How to Seduce an Angel in 10 Days (6 page)

It scared her that Falcon had this control over her, because it
was
control. It was power. She feared it and she wanted it, but what would happen in the aftermath?

Her body didn’t care about the aftermath; all her flesh knew was her breasts were pressed up against his chest, her nipples tight and hard at the contact. It only cared about the heat coming from his body and the promise of his touch.

Tally prayed he’d grab her and pull her against him the way he had before; he’d take away her culpability. She wanted him to demand this of her, to angle her just so and plunder her mouth and . . .

His hand slid down her spine to settle at the small of her back and the heat of his touch burned her through the thin fabric. Tally knew she could tilt her face up to his and their lips would be only a breath apart.

Or the way her body was angled, she could shift and be in his lap; his solid thighs would be beneath her ass and his cock would be, oh, so very close to where she wanted it. Did she dare?

Falcon tilted his head down to look at her. The hard line of his mouth was softer somehow and time stopped when she turned her face up to his. The air was gone and she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move.

The screen turned blue as the DVD player stopped automatically and shattered the moment like glass. Tally hopped off the couch like it was on fire and promptly put the DVD back in its case.

“My kind of girl,” he said.

“How’s that?” she asked, trying desperately not to blush.

“I can’t stand it when witches put DVDs back in the wrong case or stack them on top of the DVD player. Drives me nuts. I’m a bit of a neat freak.”

“Me, too. Do you feel like another one?”

“Sure, whatever you want to do.” He gave her the same lazy grin that could charm the drawers off a cleric.

She wanted to sneak a peak at his package and see if he was really up for whatever she wanted to do. Not that she was going to act on it or anything, but it would be nice to know she wasn’t the only one so affected. If she was, that would be embarrassing. She didn’t want to get caught checking though. Tally chose
The Ring
this time.

“You brought a lot of good ones,” she said.

When she sank back down, she sat safely on her own side of the couch. Not that she didn’t enjoy being close to him, but perhaps the interruption of the blue screen had been fortuitous. She liked it a little too much and it had dissolved her good intentions like sugar in the rain.

It wasn’t too long before the scenes were getting tense and things were popping out of places and making her squeal, but still she managed to keep her distance from Falcon. Until he decided to wait until she was engrossed in a scene and startle her with a poke to the ribs.

She retaliated with a slap to his arm. He made a grab for her wrist and Tally wasn’t about to let him have a hold on her so easily. She poked him back and was delighted when she got a reaction. He was ticklish.

Tally narrowed her eyes as she decided on a course of action. She launched herself at him, but he caught her. He’d disabled her attack with one move. One delicious, resolve-shattering move.

Falcon brought her crashing down into his lap and he held her secure with her hands behind her back. The bastard still had one hand free. That wasn’t what demanded her attention though; it was the fact she didn’t have to worry about getting caught checking his package. The ridge of his jeans was pressed fully against her and there was no doubt Falcon wanted her.

“Oh,” was all she could manage, unable to breathe. His eyes were dark with desire, but he didn’t move. Neither did she.

“This is what happens when you play the tickle game,” Falcon admonished.

“You started it.” Tally shifted against him. Was that a fire hose he had in his pocket or was it a cannon from a warship?

“Are you going to finish it?” he asked as he used his other hand to anchor her against him.

“I finish everything I start.”

He released her hands and she rested her palms on his shoulders for a moment before she used her thumbs in an offensive against his ribs. Falcon reared back, startled, and their combined weight brought the couch to its back legs, an unhappy venture until they both overcorrected the other way and the righted furniture sent them sprawling to the floor.

Falcon managed to roll them mid-flight so she landed on top of him, which was exceedingly thoughtful considering he’d have crushed her like an empty beer can against a frat boy’s head.

Of course, the problem remained that his bits were pressed against her bits. Only now, he was flat on his back, his hands were still on her hips, and she was flattened against the wide expanse of his chest.

“Are you trying to kill me?” Falcon ground out softly.

“You’re the one who flipped the couch.”

“You’re the one who has her bare mound against my cock.”

Tally blushed hotly, her mouth suddenly glued shut.

“I didn’t say it was a bad way to go,” Falcon said as he tightened his hold.

She cried out at the friction on her clit when she moved. “We can’t.”

“I know. It’s a Shall Not.” He still didn’t release her.

“Of course, it is. Everything that feels good is a Shall Not.”

