Touch of the Angel (Demons of Infernum, #3) (22 page)

“Ronin,” she gasped.

He’d never looked more enraged, more deadly than he did at this moment. His chest heaved and his hands were clenched into tight fists. The way he glared at Gofrey, his eyes sharp like daggers, promised untold pain and retribution.

He took one glance at her and let out a roar that made her whole body tremble. Some of her joy morphed into fear. The heat in her palms disappeared and she reared back. “Ronin?”

Chapter Twenty-One

The flight to the address the succubus had recited was the longest of his life. Every moment was one of blinding agony, wondering what Gofrey was doing to Amara. He could fly faster than Gofrey could drive, but the incubus still had some time on him. This was taking too fucking long.

What would he be walking into? The thought of the torture Gofrey might have already inflicted on her made him sick.

After what seemed like an eternity, he touched down on the roof of the building, then ripped open the locked door and raced down the stairs. When he saw the apartment number, he braced himself, then kicked the door in. Pieces of it went flying everywhere.

He stepped over the threshold...and paused.

Amara was there, kneeling over Gofrey, who lay on his back. To his surprise, the incubus yelled like he was in pain. Then he saw Amara’s cheekbone, the bruises on her face, and her ripped dress. Something inside him broke, obliterating everything but the thought that the bastard had harmed
his
woman.

An inhuman sound roared from his mouth and Amara jumped back. But his focus was on Gofrey. He was in front of the demon before he’d even processed that he moved. He lifted the incubus by the shirt and slammed him against the nearest wall. Closing his fingers over Gofrey’s throat, he squeezed hard.

“No,” Gofrey choked out. “I’ll tell you all I know.”

Ronin ignored him, squeezing tighter. Bone and cartilage snapped and shattered beneath his grip. He twisted and wrenched until the incubus was completely lifeless and his head was attached to his body by a few simple strings of flesh. Once the red haze cleared from his eyes, he saw what he’d done. He let go, backing away in horror. The incubus fell to the ground, his eyes open and sightless. All but decapitated. There’d be no coming back from that one.

Half in shock, he stared down at his bloodstained hands. How could he have done that without even realizing it?

Oh damn.
Amara.

Practically choking from the disgust over his own actions, he turned until he spotted her. She stood with her back against the opposite wall, observing everything with horror on her face. Devil, she feared him, and he couldn’t blame her. He was scared of himself right now.

“Amara,” he whispered, his voice shaky. “Please don’t—”

Before he could say anything else, she raced across the room and threw herself into his arms. “You found me. I can’t believe it.”

He started to close his arms around her, but then he saw his bloody hands once again. “Did he...hurt you?”

“No.” She pulled away to meet his eyes and winced, rubbing her cheek. “Well, at least not
that
way. It’s not important. I’ll heal.”

A tide of anger washed over him when he took in her injuries. Her cheek was knitting itself back together, but the entire left side of her face was swollen to twice its normal size Suddenly he wished Gofrey was still alive so he could kill him all over again. Slower this time. “Wait here.”

Ronin moved to the tiny sink and put the hot water on. He applied the liquid hand soap he found there and scrubbed until his hands were raw. Once he was certain all the blood was gone, he spun back toward Amara. Lifting his palm to her cheek, he activated his healing ability. A rush of cold, calm energy flowed through his hand. If possible, it seemed his power was working better than ever now.

Guess she really is good for me.

“Thank you. For everything,” she said, pressing her cheek into his palm.

Before his eyes, her bones healed and her bruises disappeared. When he was done with her face, he moved to her stomach, and anywhere else he spotted a bruise.
Too many damn places.
“What happened?”

She glanced at Gofrey’s body. “I don’t know.”

“Start with the club.”

“Oh. Karen, one of Asmodeus’s other succubi, found me. She told me about what he’s doing to Solara. She said he threatened to kill her if I didn’t...”

