Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
The crowd at Sunrise was even louder than she remembered. Seline walked slowly toward the dark red doors—the entrance. Demons were stationed at those doors. They were bouncers with glamour hiding their true selves.
She could see right through their glamour.
Two months ago, when she’d seen her first demon, Seline had thought she was crazy. She’d run from him, even as he shouted, “If I go back without you, Sam’s gonna kill me!”
Sam.
A name she knew…now. She hadn’t then, and she’d been terrified of the “Sam” who tracked her.
Seline pushed through the crowd that waited eagerly for a spot inside Sunrise, and she made her way to those red doors. The bouncers glanced her way. Their eyes widened when they saw her.
“Are you—shit, are you—” The one with the bald head and snake tattoos began.
Seline just nodded before he could finish speaking. “Is he here?”
The other bouncer yanked open the door for her. “Yes.”
She let her eyes flash to black. “Good.” All of her power was back now. Good, bad, and everything in between.
Guess they couldn’t totally kill my dark side. Maybe that fact should scare her. It didn’t.
She rather liked her dark side. Without it, she probably wouldn’t have survived the last few months.
When she strolled inside Sunrise, humans muttered behind her, not understanding why she’d gotten her free pass. Too bad for them.
Bodies filled the interior of the bar. Dancers twisted and undulated on the stage. And in a cage up above…ah, the cage was new. The cage reminded her of…well, a night that made her ache.
Her gaze searched the club.
There . Surrounded by his demons. Sam stood near the bar—tall, strong, but his profile looked more haggard. The lines on his face appeared deeper.
Sammael.
As she watched, his fist slammed onto the bar top and the surface shattered. “I don’t want fucking excuses! I want her!”
Seline strode forward. With every step she took, her heart raced faster. So fast she thought the thing would rip out of her chest.
Then Sam looked in the mirror behind the bar. He caught sight of her reflection. She saw him shake his head, as if denying what he was seeing.
She smiled. “Hello, Sam.”
He spun around. “Seline!”
Before she could take a breath, he had her in his arms. His mouth crushed onto hers and, oh, it was what she wanted. What she remembered from those fevered dreams that wouldn’t leave her alone.
Dreams that she was sure she’d been sharing with him.
His fingers held her so tightly that Seline knew she’d bruise, but she didn’t care. She was holding him just as tightly. Won’t ever let go.
His tongue thrust into her mouth. She stood onto her toes and pressed her body against his. More, more . She needed him.
The dreams had started a month ago. The first one had scared her to death, and it turned her on.
She’d seen a tall, dark man. His eyes had been pitch-black. He’d looked at her with such lust she’d trembled. He’d reached for her. Took her hand. Kissed her palm, then said, “I need more than dreams, Seline. Come back to me. ”
Then she’d started finding her way home.
His head lifted, slowly, and she immediately missed his touch. “You’re real?” he asked, voice gruff. “Not another dream.”
“No, I’m real.” She’d rehearsed her speech a hundred times, but now she wasn’t sure what she should say to him.
Four months. It had taken her that long to find her way back to him.
What’s four months compared to a thousand years?
He kissed her again. There was so much need in his kiss. A desperate hunger.
“You fell,” he growled against her mouth. “Dammit, Seline, I wasn’t worth the fall. You should have let me take the pain. I was going to come to you. I would have?—”
She put her fingers over his mouth. “You were worth it.” She wasn’t going to regret any choice she’d made.
He captured her hand and led her away from the bar. She saw Cole’s shocked expression give way to a fast grin. “Fuckin’ about time,” the demon declared.
Yes, it was.
The bouncers near the private room stumbled in their haste to open the door for them. Sam pulled her inside. The door slammed closed behind them almost instantly.
Then he was on her. He pressed her against the wall. Sam caged her with his hands, and his mouth took hers. Lips, tongue. Wild, consuming, the hunger burned too hot, and she could only gasp against his mouth and hold on.
His sensual power filled the room. So much desire. All for her.
“Don’t ever leave me again.” He hiked up her skirt. “Promise.”
“Try to keep me away.” Her hands were at the front of his jeans. She unhooked the snap and slid down the zipper. “Try.”
He yanked her panties away and tossed them to the floor. Then he lifted her up, positioned her, and paused only long enough to say, “I can’t be easy. Not this time. I’ve been starving for you.”
Sammael. Her Sammael. “When did I ever want easy?”
He laughed, then froze, staring at her with eyes that saw into her. “I missed you.”
His ragged confession stole her breath.
Then he was raising her hips higher, holding her with strong, warm hands, and the broad head of his cock pushed between her legs.
His gaze held hers as he thrust deep in one long, hard stroke.
Her legs wrapped around him, and she arched toward him.
She felt his control shatter. He began to thrust, to pump, in a feverish drive. Too fast and wild. No, just fast and wild enough. His mouth was on hers. His hand on her breast, his cock sliding right over the sensitive core of her body It was perfect. It was?—
Hard. Deep. Rough.
She came.
The explosion of pleasure rocked through her. He kept thrusting. Again and again, and a second orgasm built within her. The air crackled around them. She pulled in the energy. Took it, used it, and sent it right back to Sam.
The second time she came, he was with her.
His orgasm pumped into her, and Seline licked his neck. Licked, then bit.
Not easy.
The thunder of his heartbeat shook her chest. She didn’t want to move. Finally, she was safe.
Just where she wanted to be. Home.
Seline closed her eyes and listened to that fast pounding. “I missed you, too,” she whispered.
Sam stiffened. “Seline.”
Well, yeah, they’d covered that.
