“Every night he doesn’t attack the town is making me even more apprehensive of what he has up his sleeve.”
“Lorenzo would tell us if he was planning something, right?”
“He might not.” Kellan’s brow furrowed as he took the books from my hands and placed them on the counter for me while I paused, mulling the situation over. “If he warned us of an attack, then it might give him away. Then we’d lose whatever leverage we had.” And he’d be dead, of course.
We lapsed into silence as we made quick work of the books near the back of the store. Kellan kept taking the tomes from my hands, like a few hardbacks were going to strain me, but I just gave him an indulgent smile, my heart fluttering at the care he always showed me even in the simplest of actions.
The front of the store was in worse shape since the two idiots who were trying to pry the empty cash register open flung everything from the desk onto the floor. I almost wished we could kill them again just for how much chaos they managed to unleash on Kellan’s parents’ store.
We went to work gathering all the papers and pens from the floor and arranging them neatly into their holders. Then we worked on the books. His parents and Mr. Richards would have to figure out where they all went because that was way out of our pay grade.
“Do you miss your parents?” I leaned against the desk, quirking my lips to the side. The question had just slipped out, but since yesterday, I’d been thinking about parents a lot.
Kellan stopped short as he stood up, his assessing gaze reading me in a second. “I honestly don’t know. We haven’t been close in the last few years. Merrick and I were building the Devil’s Demons, and they just never really got it.”
He winced, but I just shrugged. “They never really liked you hanging out with Merrick or me. I can’t say I’m surprised.”
He grimaced, but nodded. It had never been a secret. His parents always did well with the bookstore despite the cut that the Barones demanded. Merrick’s mother raised him on her own, and they never had much money, the same with my own parents. They had always looked down on us, and I’m sure saying they weren’t pleased with Kellan forming a gang was putting it in the nicest way possible. They wouldn’t see the rest of the town’s problems as theirs anyway.
“I feel guilty for saying it, but it’s been pretty peaceful not having them around or blowing up my phone.”
I gave him an understanding smile and squeezed his biceps in comfort.
“My parents didn’t treat me the same way yours had, so it feels almost wrong to say that. Like, I don’t have a good enough reason to not want them in my life.” He frowned, his shoulders slumping slightly. His heart was too big for this cruel world.
“If they won’t accept you and your decisions, that’s more than enough justification to take a step back, but please don’t do it forme. Do it for yourself because I can handle anything as long as I’m with you.”
Kellan’s smile broke through the gloom as he wrapped his arms around my waist. “You’re an angel, you know that, right? I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I’m never going to complain. I’ll just guard you and keep you safe like a dragon protects its greatest treasure.”
“What’s up with all this angel talk lately?” I chuckled, booping him on the nose. “I think I like devil better. It makes me feel even more badass.”
His smile widened, and he placed a kiss on my forehead. “Oh, you’re still our little devil. Lucifer was an angel before he became the ruler of Hell after all.”
I snorted, resting my cheek against the hard planes of his chest. “Only you could say something like that and make it feel like the sweetest compliment.”
“You know I’ve always loved both sides of you.” His palms slid down to cup my ass, and he lifted me onto the desk. “I’m obsessed with every facet of you, Giana, and I’ll never get enough of you.”
His lips found mine, the kiss starting sweet, but the heat ratcheted up every second our tongues twined together. My fingers dipped beneath the hem of his shirt, our lips barely parting as I tugged it up and over his head.
“If anyone walks by and sees you, I’ll have to kill them,” he growled into my mouth, the possessive note in his tone sending tingles of desire straight to my core. I wound my legs around his waist and ground myself against his hardening bulge, loving his pained groan as his hips rolled. “You really are my little devil right now.”
His fingers dug into the rounded flesh as he lifted me off the desk. I wrapped my arms around his neck, not breaking our kiss until he pushed my back against the hard shelves. Booksfell down around us, thudding to the floor. Thankfully, the thick wooden furniture was bolted to the ground and wouldn’t topple over with our weight pressed against it.
He shifted his hands to my thighs, slowly letting me get down. “Hands on the bookshelves, angel.”
I spun around and gripped the shelf just under my eye level, the wood grain rough against my fingers.
His palms slid around my waist.
“I’ve always wanted to do this.” His lips brushed the shell of my ear with every word. “You have no idea how many times I envisioned pushing you up against the shelves, letting my hands explore your luscious curves before I buried my cock so deep in you, you’d beg me to never stop.”
“Please,” I whimpered as one of his hands slid under the hem of my shirt and cupped my breast.
“Please what?” He chuckled roughly as he unbuttoned my jeans with his other hand and slipped them down along with my panties. They didn’t fall to the floor. Instead, they stopped around my knees, as though they were caging my legs. His fingers brushed my sensitive folds, merely teasing me.
“I want to feel what you imagined all those times we were here alone stocking books. I want you to make me beg for you to never stop, for you to fuck me until we’re both exhausted and sated, and even then we’ll both want more.”
“Giana.” He nipped my ear, pulling in a deep breath as though he was drinking me in. He rolled my nipple with one hand, while the other swirled around my clit, sending a jolt of pleasure straight to my center. “You’re the seductive angel, luring men to Heaven only to find themselves in the depths of Hell. I wouldn’t care, though. With you by my side, any place feels like my own version of utopia.”
