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I COULDN’T FAULT THE woman for her dedication to her gods. It was a trait I naturally admired, given my existence as an angel. And at least she was sticking to her vows, while I clearly couldn’t claim the same.
So she was an assassin. I didn’t particularly care for that vocation, although I knew the Conclave, those I answered to as an Enforcer, did use hired killers on occasion. Right now, I really didn’t want to think about her job or mine, for that matter. All that I really cared about was the fact that she had her slick, naked body between my legs.
Her back was bowed as she leaned against her knees while my fingers worked at the lathered shampoo in her hair. She dropped her head back, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
“So after this dark period, you became an Enforcer?”
After breakfast, she’d assumed we would go back to her room, but I made a last-minute decision to come to mine. I hadn’t spent much time there, but it was long enough to notice that there was a very big difference in our two suites. While hers had a long shower with multiple heads to spray water in all directions, mine had a tub large enough for two.
And the opportunity to soak in a long deep tub with this woman was something I just couldn’t deny myself.
We barely made it into the room before we were tearing at each other’s clothing, kissing, licking, touching ... our coupling was fast and hard and amazing. And after basking quietly in each other’s arms, a long soak seemed just the thing.
Red had been good enough to stay away from any more questions about Essie, and I was grateful. My profession was much safer ground for me.
“No, one doesn’t just become an Enforcer. First I was Neutralizer. For a long time.”
“A long time.” She twisted so that she could face me. “So what’s a long time to you? I know what a long time means to me. If you were human, there wouldn’t even be a comparison. But you’re an angel, so maybe you can clarify a little.”
A chuckle rumbled up my chest, and I shook my head before grabbing her shoulders and dunking her under the water. She flailed, then came up sputtering and wiping at the soap in her eyes.
“Hey, that was uncalled for.”
I reached out for a towel and patted it over her face. “Seventy eight years. That’s how long I was a Neutralizer.”
“You’re just a baby, aren’t you?”
A baby was something I’d never been called. Not ever. I was an angel, so I hadn’t exactly been born in the true sense of the word. “I guess that makes you an old woman then, doesn’t it?”
She snorted and grinned. “And wise and still sexy as hell, too.” To prove her point, she circled her own nipples with her index fingers, making them pucker and tighten in a way that had me immediately wanting her again. Like the vixen she was, she twisted away from my reaching hands and leaned against the opposite side of the tub. Taking the soap in one hand, she grabbed one of my feet.
“So you were a Neutralizer, then an Enforcer. How exactly does that transition happen?”
Leaning back, I closed my eyes. “I proved myself. An Enforcer has to be dedicated to the cause of not only protecting MAUCs but also humans. I had my powers, the ability to read emotions ...”
“And to manipulate them.”
I bristled. “We don’t manipulate. My powers only work if the person already has a certain desire for something. Consider what I do just a nudge in a certain direction.”
Her hands were working their way up my leg, expertly massaging the muscles of my calves and thighs even as she bathed me. I had the feeling she knew exactly what she was doing to me, even though her fingers hadn’t yet reached the hard, throbbing part of my anatomy.
“Okay, a nudge. If you say so.” I wanted to correct her again, but she continued. “But you don’t exactly seem to be embracing any other angel perks.”
“What does that mean?”
She wormed her foot through the water around my torso to caress my shoulder blade with her big toe. “Haven’t seen your wings even once. Don’t you want to unfurl them sometimes?”
I chose not to answer, pursing my lips.
“And demons. When’s the last time you killed a demon?”
She was right. I didn’t do much demon hunting these days. The night Alexia had died, I’d killed the first one in decades, and that was only to save Lynlee’s life.
“So you said something about recruitment. Is that all you do now? Bring others into the fold, so to speak?”
I grunted when her touch reached my erection. My balls tightened, and I wanted nothing more than to have her toss the soap aside and take me in her hands. But instead she all but bypassed the obvious and started lathering my stomach and then my chest.
“Yes, enlistment was my idea. It was natural for me, which isn’t surprising considering my former vocation.”
“The ability to read people and all.”
“Well, and the fact that I’d been in that sort of detail as an angel.”
She was staring at me now, and I felt certain that she could somehow read my mind. Could she possibly have guessed that I’d been in the process of recruiting when I met Esperanza?
“An angel recruiter. How ‘bout that.”
“Sort of. I didn’t care for it much as an angel though.”
“All the more reason to fall.”
Her mouth dropped open, and her hands froze where she’d been scrubbing my arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go there. It just popped out.”
“I met Essie in India in 1898. I was on a recruitment mission, of course, and she ... she was a woman ahead of her time. She’d inherited some interests there from her husband years before and decided to tour the country, intending to build an orphanage there. She already owned several in Europe. It wasn’t her wisest decision, but she was a hellion at times.”
Red’s face wrinkled into a frown, confusion clearly in her eyes. “War?”
I shook my head. “No, the rebellion was years earlier. The crown, the British crown, was already in control by the time she made her trip. I abandoned my duties the moment I saw her. She became my obsession. I was smitten with her as soon as our eye met.”
