Chapter 5 #2
He knelt on the bed beside her and ran the cloth over her skin, washing away the blood.
There was no need for modesty because he had no sexual drive.
Another side effect of the human–angel union was to suffer pain at feeling desire, others’ and their own.
All Caidos had to shut down that part of themselves for self-preservation.
So it meant nothing to run the cloth over her breasts, her soft, flat stomach, and hip bones that jutted out slightly.
To wash her yellow Dragon tattoo that slept as she did.
That he was taking his time had nothing to do with his drinking in her curves. Yet his fingers itched to touch her, as he had at the club. His body stirred as it had not in many years. How long since blood had rushed into that particular organ? He was hoping it had atrophied, and this was why.
He dropped the cloth into the bowl and set it on the nightstand, then pulled up a sheet to cover her.
He had never been drawn to a woman. Desired one, yes, but never pulled like this, right from his soul.
He’d seen the danger of that in Grayson’s haunted eyes and his rage, his experience a warning to all Caidos.
Not that this woman would torture him on purpose. Still, she was torturing him.
He ran the back of his fingers against her cheek. He would allow himself only this touch. Nowhere intimate that would violate her sanctity. It would be the last time he’d touch her.
You’re weak from the healing. Stop. Don’t give in.
He knew his conscience was right. Where angels feared to tread, that place was here with this woman on his bed.
Still, he couldn’t pull his hand away, her warmth seeping into all the cold places inside him.
Being in full wing usually numbed the pain he felt from emotions.
But amazingly, he could feel it like a low-voltage hum through his being.
He indulged in a need he didn’t know he had.
“Beautiful,” he whispered to her, having never uttered those words about anyone before.
With a gasp, she grabbed his hand and shot to a sitting position. “Where am I?” She took him in with wide eyes, and he could see the pieces clicking in her mind. “What were you doing?”
“Cleaning the blood off you.”
The sheet had fallen away, pooling around her waist. She snatched it up again, covering her breasts. She searched herself, her shoulder. “I was cut, badly. I remember the pain. God, it hurt so much.” She patted all along her skin.
“You’re fine now, though in need of some clothing.” He got up and opened the drawer where he kept things for his short stay. He located a button-down shirt and blindly handed it to her, remaining turned away.
“You healed me?”
Thankfully she hadn’t seen the cost. He faced her again, and the sight of his big shirt draped over her body tightened his stomach. “Yes.”
She brushed her fingers across her cheek where he’d touched her moments before, a puzzled expression on her face.
Could she feel the echo of his touch? Then her eyes went to his wings, and her voice softened to a reverent hush.
“I’ve never seen a Caido’s wings before.
They’re luminescent, like smoky silver. You have a glow all around you. ”
She wanted to touch his wings. He could see it in her eyes, the way they caressed the width of them. The thought shivered through him, not painful but…tempting.
Her wonderment fled. “You’ve been hurt, too. Can you heal yourself?”
Archer looked at the cut on his side. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, only crusted with dried blood. “It will heal on its own.”
Lyra took the cloth from the bowl and wrung out the water. As she stretched to reach him, the sheet fell away. The shirt covered her hips and ass but left her long, creamy legs bare. She hissed in pain at the same second he saw the red, angry line on the back of her thigh.
She twisted around to see it. “Bastard ripped out one of my scales. And tried to slice my throat with it!”
“Calm down.” Now her anger pulsed. “I’ll heal it.” He sat on the edge of the bed and waved a hand over it.
“You put me to sleep, didn’t you?” She winced but never took her gaze from him. Which made him work harder to keep his expression neutral as he took her pain.
“Consider it a sedative.”
The line disappeared from her skin, burning on his thigh for a few seconds before fading.
She was watching him. “You take on the pain.”
He lifted a shoulder. “It’s just a sting.”
She sat in the truth of that for a second. “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. Really.”
She started to reach toward the cut with the washcloth but paused. “You don’t like it when people touch you.”
He shook his head. “No, we don’t.”
She bent her legs to the side, a demure position, yet still provocative. “Let me get this straight. Your energy draws women—people—to you, but you don’t like anyone to touch you.”
He had to be careful what he revealed. Knowledge was dangerous to Caidos. “Ironic, isn’t it? We don’t want that attraction. In fact, we despise it.”
“That’s why you stay in these ivory towers and never mingle with anyone.”
“Correct.” Sitting on a bed with a half-naked Dragon made that even more important.
“But you’ve touched me.” Her hand went to her neck, to exactly where he’d touched her at the bar. His touch had left an impression on her. “So how is it fair that you can touch me, but I can’t touch you?”
“Who said life was fair? Look, I won’t touch you either. That should even things out.”
He didn’t like her expression that indicated she was trying to figure him out. She was smart, this one. Her desire pulsed at him in waves, physically pulling at him before he pushed back.
She cat-walked across the bed toward him, stopping inches from where he stood. “It’s okay. You can touch me.” Her voice was husky.
“No, I can’t.” His fingers curled, fighting the need to do as she said.
“But you want to. You know how I can tell? Your eyes are shimmering the same way they did back at the bar.” She took his hand and placed it against her neck. “When you did this.” Then drew it down to rest against her collarbone.
He couldn’t breathe. Even muffled by being in full wing, desire rushed through him as it had at the bar.
He’d nearly lost it then, until the pain grew too harsh.
He pulled his hand back. “Don’t. I have no interest in getting involved with you.
Or anyone.” He took the washcloth, still in her other hand.
“I have to figure out who sent wraiths after us. We picked them up at the nightclub, which means someone’s watching us, probably has been since we left Jeremy’s apartment.
” He wiped the blood—her blood—from his chest.
Lyra settled back on her heels, hands on her thighs.
Hurt played over her expression and his heart.
Let her think he was a shit, like most Crescents did.
Those snobby, asexual Caidos who think they’re better than anyone else because they came from those closest to Luca, the highest god on the island.
They also paid the biggest price for betraying him.
His wings brushed the wall. For certain skills, like healing, he had to transform to angel. Now that she was healed, he had to become human again. “Excuse me a second.” He swallowed any expression of discomfort and pulled in the energy of his wings.
She was watching in fascination. “Did you shred your shirt?”
Archer sank to the edge of the bed, fatigue gnawing at him. “It’s in tatters with your clothes in the garage. We’ll pick everything up when we leave.” Fortunately, he still had on his pants.
“It probably looks like there was a sex frenzy down there.”
And thank you for putting that particular picture in my mind…
She wrapped her arms around herself. “Those things were creepy. You said wraiths were dead Caidos.”
“If a Caido isn’t properly interred after his death, his soul becomes a wraith.”
“I hate to even say this, but could one of those wraiths we fought be Jeremy?”
Archer’s stomach tightened. “I thought about that, too. There’s no way to tell. All of a Caido’s individual features and personality are gone, everything that makes them who they are.”
“But they had a will. They definitely wanted to kill us.”
“As though they were following orders.” His gaze fell over her, remembering her fighting them. His emotions—fear, desire—pressed uncomfortably against his soul. “Do you still want to go into your memory?”
“Yes, please. Maybe if I know the note contained nothing incriminating, my brother and Ellie will forgive me. There might be a clue as to what happened to Tara, too.”
“You said the note was at your bakery. It would be optimal to go there.”
The farther away they could get from his bed the better. Because the temptation was getting to be way too much.