When she broke off, tears lining her eyes, he pulled her into an embrace. “Amara, it’ll be two days tops before my brothers return with the sword.”

“I know,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.

“Your mother made her choices. You can’t give yourself up for the mere
chance
he won’t hurt her.”

“But this is all my fault.”

“How? How could this possibly be your fault? You were trying to save her. You have this guilt for something you had no control over.”

“But I did,” she cried, pushing away. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, blindly staring at Gofrey. “I did, Ronin. It
was
my fault.”

The self-loathing in her voice gave him pause. He whirled her around to face him. “Explain.”

She kept her eyes in the general direction of the floor. “I met him first. He was so charming, so attentive. And an incubus. We didn’t know too many of those, and none as captivating as him.”

“Go on,” he urged.

“Even though he seemed interested in me, I knew Solara would fall in love with him on sight. He was everything she’d ever searched for.”

The pieces fell into place. “So you introduced them.”

“I was so excited when they seemed to hit it off. Solara was over the moon, happier than I’d ever seen her. I thought...well, I guess I thought that maybe if I found her someone to love, she would finally love
me
. The way I’d always dreamt.”

His heart broke for her. Before he could say anything, she continued.

“But I guess the joke was on me.” She let out a bitter laugh. “In the end, Asmodeus got two for the price of one.”

“This is why you’ve been so adamant about saving her? Why you gave yourself up for her without a word of protest? You think you’re responsible.”

Amara finally met his gaze. “You can’t honestly tell me I’m not.”

“The hell I can’t. Everyone is responsible for their own lives. Your mother made her choices. Perhaps if she hadn’t been so damn caught up on the things she didn’t have, she would have seen what she did. The things that
really
mattered.
You
, Amara.”

Her face crumpled and he pulled her in tight, murmuring words of comfort. Once she’d calmed down, he set her back and rubbed the moisture from her cheeks. “Why didn’t you ever tell me all this?”

“I guess I didn’t want you to think of me as a monster.”

“Never,” he swore.

She gave him a tentative smile. It only lasted a second before her face grew serious. “I forgot to tell you what happened with Gofrey. I
burned
him.”

Ronin took a moment to process that. “What do you mean?”

“I burned him. I have no clue how.” She led him to the body and knelt before it, carefully avoiding the head and neck area. “There. Check out his stomach.”

Ronin squatted beside her. Gofrey’s shirt was singed and the flesh beneath it was burnt beyond recognition. “How did you do this?”

“I have no idea. I only touched him.” When he did a double take, she shrugged. “I’ve never been able to do anything like that.”

“Are you sure? Maybe you’ve always had the ability and simply never tried to use it before.”

“I didn’t try. It burst out of me on its own.”

That didn’t make sense. He frowned down at the corpse. “We’ll talk to my brothers about it when we get home.”

“Okay.”

The rips in Amara’s dress caught Ronin’s eye, and fury ignited within him anew. “Here. Take my shirt.” Even though it was ripped in the back, it would at least cover her front. He began to unbutton it, then noticed the blood and stopped. “My sleeves are stained.”

“No problem.” She reached out and tugged hard, ripping the sleeves off at the shoulder.

He took it off and slipped it over her, then helped her button it.

“How did you find me?”

“I bumped into one of the succubi back at Opiate, a brunette wearing a silver skirt. She was upset that she’d helped Gofrey take you. She told me he kept this apartment, and that he’d taken her here once.”

“Oh, poor Karen.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, helping her to her feet. “We’ll get all of them out of there.”

“I know.” She motioned toward Gofrey’s corpse. “What are we going to do with him?”

“I call a clean-up crew later. Right now I want to get you back home.”

Her lips curved into a grin and her eyes lit with hope. “Home?”

“Home,” he repeated firmly.

She stepped into his arms. “That sounds wonderful.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Home. He’d called his apartment her home, as if he imagined a place for her in it. That made her feel things she couldn’t even begin to explain.