Tally gasped again when Falcon guided her hips in a measured roll and moved her against his cock.

“Do you like that, Drusilla? Look at you, so beautiful with your golden hair mussed, your sweet lips parted, and your eyes bright with desire for me. No, don’t look away,” he demanded when she turned her head from his gaze. “I’d see all of you if I could.” Falcon undid the first button on her dress. “Will you let me see you?”

Tally had never felt so beautiful, so desirable, in all of her life. Not even in the pergola before he’d passed out. That thought alone, remembering what had happened, should have shocked her out of this haze of lust, but it didn’t. She couldn’t deny him, and unlike the other men she’d been with, she didn’t
want
to deny him.

Fuck it. That little voice inside her head had been right: Forgiveness was easier than permission. Tally made quick work of the top buttons and bared herself to his view.

She knew her breasts would fit neatly in the palms of his hands and she wanted him to touch her, but all he did was look. His gaze was a caress, sliding over her heated skin. Falcon’s touch moved from her hips to push her dress up around her waist and his hands guided her again.

He thrust up to meet her, grinding against her slit, and she wanted nothing more than to reach between them and undo the button at the waist of his jeans.

“A kiss,” he said as he tangled his hand in her hair.

Tally bent down to meet him and she kissed him softly, as if it was her first. His mouth was hard and unforgiving, but so sweet. She swept her tongue across his and nipped at his bottom lip. He returned the caress with his own, and explored the hot cavern of her mouth.

The pressure built between her thighs and she was ready to come. She tried to stop the rhythm against him; but he wouldn’t let her and she didn’t want it to be over.

“Don’t stop,” he whispered his breath warm on her mouth. “Come with me, Drusilla.”

She would have come right then, on command, but she had a sharp pain in her abdomen. Deep inside, it felt like someone had kicked her in the taco and was pinching her ovaries for good measure.

She’d just started her period.

Drusilla Tallow broke the sound barrier dismounting her chosen steed and barreled into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Tally could only pray Merlin was merciful and she hadn’t bled all over his jeans. She’d have to kill herself with the nearest available blunt object. Or she could always drown herself in the toilet. There was no way to apologize for that or to live it down. The site of one’s genital area covered in blood is not something any male would easily forget.

He knocked on the door just seconds later and he even tried the doorknob. She thanked the Goddess she’d had the sense to lock the damn thing. What warlock did that? Followed a witch into the bathroom? Of course, he was an angel now, so maybe that changed the rules.

“Tally, what’s wrong?”

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I said I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Beer shits? Look, it happens. No big deal.”

That insensitive asshole. It only made it worse when they thought they were being sensitive. “It’s not that. I started my rag.”

Oh, great. Why couldn’t she have come up with something else to call it? Like she had earlier, in her own head. Her scarlet friend. Her Aunt Rosy. The Red Sea. Something. Anything besides “the rag.”

She palmed her forehead. Now she really needed those granny panties. She couldn’t run around with a tampon and no knickers.

“That’s no biggie, either. I assume you need underthings now. Where do you keep your panties for that time of the month?”

Was he shitting her blue? Did the man just ask where her . . .

“I have a sister. I have a mother. I’ve had girlfriends. This isn’t unfamiliar territory.”

Tally was ready to die. It couldn’t happen fast enough. Suddenly, the mirror over the sink shimmered and Ethelred appeared.

“You’re welcome,” he said.

“Do you mind?” she shrieked.

“Not usually. Don’t say I never gave you anything.”

“This is your doing? Why?” She stomped her foot as hard as she could while propped on the toilet.

“Otherwise, you would have broken a Shall Not. If you’re going to do that, it will be with me, thank you very much.”

“Hey, don’t say that so loud. I don’t fancy a lightning bolt to the tampon from Uriel.”

“You’re the least of his concerns. Now, can you imagine my shame if we get you just because you shagged Stupid Cupid? Bah. I’d rather your demise be something elegant and, of course, planned by me.”

“You’re a dick.”

Ethelred looked thoughtful for a moment. “This isn’t the first time I’ve heard that.” A package of granny panties and a box of tampons appeared on the edge of the sink. “You can thank me later, I have to run. I hear a gypsy princess calling my name.”

Ethelred disappeared before she’d had a chance to ask him if he’d been watching them. “Is someone in there with you?”

Tally sighed. “No, he left.”

