Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
His arm curling tighter around her, he said, “Are you surprised, hbeebti?”
“I might’ve been before, when I figured Illium was still obsessed with the mortal he once loved.”
Raphael frowned and realized he’d missed an important fact. “He hasn’t reached for the pendant this entire gathering.” It had become an unconscious habit with the angel, to play with the gift from his long-dead lover. “Then again, it’s only been a short time since his return home.”
But Elena shook her head. “That fight those two had at our Enclave house?” She shifted so that they were face-to-face, their bodies moving with sensual awareness in the mellow jazz that had replaced the previous pulsing beat. “I started to get a clue then. Because you don’t fight like that with anyone but the person who means the most to you in the entire world.”
He wrapped her up in his wings, her lithe hunter’s body pressed to his, breasts against his chest and thighs oh-so-tempting under the short hem of her dress. “Yes.”
Her fingers brushed his nape, her hip a sweet curve under his hand—and the sleek black cuff she wore around her left wrist a hidden garrote. Strong and soft, powerful and vulnerable, Elena was the most incredible enigma of his life. He could love her ten thousand years and still discover new facets that took his breath away.
“Honestly,” she murmured after they came up from a kiss as languid as the music, wet and lush, “I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d headed that way earlier.”
“I’m glad they didn’t.” He pressed a kiss to the curve of her neck, felt her nipples pebble against his chest. “Both needed to grow into their own skins first, become who they were meant to be.”
Elena shivered, nuzzled into him. “We’re going to get in trouble if we keep doing this.” A rise up onto the toes of her boots, a slide down.
Groaning at the subtle tease of the hard ridge of his arousal, he tugged her closer, shifting his hand up to lay it flat on her lower back. Despite all the work yet to be done to repair their city, Raphael felt freer than he had in a long time. There was no hovering threat on the horizon, no gathering army or insane enemy.
He could dance with his consort in unhurried pleasure—and he could give his attention to the happiness of his people. “When your Bluebell and Aodhan were babes, we worried that they’d become a society of two, so entwined that they merged in a way indefinable but damaging.”
It had been Aodhan, so quiet and apparently willing to go along with Illium’s schemes, who’d concerned the adults involved most; it had taken them time to realize that beneath Aodhan’s quiet lay a nature stubborn and firm. He was no follower; he was a true friend who called Illium out when necessary, their friendship born of the deepest balance.
“I suppose,” Elena said, “I’ve never thought about that because I’ve only known them as adults, each very much his own person.” She put her head against his shoulder, her wings tucked neatly against her back, and the scent of her a familiar kiss in the back of his throat. He wasn’t a hunter, didn’t have his consort’s enhanced sense of smell, but he’d know her even in the darkest room.
Now, she ran her fingers delicately over the inner curve of his wing. Sensation rocked through him as she said, “Are we supposed to pretend we see and notice nothing until they’re ready?”
Raphael glanced over to the two—just in time to see Illium looking at Aodhan, who was deep in conversation with Dmitri. The blue-winged angel’s expression…it held a torment of the heart that didn’t make sense in the context of the unbreakable friendship that existed between him and Aodhan.
But then, Raphael reminded himself, Illium was no longer a babe about whom Raphael knew everything. “Yes,” he said. “I don’t think they themselves know what they are to each other at this juncture. We wait for them to decide.” No longer could he wrench both out of trouble as he’d done when they’d been small angels up to mischief.
This time, Aodhan and Illium were in a maze they alone could navigate.
6
The party went on longer than anyone had expected—because none of them wanted it to end, it was so rare for them to all be together. When they did finally call it a night, it was closer to dawn than to midnight, and Illium yawned the entire way down to their suites.
“Get in bed before you fall asleep standing up.” Aodhan nudged the other man toward his room.
As he went to head to his own, Illium closed that strong warrior’s hand over his wrist, tugged.
Though his skin grew tight, his body aching with a need too long unfulfilled, he said, “You’re so exhausted, you look drunk. And ridiculously adorable.” He wanted to run his fingers through Illium’s hair, nuzzle his cheek, just hold him tight.