Ronin led Amara to the door, peeking out of it before stepping outside. The racket he’d made in breaking it down hadn’t seemed to disturb any of the neighbors.

He did his best to close the door before leading the way to the stairwell. To her surprise, he went up instead of down.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“The roof is how I came in. Figured it’d be safest to take it back home.”

The roof. He meant flying. That explained the big rips in the back of the shirt he’d given her. She gulped. In the short time they’d been together, she hadn’t given much thought to the fact that he could fly.

“I’m sort of scared of heights,” she admitted.

He gave her an incredulous glance. “Out of all the things to be scared of, you choose that?”

“I didn’t
choose
it.”

Ronin chuckled and pulled her in, kissing the top of her head. “I’ll make sure you’re safe. Promise.”

They made it to the roof and, with her hand in his grasp, he headed to the edge. When she looked down, her stomach gave an uneasy flop. “I don’t know about this.”

“We’ll be fine.” He moved his shoulders and his wings grew, blooming large and full and white. They extended from the top of his head to the ground. It was more than enough to distract her. She reached out to stroke the soft down of his feathers.

“What does it feel like to fly?”

“Amazing.” He moved behind her and wrapped his arms securely underneath her breasts. “Ready?”

She closed her arms around his and squeezed her eyes shut. “Let’s go.”

Ronin took off with a masterful flap of his wings and an involuntary shriek tore from her lips. “I’ve got you,” he said into her ear. “Promise.”

His arms were wound so tightly around her that she knew he wouldn’t drop her. After a few minutes, she relaxed enough to open her eyes. She let out a gasp when she saw they were so high that they flew above most of the buildings. The bright city lights illuminated the landscape, casting an orange glow in the night sky, and a thin blanket of fog rolled out over the water. Much to her astonishment, she realized it wasn’t heights she was so much scared of, but the fear of falling.

Ronin would never let her fall.

“It’s amazing,” she shouted into the wind.

“My thoughts exactly. The city takes on another level of beauty from this height.”

She had to agree. And to think, if it weren’t for Ronin, she would never have seen it. “I love this!”

His laugh was warm and velvety. “Good. I want to show you something.” He veered right and flew over the center of the city. After several minutes, the Empire State Building, with its top levels flooded by warm white lights, came into view. He headed straight for it.

Her grip on his arms tightened. “Doesn’t the building stay open late? And I know they have security cameras up there.”

“It closed a few hours ago. Yes, there are cameras, but somehow the ones on this side keep malfunctioning at night.”

She read the note of amusement in his voice. “You’re doing it?”

“A friend of mine has the ability to cause electrical malfunctions. I really like coming out here.”

He zoomed toward the open-area, 86th-floor observation deck and touched down on it. When he tensed his back, she realized he was about to absorb his wings. She lay her hand on his shoulder. “Wait.”

Ronin paused. “What is it?”

She motioned toward his wings. “Can I get a closer look?”

His breath hitched and he turned his back on her. His wings flared out, glimmering like beams of moonlight. Amazing. She placed her hands on them, delighting in their warmth. They were soft as down, but hid a layer of pure muscle. She scratched the spot where his wings met his back, and he let out a throaty rumble, arching into her touch. Clearly, he enjoyed it. How good could she make him feel by doing nothing other than stroking his feathers?

He let out a shiver, then absorbed his wings back into his body.

“Hey, I wasn’t done yet.”

A low laugh rumbled in his chest. “We’ll have time for that later. Dawn isn’t too far off, and I want to show you this.” Ronin led her to the edge of the wall. “Look at how peaceful everything seems from this height.”

Amara peered through the safety railing. The lights from the neighboring buildings lit the horizon in a multitude of colors, some of them blending into each other in a glowing blur. Noise drifted up from the bright streams of flowing traffic some eighty floors down. Combined with the sound of the blowing breeze, it translated itself into a muted roar.

“You’re right,” she said. “There’s a calm sort of beauty about seeing all that chaos from this high a distance.”

