Faith (Soul Savers Book 7) (19 page)

He stopped turning and
glared at me. His wings opened wide, spreading out to the sides,
monstrous yet more stunningly beautiful than I’d seen on any
Angel in the Otherworld. Although, I liked mine a tad more with their
purple coloring, especially now. But even so, I couldn’t
possibly have looked as breathtaking as he did, standing there with
no shirt, his muscles taut, like a powerful, avenging Angel.

My laughter had died
with the sight, and I rose to my feet and un-hid my own wings.

“I don’t
know if they’re from the Angels, Hell, or something in between,
but, yeah, I have them, too.”

His face softened, and
his wings retracted closer to his body as he walked around to
investigate mine.

“I thought I saw
them in Hell,” he said, his voice filled with awe. “I
swore we flew over the lake of fire. But when I woke up and you
didn’t have them, I figured they’d been a figment of my
imagination while down there. Wishful thinking.”

“You can hide
them, just like Sasha can.” I made mine disappear and reappear.
He did the same.

Then a huge, lovely
grin lit up his face, and he bent his knees and jumped upward.

“Wait!” I
called. “It’s not that easy …”

My voice trailed off as
I watched him soar over the island, bank his turns, swoop down and
back up again, even make loops in the beautiful blue sky as puffy
white clouds skimmed high above him. I crossed my arms over my chest
and scowled. Well, didn’t that figure. It took me hundreds of
attempts, crashes, scratches, and bruises, and he just did it
naturally. What a jerk.

He made a perfect
landing in front of me, the gold in his eyes sparkling beautifully as
that sublime smile still covered his entire face. “This is …
incredible.”

“I hate you,”
I muttered, staring at the lines and curves of his bare chest and
abs, the beauty of which eradicated any meaning I might have had in
the three words. “Do you know how many times I crashed into
that stupid pile of rocks?”

“Hmm …
Well, you said we were in the North Pole with wind, snow, and ice,
right?” he offered. “That couldn’t have been easy
to stand in, let alone learn to fly.”

I narrowed my eyes,
wanting to be mad at him for patronizing me, but I couldn’t
hold it. He looked sincere. God, I loved this man so much.

“Yeah, that’s
it,” I agreed, although I was sure I would have crash-landed
even on a day as beautiful as this one.

He took my hand. “Come
on.”

He launched himself in
the air, pulling me with him. He had to release my hand when our
wings spread out, but we flew side-by-side over the ugly remains and
lovely beaches of Amadis Island. Almost the whole island was a
grayish-tan color, like the sand, and the few parts that weren’t
had been blackened from fire. No green grass or leaves. No more
eclectically colored homes the mages had built. Everything just a
dull, dead gray.

My heart hurt at the
view, but flying with Tristan by my side made it all a little more
bearable.

After surveying the
island, we neared the council hall, and he pulled himself more
upright, and I came up, too. I turned to face him as we hovered in
the air.

“How do you
feel?” he asked, a sparkle of mischief in his eyes.

My wings beat against
the air to keep me upright while my stomach quivered. “Physically?
Good, for the most part.” I gave him a flirtatious little
smile. “There might be a few places that could use a kiss to
make them better, though.”

His hands lashed out,
grabbed my wrists, and yanked me into him so that only a breath of
space remained between us. His eyes smoldered as his palms braced my
face, and then he leaned in and captured my mouth with his full,
delicious lips. Electricity jolted through me with the light but
passionate kiss, and I melded against him as we floated thirty feet
in the air. I parted my lips, and when his tongue slipped in, I met
it with my own. He tasted better than ever, which I hadn’t
thought possible, and I deepened the kiss, wanting to devour him. Our
wings dropped, nearly vertical, and closed around us, my tips
brushing against his feathers and sending a brand new sensation
through me that tingled all the way to my core. He must have felt it,
too, because the bulge in his leathers instantly grew, pressing
against my belly.