He stumbled back and adjusted his clothes. Seline shoved down her skirt, nervous once more now that the heat of their passion had cooled, and he was backing off. Backing off? Since when did Sam back away from sex?
The lust had always been the easy part for them. The emotions—those were a whole different story.
But Sam reached for her again. He held her tight, and they seemed to fall into the nearby black leather chair. “You’re sure you’re not a dream?”
She shook her head.
His breath rushed out on a relieved sigh. “I’ve got demons and shifters searching for you. They’re all over the world. I didn’t know where to look—I didn’t know where you’d fall.”
“Colorado.” That was where she’d ended up. Good thing it had been a warm time of the year or she would have frozen her naked ass off.
He swallowed, and she saw the slow bob of his Adam’s apple. “I didn’t want you to suffer anymore.”
“And I wanted my freedom.”
He blinked and seemed surprised. Why? Didn’t he understand?
“I wasn’t free there, Sam. I couldn’t breathe. The angels didn’t seem to feel anything.” Seem. She’d caught glimpses, though, that told her things might not have been quite as they appeared.
“You are free now,” he told her, though the words were growled. “You can go wherever you want. Do what you want.”
Rogziel wasn’t after her any longer, but she had other enemies. “There are those who will always be after me.” Vengeance. Over the years, she’d made plenty of enemies who would want revenge.
“No, you don’t have to worry. They’re dead.”
Her lips parted in surprise. “What?”
“They’re dead, or they know that if they don’t want to be dead, they’ll stay away from you.” He brushed back her hair. “When you fell, I didn’t want one of them finding you first, so I made sure that word spread—you’re protected. Always. ” His lips twisted. “Besides, that was the deal, right?”
The deal. She remembered another night. Same club. Different fear.
“I keep my deals,” he told her as his gaze searched hers.
Yes, she knew he did. No matter how deadly those deals were.
“You helped me to find my brother, and now, if you want your freedom, I won’t stop you.”
Seline shook her head. “Do you think I went to all the trouble of falling, of having my wings burned off, just so that I could walk away from you?”
He blinked. Then his hands smoothed up her back. Through her blouse, she could feel the light pressure of his fingertips on her scars. Pleasure whispered over her.
Oh, wow.
Seline licked her lips. “I figure you owe me, Fallen.”
His mouth kicked up in just the faintest smile, and she was sure his eyes lightened. “Seems you told me that before.”
“Well, yes, I did. Because every time I turn around, you’re owing me.” She tried to sound cocky and assured, but Seline suspected he saw right through her act.
“I’ll give you anything.”
“That’s sure a different tune you’re singing now.” She’d had to fight her way to get his agreement before.
“I’m different. You made me that way.” His fingers were still tracing her scars, and little shivers skirted over her body. “Say it, and it’s yours. Tell me what you want.”
Okay. Screw the speech she’d planned. Seline decided to just tell him what was in her heart. “I want you.” Not for a day or a few weeks. “I want to stay with you forever.”
His breath expelled in a rush. “You’ve got me.” His mouth took hers, and the desire whipped through her blood. Against her lips, he rasped, “Sweetheart, you had me from the moment you came into my dreams and stopped the nightmares.”
Ah, what? She pulled back and frowned at him. “You—you thought I was trying to kill you back then!”
“Yes.” He smiled at her. A real smile. One that made her heart feel funny.
Still more than a little confused, she shook her head. “You thought I wanted to kill you, and you still?—”
“Thought you were sexy as all sin.”
He would know about sin.
A growl rumbled at the door, and then something hit the wood—hit it hard enough to send a long crack racing along the frame.
Seline tensed. That growl, oh, crap, not again. She knew that deep rumble that sounded like thunder from hell.
Hell.
“He’s probably waited as long as he can,” Sam decided as he lifted her off his lap.
“He?” Sam could not mean?—
The door was shaking now because some thing was hitting it very, very hard.
“Um, yes, you got yourself a male hound.” Showing no fear, Sam strolled away. “When you went back upstairs, you left me a present.”
No, she hadn’t. Not deliberately, anyway.
Sam opened the door.
A giant mass of black fur raced inside the room. The hellhound hurried toward her, growling and—jeez, was that some kind of really scary hellhound smile? The beast’s tongue—long and black—hung out, and the hound sure seemed to be grinning at her.
Seline held out her hand. The hound bent his head and rubbed against her fingers. No attack. Just warmth. A welcome. “How is he still here?”
Sam smiled at her again. Oh, damn, but that man was gorgeous. “You told him to protect me. You didn’t send him back.”
No, but?—
“So he’s been here, with me, waiting for you.” Sam came closer and gave the massive hellhound a scratch behind his ears. “He’s really not so bad. Not once you get to know him.”
Seline stared down at the beast. He looked back up at her with his blood-red eyes.
Pain. Blood. Death.
The hound whined and butted her lightly with his head.
“He doesn’t want you to be afraid,” Sam said quietly. “And neither do I.” He squared his shoulders. “You said you loved me.”
The hound lay down on the floor and stared up at them.
“I love you more than anything or anyone on this earth—or beyond it,” Sam told her.
Okay, that sweet-talk was exactly what she wanted to hear. Seline eased over the hound and curled her arms around Sam’s shoulders. “Good, because that’s the same way I feel about you.”
She’d traded her wings for a life with her Fallen. Heaven, hell—everything in between—didn’t matter. Paradise was staring right back at her.
Seline laughed, finally, finally free of her past, and she grabbed hold of the future before her with both hands.
Dangerous, dark… yes, please. She didn’t want some kind of white knight. She wanted her lover with the wildness in his eyes and the danger at his back.
And the hellhound at his feet.
Seline kissed Sam and knew that paradise had never tasted so good.