Page 5 of Touched By Death

I listen to his heartbeat until his breaths start to even out. He’s not asleep yet. His fingers walk up and down my spine, touching each vertebra.

“Do you want to leave Eden?” I ask, hugging him to me.

Amenadiel stays quiet for a long moment, and then, just when I think he won’t answer, he says, “Yes, if it means I get to be with you like this.”

My heart starts to race, and something flutters in my belly. I try not to read into his words.

Or my own feelings.

“Do you?” he asks, placing an arm beneath his head.

With my chin pressed to his chest, I stare into his eyes. Amenadiel is beautiful. Just like his brother. But where his brother is intimidating and scary, Amenadiel is safe and comforting.

“Yes,” I confirm. “I do want to walk out of Eden.”

His lips pull back into a slow smile, and he trails the backs of his fingers over my cheeks while I hold my breath. “Then let’s do it.”

“We’ll have to escape Lucifer.”

“And we will. As soon as we’re out, we’ll leave.”

I swallow thickly, my heart thudding in time with his.

“Are you saying,” he starts, stroking his fingers over my cheek and cupping my chin, “that you choose me?”

The words leave my lips in a breathless whisper. “Yes, Amenadiel. I choose you.”

Chapter Two

GENESIS

PAST

Waiting in front of the gates, I stare up at the blue sky dotted with puffy, white clouds, too many to count. Two weeks have passed since I first slept with Amenadiel behind Lucifer’s back.

It’s wrong. I know it is.

But the more we sneak around, the more I crave it.

Crave him.

Lucifer made me fall from grace the first time he touched me, and now I can’t look back. But Amenadiel awoke something entirely different inside me.

Something far scarier.

Emotions.

When I’m with him, I can’t get enough. And when we’re not together, I can’t stop thinking about him.

I still haven’t told Lucifer. He’s so obsessed with his idea of escaping Eden that he barely has time for me. Except for at night, when he crawls into my bed and tries to fuck me.

Sometimes I let him.

Call me weak.

In those moments, he gives me something else I’m slowly coming to crave.

Pain.

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