Page 77 of When the Angel Falls First

The wind tore the tears from my face.

“Caleb! Can you even hear me anymore?” My screams turned to anguished whispers as I poured it all out into the storm’s onslaught. “Why? Why did it have to be like this when everything around us, everything inside us knew that we were meant to be together? Caleb!” My voice broke on his name, the sobs racking me too much to contain.

The world went dark, and I choked with terror.

I was enveloped in warmth, the winds instantly muffled, and I was in an enclosure, a cocoon that protected me, though it was stifling me, too. With my arms tucked against my chest, I had no room to move. I could hardly breathe.

Am I dying?

And then there was light. I was right where I had been, on the side of the mountain, but everything had changed. No more wind, no more squall. Only a few fluffy clouds were in the sky, which I was sure was a shade of blue I had never seen before.

Beside me stood Caleb. But not the same Caleb I knew.

Vast and luminous, his wings filled the space around us, and I studied them with awe. Silken and mesmerizing, each feather shimmered in the colors of champagne, blushing rose petals, and the occasional deep red among the others. They were the color of love itself. Fanned out, they were majestic andotherworldly. As if they could only be half-present in this plane of existence.

His muscles tensed as he tucked his wings behind him and brushed my cheek with the back of his fingers.

I shook my head, but he was still there. In jeans and a fitted linen shirt, he was not an apparition and not a dream. I squinted up, his ethereal figure towering over me. Feathers fluttered gently in the light breeze that had been an icy tempest just a moment before.

“That storm,” I started, my voice quiet. “That was you.”

It was part accusation, part awe, part sheer delight that I didn’t dare let myself feel.

Caleb’s response was a grin, boyish and cheeky, his eyes gleaming with mischief.Thatwas the Caleb I knew.

“Want to go for a ride?” he asked, extending a hand. The instant I nodded, he swept me up, one arm securely around me, and we were off. It wasn’t just that his reappearance was unbelievable, it was that I didn’t know what itmeant. After all Caleb and I had gone through, I wasn’t able to let go of the idea that this might be a divine ending to our incredible story.

Ascending through the crisp air, everything felt unreal. His divine energy wrapped around me, warm and protective. “Are you afraid?” he asked, his arms holding me firmly but not tightly, the muscle from his shoulders and biceps a comfort that only he could give.

“I’ve never felt safer.” I held his gaze, reveling in the fact thathe’d come back.

I ran my fingers along the curve of his jaw, a thrum inside me demanding I take those luscious lips with mine. While I might have doubts about the significance of seeing Caleb on the side of a mountain, my body knew exactly how it felt. It asked no questions, entertained no doubt. It needed to haveCaleb closer than he’d ever been, to be filled by him. To feel his breath on every curve, to feel his tongue on my most sensitive places, to surround his cock inch by glorious inch.

As if he could hear my thoughts, he pulled me tighter, his hand caressing the small of my back as we flew, then reaching down to grab hold of my ass and press me tighter to him. The thickness of his cock was stiff against my stomach, and a small gasp escaped my lips at the sensation. Caleb looked at me, his eyes hungry as a different kind of smile spread across his face.

“That’s my needy girl,” he whispered, sending another jolt of awareness through me. “But first, I have a question for you.”

I playfully slapped his chest. “You couldn’t have asked me on the ground?”

His eyes crinkled and he relaxed. “I could have, but the view’s better up here.”

“Are you about to start singing that song fromAladdin?”

“What?”

Oh, Caleb and his angelic lack of pop culture references. “Not important. What’s the question?” My tone was light, but a lump began to form in my throat. Whatever this question was, I didn’t know that I wanted to answer.

“Just you wait. When we reach the top, I think it will all be clear.”

He landed on the summit of Mt. Rainier, the world sprawled below us, a vast expanse of beauty that took my breath away. It was the sort of sight that put everything into perspective, the sort of sight that made you believe in the magic of life again.

He held my hands so I wouldn’t slip as a wing encircled me.

The world unfurled around us like a masterpiece painted by the hands of the divine. The vibrant green of the valleyssprawled below, adorned with wildflowers that bloomed like a palette of summer’s colors—vivid yellow, burning orange, and soft lavender, which I still swore I caught the scent of, despite the distance.

We were somewhere between heaven and Earth, a magical bubble of our own making.

That thought interrupted the intensity of the moment, and I couldn’t pretend it didn’t scare me. Was this his last goodbye?

---