GAbrIEL
I don’t want to rush this. I’ve waited for so long. Yearned for this connection, this admission, and now that I have her pliant and ready beneath me, I don’t want it to end, despite the ache in my loins and the burning need to consummate.
She tastes like nectar. Her lips, soft and pillowy, her tongue—fuck, I could suck on it all day. But I move down to her breasts, straining against the confines of her shirt. Yes, that needs to come off.
I don’t mean to tear it, but fuck, it’s done now.
Oh heavens, she feels so good in my hands, so sweet in my mouth.
Every gasp, every cry, inflames me more, and I taste her, every delicious inch, as she writhes and begs, pushing up her hips as I get closer to the epicenter of her need.
I can smell her desire, and my mouth pools with saliva.
This time I’m careful, peeling her slacks down past her hips to expose the fruit of her desire. My fruit now.
I free her of her clothing, part her slowly, then dip my mouth to her. Her juices coat my tongue as I taste her, alternating between long, leisurely strokes and feathered laps. She swells and melts against my lips, bucking and grasping at my hair.
Yes. This is mine. Mine. Slick and swollen, just for me. I push my tongue inside her, and she grips it and squeezes.
“Gabriel, please.” Her voice is a strangled plea.
She’s ready, and so am I.
I sit back and push down my waistband to free my arousal, and her eyes go wide, stroking my ego in a way that makes me harder and larger.
“Give it to me,” she demands.
There’s a growl to her tone, hungry and primal, and the compulsion to satisfy rushes over me, something only a celestial female can accomplish.
Something that, with a severe lack of females in heaven, has been a sensation long missed.
I revel in it now, eager to give her what she demands.
She’s wet and warm, stretching to accommodate me but oh so tight.
I have to slow down, ease in, inch by inch, until blood is pounding in my head and the nerves at the base of my spine are bunched so tightly I’m afraid I’ll find my release before I can enjoy hers.
I seat myself, and we both groan in unison.
Our gazes connect, and she sucks in a breath as I pull out slowly, then gasps as I fill her again.
I settle into a rhythm, slow and easy, deeper and deeper, and her walls grow tighter—pulsing, begging me for more.
But I need her to say it. I want to hear it.
“Please, Gabriel. I need it. I need it hard.”
“What do you need?” I ease out and thrust once more.
She bares her teeth. “Fuck me. Fuck me until I can’t breathe.”
RUE
My demand lit up Gabriel’s eyes. He grabbed my hips and flipped me onto my front. My wings flared, then spread flat across my back, tips reaching for the edges of the bed. He cupped my ass, tilting me before entering me with the sweet stretch that burned a path to my heart.
Each thrust hit home, bringing me closer to the release I craved.
“Yes. Yes.”
The wet slapping sounds we made served only to heighten my pleasure.
“Fuck,” Gabriel said. “Fuck, Rue, you’re so fucking tight. I need…Fuck…” He growled, his hips a piston against my ass.
A surge of heat rushed up to hug my throat, and my vision whited out as I came over and over with every thrust.
He made a guttural sound and stilled, grinding his hips against me as he filled me with his heat.
He leaned over me, still pulsing inside me, his hands roving over my wings, stroking the muscles that tethered them to my back and sending fresh shivers through me.
He kissed my nape. “I love you, Rue.”
Tears filled my eyes. “I love you too, Gabriel.”
My dress was a deep iridescent blue that spilled around my frame like a magical waterfall and made my wings stand out.
The deep V cut a path between my breasts almost to my navel, but it was cut to hug, to fit.
I had no idea who Bee had commissioned to make the dress, no idea where the gorgeous material had come from, but it felt wonderful to feel pretty for once.
“You should put your hair up.” Gabriel appeared in the mirror behind me. “You have a beautiful neck.”
I turned to him, taking in his midnight blue suit, fitted to accentuate his broad shoulders, slender hips, and powerful thighs. His wings were hidden.
“I need to learn to hide my wings like you do.”
“They’re still there,” he said. “Just on a slightly different plane. It’s called a shift. I’ll teach you once we’re back in heaven.” He raked me over slowly. “You truly are beautiful, Rue.”
My stomach fluttered. “And so are you.”
He stepped closer and cupped my nape, pulling me in for a soft kiss that plucked at my lips, leaving me breathless. “If you don’t stop, we might not leave this room.”
He ran his hand up my side and cupped my breast. “Don’t tempt me.”
I arched against his palm. “Maybe we can take a minute.”
He pressed kisses up my throat, steering me toward the dresser while I gathered my dress up over my hips.
“A moment.” He lifted me onto the dresser, his mouth finding mine. The soft sound of his zipper followed, then his fingers grazed my pussy as he pushed aside my panties.
My breath came in shallow pants, eager, wanton, then stuck in my throat as he entered me.
“Ahhh.” I gripped his ass as he fucked me hard and fast, rocking the dresser as our cries rose in a crescendo toward release.
This. I needed this. Him.
We were going to be late to the ball, and I didn’t give a shit.
By the time we got to the ball, the event was well underway.
Music, dancing, revelry. This was a celebration of freedom.
Of a new beginning for humanity, and everyone was here.
Gabriel and I slipped in, but going unnoticed with my wings wasn’t realistic, and before we knew it, we were surrounded by people wanting to thank us for all our help.
