Nathaniel Teen Angel (11 page)

She smiled. “It’s Nathaniel Willemse. You know, the singer that sings, ‘
You
’, one of the songs I played in the park, remember?”

“Oh, of course. I thought that amazing voice sounded familiar.” Squeezing her tight, he prayed they’d both remember this moment every time they heard ‘You’re Beautiful’, even if Michael did alter their memories.

“Don’t talk, just kiss me,” she murmured, gripping his hair with both hands and tugged on his curls.

Pleasure ripples shot through every part of him and the feel of her warm body trembling beneath him was sending his mind into a spin. Losing every fragment of willpower, he encircled her waist and kissed her passionately, claiming her mouth and forcing her lips open with his tongue. As he devoured the essence of her, his thighs began to throb and he knew if he didn’t get off the bed, he’d be thrown into the bowels of Hell forever. But as he tried to move away, she shoved her hands into the back pockets of his jeans and squeezed his backside.

Flinching, he arched his back, his whole body aching for her.
Holy Heaven.
His nerve endings were on fire and he was sure he was about to explode again. Gasping for air, he tugged her hands away and buried his face in her hair. “Eloise, please stop. You don’t know what you’re doing to me.”

She twirled his curls around her fingers. “What I’m doing to you? What about what you’re doing to me? You made me crazy for you, and you started all this by saying you loved me when I was on the bus.”

Taken aback, he lifted his head and stared at her. “Well, I do love you, Eloise, but you spurred me on by saying I had a body to die for and that it was love at first sight.”

She gazed up at him, her eyes glazed and her lips red from kissing. “That’s because it
was
love at first sight, and your body
is
to die for.” Holding the back of his neck, she pulled him towards her, crushing her mouth to his and kneading his shoulders with her fingers. Blood rushed through his veins and his willpower vanished. The yearning in her kiss was so powerful, it melted all the angst and frustration of his lonely existence and fired his irrepressible hunger for her into overdrive. Letting go of his inhibitions, he lay across her and completely surrendered to her, kissing her throat and engulfing her with an unrestrained passion he never knew he had.

As he slid his hands under her legs, her skirt hitched up and he could feel the firmness of her cute backside through the lace of underwear. His body heated, sending blood soaring through his veins and a powerful current of desire to all of his senses. Realising he’d better stop before it was too late, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to remain as still as he could.

Quivering beneath him, Eloise slipped her hands around his waist and squeezed him tight.

Fear stabbed his heart as uncontrollable lust claimed his body and his soul and he pulled away from her and rolled onto his back.
“Oh my God, Eloise, I love you so much, but my desire for you will be the death of me.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said, rubbing his stomach. “Desire doesn’t kill people.”

He moved her hand away. “It can if you’re and angel.”

She slipped it back and caressed the bare skin above his jeans.

His whole body throbbed with pain and he arched his back. “Eloise!”

She sat upright. “What’s wrong?”

An excruciating searing burned from his shoulders to his waist and he screamed out in agony. “Oh, Lord, no!”

Eloise stared at him. “Nathaniel, what’s the matter?”

Gasping for breath, he whispered, “I’m ... I’m so sorry, baby.”

Her eyes darted across his face. “Are you having trouble breathing? Shall I call an ambulance?”

Struggling to catch his breath, he rolled onto his side and held his belly as tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Lay on your back, Nathaniel, and I’ll do CPR on you,” she pleaded.

As his lungs collapsed and his heart slowed to nearly nothing, she rolled him over and tilted his head back. He gazed up at her, but his vision was fading and he was sure he was going to die.

“Hang on, Nathaniel,” she yelled. Then closing her mouth over his, she blew two sharp breaths into his lungs.

WHAM!

His wings suddenly erupted from his shoulders, throwing Eloise backwards onto the mattress.

Her eyes wide and her mouth open, she stared up at him. “Nathaniel, No!”

Standing on the bed, he gazed down at her. His soul ached to touch her, but he was terrified if he did, his hand would go right through her and he didn’t want to scare her. “Please, forgive me Eloise.
I never meant to hurt you. It’s not my choice to go, but I’m
so
very sorry.”

