Heavenly Lover (16 page)

Chapter 19

Tonight’s dream started in the mall. Daniel watched Claire’s eyes sparkle as she realized where they were going. She turned the Victoria Secret store into a candy shop with clear tubes filled with brightly colored candy sold in bulk.

Two can play this game, Angel.

Armed with the new knowledge he could control many things about his dream state, he walked over to a shelf filled with boxed sets of jelly beans, stacked about ten high. Under all of them was one black and pink box he carefully pulled out. He opened the lid while watching his angel blush, her eyes wide and her mouth open in shock.

Tucked neatly inside the box was a very light pink silk teddy with white gossamer ruffles glistening under the lights. He’d seen it in a magazine ad earlier in the day. Dropping the box, he let the teddy hang between his fingertips. It would only barely cover her belly button if she had put it on. Examining the box now laying at his feet, her eyes went wide when she noticed there were no panties. She blushed in earnest then and wouldn’t look at him. When she did, he thought she would melt. His eyes refused to let her go.

“Will you wear this for me?” he asked, surprised at how rough his voice sounded. His pants had tented as he saw her struggle with an answer.

Yes, my little angel. Feel how I desire you.
He knew she was grappling with the new experience. She was unprepared.

She looked around, as if needing help.

He ducked his head down to try to meet her eyes, still holding up the skimpy plaything.

“You can do this, Claire. I command it. As my Guardian. I want to see your body in this—this device of fantasy.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why?”

“First of all, it’s against the rules. And I am your Guardian, but I am not your sex slave.”

“Ah, but you know what a sex slave is?” Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle as her eyes darted around the room. Then she abruptly turned around with her back to him.

He leaned into her, his lips just above the pink flesh of her tender neck. He searched the spun gold of her hair, the tiny hairs along the velvet of her earlobes. She smelled like fresh rain on a bed of roses. He could see she had closed her eyes.

“I want to see you.” His voice was husky. She arched her back and inhaled sharply at the sound of his voice. He stepped closer, feeling the quivering heat of her body against his chest and thighs. His groin ached.

“I want to see you naked, my love.”

“You see me now,” she answered back, carefully.

Her flushed cheek seared the miniscule airspace between them, and flamed his own.

“I want to see you in my arms. I want to feel your face when I kiss you in … places.”

She couldn’t look at him yet.

Turn, turn to me, Angel.

He placed his hands on her shoulders through the gown, and she allowed him to turn her around to face him. Daniel gazed at her full pink lips and wanted to explore further. He brought his hands to cup under her jaw line, without being able to touch her, and moved his lips just to the point at which the sensation of the warmth between them ended, before the nothingness.

She seemed to lean into him as he scented her heat. He felt she would let him draw her to him, letting him impose his will with her.

I want to touch you. Kiss you.

He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, locked in the microscopically small space between them. The physical touch of skin on skin was the only sensation he was denied.

The swirling closeness of her enveloped him in shapes and color. His lips parted, hot with lust for the touch of her pale skin. He noticed the small changes in temperature as he inhaled her and then released her back to herself a changed being.

Daniel’s eyes locked fully on Claire’s face as he pressed her to a pillow somewhere where their mutual pleasure was possible. She was unashamed to be examined by this man. She felt like a kite, tied to his tether, and wherever he would go, she would have no choice but to follow.

Following him would be so natural, so human.

But she was not human. Sadness consumed her. She dropped her eyes and felt tears well up. For the entire world right now, she would have given almost anything to be real, to be a real woman, flesh and blood, belonging to Daniel.

His hands and arms motioned for closeness again and she felt the warmth of his body pressing against hers through their clothes. She laid her head on his chest and felt, as well as heard, his heart beating there, the miracle of the aliveness of him and the wonder of this perfect man. She wished he could hear it. She could feel it, but he could not.

They now walked through the mall side by side, his arm around her waist. The normal mall lights turned into the ceilings from the planetarium with all the millions of stars twinkling, lightly illuminating their path. A gentle music of harps and guitar teased her ears. She realized with a start of joy that he was giving her something he thought she would love. His intuition was creating a world for her, like a lover improvising, exploring, and heightening the senses for her enjoyment.

She willingly walked through his dream, feeling his body next to hers, moving in rhythm, and sometimes burning with the touch of his arm around her waist, sometimes with the brush of a thigh that spread its full length of muscle against hers. She was a fully willing participant, as though he was her angel and he was directing her dream.

They were standing in a store, arms entwined, looking down at a display of long sleeved evening gloves. With a little crooked smile, he unwound his arm from her waist and bent over, picking up a long black glove. He intimately opened the end of the stretchy material with his long, delicate fingers, looking into her eyes as his fingers encircled the opening and stretched it to gape open.

