Page 70 of Sleeping Redemption
“So? I’m a devout woman with a strong faith.” Even I didn’t believe my own bullshit, and it seemed from the look on Sy’s face he was less than impressed by what I dealt him.
“Your faith is a goddamn paper tiger, and you know it,” he growled out.
“It’s not that you prayed, it was what you asked for that is the problem.” He stepped closer to me until we were both within arm’s length of one another.
I could sense Atlas and Rook both shifting uncomfortably behind me but not making any attempt to intervene.
Gritting my teeth together, I stubbornly glared up at him, my cheeks flushed with the rumblings of my anger. “What I pray for is none of your damn business.”
“You fucking askedhimto preen your feathers.” He laid it out there for everybody to hear.
Preening was an intimate process to keep our wings in tip-top shape, not something I entrusted to just any archangel. The last thing I wanted was to lose the fullness and glow of my wings because I neglected to have them properly maintained.
Vain? Yes.
Did I give a shit? No.
“If I’m going to lay there and have my feathers primped, I may as well have something to look at!” I shouted at him, my fists clenched at my sides.
Without hesitation, I continued to defend myself with a fierce glare at him. “What was I supposed to do? I needed an archangel to keep the integrity of every vane.”
Unfortunately, Camiel hadn’t yet cleared time in his schedule to pay me a visit, leaving my wingspan still in desperate need of attention. I had a suspicious feeling he might be a little frightened of me for some reason.
Sy leaned down so that his nose was an exhale away from touching mine. The volume of his voice lowered so that it was nothing but a harsh whisper. “And you didn’t think to ask me?” Despite the tight control he maintained on his temper, the heat of his anger radiated off of him. It was clear he took my request far more personally than I expected.
“Given how up in arms you get about everything else around here, I saved us both the fucking headache!” I spat my words out at him.
Slowly, he leaned back away from me, giving us both a modicum of space. His eyes raked over my figure with a light growl stuck in his throat.
Without warning, he bent over and snatched me up. In that swift movement, I was tossed over his shoulder as his arm tightened around the back of my legs. It left me with an upside-down view of his firm ass.
“You want your feathers preened, Kin? You’re going to get it done in the way you deserve.”
Striding out of the room with me, my body bobbed with each of his steps. I lifted my head; my view was partially obscured by my long, bi-colored strands of hair. But I did manage to capture a glimpse of the looks on Rook and Atlas’s faces from my current position.
My guardian angel was ready to come to my aid, standing up with shock plastered over his features. He was stopped by Rook’s hand pressed against his chest.
Rook’s reaction was starkly different from that of Atlas. He stood there, grinning like a damn fool.
Before Sy rounded the corner out of the living room, I heard Rook’s distinguished British accent. “Let ‘em have it, mate. They’ll be fine.”
My hands gripped fistfuls of the back of Sy’s shirt as I grunted, my body straining to shift myself off his shoulder.
“I didn’taskyou for your help, Sy?—”
Thwack!
The sharp sting of his palm striking my ass cut my words off, leaving a prickling heat in its wake.
“That’s for being a brat, and there’s more where that came from,” he stated with a calm promise. “Now, be a good girl and stop squirming around.”
My brain was left in a stalled state of chaos. This was cranky, stick in the mud, Sylas, right? The same archangel that acted like he’d never had a day of playing hooky in his life?
He quickly and effortlessly bounded up the stairs with me as I bounced lightly against his shoulder. It didn’t take him long to cover the distance between the top of the stairs and my bedroom.
I watched as his boot-covered foot kicked my bedroom door shut behind him with more force than necessary. Sylas kept moving until the strength of his hands found my waist, and he pulled me from his shoulder and hurled me onto the bed.
Landing amongst the sea of pillows and blankets, my body bounced several times. My eyes were still wide from this jarring shift in who I knew him to be.
