Instead of replying to his slights—because truthfully, I didn’t know what to say—I leaned across that chasm, meeting his lips in a slow sweep, asking if this was all right. If we could put our problems on hold and get lost in each other.
He hesitated at first, but when I teased the seam of his lips with my tongue, he relented, sighing into my mouth. One hand surged to the back of my head, tangling in my hair as he commanded all of me.
I leaned into the competition for control, forcing him back. Our mouths became a violent clash of stifled emotions as I ripped his shirt free of his pants, undoing the buttons and shoving it from his shoulders. He gripped my hips with one hand, tugging my head back with the other.
My nails left indents in his flesh, red lines clawing down his chest. He growled at the sting, the noise rumbling down my throat, spurring me on. But I was gentler when my hands explored his back, each raised stretch of flesh a stab to my own gut.
Sensing my reluctance, Malakai wrapped his arm around my waist, pressing me into him.Fucking Spirits, I nearly gasped when hishard length ground against me. It certainly wasn’t the first time, but when I was lost to this crazed anger, it always seemed different.
Malakai broke the kiss, breath hot between us.
“Why can’t you stop fighting me?” Malakai panted but watched my hand inch down the plane of his stomach.
I hooked my fingers in the waistband of his pants and tugged, walking backward.
“I think we’re on the same side right now.”
Domineering and smug, taking my words as a win, he pressed me into the cold marble. I inhaled, arching into him. Bracing one hand against the wall beside my head, he kissed me roughly, his other hand trailing down my body.
We could have been anywhere in that moment. Back in our clearing, in the Cub’s Tavern, atop the mountains themselves. We could have been anyone, rather than two damaged lovers avoiding their pain through each other’s bodies.
But dammit if it didn’t feel good to forget.
Malakai tipped my head farther back, lips moving to my jaw, down my neck, and across my collarbone, goosebumps following in his wake. I stroked him through his pants as heat gathered between my legs.
“Do you care about this dress?” he murmured against the pounding of my heart.
I could barely even remember what dress I wore. I looked down, seeing my nipples peaked against the light blue fabric, and while I did actually like this one, I shook my head. Who cared about a dress when it was standing in our way?
With a lust-drunk smile, he reached for the straps.
But an all-too-familiar glow bathed the room, freezing us.
“Bad timing?” The Angel chuckled.
“Damien!” I shouted.
“By the fucking Angels,” Malakai gaped.
“Must you all swear on my kind as such?” Damien shook his head. “Pleasure to meet you.”
Malakai remained frozen. The Angel lounged above the table, legs crossed, hands tucked behind his head. His imposing Angellight bathed the foyer like a sunset, coating every piece of artwork and inch of marble floor.
“You truthfully have the poorest timing of any reverent being I’ve ever met,” I snapped, bracing my hands on Malakai’s chest. His heart hammered beneath my palm.
“And how many have you met, Chosen Child?” The damned Angel smirked.
“First you appear when I’m drunk and in my undergarments.” Malakai mumbled a curse. “Then, after Malakai and I had just been together, and now this? Have you no decency?”
“It is not my fault you are always indecent when time demands I confer with you.” Damien waved one hand at where Malakai and I were half-clothed.
“As if you have no control over the matter.”
“On that you are correct.” Damien’s throat bobbed as he sat up, hovering in the air with gentle flaps of his golden wings. And there was something in his purple eyes—something that tugged at my gut and sent my second pulse pounding.
Something that made me turn to Malakai and say, “I’ll see you shortly.”
“You don’t want me to stay?” The disbelief in his voice twisted my heart, but Damien shook his head, and my fate was sealed.