“Ethelred. Should have known. Are you okay?”

Yeah, Tally was fine. But was Falcon? She’d been straddling him and she had visions of red humiliation streaked over his jeans. She knew there was nothing for it but to ask.

“So, um . . . did I . . .” The words refused to leave her mouth.

“No. And it still wouldn’t bother me if you had.”

“Why is that?” she said snidely. She probably shouldn’t have asked. A smart witch would have left it alone.

“The fact that my wings are pink doesn’t mean I didn’t get my red ones.”

Tally’s eyes goggled and she spluttered, choking on her own spit. She’d never be able to look him in the face again. Considering recent events, she gathered that’s what the Powers That Be were gunning for.

CHAPTER SEVEN

A Bad, Bad Thing

“G
ood morning, Sunshine!”

Tally awoke from a dead sleep to find Ethelred wrapped in a precariously low-slung towel, sprawled across her reading chair. She’d never look at it the same way again.

“My door was locked for a reason.”

The demon shrugged. “We need to talk.”

Tally rolled over and pulled the covers over her head. “I don’t want to talk. I want to lie here and die quietly. Alone.”

He tugged on the sheet. “Look, if it’s the cramps—”

Tally popped upright in the bed and fixed a look on Ethelred that would have caused a lesser being to whimper. “If I had my magick, I’d show you cramps,” she snarled.

Ethelred wasn’t nonplussed. “That’s why you don’t. Now, move it.” He snapped his fingers.

“It’s not even your turn,” she whined.

“I’m never going to get my turn the way things are going. You’re just going to crash and burn. Literally. I already told you, I don’t want to win by default.”

“You’re perverse.” She flopped back down on the bed. Tally shrieked when a bolt of energy zapped her in the ass, but she still made no move to get up.

“Get. Up.”

“What are you going to do if I don’t, hmm? You are not the boss of me until it’s your day.”

The stabbing pain in her belly intensified a hundredfold and Tally cried out.

“That’s what. Maybe I’m not supposed to have you today, but I will. It’s for your own good. Get up and I’ll make it stop.”

“All of it?” she demanded through clenched teeth.

He sighed. “Yes, fine. All of it. Can’t have you swimming in the Gulf with your Aunt Flo. Might cause a shark frenzy and you’d die before I get what I want.”

The pain eased. “I don’t want to swim in the—” Tally broke off as the twinges began again. “Fine.” He was a right bastard to use that against her, but Tally supposed she couldn’t expect any better. He was a demon after all.

“Meet me down on the beach in five.” He walked through her locked door as if it didn’t exist.

So much for locking the damn door
. Falcon could have come through it at any time last night if he’d really wanted to. Or any time.
Falcon
. Tally sighed aloud. She had to get it through her head that sexy time with Falcon equaled apocalyptic humiliation.

And it was a Shall Not.

Ethelred had done her a favor. It had been unpleasant in the execution, but it was a screwed-up world where it was a demon who’d done right by her—a demon she’d just met while the warlock she’d known her whole life was shoving her down a slippery slope with both hands.

She wasn’t naïve enough to think Ethelred’s motives were altruistic, or that he wasn’t actively seeking her failure. But still.

Tally changed in the bathroom, thankful that Ethelred’s little gift had made itself scarce, and then she wandered past Falcon’s bedroom. She hadn’t wanted to see him, not yet, but it still pricked her that he wasn’t there. How was he supposed to see to her rehabilitation
in absentia
? Hadn’t he just sworn that he’d always be with her through this? Hadn’t he promised her that he wouldn’t let her fail?

The simple answer would be that he couldn’t do any of those things.

Tally wandered down to the beach, flitting across the road in her bare feet only to bury them in the sand. Thousands of shells lay scattered up and down the shoreline and Tally dug her toes into the warmth.

Ethelred waited for her, waist deep in the water. The sunlight fell on his golden skin, crowning him, and he looked almost angelic.

“Don’t you think that’s a little much?” She snorted. “I expected to hear a choir or something.”

“Go big or go home, dollface. All demons are showmen.” The light behind him disappeared.

“So, what is this about?” She tried to open herself to the experience. The sooner she learned what she had to do, the sooner he would be out of her face and she could get her magick back.

“Come out here to me, and I’ll show you.”

Doubt flared. “I don’t think so.”

“Look, sweetheart. We’ve got a lot on our plate today and we can’t even get started until you come here.”