Her fingers seemed to have no choice but seek the folds of the fabric as she slid her hand up into the dark opening, filling the silvery black glove fully to the tips. She felt him pulling the material along her arm up all the way to her elbow.

The black object came to life and curled in the air as her fingers felt the pleasure of being so confined to his instrument of play. Encapsulated in the slinky material, now her fingers would be able to touch his skin and he would be able to feel her caress. He traced a line with his forefinger from where the glove ended at her elbow, all the way up her arm towards her fingers, slowly until his hand warmly found that it fit fingers to fingers between the little protrusions. He closed in on her gently.

Then he opened her hand, cupping it like one would hold water. He brought it up to his lips and pressed them into the palm of the glove and kissed it, drank from her spirit there.

She almost collapsed. Her breathing was ragged and heavy. She grew wet.

He brought her gloved hand up to his face and placed it tenderly against his cheek, looking at her, his eyes consuming her. Her fingertips traced the lines of his face, the little wrinkles at the corner of his eyes, across his hairline, and over his warm lips, feeling his breath through the black fabric as she felt his face for the first time. With his hand on her gloved forearm, he moved his fingers up and then slowly down, back and forth in a caress.

She dove the black glove deep into the shiny long hair she had wanted to touch since the first day she had seen Daniel. He delicately kissed her palm again, and, through the glove, nibbled all the way down her forearm to the crease at the inside of her elbow.

He tugged at the end of the glove, bringing his finger underneath it, not able to feel her skin, but exploring there as intimately as if he had slid his hand underneath her shirt to her breast. He wanted more of her to touch. She was thrilled.

How many times had Claire dreamed about what it would feel like to run her real fingers through his hair, have the touch of his warm hand on her arm, on her face? She had spent hours thinking about these things while lying next to him, protecting him as he slept at night.

She opened her fingers and extended them again through his hair, squeezing it in her gloved fist.

He closed his eyes and said, “You have no idea how wonderful that feels.”

All of a sudden, his eyes started to frown slowly. The view was changing, breaking up. The dream was bordered in a black edge, which moved to the center, becoming larger and larger, and then everything was black. His screen had gone blank.

Daniel jolted awake from the dream. He had been holding a pillow to his bare chest, and as he opened his eyes, he tossed the pillow with frustration across the room. Annoyed that he’d woken up, ending the sensual dream, he stood up, moving away from the bed. Away from the source of his pleasure and pain. There was no hiding his full erection, stubbornly signaling what had caused him to awaken from the dream.

He began cursing this particular body part in Portuguese for having deserted him in a great time of need, and hoped Claire didn’t understand what he was saying. He could not see her, of course, but had no doubt that she saw his readiness.

“Now, you can’t tell me that isn’t real,” he said pointing to his groin in disgust. “Time for a cold shower. Care to join me?”

He shed his silk bottoms and stepped into a very lukewarm shower. He poked his head out into the bathroom, not sure where to look for her. “Sorry, you had your chance.” He abruptly pulled the curtain back and continued with the shower.

He finished it off with a totally cold splash, whooping as the cold hit his body. He dried off, placing the towel around his waist. The cold shower had taken care of some of his erection, but not all.

He walked back into the bedroom and faced the window. Daniel stared out the window at the horizon, which had already started to bleed pink. Removing the towel from his waist, he used it to rub his hands through his wet hair, shaking his head from side to side.

“Is this as frustrating to you as it is to me?” he asked to the silent room.

He threw the towel on top of the hamper then sat on the bed, and, as he pushed his legs under the covers, muttered, “Not fair, not fair at all. You get to see me naked and I don’t get to see you, except in a dream.”

He punched one of his pillows and planted his head there. He wanted to sleep for eternity. He did not dream this time.

Claire thought of what had just occurred. Her chest was still heaving from the nearness of him and the feeling of his warmth upon her face, his hands up and down her arm through the fabric of the black glove.

Perhaps a remnant of her human side was excited and glad at the intimacy now growing between them. She was developing a very deep and fearless love for this human, regardless of the risks that placed on both their souls. It was spinning out of control.

A physical relationship endangered her status as an angel. It was bad enough to be seen, that in itself was a huge violation, but to be physically present to him in the human world, that would classify as a “Fallen” offense.

The stark reality was that she was an angel and would always be an angel, forever. And he was a human male, who needed to live in the Real World with a real woman, someone he could commit to, grow old with, and die with.

That was something she would never be able to provide him, even if somehow she were granted permission to stay his Guardian forever, or at least for his lifetime. There was no precedent for that. No matter how much she wished it, no matter how real the dreams felt, in the real scheme of things, this was only a dream. That was all it could ever be.