Ronin moved in close beside her, the heat from his bare torso warming the right side of her body. “You know, I’ve never brought anyone here with me before.”

“Not even your brothers?” She turned in his direction. Though the stark angles of his face were half-hidden by shadow, the rigid planes of his chest practically glimmered in the artificial lighting. A quiver of longing ran down her body, leaving her moist between the thighs. That would be a constant state of being when he was around, she surmised.

He must have picked up on her allure, because the muscles in his back went taut and a low hum of energy vibrated off his body. “Not even them.”

“Why not?”

“I guess I always felt like this was my special place. Where I could come for peace and solitude.”

“But you brought me here.”

“Yes.” He moved closer, so the light in his eyes was visible. “I thought it was solitude I sought, but now I see I was wrong. It was a sense of belonging. I feel that with you, Amara.”

The honesty in his expression set her body ablaze. A cacophony of emotions swelled within her, each threatening to overtake the other. Gratitude, desire, joy, fear. What she felt for him was so new, so fragile, that she feared it wouldn’t survive. Her life was suddenly no longer about her and Solara alone. Ronin was an inescapable part of it now. Even more, that made her mind-blowingly happy.

Holy crap, she was in love with him. So much for guarding her heart. Turned out she was more like Solara than she’d thought.

“I feel that, too. More than I ever thought possible. I...”

The words she longed to say stuck to her tongue. This slender thread of emotion binding them together was too new, too unfamiliar, to speak of it.

As if he could sense her inability to express how she felt, he reached out and closed his hand over hers. “It’s you and me from now on. No matter what happens. We can face anything, as long as we do it together. Deal?”

She sensed the change in the air that told her this was a defining moment. She could say yes, and they would face the future together, however unknown. Or she could say no and continue focusing on her guilt and sorrow for the mistakes she’d made in the past.

There was no choice to be made. Not really. If she fell, he’d be there to catch her. Wasn’t that what every person dreamed of?

Hope sprung inside her, fluttering up from her stomach to tighten her chest and lift her heart to her throat. Maybe, together, they’d be unstoppable. “It’s a deal.”

The corners of his lips tipped upward and he drew her in, slanting his lips over hers in a kiss that shook her to her very core. She slid her fingertips along his back, memorizing every curve and angle of his hot, sleek flesh. Nothing could compare to the erotic feel of his satin skin on hers. She wanted to touch him forever. To taste him. To claim him. Perhaps, in a way, she already had.

“I could spend every minute of the rest of my life making love to you and it still wouldn’t be enough,” he confessed to her as he slid his hands down to cup her bottom and pull her closer to him.

Happiness—that elusive emotion she’d chased her whole life—floated through her body on gossamer wings. Now more than ever she understood. All these years she’d chased her mother’s love, and even if she
had
managed to earn it, she still would have been empty. Love wasn’t something that could be captured or bought, or even earned. It merely
was
. In one’s heart, in their mind. In their soul.

The right words might escape her, but she put everything into her eyes. “Then make love to me, Ronin. Right here. Right now.”

§

Ronin had experienced a great many emotions in his life. Some horrible, like the pain of losing his first family, and others wonderful, like the joy of defeating Mammon and watching him get locked away. But he’d never felt the way he did now. Seeing the hopeful, earnest expression in Amara’s eyes as she offered herself to him was almost his undoing. Whatever it was that bound them together, it couldn’t be undone. He knew that now.

She was meant for him.

He headed for the nearby set of stairs that led inside the building and climbed the five short steps to the top before setting her down. It wasn’t the luxurious bed of down and silk she deserved, but given their surroundings, it would have to do.

Her body trembled as she unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it from her shoulders, then tugged her torn dress off, leaving her clad in nothing but her strappy sandals. From the musky scent of allure escaping her body and wrapping around his cock like an invisible glove, it was her passion and not the cold breeze that made her shiver.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

“And you’re the most beautiful man. With the most arousing body.”

