Chapter Two

Instantly confused, Irael slowly turned to face him. “Why would it even matter to you, Adon? Duty always mattered more to you, and just as you should, you’ve always done your duty.”

Adon stopped, his back to Irael. “I learned long ago what was important. I told them I would bring you under control, under the condition of my leave from service.”

“Leave? Why would you leave?” Though surprised, Irael still viewed Adon with a great deal of suspicion. The angel had always been a creature of the Order. Adon lived and breathed for it. Nothing had ever stood in the way of devotion and duty.

Adon walked to the opposite side of the tower roof and leaned against the stone crenellation. “I left for you.”

“For me? Forgive me if I sound disbelieving, Adon, but after all this time, it’s rather hard to believe.”

Adon spun around and rushed Irael, jerked him to his feet and slammed him back against the tower wall, Irael’s shirt fisted in his hands. “Hard to believe?” he snapped. “I’ve not slept since we separated! I’ve had no peace, Irael. Every breath I take is infused with your scent, every morsel of food tastes like your body, your blood, every thought is invaded with memories of you. I came here without the intention of leaving!”

Irael's voice rose as well. “You left because you were ordered to do so! I had nothing to do with it. Since you are not leaving, you are here to rule my world for the Council. Is that it, Adon? I have no hope of fighting you. You could kill me easily. The war would be over before it even started.”

“I came here because I love you!”

That silenced Irael as he tried to decipher the truth for himself. For a long moment he didn’t say anything. What meaning could he take from the words? Irael wasn’t sure anymore, though he desperately wanted to believe Adon. “I trusted you once before until everything turned to ashes around me. I was nothing to the ones you left me with.”

Adon released him and turned away. “I thought you would be safe,” he said quietly. “I trusted them to keep you safe. No one would tell me anything other than that you had left.”

“They hated me because they thought I weakened you. Didn’t they tell you I destroyed their precious temple after they tried to have me killed? I was and always will be a threat to them.” Irael headed for the door to return to his chambers.

“They told me nothing.” Adon met Irael’s gaze before Irael stepped through the door.

“I belong to the Faction of the Disillusioned, Adon. Yes, in the eyes of one like you, I have fallen that far. Now how much do you love me?” Without waiting for an answer, Irael descended the steps.

Adon didn’t hesitate; he followed him. “More than life itself, Irael. Enough to give up everything.”

Once inside his room, Irael turned to face Adon, folding his arms across his chest. His wings twitched in agitation. “How is it that I can say such a thing and you don’t even flinch? The man I knew would have flown into a rage and beaten me within an inch of my life for even daring to say the name.”

Adon’s ebony skin was a stark contrast to the pristine white of the room. Running a fingertip over the smooth, white surface of the table beside him, he said, “Perhaps because I’ve become disillusioned myself. Without you, nothing else matters.”

Curiosity and something else he refused to admit made Irael approach Adon. “Have you changed so much?” Part of Irael wanted to believe what he was being told; the other half shied away from any notion of placing himself in the same situation as before.

Adon looked up at him, gaze almost pleading. “I would do anything for you. If you told me to go…then I would go.” Adon closed his eyes, took a deep breath and knelt on the floor before Irael. “Anything.”

Disbelieving shock held Irael immobile. He knew what the gesture meant. Crouching down in front of Adon, he asked, “You know what will happen if the Council finds out you are here like this. They’re expecting you to bring me back under their thumb.”

“I would die for you,” Adon said without moving from his position.

Sighing, Irael sat heavily on the floor, crossing his legs. “Do you really believe I would do that to you? Leave it to you to come back into my life and turn it completely upside down.”

“I need you, Irael. I came here on the hope you’d feel the same.”

“It’s not that simple anymore. It never really has been. You and I both know it. It has never troubled me to be considered a renegade. But you…” He trailed off as he touched Adon’s face.

Adon’s eyes closed and he turned his face into the touch, brushing a soft kiss against Irael’s fingers. “If…you want me to go…”

“You must return to the Council, Adon. You belong with the Order.” Irael drew back his hand before the contact led to painful memories.

“Irael…” Adon stood. “I belong nowhere if not with you.”

For the first time, Irael regretted that he hadn’t stayed where he’d been put. “Then you will give the Council a puppet.”

“I give the Council nothing. I give you everything.” Adon looked away. A moment passed before he continued. “I am sorry for bothering you, Irael.”

The Council could have found no better way to crush Irael without spilling a drop of their own blood. Irael rose, knowing he would have another regret and probably sooner than he wanted to face it. The moment he touched Adon, the need to connect rushed through him, just as he knew it would. When his lips met Adon’s, a soft cry broke free before he could stop it, and Irael desperately sought the taste of his master.

Momentarily surprised, Adon opened to Irael. Desperation began to seep into the kiss, and Adon's arms snaked around Irael’s waist, holding him close. Adon walked them back until they reached the wall then he deepened the kiss.

As if he couldn’t get enough, Irael held on, sinking beneath the pounding surge of chaotic emotion. A moment later, he sank to his knees in front of Adon, bowing his head. He pulled the tie out of his hair, and the full length of it cascaded around him. “As I once belonged to you, take your pleasure of me.” In his heart, Irael begged for one last chance to be given what had once meant everything to him.

Adon reached down and slipped a finger beneath Irael’s chin, lifting his head to see his face. “Present yourself to me.”

With no more than a thought, the clothing on Irael's body dissolved as he stood and turned to face the wall. Spreading his legs, he raised his arms up and out over his head. His heart beat a frantic rhythm, and the hardness of his cock completely betrayed his need.

Adon approached him and draped Irael’s hair over his right shoulder while pressing a kiss to the left one. “I love you,” he whispered. With a flick of his wrist, the whip uncoiled and Adon stepped back. “Are you ready?”