She sighed and stepped into the water. Tally waded out to him carefully, the water rising up to her chest quickly. Something told her to turn around, to go back, but she didn’t. He had to be on a sandbar—unless he wasn’t standing at all, but was held up by some demon magick.

Tally was good at a lot of things, but swimming wasn’t one of them. She’d always used magick to keep herself afloat. He continued to smile as realization dawned on her. Tally backed away from him, shaking her head in earnest, but suddenly she couldn’t move. Seaweed had tangled around her legs and jerked her down under the water. She opened her mouth to scream and saltwater poured down her throat.

She flailed, seeking purchase on something solid, but there was only the water. Only the pressure on her chest and the burn in her lungs. Tally could see the surface, the bright blue sky overhead, the sun. Her fingertips broke the surface of the water, but she couldn’t get free of the seaweed.

And Ethelred stood over her, watching her drown.

Just as the pressure in her chest splintered, Ethelred hauled her up out of the water and carried her to shore. She spluttered and coughed, not caring if the water she’d started to swallow sprayed over his broad shoulders.

“You’re a bastard,” she wheezed.

He laid her down in the sand with a cocky grin, his demon magick healing her. “I know. Now you do, too.”

“What was the point of that? Besides to terrify me?” If there’d been anything within reach, she would have thrown it at him.

“You did exactly what I told you to do.”

“You’re my fucking parole officer.”

“I am. Now, why did you do what I told you to do, even though your gut told you not to?”

“Because you told me to!” she cried. What a stupid fucking question. How was she supposed to learn anything with a demon who used circular reasoning?

“You don’t understand. Maybe it’s too complex a comparison.”

“I’m not stupid,” she growled.

“Well, that could be argued given your recent choices.” He smiled at her and she couldn’t help but be warmed by it, as much as that pissed her off. “No, Drusilla,” Ethelred said kindly, “you’re not stupid. So it’s beyond me why you let the men in your life dictate your actions and your happiness.”

Tally didn’t speak.

“You knew exactly when Martin Vargill began to deviate from the path and yet you followed him. Why?”

“I thought he loved me.” Tally didn’t like saying that out loud. She knew it in her own head, but the sound of it was pathetic and it disgusted her.

“How could he love you, Tally?” the demon asked, his voice still kind and soft, but his words like razor blades.

“Yeah. We all know I’m not that witch, okay? I’m not the one who gets the white knight and Happily Ever After. I’ve always known that’s not me.” Tally hated how brittle her voice sounded. How vulnerable.

“Why have you always known that? Did someone tell you?”

“Are you my parole officer or my fucking therapist?” she snapped.

“I’m whatever I need to be. Answer the question,” Ethelred prompted in a stern, but not unkind voice.

“No, no one told me. I know from experience.”

“Again, I ask why you’d think anyone would love you?”

“Fuck you.” She flailed at him, her open palm flying through the air with one stinging slap with his name on it, but he caught her wrist easily.

“No one will ever love you, sweetheart. Not until you learn to love yourself.”

Tears threatened and Tally would have rather gone back under the water than let the demon see her cry.

He pulled her against him and hugged her. “There, there, darling. Time for that later. We have to move on to part two of today’s lesson.”

“How does this help your cause?” She tried not to sniff.

“That’s for me to know and you to maybe find out. Although, I like that you’re looking for the angle. Everyone has one, you know. No matter what they tell you.” He straightened, suddenly dressed in a perfectly tailored, white pinstriped suit—Al Capone Chic. “Now, we’re going to Piccadilly. I am in need of tea.”

“So you almost drown me, rip me to shreds, and make me cry and you want me to go with you to buy tea?” Her voice cracked.

“Now, now. Watch that inner bitch kitty. Settle down. And why not tea? A good pot will fix you right up. Come along.” He held out his arm and her swimsuit morphed into a long, white summer dress reminiscent of the Victorian era.

There was nothing for it but to go where he led—previous lesson aside. He teleported them to Piccadilly Square in England.

“Is Cupid going to be a good lay, do you think?” Ethelred asked as he took her hand and placed it on his arm like the most proper gentleman in days of yore, a hard contrast to what was coming out of his mouth. “I mean, when it finally happens?”

“Why? Uriel cut you off?” Tally raised a brow.

“Call me curious.” Ethelred smiled.