Her lip quivered and tears clouded her eyes. “Oh my, God, Nathaniel, don’t leave me! Please, say that you won’t?”

“I have no choice, but please, promise me you’ll wear your crucifix.”

She grabbed it from her pocket and held it up. “I’ve got it, see? So
please,
Nathaniel, stay with me. You promised.”

She was already hysterical, but before he had a chance to kiss her one last time, a brilliant light lit up the room and two burly angels with silver wings grabbed him by his arms and carried him towards the window.

Looking back at Eloise, he shouted, “They won’t let me stay, but I’ll love you for all of eternity, Eloise. And remember, I’ll still be with you as your guardian angel.”

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she ran towards him, her arms outstretched. “Nathaniel, come back! Please, I love you. I can’t live without you.”

Knowing she loved him as much as he loved her hadn’t made things easier like he’d thought it would. It had only caused her heartache equalling his own and it was tearing him apart. As he was dragged away from the only girl he’d ever loved, her pretty face crumpled with absolute torment.

Holding her head, she screamed, “NATHANIEL!”

With no chance to say goodbye to her, he was zapped back to Heaven.

Chapter Fourteen

Within seconds, the two bodyguards dumped Nathaniel on Michael’s cloud, then left. Humiliated and angry, he clenched his jaw and glared at the archangel.

Looking up from his chair, Michael raised a brow. “What’s the matter, Nathaniel? Don’t tell me you’re surprised?”

Nathaniel balled his hands into fists. “No, I’m not surprised. I’m fucking angry. Why was I brought back before my time was up? You said I had until four o’clock this afternoon. You broke your word, and now Eloise is suffering.”

“You’re accusing
me
of breaking my word?”

“Well, you did.”

“Nathaniel, when I left you, I warned you not to do anything stupid, didn’t I?”

“But I didn’t.”

Michael sighed. “No, but you were about to, so we stopped you just in time. We couldn’t afford to let you risk Eloise’s soul for a few moments of physical pleasure.”

“I’d already pulled away from her when your messengers turned up. And you promised they wouldn’t spy on us, but they obviously did.”

“They didn’t at first, but I got them to check in on you from time to time to make sure things didn’t go wrong. And they were most certainly going wrong. Listen, Nathaniel, this is no joke as you are well aware. A few moments ago, you reached the point of no return with Eloise, so we had no choice but to intervene.”

“What do you mean? We were both fully clothed and I intended to keep it that way.”

“Oh, did you? Well, my dear boy, you’ve had no physical experience of being a teenage boy with raging testosterone before—though you’ve seen enough of your wards in that state, so you should have known better.” Michael wagged a finger at him. “Especially after what happened to you last night.”

Nathaniel’s jaw dropped.  “You messengers saw that as well? Fuck!”

“Cursing won’t get you any grace, Nathaniel. Have some respect. I know you’re angry, but you’re an angel now, not a human. Anyway I’m just trying to point out to you what could’ve happened if we didn’t bring your straight back. After what happened last night, we didn’t trust that you’d keep your pants on, especially when you started canoodling again this morning, and you certainly weren’t holding back.”

Nathaniel frowned. “I did hold back. I’ve already told you that I pulled away from Eloise before your spies turned up.”

Michael stared at him. “Yes, but for how long? You were both stimulating each other and would’ve been back in each other’s arms within minutes had we not intervened.”

“But I wouldn’t have done that.”

Michael folded his arms. “Nathaniel, what makes you think you would’ve had more willpower than any other teenage boy, especially being with a woman as young and beautiful as Eloise? And it was even harder for you because she fell in love with you and was encouraging you. I’m sorry, but under those circumstances, you didn’t stand a chance. We had to bring you back before you made the poor girl pregnant, and you know what would’ve happened then.”

Nathaniel sat down and held his head as he tried to figure out when his willpower failed. If only he had listened to Michael and accepted his wings back earlier, then Eloise wouldn’t have had to suffer like that. He’d been selfish and knew he was wrong.

