Revelation (26 page)

Morgan flushed, scorching.
Gee, thanks, that really helped.
“So what if I am? What do you care?”

“Maybe it’s male vanity.” She could believe that, his amused grin, that smug ruffle of feathers. “Maybe I like it that I kiss her and you go all…prickly.”

Abruptly, she was tired of the game. Tired of circling, evading, pretending she wasn’t affected by him. “Don’t play with me, okay?”

“Look, she’s an old friend. I was just—”

“Stop it.” She plonked the peaches on the counter and tossed the spoon in with a wet thunk, her appetite lost. “I don’t appreciate being lied to.”

His amusement faded. “I’ve never lied to you.”

“Haven’t you?” She flipped on the kitchen tap, plunging her hands under stinging water. She was being unfair. He’d given her no reason to imagine he’d lied about anything.

Except that they all lied. The tastier the bait, the bigger the lie. And Luniel was very tasty bait.

He slapped the tap off, hard, and didn’t back off. He towered over her, too close, too deliciously fragrant and male to be good. “Why won’t you trust me? I’ve done you no wrong. I’ve done my best to keep you safe. I grant I was…” He grimaced. “I was forward with you, yesterday, at my place. I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable—”

“Uncomfortable?” She laughed, bitter. “You just don’t get it, do you? You’re all wrong! Everything you stand for is bullshit. The fact that I…Whether I like you or not has nothing to do with it. I just can’t.” And she strode to the window, the sunset-bright city stinging her eyes.

She couldn’t stop him following her. She didn’t care. She just clung with all her strength to the freedom to walk away.

He flashed to her side, light shimmering. The air crackled stormy with his frustration, and scarlet static sparked his feathers. “This isn’t just about you and me, is it?”

She folded her arms, defiant.

“Tell me.” His voice undid her, warm and aching. Not demanding. Just bewildered. “Please. I’m causing you pain just by standing here and it’s breaking my heart. Tell me what to do. Anything.”

Morgan’s stomach lurched, sick. Below, traffic rumbled, careless, the neon signs and streetlights shedding rainbows in the sunset. She leaned her forehead against the warm glass.
What am I supposed to do now?
Sneer at him and walk away, let the mess she’d made between them carry on? This festering anger and helplessness and frustrated want?

Or, take one last chance that he wasn’t playing her. That the safety and peace she’d known in his embrace wasn’t a dirty lie.

She closed her eyes, and leapt.

“There was this preacher,” she whispered. “When I was a teenager. Mom was very religious, and this guy was the whole package, Lune, smarts and charisma and charm. He seduced her.” She turned to lean back against the window, hugging herself. “I don’t mean he slept with her. Nothing like that. He was too clever.”

Reproach crawled in her throat like a scorpion, and she let it sting. “He
prayed
with her. Mom never knew my dad, and she only worked as an office temp. We had it tough, and when this preacher told Mom she’d get her reward in the next life, I guess…well, when you’re washed up at thirty-two with a sixteen-year-old kid and a shitty job, it sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?”

Luniel nodded, just once. Didn’t speak. Didn’t judge.

Morgan sighed. “She started spending all her spare time at church. Started giving them our things, what there was of them. I remember one day she gave away my clothes, this green cloth jacket I’d saved for. I was so mad at her, I…I said some really mean things. Sometimes he came to our apartment, and he was so nice to me. He helped with my homework, for God’s sake.” She swallowed, bitter. “I should’ve smelled something rotten. But I was too wrapped up in high school and boys and getting smashed, and if she was with him, I could do anything I wanted. She was trying to be a good mom and I…”

Luniel watched, dark and silent.

Tears blurred, and she shook them away. She deserved to hurt. “I let him take her. I was too damned selfish to care. And then one day I…I came home from school, and she’d blown
the top of her head off with a shotgun. She had such short arms, you see, she couldn’t quite…”

She swallowed bile. “She’d given everything we owned to the cult. All her savings. My college fund. Insurance I never knew she had. She’d even pawned stuff, and borrowed money to give to
him
. She owed a small fortune to loan sharks. And his e-mails were on her computer, telling her to kill herself. He’d convinced her to sign everything over to him, and then he told her that Jesus was coming and she had to make ready. Kill herself now while her soul was prepared.”

