Page 28 of Calling All Angels
“Now and then,” he said with a shrug, “we’re allowed a mingle. We stay for a time as nearly mortals. ’Tis usually for a task that needs doin’, canna be done any other way.”
“You’ve done one of thesemingles?”
“I’ve done them.” A muscle worked in his jaw.
“So, will I remember you?”
He turned her way at last, his beautiful eyes fixing on hers. “I will remember you.”
Her heart gave a heavy thump, and for a moment, she thought he meant to kiss her. His gaze scanned her face, her mouth, the way she moistened her lips with her tongue. She closed her eyes, leaning closer, parting her lips for that kiss. But a humiliating heartbeat later, she opened her eyes to find he’d turned away again.
“Wow. Even in the in-between,” she murmured, “I can’t seem to get my timing right.”
He seemed embarrassed somehow, not at all like the arrogant angel who’d spent the last day or so feeling righteous. “’Tis naught to do with ye, Emma. I canna.”
“You‘canna’what? Kiss me? Have feelings for me?”
“’Course I have feelin’s for ye.”
“Bad feelings, maybe. Or indifferent. That’s fine. I mean, I’m practically dead. What can I expect?”
“I’m a celestial and you’re a mortal—more or less—and those two things, they canna be…together.”
“But I’m not exactly mortal here, am I, Farm Boy? I can’t hold a spoon between my fingers, but I can hold your hand. So, what does that make me? A temporary distraction?”
He slid a dark look at her, clearly wanting to say something but holding back.
“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t mind me. I’m just going through something here. Anyway, kissing is such a mortal thing. Unnecessary, really. And pointless.”
Without a beat of warning, he pulled her to him and proceeded to refute that point. Wrapping his powerful arms around her, his mouth moved over hers with the hunger of a man who’d starved himself for too long and had found his salvation, kissing her deeply and without any of the caution he’d only a moment ago been preaching.
Stunned, Emma swayed in his embrace, her knees going weak as he leaned her backward in the cradle of his arms. There was anger in his kiss, but she didn’t care about that, either. She felt her stomach drop and flutter as heat impaled her from the core of her being, outward toward every part of her. As he plundered her mouth, she did the same to his, clinging to him, her fingers tucked into the long curls at the base of his neck, her lungs breathing in the sweet scent of him. All the while, there was a buzzing, something electrical and glittery moving through them. Some stirring of an old sparkle of memory that echoed inside her for only a moment before he lifted his mouth from hers.
Still holding her, his face only a breath from hers, he spoke to her without saying a word aloud.“Dinna think I haven’t imagined this every day for centuries. Dinna think I haven’t wanted to taste ye again. And now I have.”
His voice. It reached right inside her. She wasn’t sure her legs would hold her as he set her away from him. She crumpled onto the window ledge, leaning back against the glass, still catching her breath. “That was quite a kiss…for being impossible.” She grinned up at him through her lashes. “Apparently you haven’t lost your touch.”
“My self-control is another matter altogether.”
Another shiver of heat chased across her skin as his gaze raked over her. “I’m of the opinion that self-control is often overrated.”
“Not in my case.”
“Regardless,” she told him, “I won’t forget it. No matter what happens.”
A half smile curved his mouth, but his gaze caught sight of something outside. She followed his look. A man, a familiar-looking man with blond hair and a slim build, was walking across the parking lot, holding a bouquet of flowers.
She jumped to her feet.Holy old boyfriends!Could she have conjured him up with her thoughts about him the other day back at the car? The boy who’d started the whole kissing ballgame rolling all those years ago?
Connor raised a disapproving brow. “Who’s that?”
“Someone I used to know.”Surely he’s not here to visit me. Oh, please, don’t let him be coming to see me.Automatically, she reached a hand up to straighten out her hair, only belatedly realizing it would do nothing to improve the appearance of the other Emma, lying in the bed.
Connor took her hand. A moment later, they were standing at her bedside near Aubrey and Jacob. They both looked exhausted.
A nurse popped her head in the door. “There’s someone to see you, Aubrey. He’s just outside in the waiting area. Says his name is Aaron.”
With an uncertain frown, Aubrey followed her to where Aaron was waiting.