“I’m afraid your charm and good looks worked better than I thought, Nathaniel, so I have to take some of the blame. Anyway, Eloise’s memory of you has already been cleared, so you don’t have to worry about her suffering.”

Nathaniel glared at him. “Oh, I see you didn’t waste any time doing that, did you?”

Michael held his hands out. “Oh, so you didn’t care if she suffered the heartache then?”

Frowning, Nathaniel chose not to answer. Even as an angel, he was suffering the excruciating pain of heartache and there was no way he wanted  Eloise to suffer that. Michael was right to erase her memory straight away, but he wasn’t about to pat him on the back for it. He was way too angry.

“It’s not like you to be lost for words, Nathaniel. Anyway, you can have five minutes to yourself before I erase your memory of your time as a human, and your romantic feelings for Eloise. Then you can go back to her, as her guardian of course.”

As Nathaniel opened his mouth to speak, Michael held a finger to his lips. “Hush now, don’t waist a second of your thoughts on me. Use them for your pleasure. You’ve earned that much at least. It’s your reward for choosing to stay as an Angel of God.”

Leaving him to ponder, Michael left him alone.

With only five minutes to work on, Nathaniel, closed his eyes and gripped his crucifix, then with every ounce of his angel powers, he sealed his love for Eloise in the deepest hidden depths of his subconscious soul and sealed it with a circle of fire, so no man, angel or demon could ever remove it.

Chapter Fifteen

Nathaniel rubbed his eyes. Now, what was it he was about to do? Oh, that’s right. He was following Eloise to the hospital to visit her mother. He glanced down at her and scowled. She was sitting on the bus stop seat, but instead of studying, she was talking to one of her friends on her cell phone. In fact she hadn’t even attended school today, or handed in her assignment. She didn’t seem to be ill or anything, yet she’d stayed in bed all day listening to music. If she wasn’t doing that, she was chatting on the phone to her friends about some sexy guy she kept dreaming about. Nathaniel shook his head. He wished she’d spend more time on her school work instead, and he prayed her father wouldn’t let her take that job at the pet shop.

When Eloise held her mouth and gasped again. Nathaniel rolled his eyes. Oh, here we go again, more talk about hot guys, music and parties.

“No, Brooke, I don’t want to go on a blind date with your cousin. I’m going to the party with Tom. Yeah, the one from our class. He’s moved back home again and guess what?  He’s been working out at the gym, and boy is he ripped. Yes, I know I’ve been friends with him since childhood, but he’s so cute now. Anyway he asked me to go to the party with him so I said I would. I’ll just see what happens. What are you wearing? Oh great. I’ve finished making my white silk dress, so I’m wearing that. Okay, I’ve got to go now, bye.”

As she fiddled with her phone, Nathaniel made a mental note to keep an eye on Tom. For some reason he didn’t trust that boy and he didn’t want Eloise being alone with him.

Eloise turned on her music, but instead of putting her ear buds in, she left the speaker on. He guessed she wanted to listen out for the bus, but he hoped she wasn’t going to play one of those horrible head-banger songs she sometimes listened to in her room.

When the tune started, Nathaniel was relieved to hear it was a soft melodious song, and as he looked over Eloise’s shoulder he was surprised to see it was called ‘
Wings’
and sung by a singer named ‘
Birdy
’, but when he saw the title of the album, his eyes popped open. Maybe Eloise was getting a taste for quieter music now that she was older. The album was called ‘
Fire Within
’. He certainly liked the title of the song, and the name of the album, but he wanted to hear the lyrics before deciding if he liked it.

As they waited for the bus to arrive, Nathaniel stood beside Eloise and listened as the beautiful words of
Wings
floated from the speaker. As always, Eloise sang along with the lyrics, but for some reason, this time she held her phone to her heart and gazed up at the sky as if she was singing to someone in particular. Nathaniel rolled his eyes. He could see his job was going to get harder from now on.  Eloise wouldn’t always just be dreaming about guys she fantasised about, she’d be going out with them. And it looked like it was starting on Saturday night. No, he definitely didn’t like the idea of Eloise going out with Tom, especially with her teenage hormones going wild.