Luniel’s eyes burned scarlet. “Did anyone ever…”

“No, he was long gone. She had almost nothing and he’d taken it all. And she wasn’t the only one. They’d conned people all over. I was so mad, you know? At him for lying. At her for believing him. But mostly, I was mad at God.” The old rotten sickness and blind anger swamped her, and she clenched shaking hands. She wanted to scream, wail, hit something.

But Luniel just gazed back, as blue as the twilight ocean but tainted deep with sorrow. “Believe me, I know that feeling.”

Tears choked her, boiling inside. He’d suffered at God’s hands, too, and he hadn’t lost faith. But that only made it hurt more. “She was a good woman, Lune. She believed in Jesus, or God, or whoever. She loved Him so much. More than she loved me,” Morgan admitted, her throat tight. “And He let her blow her fucking face off and die for a con man’s stupid lies. Would He care if I starved to death?” She sniffled, wiping her nose. “So I said, screw Him. And I didn’t ask anyone for a damn thing. I, uh…did some ugly things to pay Mom’s debts. And then I worked my way through college and med school.”

“Must have been tough.”

She managed a teary smile. “Yeah. I mean, boohoo, right? I’m not the only penniless student ever to grace this earth. But I’ve never forgotten what she taught me. If it looks too good to be true, it’s rotten to the core. And no matter what the preachers say, God doesn’t give a shit.”

Luniel didn’t speak. Just stared at her, wild and shadowed with thunder in his eyes.

She wiped her face, squirming. Why did she tell him all that? He’d only use it against her. Make up some lie. Insist that one rotten berry doesn’t spoil the pie.

But he just tucked his hands behind his back, looming dark and intense like a storm about to break. “Then I guess…asking you to have faith in me now would be too much.”

Not a question. A fact. Like he understood.

She shrugged, helpless. “Faith is for fools.”

“Maybe. But I am not my faith, Morgan. Forget what I am, where I come from. You don’t have to trust in heaven. Just trust
me
.” He touched her chin, a light caress, but it made her look into his eyes, and the dark promise there ripped her heart raw. “I’ll always fight for you. I’ll never lie to hurt you. Please. Let me…let me be what you need.”

“What I need?” Sick laughter cracked her voice. “I don’t even know what I
want
. I thought I had you pegged, see? I thought I knew you for what you were. But everything you’ve said has come true, and I…I really want to trust you, Lune. I can’t believe you’re lying to me, even though…”

“Even though you know I must be?” Shadows swirled over his face, and he let his hand drop.

She caught it, desperate. She longed for his understanding, so badly she ached. She couldn’t let her courage fail her now. “Even though you’re too astonishing to be real,” she forced out. “It’s like…I’m getting a chance I don’t deserve. Why me? Every other poor sucker has to stumble on in the dark. Why am I the one who gets the proof?”

His fingers tightened on hers. “Is that all I am for you, Dr. Sterling? More data?”

“I thought so! I wanted you to be. And then I saw you kissing Iria, and I…oh, fuck.” She tugged her hand back and turned away, her cheeks flaming.
Shit. Now I’ve done it.

He gripped her shoulder, stopping her. “I wasn’t kissing Iria.”

Her senses lurched. His stormy presence threatened her, his dark-sweet scent a dangerous temptation. She tried a smile, but it broke. “It doesn’t matter. I’m an idiot—”

“Shut up and listen, human,” he insisted, fire in his eyes. “That wasn’t a kiss. If I wanted to kiss her, I’d have done it like this.” And he cupped the back of her head and swept her mouth to his.

She gasped. Sparkling, so tender, his lips soft yet strong, his flavor a dark allure. Such a haunted kiss, burning with sorrow and need. Her eyes fluttered closed, her defenses melting away in a flush of unreason. She wanted, so hard it hurt. Wanted to feel him, touch him, take him away from the death and the pain and be with him forever.

Trembling, she slid her arm around his neck, drawing him closer. His feathers brushed her wrist, and sparks showered in reaction. He deepened the kiss, growling softly, quivering with restraint as he wrapped his arms around her. Such a wild, animal sound, hunger that wouldn’t be denied. She locked her wrists around his neck, yearning for his naked body on hers, the maddening delight of his touch.

He pulled back a fraction, his hot blue eyes burning. His lips shone from kissing her, and his night-black feathers stood on end, crackling with desire. So beautiful. So brutally male. “Don’t challenge me,” he whispered against her lips. “You make me reckless, and you don’t want to go there. Escape now, before I forget my manners and can’t stop.”

