Page 41 of Far From Center
She laughed. It rang from her with more purity than a church bell. “I’m a filthy, disordered girl, Gabe. Holy Goddess on high, show me the way. Teach me the path to righteousness.” Her head fell back, eyes closed. “Yes, that. That.That.”
He lost himself in the feel of her, his one hand at her hip and the other reaching between her legs to touch her, to feel where they joined, to press and stroke every wet, warm inch. She increased the speed of her rhythm and he did likewise, feeling himself swell inside her. It was torture. He was hanging on by a thread, but there was no way in Aaru he was going to let go until she did.
Then she gasped, her back arching upward as she sucked in a long breath. Her whole body shuddered, a keening sound coming from deep within her throat. The muscles that surrounded him clenched and released in a rhythm primal as the staccato beat of a drum. And he followed. White blinded him, every thought blasting into gibberish. Each muscle tensed, the body-part in action tightened and swelled further to the level of erotic pain. A groan burst from him with a breath of air, and he released. Tension fell from him, words and worry escaped him, the lofty vibration he’d been struggling his whole life to maintain took another nose-dive, and everything clicked into place.
Peace. Heaven. Everything combining into a perfect balance. Her arms gave way and she fell onto him, her breasts pressed to his chest, her hair tickling his sides. He slid free from her warmth and the sensation shot through him. Breathe. Breathe. By all of creation, how did humans perform this activity on a regular basis and survive? It was the most exhilarating thing he’d ever experienced in all of his four billion years.
And it did exactly what joining did, only on a physical basis. Two paths, one destination. One glorious destination.
“You okay?”
It was a little embarrassing to have a human female sexual partner ask a powerful angel if he was okay after coitus. “More than okay.” He tried to make that sound manly and firm. He must have succeeded, because the light in those deep blue eyes flared once again. Nyalla squirmed against him, a slow smile communicating her intent.
“Another?” A soft hand reached down and stroked along his length. He was still somewhat hard, but the touch was too much for flesh still sensitive from the rapid fire of neurons. Gabriel bit back a wince, allowing himself to push past the overstimulation into thoughts of what could happen again…soon. Twenty? No, maybe ten minutes tops. It was a shame that he was not still an angel or he could easily re-direct the neural pathways and rebound at an inhuman pace. He wondered for a brief moment again if she’d meant that there had been an angel in her past, and how quicklyhe’dbeen able to recover. Something hot and fierce shot through him at the thought. He might have lost his wings, but in his heart he was still an archangel — an archangel that would be bested by no one.
He felt himself begin to stir in her hand, the overstimulated near-pain feeling becoming waves of pleasure once again. Just a little more time. “Yes, another,” he told her, reaching a hand down along her waist. “But first tell me what you like best, what you want me to do.”
* * *
Nyalla stared down at Gabe, watching his chest rise and lower with each breath, fighting the urge to trace her fingers along the muscles of his abdomen. In her opinion what Gabriel might lack in experience he more than made up for in exuberance. And caring. Never had she had a lover so absolutely focused on her, so intent on making sure she had everything she wanted. Men started out that way, but once things got going, the guys she’d been with tended to become rather selfish. It was still fun, but not the rock-your-world experience she’d just had. What a happy surprise that the angel she’d always been told was a boring, stick-up-the-rear jerk was so amazing in every way.
Someone putherfirst. He might be a bit weird when it came to the organization of her sock drawer, but when the everything hit the fan, she got the feeling that he’d always made sure she was protected. Joy tingled through her, and she could no longer resist putting a hand against the warm skin just below his sternum. His eyes opened, a swirl of green and bluish gray.
“Go back to sleep,” she whispered, placing a kiss on his forehead. “I just had to touch you.”
He smiled, and she felt lost in the curve of his lips. The sheer power of him pressed against her, even though he was now a human. She knew that Gabriel rarely smiled, that his intense, scowling expression had become a kind of calling-card for who he was. A smile. Light and pure, his eyes shifting into a bright shade of aqua with flecks of silver.
“Put your head on my shoulder,” he told her. “Rest your arm across my torso. Then I will sleep again.”
