Page 50 of Angel's Vengeance

Gingerly, with more care than he’d ever been taught to wield, he lifted her hair from her neck to kiss her pulse point and froze.

“Rhode?”Neela asked, still trying to get her breathing under control.But when she tried to push away from him to see what he was looking at, he kept her close.

“Stay still.”

“Why?What’s happening?”

Rhode stared at the small iridescent symbol tattooed behind her earlobe, which, if it weren’t for his angel fire illuminating it briefly before the flames extinguished fully, he would have never seen.

Did Neela even know it was there?

And more importantly, if shedidknow it was there, did she understand whose name she bore on her body?

Chapter25

Neela’s body was still weathering the aftershocks of her orgasm when she sat up in Rhode’s bed and accepted a bottle of water from a mini-fridge she hadn’t noticed was tucked next to the nightstand.

It was the one concession he seemed to allow to any sort of comfort, and it was freaking spring water.Not even the mineral stuff.

Her heart flapped around like a fish on land while she twisted the cap off and took small sips.That was all she could manage when Rhode offered her one of his T-shirts and said they needed to talk before he headed to the bathroom, gloriously naked and heading in the wrong damn direction.

Absolutely no one, be they charmer or mortal, wanted to talk after sex.The few dalliances she’d had with other demons had been fast and fleeting but had scratched an itch that would flare up from time to time.And if what the mortals led her to believe was true, in their world, postcoital conversation had a shelf life directly tied to whichever partner had the lowest melatonin stores.

Neela fiddled with the cap and lifted the sheets higher against her chest, worrying about what would come at her from the other side of that door.

No, sherefusedto believe that what she’d just shared with Rhode was anything other than cell-altering.Or, in her case, soul-altering.So, yes, talking about it would be a good thing.

When his fire erupted around them again, it had felt different somehow.Mutely warmer and just ...essential, almost like the stuff was as much a part of her as the hand she’d had in bringing it to life.

And if what Molly and Drea had told her about the soul bond was true, that fire would last for eternity, protecting Rhode through whatever might come his way.It didn’t matter that the metal he commanded and armored himself with was painfully brittle and essentially useless in hand-to-hand combat.If he had his full fire, he could live.He couldthrive.No more time stamping his strength or requiring that he recharge beneath the mountain each night.

It was the greatest gift she could think to give him, one that would have saved him from untold torment had she known it was possible before.

Neela cut that train of logic off real quick because dredging up the past was hardly ever useful.

But he was finally well, healed physically, and fully powerful.If Cyro came for him again, her sire would be met with a far different being than the one he’d chained to a slab of rock.

Soft tears of thanks pricked her eyelids, but she blinked them away lest they fall and dampen Rhode’s sheets.Looking down to ensure no tears had already managed to escape her notice, she observed how the charcoal-gray bedclothes formed around her naked body.The hem of the flat sheet was cool as it draped over her breasts, the undersides of which rested on top of her ribs.

She had to laugh at that.She’d never seen one of her ribs in her life, let alone any of the muscles that showed up to work each day to pad her skeleton.They were there, of course, providing the structure for her frame and foundation.

But they weren’t what Rhode admired.

Mages, you’re perfect.

She could live an untold number of days and never get enough of replaying Rhode’s declaration about her while he feathered gentle kisses along her round stomach.

She wasn’t so naïve to think he meant more than what that wordperfectcould actually entail.Perfect wasperfect.Indisputably ideal, without flaws or faults.Lord knew she didn’t come close to that.But by the tender way he caressed her body, whispering little moans of approval and breathing in parts of her no one had ever bothered to linger near, let alone love on, he was speaking about a different kind of perfection.

Her angel had a preference for what her body alone offered him, and no amount of bathroom brooding was going to rob her of the perma-smile he’d put on her face because of it.

The door creaked open, and Rhode walked out wearing a pair of khaki-colored linen yoga pants, which swayed, loose and forgiving, throughout his hips and thighs, but cinched tightly around his ankles.The rest of him was blessedly bare and highlighted every rung of muscle that she’d yet to explore.

Better start making a to-do list ...

Before her mind wandered too far from the earlier subject at hand, she asked, “Are we going to have The Talk now?”But when the mirth she was hoping to ignite in his eyes never appeared, a sinking feeling slammed into her gut.

He eyed the bed like a serpent in the grass.“May I lie next to you?”

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