Page 48 of Angel's Vengeance

One he feared he could no sooner extract from his soul than the Eternal Flame’s spark within him.

Abandonment had been his bedfellow for as long as he could remember, but in actuality, it had been nothing more than an excuse.An excuse to find Neela, only to risk losing her again to a force neither of them was capable of understanding.

What he did understand with absolute fucking certainty was that he needed to have his mouth on her.

The kiss was a thunderclap, an auditory outrage harmonizing with the angel fire singing in his veins whenever his hands were on this woman.He leaned in farther, anchoring his arm at the small of her back and dipping her so far backward that there was no possible way he couldn’t taste all of her.He greedily stole every hyssop-scented sigh and tickling caress that her flaxen tendrils would grace him with.When his lips no longer brought enough of her to him, his tongue took over.Neela’s breath hitched at the sly intrusion, then advanced in another way, with her searching fingers pressing into the sides of his hips.

“Mages, how are you this divine?You’re ...you’re ...”

Rhode couldn’t think, couldn’t call forth enough words to string anything together that wasn’t rooted in urgent, primal needs.The need to claim, to capture, to caress, to protect from whatever dared threaten to take her away from him.

“Fuck!”he growled into her mouth before grabbing her ass and spinning her around the room.The edge of the mattress soon bumped his calves and buoyed him with the certainty that there could be no other conclusion for what the fates had planned for them.

But only if she consented to tumble over that precipice with him.And if she didn’t, could he blame her?

The thought was a sobering shock of ice to the fire that threatened to erupt out of him.What if it was too late?What if her presence in his life was some other trick crafted by Cyro to further control and manipulate him?What if the luscious lady whofilled his hands and had slowly begun to root out and fill other hollow parts of him could only ever be a carnal fling?A desire exorcized?

The sobering chill snaked down his spine but fell short of invading the rest of his nervous system when Neela bucked her hips forward and knocked them both onto the mattress.When she settled above him, her soft body molding to his and her breasts pressing against the strength of his chest, her might answered what his could not.

Neela lifted off him slightly, then sat up entirely while her thighs cradled his hips.A single palm braced insistently against his sternum, impressing upon him more words than he’d ever thought to say.“I’m so done with being afraid, Rhode.And despite what you may think, the one person I’mnotafraid of is also the same person who hasn’t left my thoughts for a second, not even on the day I thought I lost you.”Neela slowly shook her head and smiled sweetly.“Whatever you want this to be, I’m game, because somehow you and I are both still alive to experience it together.”Then she blinked a few times, and something regretful and solemn passed over her expression.“It doesn’t have to be more than that.”

Rhode’s fingers curled along her torso, claiming the negative spaces between her ribs for the handholds he needed, and he had to workreallyfucking hard not to leave bruises.

Did she just say ...?Did she not want ...?

He never let himself think of the sheer volume of years lost.If he did, he wasn’t sure he’d ever truly be free.Even if his body was whole and hale, finally fit enough to command the new power that he was just coming to appreciate as a gift instead of the curse it had been for so long, there was something far different about being a prisoner of the mind.

If he knew the exact number of lifetimes he’d never see again, well, madness would be a kindness.

But to realize that he hadn’t been entirely abandoned?That Neela had been in his corner, in his fuckingcell, all that time, quietly repairing and cleaning away whatever filth the charmers had forced to leak out of him?

He hadn’t been alone.In his darkest moments, she’d been there, and he wasn’t equipped to deal with the kind of humbling awe that truth draped over him.

But the truth of her draped over his body?Of that connection not needing to be something more?

She was wrong, and he would take no small delight in correcting her.

Rhode reared up and cradled her face inches from his.“The fuck it does.”

He captured her mouth in a kiss so hard, so raw, that it spoke every word of emotion he’d never been able to reach when it came to her.He was a seraphim commander, a master of espionage and coercion, and if he couldn’t figure out how to impress upon her just how vitally his soul craved hers ...then he didn’t deserve the relief that had somehow only ever found him through her hands.

“Do you know how long,” he murmured into her mouth, “I’ve been waiting to tear this dress from you?”

Neela smiled against his lips.“You know, under normal circumstances, I would never advocate for this, but…”

“But?”

“Do it.”

The finely spun threads gave no resistance as he grabbed the front of her collar and pulled.Her breath hitched but was quickly followed by a sigh that Rhode would happily die listening to.

But he had no plans of dying quite yet.

His knuckles brushed against black lace that expertly curved around breasts his mouth watered to taste.Another package.Another present.Another secret promise.

When she arched her back, he took her offering with relish.The lace’s design was like an intricate puzzle box that hid the very treasure he couldn’t go another moment without kissing.Neela’s hands slipped along his scalp as she moved his mouth where she wanted him.When his lips bumped against the little mound of her nipple through the fabric, he nurtured his treasure with undue attention.

“Shit, Rhode.Oh my God.”

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