Page 25 of Angel's Vengeance

The branch creaked its warning, leaving no time for her discomfort or sadness to settle in for the sulk they longed for.Instead, she lifted her chin to be level with his, a true task given how harshly he’d begun to shake.“I’m not the monster you think I am, and I’ll prove it by taking you to Cyro.I’ll show you I am not like him.”

“Just shut up and kiss me already, would you?”he bit out, eyes clenched shut once more.

Resigned to the task, she lifted her lips to his and let the tear fall.She no longer cared what other parts of her chose to separate themselves from her as well.

Chapter12

There were a lot more words Rhode wanted to say,shouldhave said, but those were robbed from him as he melded his trembling lips with hers.It wasn’t a sweet meeting of mouths or a passionate tangle, nor was it a curious wonder, with trails traversed and layouts learned.

No, it was a violent mashing that had a job to do.One very singular, very fucking important job.

And by the mages, it worked.

Rhode’s body responded instantly as the fire within his core received the kickstart it needed.Rolling waves of power spread through every muscle in his body, blooming them to capacities he’d not known before.His already taxed muscles strained inexplicably further with each lick of electric blue flames that consumed him.

Dammit all, but Neela was right.He wouldn’t have been able to risk a shift.

So it had to be this.Her.Against him.Touching him.

The scope of his new reality was the final spark of ignition his power needed.Flames erupted all around them, lashing out to the tips of his wings and curling around the branch like the legs of a black widow’s deadly embrace.Cracks and pops hissed above him, followed by the acrid smell of charred wood.The load lightened bit by bit, but each sway of relief his muscles adapted to brought more comfort and reassurance than he’d ever imagined.Soon, his flames began to lessen, and nothing was kissing his shoulders except the delicate sprinkles of ash.

Which was a massive fucking problem because it left him with no other recourse but to address the softness beneath him.

And what softness it was.

He hadn’t known what to brace himself for, not really.He never truly did.But something about this, about her, was so entirely different, he almost didn’t know what to do with the shock of it all.

Everything, from her mouth to her middle to where her thighs cushioned the strength of his, was an assault on senses that had only ever known just that.But this?This was ...

A respite.

His muscles slackened into the sensation before his mind could think better of it.Rhode’s elbows met the ground and accidentally tipped his mouth farther against Neela’s, unintentionally shifting his bottom lip in the process to taste more of hers.

The sensation seized his body.

Holy mages, she was sweet.

A sugared decadence moved across his mouth and arrested him in a way he’d never thought possible.Owing to no logic whatsoever, he brushed his lips against hers once more, savoring the pillowy enchantment that was both a distraction and the focus of whatever mess he’d found himself in.

Rhode dimly recalled what he’d tried to fortify himself against when he’d told Neela that it had to be a kiss.Even as taxed as he was, the bulk of him had known the fucking drill by that point and tensed as needed in miserable anticipation.

But Rhode had known misery.Holy hell, had he known it.And this ...

Only in the quiet recesses of his mind could he admit to himself that kissing Neela was unimaginable bliss.A bliss he had no right seeking out, but damned if he could ignore what he’d so long been denied.

And it wasn’t just her mouth that tempted him to seek out more.It was every aching curve that met his muscled ridges.Her lush body was a welcome cradle to all he had suffered, and his brain was threatening to short-circuit with the reconciliation of it.She was a charmer.A get of his tormentor.A soul bond by circumstance.

But beneath him, with his eyes closed and no one but his mind’s eye to judge or blame him, she was wholly and completely female.

The flames around him had yet to douse fully, and he welcomed the strange sensation with a need just as alien as his situation.Adrenaline that wasn’t ordinarily there controlled his maneuvers.And as long as the flames still simmered down their bodies, a part of him could make the argument that his actions were not truly his own.In the quiet cocoon of the steps needed to ensure their survival, Rhode wasn’t entirely in the driver’s seat, and neither was Neela.They were yet again victims of celestial circumstance, though this time a circumstance that came with far more intrigue than injury.

And that was when the moan reverberated through his lungs and pushed past his claimed lips into hers.It stunned him before it slayed him, and he couldn’t for the life of him name the flavors bursting across his senses that had dragged the unexpected sound out of him.They were far more than his escaping vocabulary could describe and entirely nothing like what he’d ever associate with a charmer.Still, he couldn’t help but try to name them for fear that, when it was all over, he’d never recall the delights of such a cocktail ever again.

By the mages, she tasted like life, like some vital indulgence his tongue couldn’t help but dart out to steal more of.The impulse curled his gut, but not in the way he’d planned when he resigned himself to letting a charmer get so close to him again.With Neela, it was as if every muscle and tendon in his frame, despite being as strung out as they were, had somehow found a gear they’d not been able to access before.

A very greedy, impatient gear.

His breath hitched when her lithe fingers tightened at his waist before falling lower to claim his hips in a bracketing embrace that only fused them impossibly closer.

---