it.”
“Just like I’m over Taylor.” He sighed and ran his fingers down the curve of her jaw, and then combed them through her wet hair. “I am, Erin.”
“I’d like to put that to the test.”
He frowned. “How?”
Erin tiptoed, placed her palms against the granite slabs of his bare chest and slid them up to his neck. His gaze darted between hers, watchful now, a touch of wariness battling the hunger that she could see rising within him. She felt that hunger stirring deep within her too, and she wanted the taste of Veiron that she had been waiting for. She caught his nape with one hand and lured him down to her. The moment he was within reach, she meshed her lips with his, closed her eyes and kissed him.
His hands captured her waist and dragged her against him, bending her into the hard steel of his body. He growled, slanted his head and pushed his tongue past her teeth. Erin moaned and melted into him, surrendering to the dominant force of his passion.
Veiron pulled away, hands clasping her waist, elbows locked tightly and holding her at a distance.
“We shouldn’t,” he said, shooting her down from her passion high. “You don’t really know me.”
“I know you enough to know that I’m attracted to you.” She smoothed her palms over his bare shoulders and he groaned, his eyes squeezing shut.
He released her waist, grabbed her wrists, and brought them down between them, holding them captive there.
“You screamed bloody murder at me less than an hour ago, Erin.”
“It was shock and I apologised, didn’t I?” Erin wrenched out of his grip and sat on the bed. “You might have warned me that you were a demonic angel. Maybe I would have taken it a little better!”
He sighed. “Maybe... but it doesn’t change the fact that it scared you.”
“It did not.” She glared up at him, meeting his hard look and not wavering. “I swear... and I’ll prove it to you.”
“How, by kissing me again?”
That sounded appealing but it wouldn’t prove anything other than she still felt attracted to him, unless he wanted her to kiss him when he was nine feet tall and black all over.
“Change,” Erin commanded and got comfortable on the bed, sitting with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap so she didn’t flash Veiron.
He looked uncertain.
“It’s the only way. Show me the other side of you, the one you think I fear, and I’ll show you that it doesn’t scare me.” Well, it didn’t scare her as much as he thought it did anyway.
“Very well.” Veiron stepped back, coming to stand in an open space in the large pale room.
He looked up and stretched one arm above his head. Erin realised he was checking the ceiling height. He seemed pleased that he couldn’t touch it. Was that his measure for how much he grew?
He took a few deep breaths, looked as though he was going to go through with it, and then stopped and glanced at her. “You’re sure about this?”
She nodded. “I want to see you as you are, Veiron. You don’t have to hide around me.”
He drew a slow breath, his chest expanding with it, and blew it out.
“Wait,” she said and he blinked. “Will bad guys come if you change?”
They hadn’t so far when he had been showing his wicked side but she didn’t want to risk being found.
Veiron shook his head. “No. There are protection spells on the house. No one will sense me.”
Erin nodded again, satisfied that he wasn’t about to alert his own kind to his location by using his powers.
His eyes began to change. Were t
hey always the first thing to alter? Was the occasional hint of red around his irises a warning that he was on the verge of turning demonic?
Pale golden flecks swirled amongst the scarlet, entrancing her. They gave his eyes an otherworldly look and she couldn’t drag hers away. The skin around them darkened, slowly turning black. The change swept outwards from there and other things began to happen. When the black reached his shoulders, his jaw tensed and he began to grow, muscles expanding at the same rate as his height. His jeans disappeared, replaced by a black swath of material that covered his hips, and darkness continued to sweep down his legs. By the time it reached his feet, Veiron stood three feet taller, the top of his head close to the ceiling, and at least twice as broad as he had been.
He wasn’t finished.