“Of course, he will be,” Tally said.

“You hesitated,” he said lightly as he led her into The Fountain Tea Room Café. Then he switched subjects. “You should pick up a tea box for the Angel of Death.”

Tally’s head spun at how fast he switched between topics. It kept her constantly off balance and she was sure it was by Infernal design.

“Yes, I suppose,” Tally agreed. She still wasn’t sure how you told a man you were sorry for feeding him to the Abyss, but wasn’t it the thought that counted? He’d gotten a good job out of it and really, before this whole mess he’d been aimless, content to be worshipped by witches everywhere as an ex-war hero.

Okay. She had to be honest with herself. It wasn’t just feeding him to the Abyss. She’d known what the creature inside her was going to do to him and she hadn’t been strong enough to stop it. Tally hadn’t been willing to fight the pain that came when the lamia didn’t get her way.

“Hmm, or not. Let’s get back to the dish at hand. Cupid. Why did you hesitate?”

“I didn’t hesitate. I simply wanted to know why it concerns you.”

“I spoke with Falcon this morning and I was interested to see what he thought about the matter.”

Tally knew what Ethelred was doing. He was trying to screw with her self-confidence and manipulate her. He kept tearing her down, only to give her the tools to build herself up again. Rinse and repeat. Like a kid who stomped on anthills. She wasn’t going to respond. As if Falcon would ever talk to Ethelred about what had happened between them. Hell, the cheeky bastard had probably been watching from the bathroom mirror. Nope, it wasn’t going to work.

He flashed her a mischievous grin that would have been more at home on a kid who’d won a shopping spree in his favorite toy store.

Why was he so happy?

So you’ll ask him why he’s happy, dumbass.
Then he would proceed to pick and tear at every little thing Falcon had said. She wasn’t going to play an emotional game of Chutes and Ladders. They were all Chutes that led straight to Hell, literally.

Ethelred proceeded to order for her. He’d chosen a cherry tart and Lady Grey tea. She wondered if he was alluding to something. Tally had to stop analyzing him to death; it was what he wanted her to do because his end goal was to make her crazy.

“What about Uriel?” she asked as they chose a table.

“What about him, doll?”

Tally decided he was evil. He was so casual about everything; nothing ever moved him to any sort of emotion except boredom or amusement. He was a total sociopath. Too bad everything he said was colored with sensuality. It was in the way he moved, the way he spoke, even the way the bastard sipped his tea.

“He stole Gabriel’s horn to blow up my end table, so I have to know, is he good at blowing
your
horn?” Tally tossed his own devil-may-care aplomb back at him.

Ethelred’s cheeks ballooned out as he fought to keep his tea from shooting out of his mouth like the spray from a fire hose. He gulped and spluttered, his gold-flecked eyes watering with the effort. He dabbed his napkin at his mouth surreptitiously.

“Oh, my. I may have to rethink my strategy with you, my dear girl.”

“Tit for tat, darling.” Tally smiled as she took a dainty bite of her tart.

“I really want you to fail, Drusilla.” He said this with an ominous pleasure. “We’d have so much fun in eternity.”

“I’d rather not.”

“I know. What was it Martin Vargill did to earn your allegiance, hmm? Oh, yes, he told you that you were pretty. He made you feel special. I could make you feel very special, Drusilla.”

Tally didn’t want to admit how sharp his little arrows were, but she knew she’d have to face her own actions if she wanted to be worthy of her Second Chance.

“Yes, that’s what he did. He treated me with respect, at first. Then he made me believe no one else would want me after he was finished. He was mostly right, but only because I let him be right.”

Ethelred smiled at her. “Do you think Falcon is going to be any different? It’s your fault he’s Cupid, you know. He was battling with the lamia, or ‘the great and terrible evil’ as you’ve come to call her, and was knocked from his broom. He was choking to death on his own blood when Merlin found him.
Your fault,
” he said cheerfully.

Tally was horrified at the imagery of what she’d allowed to happen. How could she have thought she deserved a Second Chance? So many people had been hurt, so many had died because of her weakness, her selfishness.

Self-loathing was a fountain that had frozen in the winter of her redemption, but as she was faced with the truth, it melted into a raging sea that drowned all hope.

“Yes, there it is, my Drusilla,” Ethelred said as he petted her hair the way he would a choleric child. “Taste it. Let it fill you until you can’t breathe, until it chokes you.”