Her heart dropped a beat, dizzying. She didn’t want to escape. Her beautiful angel had trapped her, helpless against his rage and desire, and she didn’t want to be free.

She licked her lips, tasting him, and leaned forward, defiant. “No.”

His eyes flashed scarlet, sinful with desire. And he yanked her against his chest, and let his passion explode.

His mouth assaulted hers, the intensity of the contact sucking her breath away. He kissed her hard and hungry, bruising, so hot and so loaded with passion that she gasped, inhaling him, aching deep inside. His tongue hunted hers and tortured her until she melted into hot dizziness. He tasted so raw, so real. Like her first impression of him, seemingly a hundred years ago last night: a man, fragrant flesh and hot blood and desire, but
more
. Much, much more.

“Morgan,” he murmured into her mouth, “I can’t help it. Be with me. Belong to me.” His hot golden glitter showered over her, tingling all the way inside. He dived his fingers into her hair, capturing her, and kissed her harder, deeper, more fiercely. He didn’t let her breathe. He didn’t let her think. He just took her, wild and irresistible, and in seconds, everything that seemed so important melted in a heady rush of desire.

Oh, God.
The pleasure stabbed deep, the warm safety of his embrace, his hot sweet taste, the insane delight of his mouth on hers. Her body ached against his, and she pressed closer, wanting to feel him, his hot metal armor on her breasts, his hard thigh muscles, the steely heat of his cock through smooth leather. She wrapped her fingers in his crisp silken hair, tugging him down to her, and he gripped her ass and lifted her so she could fold her legs around him.

Mmm. So big and solid, his body between her thighs, the hot pressure of his erection against her secret crevices. She wanted him naked. Wanted to lie beneath him and be possessed, let him love her to oblivion and fight the pain away. “Yes. Take me.”

With a powerful thrust of wings, he slammed her back against the wall in his embrace. His big body crushed her, his strength so arousing, she groaned and shuddered. She’d never longed to be dominated like this. Never wanted to lose control. But this man made her burn for the rich delirium of surrender. She wanted him to possess her utterly.

She sucked hard on his tongue, wanting him inside her any way she could get him. He nipped her bottom lip, tugging it between his teeth with a possessive snarl. “Witch,” he growled,
rough with desire. “I’ve resisted every earthly woman for eight hundred years. But not you. You take me apart.”

He scorched kisses onto her throat, tasting, licking the hard throb of her pulse. When he bit her softly, she moaned, her fists clenching in his hair. He felt so good. He kissed her collarbone, and lifted her higher so he could bite her jutting nipples through her shirt.

“Oh, yes.” Pleasure stabbed all the way down, like a hot wire wrenching tight inside her. Hot slickness coaxed from her body, making her ready for him.

He groaned, sliding his hands over her ass and up between her thighs. “You smell so fresh. I love it. I want to taste you.”

His words inflamed her. Her secret flesh throbbed. She wanted his fingers there, his tongue, his cock. Wanted him to finish what he’d started last night.

White light flashed, and he was on his knees at her feet, tugging her jeans open. Her knife clunked on the floorboards. He pulled off her boots and stockings, pulling her jeans over her hips and whisking them away.

Cool air caressed her naked thighs, but his body heat burned her. She flushed, stinging. She was so wet and aching, the evidence of her desire must be clear.

But Luniel’s eyes gleamed, hungry. “Sweet heaven, you’re beautiful.” And he licked a fiery trail up her thigh. Grazed her with his teeth, coaxed out shivers and moans. Nipped at the soft flesh on the inside, and she groaned in frustration and parted her legs, wanting more. He teased his thumb along the crease of her hip, under her panties, and ripped them off her.

She gasped, the violence of his passion making her ache. She didn’t want gentleness. She wanted delirium, and it frightened her. What he was doing was too intimate, too arousing. She might forget herself. “No. Not that. I can’t take it. Please. Just…”

He nipped her, a delicate reprimand that made her gasp and shiver. “Don’t be afraid. Don’t fight it. Just let me show you.” And he eased his hot tongue between her folds.

Her palms smacked into the wall, her legs melting to water. So deliciously hot. He licked her in long smooth strokes, flicking her sensitive peak. Her hard little bud flowered in his mouth, swelling tight, and he groaned against her as he stroked it. She didn’t remember the last time a man had touched her like this,
and the intimacy made her want to weep. She cried out in delight, pressing closer.