“I don’t think that’s a church,Az.”
“Oh, it’s a church alright. Just not the kind you’re used to seeing onearth.”
He turned to face me then, his damp hair clinging to his rain-soaked face. I swallowed hard. If Lizzie and the others had gone into the building across the street, and if Ramiel, Sam, and Uriel had gone into the church…that meant Az and I would be alone in here until this storm passed. Unless he decided he wanted to get the hell away from me and run back out there into therain.
After the past few weeks I’d had…I wasn’t entirely convinced he wouldn’t do justthat.
“You’re soaked through to your skin.” His voice was a lot more gruff and low than it had been a second ago. My toes curled in my boots in response, and I had to look away or else I feared he’d see the desire in my eyes. Because yes, of course I still desired him. Just because Sam had slashed my heart to shreds and just because Ramiel had put his foot down about inter-Order relationships…it hadn’t changed anything for me. I still felt those feelings, just as strongly as I everhad.
Maybe even more so, especially with the way that Az now stood before me. His damp shirt clung to every plane of his stomach, highlighting the ridges of his abs and the gentle slopes of his pecs. Clearing his throat, Az flicked his eyes down at my chest. The chill of the rain—and the tense desire churning through my gut—had caused my nipples to stand erect, poking straight through the thin material of myshirt.
“Erela,” he said in a growl. “You shouldn’t do that unless you want some kind of response fromme.”
“You think I don’t want a response from you?” Iwhispered.
His eyes flickered. “Ramiel said that he spoke with you. He said that you’d come to some sort of agreement about inter-Orderrelationships.”
I loosed a breath and glanced out the window, searching for Ramiel’s face in the window across the street. But he wasn’t there. “An agreement, yes. But that doesn’t mean that I like it. It doesn’t change the way Ifeel.”
“And how is it that you feel, Erela?” Az’s voice was electric, and the heat in his eyes made a delicious shiver run down myspine.
“You know how I feel,” I whispered. “I told you, back in Rhode Island, back before everythingchanged.”
He reached out and cupped my cheek with his palm, dropping his forehead to mine. His skin was hot, as hot as the desire I felt churning in my gut. “I was scared you’d changed your mind. When Ramielsaid…”
“So, you don’t agree with him?” I was almost scared to ask, for fear that he would tell me that hedidagree with Ramiel about staying far away from me, despite the fact that the heat in his eyes made it clear that he still wanted me. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you pulled back a bit. I mean, it’s impossible not to notice with you, Az. You’re either hot or you’re cold. There’s no in between withyou.”
“This is what I think. Ramiel made a suggestion. I listened to it. I thought about it. And I decided that I don’t agree with his approach toward the whole situation. I want to be with you, Erela, in every way imaginable. I’m not going to let anyone stand between us. Not even Ramiel.” His gaze was piercing, and it went right into the very depths of my soul. I’d never felt more connected to him than I did in that moment. “But only if you feel the same. If you agree with Ramiel, fine. But I swear to the heavens that I will do whatever it takes to change yourmind.”
I answered him the only way I knew how. I grabbed his face in my hands, pushed up onto my toes, and kissed him with the hunger that I’d been carrying around with me the past few weeks. I couldn’t play it cool, not with Az. I had been convinced that I’d lost him, that I’d lost all of them. And yet here he was, standing before me now, confessing the truth of his feelings. His lips were just as hungry as mine, and his arms wrapped around my back to pull me even closer to his muscularchest.
Suddenly, he pulled away and gazed down at me. “My god, Erela, I thought I’d never get to touch youagain.”
And then his hands made work of my clothes, frantically pulling each piece off my burning skin. We were both naked within seconds. He lifted me from the floor, holding his hands tight around my back, and then pushed me up against the nearest wall. My core tightened, aching forhim.
The length of him throbbed against me as he kissed my lips, my neck, and my breasts. My arms curled around his neck, holding on tight while desire weakened my every muscle. I was putty in his arms, melted into a dozen different pieces, and he was the only thing that could put me backtogether.
Shuddering, I shifted against his length, desperate to feel his hardness inside of me. He responded with a growl, nipping at my skin, but it did the trick. He pushed inside of me with a hungry ferocity that made a scream rip from my throat. A scream that was loud enough to reach the others across the street, but I didn’tcare.
I didn’t care if Ramiel knew exactly what was going on inside of this house. I didn’t care if he tried to stop it. Az was mine, and I was his, and we had a right to be together if we wanted. I was done with rules. I was done with living my life to a regimented outline that meant I had to be someone that I’d never trulybeen.
Az kept his arms tight around me as he carried me over to the bed. There, he lay me down gently, settling his body over mine. I gasped as I gazed up at him, stripped raw by the pure love I saw shining in hiseyes.
“I wanted to do this properly,” he whispered before he began to thrust inside of me once again. Now, he went slowly, gently, all the while gazing deep into myeyes.
My heart felt as though it might burst from my chest. The way his body felt inside of me sent thrills of passion through every cell of my body, but it was more than that. The sensations of his length were a backdrop to the look in his eyes, to the connection our bodies and our souls were making in this moment. The intensity of it made tears spring into my eyes. I didn’t want to cry, but I’d never felt more loved, more accepted than I did in his arms. Az loved me, despite everything that could stop him. Despite Ramiel’s orders. Despite the fact I had demon blood running through my veins. And despite the fact that we’d ended up in hell because of my ownactions.
None of that mattered tohim.
Az began to shudder as he continued to thrust. My own pleasure began to build, my body trembling with the need to release. I wrapped my arms around him, digging my fingernails into the skin of his back. Our bodies became one, moving in a rhythm that grew and grew until we both crashed over the edge. My climax shuddered through me, wave after wave after wave, for so long that it felt likehours.
We curled up on the bed together after that, my head on his chest, his hand in my hair. We didn’t say anything. We didn’t need to. We’d said everything with our bodies, finally giving ourselves to each other, finally joining our souls together asone.
Chapter Nineteen
Erela
The door burst open,the wood splintering in half from the force. A dark figure lurched into the doorway, his powerful form backlit by the cloud-studded sky. Az and I jumped to our feet, and fear shook through my heart. Was it the demon from the legends? Had it come to claim ourlives?