Irael truly hadn’t expected that Adon would allow him to feel the kiss of his. A shiver ran through him as he nodded. “Please, Adon, I need to feel it all again.”

The only answer was the loud snap of leather cutting through the air. The barbed tip lashed at Irael’s back.

When the whip connected with his flesh, Irael jerked, but he held the position, drowning in the warmth of the sharp sting. A trickle of blood ran down his spine.

Another strike created a deeper cut diagonally across Irael’s back. Then it all stopped. Breathless seconds passed before Adon licked away the blood and warmth seeped over the abused flesh.

“My Beautiful One,” Adon breathed, mouth sliding up Irael’s spine. “How I’ve needed you…”

Adon had been the only one who could draw such an overwhelming and complete response from Irael. Irael's talons clawed the wall. Many of the scars on his back had faded, but they were still visible simply because Irael refused to get rid of them.

“I will taste you, feast on you,” Adon whispered, lips drifting along the top of Irael’s left shoulder, over the arch of his neck. He shifted and without warning brought the flat of his palm down onto Irael’s right buttock, the sound sharp and sweet. “And when I am done, I will take you.”

The sound of Adon’s voice, his touch, set Irael on fire. Turning his head, Irael tried to get close enough to Adon to taste. All over again, he belonged to the dark angel. The sense of it flowed through his entire being as if they had never been separated.

Another slap landed hard on Irael’s ass and Adon hissed in his ear. “Turn. On your knees. I want those lips wrapped around me.”

With a fluid twist of his body, Irael went to his knees in front of Adon. Irael raised his gaze to Adon’s. The stormy hue of Adon’s gray eyes held Irael enthralled, and he knew his own filled with the love and adoration he could never fully hide. Irael wrapped his fingers around the base of Adon’s cock as he leaned in, opening his mouth. The first lick of his tongue tasted the sweet drops on his master’s skin before he drew Adon’s cock fully into his mouth.

Adon rumbled his pleasure, one palm flat against the wall as his other hand rested on Irael’s head, fingers moving lower to softly stroke his cheek. “So beautiful…” Adon gasped, fingers tightening on Irael’s jaw as he thrust forward, driving his cock into Irael’s mouth. “My sweet pup.”

Unable to say anything, Irael relied on his actions to do it for him as he worshiped Adon. He swallowed Adon with every thrust of the dark angel’s hips, and his fingers caressed Adon’s balls.

“Irael…” Adon shuddered, groaned then thrust forward, heat spilling down Irael’s throat as he came. Irael drank in every pulse of liquid given to him. When Adon began to calm, the pressure eased as Irael pulled back and settled into his prior position.

Smiling down at him, Adon said, “Now, on the bed, on your back. I wish to taste you.”

Irael stood and went to the bed. He rolled to his back and drew up both of his legs, holding onto his thighs. The arch of his ass exposed him fully to Adon’s hungry stare.

Adon crawled onto the bed and bent Irael in half, lifting his hips. The position let him see Irael’s eyes. Adon’s red forked tongue slithered out and flicked over Irael’s hole before pushing inside. A dark stormy gaze held Irael captive as Adon’s tongue slithered deeper, lengthening as it tasted the depths of his body.

Irael cried out, helpless to stop the sound as his body writhed, rocking against the invasion. Fire blazed through him, the need for Adon surging over him. He would do anything for more. “Adon, fill me. Make me know you again.”

As Adon slowly withdrew, he willed his tongue to swell and relax, opening Irael over and over. When he finally slipped free, Adon wet his cock and lowered Irael’s hips, pushing deep inside him in one smooth but forceful stroke.

Irael sank beneath the possession of his body. His legs and arms encircled Adon, clinging to him as Irael rocked for his own pleasure and Adon’s. “I could never stop dreaming about you. I never will.”

Adon settled onto him, taking them both toward a long-needed release. Lips drifting over Irael’s, Adon whispered, “You are my soul, Irael. Take me into you, breathe me in.” When his mouth covered Irael’s, Adon exhaled gently, filling Irael’s soul as surely as he filled Irael’s body.

The rush flooded him, entwining more deeply within Irael’s mind and soul. Something inwardly snapped, leaving Irael incapable of defenses or barriers. Every part of him hurt in that moment, pain beyond the physical, until the power itself filled him enough to quiet it. Open to Adon, Irael shook, the pleasure leaving him breathless even as his body strained to come again.

“Never again will I leave you,” Adon murmured.

Without stopping the flow of energy between them, Adon came, filling Irael with his release. Every throb of his body was mirrored in his soul, his breath leaving him as he felt their souls bind. It took several seconds longer for him to stop shaking, and when he did, he dropped his head to Irael’s shoulder, eyes closing as his tears wet the pale skin.

“Never again,” he whispered.

His own tears flowed with Adon’s. Irael trembled uncontrollably. What happened to him? Irael could barely take in the full force of the chaotic connection between them. He couldn’t stop his own mental demand for it, either, and absorbed all that was given to him.

After a few moments, Adon kissed Irael’s neck softly before pulling out of him. Settling on the bed, he drew Irael close, holding him tight. “I’m so sorry for the past. Please forgive me.”

“None of it was your fault, Adon. I knew that a long time ago. There is nothing to forgive.” Irael’s voice didn’t rise above a whisper. “Looking back, I should have stayed, but none of it worked out as it should have. Not your fault, not my fault.”

Adon drew in a deep breath and let it out before kissing Irael’s hair. “I don’t know if you believe me, but I love you…so much it hurts.”

It took Irael a moment to form the words he wanted to say. “I never felt you before. Not like this. I can feel everything of you inside me now.”

“As I can you, my Beautiful One. As I can you.”