His hands slid back,
into my hair, gripping and massaging as he pulled me even closer. My
whole body pressed against his, and I ground against his erection as
the kiss sent torturous levels of desire through me. Slowly, we
lowered to the ground, landing on a big slab of marble, his mouth
never leaving mine. With the same thought on our minds, our wings
disappeared. His hands glided down my back, his fingers curling into
the tips of my hair and pulling, tilting my head back. My lips were
suddenly cold, abandoned by his as they traveled over my chin and
jaw. His mouth lingered over my throat as his tongue swirled arousal
into me, drawing a sigh from me as my hands gripped his thick
shoulders.

A warm electrical web
spread over my skin as his hands slipped between my leather top and
the waistband of my pants. His fingertips slowly caressed the bottoms
of my ribs as they moved around to come between us. His mouth had
reached my collarbone when his fingers went to the top of my vest,
and my breasts tightened with anticipation as he pulled the zipper
down, separating the two sides. When they fell apart, his head pulled
back, and he frowned. The expression of disdain and repulsion sent a
dagger through my heart. I stepped back and yanked the two pieces
together.

“I know,” I
said, tears stinging my eyes. He’d never,
ever
looked at
me that way before. “It’s ugly.”

My
muscles tensed when I saw the look on her face, heard the hurt in her
words.

I covered her small
hands with my large ones and shook my head at her misunderstanding.
“It’s beautiful. It’s part of you. Of all the
battles we’ve been in, you have this one scar that serves as a
reminder of what you did for me. Because you love me. You should be
proud of it.”

Her bottom lip
trembled. “It’s ugly, Tristan. I saw it on your face.”

My eyes snapped up to
hers, and the pain in them nearly killed me. How could I make her
understand that she was still the most beautiful creature on Earth?
In any realm? That it wasn’t the scar that sickened me, but the
fact that I’d essentially been the one to put it there?

I was glad to have
awoken before her, because the fit of rage I’d felt when I saw
the injury would have sent her back to the Otherworld if she’d
seen it. The guilt had nearly sent
me
back to Hell. I’d
barely been able to control myself—not all of the destruction
in the village had been from Norman bombs and the Daemoni, some had
been caused by my own hands—but I forced myself. She had that
scar
because
of my guilt. When I told her last night how I’d
asked the Demon to take me to her in the Otherworld, she’d
thrown a fit, but I knew without a doubt she’d do the same. She
already had—she’d followed me into the darkness when I
couldn’t break myself free. I wasn’t about to risk her
life and soul again because of my weakness.

“What I don’t
like about it,” I tried to explain while keeping my voice
steady, “is that you wouldn’t have it at all if I’d
been strong enough.”

Her eyebrows pinched
together. “But you
were
, in the end. We made it.
Together.” She glanced down at the scar, and then lifted her
warm, brown eyes back to mine. “If this is a badge of honor,
then it’s for both of us—showing what we do for each
other.”

I stared at her for a
moment, always amazed at the love she had for me, and then I nodded
before lowering myself to my knees. “Like I said. It’s
beautiful.”

My hands pushed hers
apart to let the vest fall open, and I pulled the sides over her
shoulders. She let it slide down her arms and drop to the ground.
Then I leaned in and pressed my lips to the tip of the puckered skin
at her shoulder. She smelled like her usual dark chocolate and
raspberries and tasted the same, too. I thanked God for that, because
I’d been afraid of what might linger under the skin. When I
first saw the wound gaping open when I regained consciousness, I’d
tried to heal it, but my best efforts left her like this. I wished I
could kiss away the blemish completely as she’d done for me,
but the dark magic that had been left behind by the Daemoni didn’t
compare at all to the Hellfire that had done this to her.

Because of me.

