“I didn’t understand it then—because I didn’t think anyone in the system could be irredeemable—but she sent me to you to remove me from the competition.” I peeked at him through a lock of hair that had tumbled into myeyes.
He tucked the strand back. “I’ve never felt such conflicting emotions toward a person—part of me wants to break her neck and another part wants to prostrate myself at herfeet.”
I couldn’t decide if I was horrified or moved by his declaration. Both. I wasboth.
“How did this girl know so much aboutme?”
I bit my lip. “Apparently, she tried to reformyou.”
He bobbed his head a few times. “What color feathers does shehave?”
“Why?”
“Many angels have shown up on my doorstep. I find remembering the color of their wings, when they display them, easier than their faces ornames.”
“Yellow with gold tips,” Isaid.
When the corner of his mouth curled up, I took it he rememberedher.
Even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to get an answer, the masochist in me asked, “Did you take her to your bedroom and give her a strip show too?” I was deeply disturbed by how jealous Isounded.
He ran his thumb over the edge of my jaw, no longer smiling. “You’re the first person—besides Muriel and Tristan—who’s seen the inside of mybedroom.”
I was sure he was just saying that to quell my jealousy. Then again, he didn’t need to be in his own bed to have sex. And why was I thinking about Jarod having sex?Ugh.
He returned the hand he’d set over mine to my waist and dragged me closer. “To tell you the truth, I was just as shocked as you were to have let youinside.”
“You didn’t lookshocked.”
“Probably because most of the blood in my body had gone south, incapacitating my brain and facial expressions.” He shifted and something dug into my thigh. Something too hard to be a wallet and too thick to be a cell phone. “Same way I’m so turned on right now I’m afraid I’m going to end up bruising your thigh.” He dropped his voice. “Or mydick.”
My mind blanked, and my pulse scattered throughout my body like embers from a fire. I didn’t move and neither did he, as though handing me the reins to whatever it was we’d started mere hoursago.
I turned toward him before gliding off his lap to straddle him instead. “I think it would be wise that I didn’t completely damn my soul tonight. But perhaps, we could test the boundaries?” My sore back was apparently not sore enough to keep me fromrebelling.
His hands rose to my ass but didn’t apply any pressure. Which I doubted was for lack of want. The strain in his posture told me he was waging a war with himself not to drag me any closer. “What do you have in mind,Feather?”
What Ididn’thave in mind would’ve been an easier question. I really had read way too many romances. Or perhaps, I’d just been bridled for far toolong.
I rocked my hips, and the bulge in Jarod’s pants rubbed against myunderwear.
The sensation that shot through my core made both our breaths catch. It also made Jarod clench his jaw and hisfingers.
“Our clothes stay on,” I whispered into his ear at the same time I shifted myhips.
He made an unintelligible sound that was part groan, partgrowl.
The third time I did it, he ensnared my mouth and lashed my tongue, doing to my mouth what I wouldn’t allow him to do to my body. As I rocked back and forth, his zipper began to chafe the sensitive skin beneath my black lace underwear. One of his hands left my ass to cradle the back of my head while his other dragged menearer.
When heat started to build between my thighs, my spine tightened as though preparing for feathers to loosen and rain down aroundus.
Jarod ripped his mouth off mine, his breaths coming out in hot, hard pants. “Your wings? How are yourwings?”
The fact that he cared shot emotion through my chest. “They’refine.”
I tried to grind into him, but he held me away, his gaze skirting the carpet and bed. When he was satisfied the Ishim weren’t admonishing me, his hold relaxed, and I moved over him. He shuddered and closed his eyes, his lashes fanning his cheeks. I kissed one lid, then theother.
“Fuck, Feather.” He sounded angry, feral almost, as though the pressure of his zipper was hurtinghim.
