Page 99 of The Deer and the Dragon
My muscles tensed as I waited.
“I could be wrong, but I think he sent me here specificallybecauseno one else could come for me. No angel or deity is going to intervene here. I don’t know what he’s up to, but…many of us were angels once. We’re brothers of the same kingdom cleaved in two.”
I swallowed. “Are you implying that he…?”
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t stake my life on him defecting, but even if the best we get out of him is that he doesn’t agree with the war? Then we’ve made a powerful ally.”
A new, fresh anger surged through me as I balled my fingers into a fist and hit him as hard as I could in the arm. First surprise, then delight shone through him. I got up from the bed as I glared.
“We haven’t fought inlifetimes.” His eyes sparkled, far too amused by the rage that filled me. He swung his legs over the side of the bed as he eyed me.
I was ready to fight. “What the fuck is a tier-five favor? Why would you do that! You didn’t know who would respond! You didn’t know what they could call in! You didn’t—”
“Love—”
“No! It wasn’t just your kingdom or your people.Youcould have died! I could have lost you!” I cried out and swung for him again. He caught my fist this time, so I switched arms and tried to hit him with my other hand. He was on his feet in a flash, snatching it just as easily before it made contact. I spun to break his hold, but it backfired terribly. He twisted with me until my back was pinned to his chest, arms pressed to my sternum.
“We really should have been working on your self-defense,” he murmured in my ear.
“I’m mad at you!” I said while trying to drive my elbow into him. Unable to so much as see my target, I failed once more and he tightened his hold, running his teeth along my neck from behind me. “Don’t be sexy! I’m angry!”
“Can I help it if your rage is a turn-on?” came the vibrations against the back of my ear.
“Fuck, Caliban.” It came out in a gasp strangled between lust and fury. He tightened his arms and bit down on the soft spot where my neck met my shoulder until my growl gave way to a gasp. My body was a traitor. “Wanting you doesn’t make me any less enraged,” I said, but my hips rolled as if to contradict my words.
He only needed one arm to keep me pinned to his chest while the other ran idly down to my hips, forcing me against him so I could feel the precise effect the fight had had on him as it pressed into me.
“I need a few things from you,” he said in my ear.
I swallowed and closed my eyes, leaning into his voice.
“First, I need you to set me free from the limitations you’ve put on me in your life. You’ve roped me into the smallest of corners, and I respect you, Love, but I’m not one for a cage.”
My breathing came in ragged pulls, wanting his hand to go farther, to touch me, to cup and stroke and enter me. I nodded.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to be the one to say it, Love.”
“What do I say?” I repeated, lightheaded as I scarcely remembered to sip the air.
He tsked. “If I feed you the words, it defeats the purpose of free will.”
“Do it,” I said, voice so airy I wasn’t sure if he could hear me at all. My head swam in memory, in hope, in past and present and future. We weren’t in Bellfield, or in a hotel, or Heaven or Hell or the mortal realm. We weren’t anywhere. We existed between place and time that had been created just for us.
“Do what?” Caliban asked, crushing me to him.
“Anything. Everything. It’s all yours. I’m yours.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
I can only assume Azrames meant to make a better first impression on the Prince of Hell, but the moment he saw my face, he burst out in a laugh so cruel that I wanted to punch him. I had the worst case of blue tubes in the history of womankind, and I was ready to make it everyone else’s problem. “Now is not the time to fuck, Marlow” and “We have a goddess to defeat and a sigil to break” and “Stop trying to stroke my dick or I’m going to make you pay for it later” were followed by “Now I’m going to make you pay for itmuchlater and add a new day of deprivation every time you’re difficult.”
I’d stomped like a brat from the hotel room to the lobby, which I knew Caliban found infuriatingly charming. I could feel his grin all the way behind me as I blazed an angry, sex-denied trail to where my partner in crime undoubtedly waited. Azrames was on the computer when I walked in. He jumped to his feet and choked on his laugh, doing his best to swallow down the particularly rude brand of humor he saw in my pain. Despite his best efforts, I could still see it brimming in his eyes like tears as I glowered.
I threw an angry, introductory hand between them.
“Az, meet the Prince of Hell. I call him Caliban, but I’m thinking of changing his name to Cocktease. Caliban, this is Azrames. He’s the Patron Saint of Women, or something.”
Azrames cleared his throat and made a tense bow. “Correction: Iworkwith the Patron Saint of Women. She’s called Betty in this cycle. I can’t take credit for her work.”