Gabriel kept hold of my hand as I greeted people and chatted with them. Faces were beginning to blur when a well-loved face filled my vision.
Jamie smiled down at me warmly. “I wanted to say thank you for everything. We’re so grateful to you.”
He didn’t remember me, not from before the Purge, and not from when we’d met in the Golden City before he went into the mixer. All memory of me was gone. I was a stranger to him, a celestial. The woman tucked against his side who was looking up at him with adoration was his world now.
Better this way.
He was happy.
He was reborn.
That was all that mattered.
“You’re welcome.” I returned his smile. “Take care of each other.”
“We will,” the woman said. He kissed her on her head, and they slipped into the crowd.
“Does it hurt to see him?” Gabriel asked.
“Not anymore.” I turned my face up to him. “My Jamie is gone. I’ll never forget him. He taught me what love was, and I’m thankful for that.”
“In that case,” Gabriel said, “we should dance.”
He swept me into his arms and onto the dance floor, and for a few hours, I was just a woman in love in the arms of the angel that loved her back.
My summons had been clear, to report straight to Lucifer upon my return, and so Gabriel and I parted ways as soon as we got to heaven with a promise to find each other later.
My heels clipped on marble as I made my way to Lucifer’s chambers. She’d built a replica of her Gehenna fortress in heaven down to the exact books on the shelves. It was her happy place, and one I knew she spent all her spare time in.
I found her curled up in an armchair with a large tome, a mug of some beverage on the table beside her.
“Don’t you have work to do?” I fell into the seat opposite and kicked off my boots.
The first month that I’d been working on New Hope City, I’d come back here often enough for this fortress replica to feel like home too, and Lucifer, well, it was impossible not to love her, despite her mercurial temper.
“I’m glad you’re back,” she said. “Shemyaza has been clomping about like a bear with a sore head the past few days. He wanted to join you for the ball, but I refused to let him.”
“Why not?”
She arched a brow. “You reek of the aroma of new love and its consummation.”
She didn’t mean literally, of course, because celestials in heaven didn’t need to wash and shower; we were cleansed always.
“You wanted me to have time with Gabriel.”
“Not wanted, needed.”
“What do you mean?”
She held up a finger and canted her head, and then a slight smirk curled her lips. “Shemyaza has been alerted to your arrival. Go to him. I will speak with you all tomorrow.”
My curiosity warred with my need to see Shem.
Lucifer leaned forward and took my hand. “Take the pleasures and the freedom to enjoy them while you can, little sister.” She turned back to her book, dismissing me, and I knew better than to push her to clarify.
She’d satisfy my curiosity when she was good and ready and not before.
I slipped my boots back on and went in search of Shem.
Heaven was a vast place, filled with light and peace and training arenas where the celestials could beat the shit out of each other because, yes, we had a lot of pent-up energy, and combat was a great way to siphon it off.
God had created celestials to be his warriors, after all.
To protect his creations and combat any beings that threatened that.
I found Shem in the arena beating the shit out of a celestial I didn’t know, his fist making contact with the celestial’s face over and over, but he faltered as I stepped onto the viewing balcony, then stopped altogether.
The celestial backed up, hands raised. “Shemyaza, I’m done.”
Shem fixed his stunning neon blue eye on me, and my mouth went dry. He was formidable with his golden skin, and his sun-streaked hair, and those shoulders, perfect to hold on to, to dig my nails into when riding him.
His nostrils flared, and he jerked his head toward the exit before striding off.
That was my cue.
I knew what he needed, and I was ready to give it to him.
I caught up to him in the corridor beyond, and he slipped his hand into mine. We picked up the pace, our goal privacy.
Thank fuck his quarters weren’t far.
We fell into his room, and he kicked the door shut before lifting me off my feet and shoving me against it. There was no need for words as we willed our clothes away so our bodies could kiss.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and bit back a moan as he filled me then fucked me against the door, hard, fast, hungry, until my head filled with light and his name spilled from my lips like a mantra.
Release came and built again as he refused to let me go, staying deep inside me as we slipped to the floor, mouths melded, bodies moving in a rhythm that felt inevitable.
“Missed you,” he groaned into my mouth.
“Missed you too.”
He gripped my throat. “Even with Gabriel inside you?”
My eyes fluttered closed as he applied pressure. “No. Not then. Then it was only him.”
He nipped at my bottom lip. “Now it will be only me. Because right now, this is mine.”
There was no restraint as he pounded me, tearing strangled cries of twisted pleasure from my lips as hot tears leaked from my eyes until release washed over me, painful in its intensity—a flavor that only Shem could provide.
His hand slipped from my throat to my collarbones, and he hovered over me, his dark eyes devouring me. “I fucking missed you.”
I smiled up at him. “Then show me how much. Again.”
Lucifer’s summons came at dawn, tearing me from Shem’s arms and taking us both to the antechamber to Lucifer’s audience chamber.
Bastian and Gabriel were already there, and they were surprised to see us.
“Summons?” Gabriel asked.
“Yes,” Shem said.
Another figure filled the arch behind us, and it was my turn to blink in surprise. “Kabiel.”
He inclined his head, his pale eyes wary. “I was summoned.”
“Yes, so were we,” Gabriel said.