Page 24 of Angel I Am Not

I nodded, although I really didn’t know what the hell was going on. “Great, so now what? I’m this bitch, Temptation? What does that mean?” My life had been turned upside down, I had been kicked out of Heaven, and not even that chocolatey goodness from the café had made things better. Raphael’s look of defeat had made me feel a little giddy but there were five more demons I had to ‘test’ and if I had the same visceral reaction to all of them, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to function.

Luc sighed, the sound a little too guttural to be innocent. Did this sex craze thing work just by proximity? Because every time I looked at the demon, my insides melted. With Nick, it was explosive and passionate. I wanted to rip his clothes off all over again. With Luc, I wanted to be romanced. I wanted him to caress every part of me, and I wanted to do the same to him.

“Look, Ari. It’s Ari, right? Not your full angel name?” I nodded. “Okay, so we’ve all had our nightmare stories told to us by our mentors right?”

“For angels, it’s you guys. But you’re not really scary.” I said as I looked at him and then at Nick, who just bared his teeth, his eyes flashing a darker shade of midnight. Had this been a year ago, I would have freaked out, screaming, crying, the whole nine yards. Now? It was just making me hornier and I was tempted to push past the physical barrier Luc had dragged across the edge of the kitchen but I wasn’t sure how far this temptation thing went.

Instead, I sat back in my seat, content to just lick my lips, taunting their control. I let my gaze drag slowly between them before arching forward just enough to make the neckline of my shirt dip. Nick shifted forward as if he were going to meet me halfway, Luc tightening his arms across his chest to keep from reacting when I arched forward, pushing my breasts out ever so slightly.

I really am this bitch, Temptation, aren’t I?

Luc chuckled, shaking his head. “You haven’t seen our true forms. It’s not all abs and muscles, Ari. Also, not the point. Our nightmares consist of impossibilities, things that happen when someone fucks with the balance badly enough that something which shouldn’t exist suddenly can.”

I frowned at him, still not understanding how that connected to me, and Luc seemed to catch it before I had to ask.

“Ari, it’s not like breaking some tiny rule. Something deeper gets damaged, and sometimes what comes out of that is an idea made physical. Not a representation of it. The actual thing.”

I settled back against the kitchen counter and reached for the container of peanuts beside me, popping the lid while I tried to shove all of that into my already overloaded brain. “So, like me? Temptation just grew a body one day?”

Nick snorted from the living room, but Luc only shrugged, and that did absolutely nothing for the growing suspicion that I was a cosmic accident. “We’re impossibilities too,” he admitted. “Dante’s fall is tied to whatever created us, but nobody’s ever given us a straight answer about how seven of us came out of it.”

I shoved a peanut into my mouth and glanced between him and Nick. “So, that means what exactly? You can run around doing whatever the fuck you want?”

Luc leaned one hip against the counter. “Impossibilities aren’t tied to the realms in quite the same way angels and demons are. Some can interfere with essence or strengthen what is already there, which is why people have tried to use them as weapons.”

I stopped chewing. “Weapons how?”

“Peace existed in physical form a few years ago,” Luc said, watching my expression change. “People fought over who got to control it, well, her, I guess. It’s confusing. Being around her could strengthen certain gifts, but the effect never lasted and Peace itself couldn’t really be contained.”

I stared at him until the absurdity finally sank in. “People fought wars over Peace.” I dug out another peanut, trying to decide which part of that insanity bothered me most. “Fine. If impossibilities can boost gifts, then what’s mine? Because everyone spent twenty-eight years telling me I didn’t have one.”

Luc’s expression shifted. “You don’t. Not the way an angel or demon does.”

My hand stopped halfway to my mouth. “Then what the fuck do you call whatever I’m doing to you two?”

His mouth twitched as he looked toward Nick and then back at me. “Your nature. Temptation doesn’t cast something on us. You lower inhibitions and strengthen what’s already there simply by existing. Mine is pride and Nick’s is wrath. With you around, we’re even more dangerous than we already are. Unfortunately, when an impossibility meets someone who can truly harness their essence, the reaction is also explosive. Mates are a demon thing, but impossibilities have matches too. Different name, same kind of bond. Something in your essence recognizes something in ours and locks onto it.”

Mates. Pairs. Impossibilities. My head was a jumbled mess at this point. “So we’re stuck together?” This sounded worse than marriage.

Luc rose to his feet, approaching the kitchen slowly. I didn’t know what he was doing but I also didn’t care as I slid off my chair and made my way to the fridge for a bottle of water.

“Yeah for a while anyway.”

Bingo. I swiped a water bottle and ripped the top off before chugging half of it. I guess getting fucked by a demon took a lot out of me. Water splashed down my chin, seeping into the clothing Luc had given me but I ignored it. I was so damn thirsty.

It wasn’t until I felt the timid brush of fingers along my cheek that I realized the thirst had nothing to do with water. It was because my body was yearning for their touch again, my essence reacting to their demonic presence.

I turned around slowly, Luc’s dark eyes trained on my lips, his hands exploring my covered body with purpose. It was different than my recent experience with Nick but just as sensual. He tipped my head upward, the ghost of his lips hovering above mine.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to touch,” I whispered.

“We’re not meant to. But you’re so very tempting.” He purred, his voice smooth like molasses sending a shiver down my spine. Luc chuckled at the double meaning before pressing his lips against mine, a second, spicier flavor exploding on my tongue. I would have thought the ruthless torturer on the couch would have had a deeper, more mysterious aura but Luc’s aura was deadly. He was surprisingly gentle in his movements but demanding as his tongue swiped across the seam of my lips.

He dragged me closer against him as he deepened the kiss, one of his hands cradling the back of my neck and the other one slipping beneath my shirt to touch my skin. I melted against his chest, gripping his shirt to keep myself from falling too deeply into a hole that Luc had just warned us about.

“You taste sinful, Ari.” Luc breathed against my lips as he moved to devour my neck, little moans filtering into the air from my mouth. I heard shuffling and then felt another presence behind me, Nick roughly dragging my ass against him, his cock thickening against my cheeks.

A few hours ago, I had just been an angel. Now I was the embodiment of temptation, enticing these men into this taboo embrace. The promise of a future with the two most destructive creatures in any realm was an enticing thought.