I could have described Essie in detail: the silky black hair that fell to her waist when free from the elegant coiffures she preferred and the heart shape of her lips and the way she would draw them tight when she was struggling not to laugh at my silly jokes. The graceful movement of her fingers as she straightened the wrinkles of her gown.
But I didn’t want to dwell on those things. Not because they were painful, but because right now the woman before me, almost entirely opposite of Esperanza, was much more titillating to my senses at that moment.
“And so you severed your bonds with your god to be with her.” Red had leaned back and was slowly wringing her slick hands back and forth in a pensive way as she studied me.
“Yes. No, not exactly.” I fumbled, searching for the best way to describe things. “I chose to leave my post as an angel for her, rejecting my duties, and that surely displeased my god. And when a heavenly being chooses to leave, there’s a period of transition. It is hard to explain, but I was without my powers as my body acclimated to the change.”
“Okay ...”
“We were back in España at her villa by that time. I had dreams and visions about our life together. We were only just beginning. But then her fever arrived.”
Red froze, her eyes widening. I heard her breath hitch, but she didn’t speak. Just waited.
“There had been rumblings about the epidemic that was occurring in India. Essie was young and full of life and believed herself to be bulletproof in some way. But plague strikes the strong as well as the weak. At least in those days it did. And I was powerless to help. No matter the prayers I offered. No matter my promises to return to heaven. She still died in my arms.”
“So that’s when you turned you back on Him. On god, I mean.”
My smile was icy. “I believe it was a mutual decision.”
She sucked her lower lip into her mouth
“Your turn,” I managed, eager to divert the conversation away from morose memories.
“What’s to tell? I do as the gods bid me.”
“Tell me about your current mission.”
Suddenly she sat forward, putting her soapy hands against my chest and leaning over me so that her lips were inches from mine. “My job is boring. My other attributes are oh, so much more interesting ...” Then her mouth descended on mine, tongue darting in to sweep back and forth across mine in motions that could drive a man crazy.
I grabbed her waist and swung her around onto her back, holding her so that her head didn’t go under. Water sloshed over the sides of the tub, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was her and burying myself so deep inside her that we couldn’t tell where I ended and she began.
She reached into the water and found my cock, wrapping her fingers around me and twisting, then pumping. When she tried to brace herself up, her hand slipped, sending us both off balance so that we fell deeper into the bath.
“Maybe we should take this to the bedroom,” she suggested, grabbing the sides of the tub and launching herself to a standing position. Sheets of water slipped down her curves as she stepped out and onto the rug. Droplets clung to her peaked nipples, and I licked my lips, imagining taking them in my mouth.
“Yes, I think you’re right. The water’s getting chilly.” A shiver ran down my spine that had nothing to do with the coolness of the water but more with the way she was bending over to dry off.
I came up behind her, taking both her wrists and placing her hands on the counter. She didn’t resist, just glanced over her shoulder at me with a questioning look. I grazed my fingers up her arms, her glistening skin offering little to no resistance. Goosebumps rose on her flesh as I grazed my way down her back then tracing the swell of her backside.
“Don’t you want to ...” The words were choked off by a whimper when I reached between her legs to cup her sex. She was slick and wet, and I easily pushed two fingers inside her. I brought my other arm around her front, using quick movements of my thumb to tease the button of nerves there. She thrust her hips back, and my fingers pressed even deeper.
I moved my hands to match the way she rocked back and forth, letting her set the pace. I could feel her tightening until finally her entire body began to quake, and she leaned her upper body against the counter of the sink for balance. When her panting breath eased, I pulled my hands away and grabbed her forgotten towel, dropping it across her shoulders.
“Well, that was certainly hot,” I heard her murmur as I reached for my own towel to finish drying what little moisture still remained on my body.
A few minutes later, we entered the bedroom, my hands reaching for her. She dodged me, giggling as she leaped upon the mattress and waited for me, her eyes dark and seductive.
“I feel like you’re putting some kind of spell on me. Like I’ll never get enough of you. And all the while you’re only toying with me.”
She raised a brow, neither admitting nor denying my words. Instead she pointed her finger at me and curled it to beckon me. I sunk into the mattress willingly, letting her push against my shoulder so that I was on my back.
“I’m not a witch, Vicente. But I like the idea that you can’t get enough of me. Let’s quench that thirst.”
Her lips moved towards mine, then stopped and dove to my chest where she took one of my nipples between her teeth. She didn’t bite, just held it taut while she flicked her tongue back and forth. My dick twitched in response. I reached down and took it between my thumb and forefinger, giving just enough attention to take the edge off my need.
My other hand grabbed a hank of Red’s wet, auburn locks, pulling her up so that I could smother her mouth with mine. My lips devoured hers, teeth grazing with bruising abandon as our breaths mingled, little pants and moans filling the room.
I wasn’t entirely sure which of us was doing the panting or the moaning.
“I think it’s you, Vicente,” she murmured in a hoarse voice. She was propped up on one arm, her eyes locked with mine and her mouth parted.
“What’s me?”
One hand settled on my breastbone, tracing down to rest right against my pounding heart. “You’re the one with the power over me.”