I am not accomplishing my goal.
She knew in her heart that this was wrong and would have to stop. And she knew she would have to confess her failure to Father. Overwhelmed with her choices, she wondered who else she could turn to.

Claire felt utterly alone and lonely for the first time in her angel life. She now understood what it would feel like to lose someone, to be separated from them forever.

Grieving was not something any of the angels had training in. She understood it to be the flip side of the love she felt for Daniel, which made her love feel even more precious. For hers was a love she would have to give up, in order to save him.

But that would be another day. Perhaps she could have a few days of bliss before she had to make that decision. She was at the edge, but not quite ready to really cross the line. She wondered if she would have the strength to stop before that happened.

She made a decision she hoped she would not regret.

Chapter 20

Audray slipped the check in the envelope and sealed it with her tongue. Her forefinger brushed across the outside where she had written his name on it: Daniel DePalma. There had been a time when she halfway thought he could be the one. But she was the serial dating kind, and Daniel was the kind to find a woman to love him forever. But that wouldn’t stop her from getting him back into bed. The man had been amazing in the sack.

Her pulse quickened as she drove up to Daniel’s front door to deliver his six thousand dollar check. She could have mailed it. But something in her wanted to see his face when she presented him with more money than he had seen in a long time. Would he be willing to give her just a little taste of his luscious body in the form of thank you sex? He was and forever would be the standard by which she would judge all men. And she wanted him. Not forever, of course, but just a taste. Just for today.

She had chosen red, his favorite color. The dress was made of a stretch fabric, very low cut in the front, exposing the “enhancement” Neal had so lovingly provided her. He’d wanted to enlarge her just one size, but Audrey went for two. No sense going through all the pain and hassle if she would be just a little bigger. She needed to be memorable. And she certainly did like the way they felt now. That wasn’t a bad thing, after all, to be in love with one’s own body.

She sucked in air and instantly got wet at the sight of Daniel at the front door, with his blue shirt unbuttoned half way, revealing the rippled chest and flat abs of his beautiful body. He always distracted her with how he liked to wear his pants, low and loose.

She could see she did not have the same effect on him.

“Audray. What are you doing here?” He was frowning and didn’t invite her in.

“Have you lost your manners? I bring gifts.” She flashed him her most flirtatious look, and grazed her breasts across his chest as she slipped beside him into his living room. The male scent of him was a welcome and familiar elixir.

He rubbed his hands through the shiny black hair that her fingers itched to touch, and closed the door.

“Well, this is a surprise. How is your boyfriend?”

His Brazilian accent was even sweeter now. She remembered coaching him on the things she wanted him to whisper in her ear, things that turned her on unlike ever before, or since.

“My boyfriend is fine.” She looked him up and down, her gaze finally settling on his crotch. She did not see his usual response there. “But I have to say, I’ve missed you.” She walked to him, pressed herself against his body, drew her arms up around his neck and plunged her fingers into his hair at the back of his head as she pulled his mouth to hers. Her need of his lips was probably obvious. Something new for Audray.

But he did not kiss her back and separated them immediately.

Oh well.
She sighed.

“I think you should leave. If you have come here—”

“No, Daniel. But the sight of you takes my breath away.” It was a true statement, after all. “As much as I wish we could enjoy other things”— she raked over his lanky body again, taking in every square inch—“I’ve brought you something I think you’ll love.”

“Oh?” He seemed serious. No smile on his lips, or in his eyes. Audray could see she was dead to him now.

“Money!”

Instead of exhibiting excitement, Daniel let out a short laugh. “Money?”

“I sold your paintings. All of them.”

“When?”

“Yesterday.” She opened her purse and brought out the envelope. She walked towards him as slowly as she could, hoping to see some semblance of sensuality in his dark eyes, and whispered, “Six thousand dollars, Daniel.” She held the envelope out, her red fingernails blazing under the foyer light. His gaze dropped to his name on the outside. He reached for it.

Audray immediately retracted the envelope and put it behind her back with a flirtatious smile. His eyes narrowed. Damn. He seemed to be immune to her charms. “Come and get it. Wrestle me for it, Daniel,” she said through half lidded eyes.

He didn’t move. He looked at his feet, put his hands on his hips, his long fingers accentuating the flatness of his lower belly and the two veins that led to his crotch below.

“I’m not going to play these games.”

She imitated his accent. “Dees games. Dees games.” She frowned. Still no reaction from him. She held the check up and waved it over her head. “Can’t I get just one little kiss for this? A kiss for a check? One kiss for six thousand dollars? That seems like a pretty fair trade. More than fair.”

He carefully stepped closer to her. Grabbing the envelope from her fingers with a little pull, he kissed her on the cheek.