He growled, exposing rows of red sharp teeth, twisted his head to one side and wings grew from his back. He stretched them as wide as they could go, so the longest feathers touched the walls either side of him. They were beautiful, crimson feathers shining in the lamplight, stealing her breath. She stared at them now, drawn to watching the way the scarlet slowly drained downwards and dripped from there to the floor like blood, revealing black feathers beneath. When the red was gone, the feathers fell away in clumps, falling into the blood and exposing black leathery membrane beneath. Finally, a large claw grew from the joint in the top of each wing. Veiron flapped them and then furled them against his back.
Erin had expected to feel some residual fear but all she felt was compassion. He stood before her, demonic, vicious-looking, but there was no trace of pride or any threat of danger. His eyes were downcast, body held in a way that made her want to stand and cross the room to him, and wrap her arms around his thick waist to let him know that whatever he was feeling, she was there for him.
He was nine feet tall, black all over, and his eyes glowed like the fires of Hell, but he was still Veiron. His features hadn’t changed. They had only grown larger. He was like a slightly scarier and black Hulk.
Erin hated to see him staring at the floor, braced for a reaction he was convinced would be negative. She wanted to prove to him that he couldn’t be more wrong about her. She wasn’t afraid of him.
He was still Veiron.
She would prove that.
Erin got to her feet on the bed, wobbled a bit on the soft mattress, and then straightened, facing him. His gaze slid to her and he frowned, turning his expression evil and vicious.
“Come to me.” She held her hand out to him.
He didn’t move.
Erin held both hands out to him and tried again. “Please, Veiron.”
He huffed, sounding every bit the beast, and slowly approached her. She still wasn’t quite eye level with him even when she was standing on the bed. Erin flexed her fingers to stop them from shaking. She didn’t want Veiron to think that she feared him, even when she did a little. He was so big up close, his eyes blazing red and gold, reminding her of the fiery rivers of Hell.
Erin lifted her hand and lightly ran her fingers down his cheek. His black skin was rough beneath their tips. He sneered and took a step back. She caught his thick arm in both hands so he couldn’t distance himself again. He might want to believe that she was scared of him but she wasn’t going to let him.
The tattoos that curled around his biceps and up to his shoulders were still visible, the red showing on his black skin. She traced them upwards and he closed his eyes, exhaling through his nose. Erin swallowed and continued, stroking the muscled incline of his shoulders to his neck.
From there, she swept both of her palms up to catch his cheeks. They were huge against her hands, making them look tiny. When she bravely ran her right thumb across his lower lip, his mouth opened and he hissed through his sharp red teeth.
“Look at me, Veiron,” Erin whispered and he obeyed, his black lashes lifting to reveal those incredible eyes. She stared into them, studying the way the flecks of gold shifted amongst crimson. He blinked slowly, eyes never leaving hers, calm and quiet. She felt as though he was a feral beast, a lethal predator, and somehow she held him under her control.
Erin leaned in and gently kissed his lips.
He instantly changed back, his mouth moving against hers the whole time and his hands coming to claim her waist. Erin slid her arms around his neck when he was short enough that she now towered above him, and sighed into his mouth, enjoying the soft sweep of his lips across hers.
Veiron drew back again. “Why did you do that?”
Erin brushed her palm across his cheek and felt sorry for him when she saw hope and anger battling in his eyes. What sort of life had this man led to make him believe that a woman could never like his other side?
“Because I wanted to, Veiron.”
He closed his eyes and lowered his head. Erin stopped him, lifting his chin, not wanting him to hide away from her. She wanted him to see in her eyes that she was telling the truth and she had wanted to kiss him when he had been demonic. She hadn’t done it to prove anything. She had done it because it had felt natural and she had still desired him. Demonic or not, he was still the most gorgeous man she had ever met. He was still Veiron.
“No one has ever kissed me when I’m like that.” Those low-spoken words stirred pity in her soul and she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him.
“Do you believe me now?” she whispered into his ear and kissed the lobe.