Her fingers drifted along his fly and she unbuttoned his slacks, sliding her hand inside to cup his erection. She pressed soft kisses to his bare chest while her hand moved up and down, working him into a frenzy. “Have I told you that you fill me in the most amazing ways? At times it almost feels like too much, like one more thrust might make me shatter into pieces. Then of course I have to push you harder, so I can find out if that’s true.”

He groaned when she moved against him. Her words, combined with her touch, already pushed him to the verge of climax.
Not yet.
He grasped her hand and pulled it away, then directed her to sit on his shirt on the top step. “I have to taste you again.”

“Ronin,” she gasped.

He knelt on the lowest step and spread her legs, baring her to his view. Allure poured off her in waves so intense that his cock pulsed in time with them, and the tiny pearl of her clit peeked out from the soft curls between her thighs, begging for his attention. He closed his mouth over it and she let out a cry, clamping her legs around his head. Her taste was richer, more mouthwatering, than the sweetest dessert. He hadn’t been kidding earlier—he could spend forever between her thighs. So he set about proving that to her, using his tongue and his fingers to drive her to the edge of ecstasy. In no time at all, she cried out and convulsed beneath him, yanking on his hair as she undulated to her climax. That alone almost made him come.

He moved up, positioning himself at her entrance, when she stopped him. “No, it’s my turn.” She tugged him to her step and flipped him around so he sat there, then slid onto her knees in front of him.

“I don’t know how long I can last,” he warned her.

“Mm...I have faith in you.”

With those last, teasing words, she closed her mouth around him. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he cried out from the almost unbearable pleasure of her lips on him. Her long hair floated down to tickle his abs as she moved up and down, varying the rhythm. Driving him to the brink of a mind-shattering climax. The gentle swells of her breasts jiggled with her movement, and the hardened buds tempted him to lift her up so he could draw them into his mouth. Not to mention what the generous mounds of her backside did to him. He’d never before been much of an ass man, but he could envision taking her there. The truth was, he was up for anything as far as Amara was concerned.

“Enough.” He drew her away before he was tempted to spill himself between those perfect lips of hers.

“Ronin,” she whispered, her eyes half-glazed with lust, “I want you.”

“Yes.” He drew her up so she straddled him and guided her down. Her silky heat enveloped him, inch by agonizing inch, until he was fully seated within her. She moaned and arched her back, at last placing her dusky nipples within reach of his mouth. He closed his lips over one, then the other, worshipping them as they deserved.

“You’re driving me crazy.” She sighed and buried her face in his neck, moving her hips in countermotion to his own. “Don’t stop.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” When she tightened her legs around his waist, he grasped her hips and used that as leverage to pound into her. The way she cried out and dug her nails into his back told him she liked the fast and furious rhythm. The heavy perfume of her allure scented the air and clung to his skin, settling into his pores like a drug of the finest sort. Urging him to move faster. Thrust harder. Go deeper.

Every time with Amara surpassed the last. Her scent, the feel of her skin, the way she moved her hips in small circles on top of him. Every single thing about her was a fucking turn-on, making him wonder how he could last one more minute without exploding inside her as he longed to. He gritted his teeth and tried to hold onto his control.

“More. Deeper. Please,” she cried out, raking her nails down his flesh.

She was right. It wasn’t enough. Nothing about her would ever be enough. His body strove for a physical connection as intense as the emotional thread that wound them together. He lifted his hips from the ground, arching them up so he joined with her as deeply as this position would allow. The cries tearing from her throat grew louder and longer, but even still...

“Not enough,” he groaned. Keeping one arm wrapped around her waist, he used the other to push off the ground into a standing position. He slid her off his body and turned her so her she faced the railing. She had time to do no more than grasp the railing before he spread her legs and pulled her hips to him, plunging hard into her welcoming heat. The sound of her hoarse yell filled the air and she reared back, matching him thrust for thrust.