I continued kissing
down the scar, hoping to show her that it was no different to me than
any other part of her glorious body. And speaking of glorious—I
found myself in the valley between her breasts. My gaze rolled up to
look at her. She stared back at me with half-lidded, smoldering eyes,
and her lips parted slightly. When I skimmed my mouth to the side,
along the softness of her breast, her skin pulled taut and her dark
pink nipple hardened. She moaned as my tongue tasted her, and I ached
to hear her do it again. My mouth clamped over her breast, sucked it
in, and I couldn’t get enough of her. When she whimpered, I
nearly came undone. She caused a short circuit in my brain, as she
always did, and my body acted on its own. Without thought, my hands,
mouth, and tongue roamed over her soft skin, tasting every inch of
it. Never getting enough.

Her fingers skimmed
over my shoulders and upper back, and then her nails dug into my
flesh. As I took her other breast into my mouth, her entire body
quivered under my touch. I pulled back and blew on her nipple. Her
knees gave out from underneath her. I easily caught her in my arms
and laid her down on the smooth, marble slab. I lay next to her on my
side, propping myself on my forearm, admiring the alluring creature
in front of me. I cupped her cheek with my free hand and gazed into
her eyes, full of desire, and then her perfect lips. Her tongue
darted out, and I couldn’t control myself. My mouth crashed
down on hers.

Her lips parted. Her
tongue delved into my mouth. My hands explored again as hers reached
around my neck and pulled me closer, deepening the kiss. She twisted
up so her breasts pressed against my chest, and she hitched her leg
over my hip. Her pelvis ground against my erection. I grabbed her
ass, pulling her tighter as we moaned into each other’s mouths.

“I need you,
Tristan.” Her voice came thick and husky with desire.

Her hands slid over my
chest and abs to the button of my pants. She had it undone in a
second, and while I kicked off my boots, she slipped her hands under
the waistband, pushing my clothes off and freeing me. I about lost it
with the look she gave me. I’d had to move and shift to remove
my pants, so now I rose up and straddled over her. Her eyes widened
at the view in front of her before making their way up my body to my
face while her hands encircled me. My eyes dropped closed as I tried
to think of something horrible before I lost myself completely.

“You’re so
beautiful,” she said as she stroked, and my eyes popped open.

“I think that’s
my line,” I murmured as my hands grasped hers to pull them away
and my gaze roamed over her half-naked body. “But you’re
entirely too clothed.”

I reached behind me and
removed her boots while she unbuttoned her leather pants. Before she
could slide them off, I grabbed the waistband and yanked them down.
She lifted her butt to pull them off, her hips raising to nearly my
eye level. My throat went dry. Her pelvis dropped, but then her legs
fell open. My mind blanked out. After shoving her pants out of the
way, the only thought that remained was how much I needed to taste
her. My tongue slid over my bottom lip in anticipation.

“Make love to me,
Tristan,” she whispered. After a heartbeat or five, my eyes
reluctantly flicked up to hers, but then back down. I couldn’t
help it. I had to touch. To taste. My mouth already watered for her.
My hands slipped between her thighs and pressed them further outward.
I lowered my head. “No, make love to me. I need
you
.”

Not happening. I
glanced up at her, wanting to beg but forcing my voice to take
command. “Just a taste. I need to taste you.”

Before she could argue,
I dipped my head down and swiped my tongue over her. I knew full well
that would shut her up, and she’d let me have my way. As
expected, her pelvis thrust against me, and she let out a cry. Her
reaction sent a thrill of excitement through me, and I had no choice
but to give her more. I licked and lingered, my tongue pressing and
twisting, lapping and tasting her in every way possible. And she
tasted so damn good. Dark chocolate and raspberries sprinkled with
honey.

I glanced up at her,
watched as her chest heaved and the perfect globes of her breasts
bounced while my mouth continued to ravage her. My beautiful, brave,
warrior wife mewled like a kitten as she bucked against my face. Her
hands clasped onto my head, her fingers curled into my hair, and her
nails scraped my scalp as she pulled me closer. My need for her
skyrocketed, but first I’d make her scream, and then make her
beg. My thumbs rubbed circles into her upper thighs and the soft
flesh between them as I devoured her until she shouted my name with
breathless cries. I loved seeing her lose herself like this, knowing
that I brought her to these heights of ecstasy. It made me so
rock-hard, I was about to explode.