Veiron nodded, pushed her back, and kissed her again, his lips searing hers, dominant and hungry, everything she had wanted their first kiss to be. She leaned into the kiss, a burning need for more igniting inside her, and tangled her tongue with his. His fingers tightened against her back, pulling her flush against his body, and Erin moaned.
The door opened.
“God, Veiron, put it away... you’ll scare the poor girl!” Taylor’s voice was a high-pitched squeak of horror.
Veiron growled and pulled away, and Erin looked down in time to catch a glimpse of his hard length. Impressive didn’t cover it.
Unfortunately, Veiron did. He waved a hand and his black jeans snapped back into place on his legs, spoiling her fun.
“I brought you some clothes, Erin,” Taylor said, her gaze fixed on the floor. “And Einar needs to speak to you, Veiron.”
Veiron sighed. He looked back into Erin’s eyes and she smiled, showing him that it was fine and he should go and speak to Einar. It was probably more important. Her heart screamed that nothing was more important than where that kiss might have been heading. She told it to shut up. Veiron would come back soon enough and she would be waiting for him when he did, and they would continue where they had left off.
He smoothed his palm over her cheek.
“Are you sure you’ll be alright alone?” he said, deep baritone making her insides flip and heart warm.
Erin nodded. “I’ll be right here, stuffing my face like a pig.”
“You need to sleep. Get some rest and I’ll come check on you later.”
She didn’t nod this time. She didn’t want to sleep. If she closed her eyes, she would relive everything she had been through, or worse, she would start seeing the terrible things that often haunted her dreams.
The only times she hadn’t had nightmares recently were the two instances where she had fallen asleep on Veiron.
He kissed her cheek. “I won’t be long.”
Erin managed a smile. He padded barefoot from the room, leaving her alone with Taylor. Erin sat on the bed and picked at the fruit again. Taylor set the clothes down on a chair in the corner of the room. Erin appreciated the offer but the thought of dressing like Taylor didn’t appeal. She didn’t want to give Veiron a reason to see Taylor whenever he looked at her, not when she had just started believing that he might be telling her the truth and might be over the part-demon beauty.
Taylor sat on the bed beside her.
And grinned.
“So, you want the dirt on Hell boy or not?"
Erin smiled and nodded.
CHAPT
ER 11
Burning.
Everything was burning.
Not Hell this time. London. Erin’s city blazed below her. Sirens wailed, drowning out the screams of dying people and the murderous shrieks of the creatures responsible for their demise. Buildings crumbled and spewed flames so hot they reached her even though she was high above the horrific scene.
Flying.
The sound of wings beating air surrounded her.
Her wings.
She looked down at her waist. Strong male hands held it. Not her wings.
“Veiron?” she said, sure that he was the one behind her, holding her close to his body, carrying her away from the terror of her city burning to the ground.
They reached an area beyond the fiery inferno and destruction and he set her down on an untouched rooftop. The black tar was sticky beneath her feet, melting from the heat of the fire only a few hundred yards away.
He walked around her and Erin frowned and backed away a step.
Not Veiron.
The angel before her had snow-white hair and eyes as pale as frosted grass. He wore rich blue armour edged with silver and his silver-blue wings stretched and then furled against his back. Twin curved silver blades hung at his hips, knocking against the rectangles of metal that protected his backside and groin.
“Who are you?” Erin said, her voice wavering. The world distorted, trembled beneath her feet, and a building in the distance collapsed, sending a huge plume of ash into the air.
“Your guardian angel.” Those words were calm and cold, as void of emotion as his jade eyes. He drew his blades and held them down at his sides and Erin moved another step backwards, eyeing them and then the flat rooftop.
She didn’t know this man and instinct said to keep some distance between them. “Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere you will be safe.”
Why didn’t she believe those words? He spoke them with warmth, with a flicker of concern across his handsome face, but they felt cold to her, unfeeling and dark. Wherever this man intended to take her, she would be far from safe.
Her Angel: Eternal Warriors Romance Series Complete Series Box Set (Books 1-5) Page 44
