“Hi.” In terms of a great beginning to the most important conversation of his life, it was a failure.
Her lips quirked. “Hi, yourself.”
She looked so beautiful it felt like his heart had stopped. How had he forgotten how vivid and alive her big, green eyes were? Forgotten how good she smelled. Forgotten how being close to her made something tight and hot unravel in his chest and make it feel like he could breathe again. “I came to ask you something.”
She stopped a foot in front of him and peered up at him. “So ask.”
Sensation torpedoed him. The challenge in her beautiful eyes, the soft almost smile lurking at the corners of her full mouth, the warm amber of her skin, everything about her that fanned the spark of life to a conflagration within him. And he said the first thing that came to mind, “Come live with me and be my love?”
“Christopher Marlowe?” She chuckled.
He couldn’t prevent his answering grin. “He was a close personal friend. Actually, I gave him those words.”
“Liar.” Eyes twinkling, she shook her head at him.
It seemed like forever since he’d gazed into those eyes. “Maybe.” He closed the small distance between them. “So, will you?”
“I’d like to.” The heat radiating off his big body called to her. “But I need some other words first.”
Dammit! Words were not his strength. “Like what?”
“Like why you want me to come with you.” She jammed her hands on her full hips.
“Because I love you.” Unable to resist touching her, he slid his arms around her waist. “Because I am a miserable bastard without you.”
She held her body stiff. “You seem to have arrived at this decision rather suddenly. When last we were together you were warning me that you couldn’t promise me anything.”
“And then I nearly lost you.” Those terrifying moments when he’d been unable to stop the pull of the horsemen. That horrible death knell of a moment when she’d told him she was leaving. “And then I did lose you.”
“What about Rosabella?” She allowed him to inch her forward.
“I loved Rosabella.” But the sting had not been within him for some time. Wrath couldn’t say when it had stopped, just that living with her rejection had become an uncomfortable habit. “But not in the way I love you.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Explain.”
“Hell’s teeth, female.” How many fucking extra words did she want from him? He’d covered the most important ones.
Haziel stared at him, demanding he answer.
“With Rosabella, it was like hankering for something that I could not have. The further it went, the more I wanted it. It was the wanting more than the thing in the end. Rosabella is not you. She lacks your warmth, and your vitality, your kindness, and your loyalty. She doesn’t make me a better version of myself.”
Her eyes softened. “And I do?”
“Yes, Haziel. You most certainly fucking do.” He dipped his head toward her, and then stopped. “And why am I the one doing all the explaining?” He didn’t bother to conceal his hurt from her as he said, “You left me.”
“I did.” Tears gleamed in her lovely eyes. “I didn’t want to, but I had promised Ramiel that if he helped you heal Eddie, I would separate myself from you.”
Her gaze begged him to understand, and he wanted to end Ramiel all over again. The archangel had bartered for his daughter’s life to get his love away from him. “And you never break a promise.” It was one of the things he valued about her, her integrity.
She crinkled her nose. “Not deliberately, but I kind of broke my word when you followed me to the horsemen.”
“Nah.” That memory was one of the sweetest of his life. “And you didn’t know I was coming, so technically you didn’t do anything wrong.” Then he got to the crux of the matter for him. “If you hadn’t promised Ramiel, would you have stayed?”
“Yes.” No hesitation and no doubt.
And that was enough talking for him. “May we get to the kissing part of the making up now?”
“Just one more question.”
He groaned aloud. “What?”
“How will this work?” She slid her arms over his chest and around his nape. “I am a seraph, and you are a hell prince. There has never been a coupling like us before.”
“And Nephilim were considered abominations and killed before,” Wrath said and pulled her hips flush with his. The sweet feel of her body against his almost brought him to his knees. “But you will find that I don’t give a fuck about any of that.”
“Wrath.” She giggled. “You know that we need permission from a full gathering.”
“Haziel.” He touched his lips to hers. “A full gathering will not keep me away from you.”
“Oh, Wrath.” And she softened against him. Raising her head to his, she kissed him.
The taste of her hit him anew, and he wanted more, all of her. But not here, not beneath Ramiel’s nose. Despise the fucker as he did, he knew too well the agony of watching another male leave with your female. Unleashing his wings, he flew them up and out of Ramiel’s throne room.
Chapter Forty-Two
Gabriel tapped at her cursed tablet as she glared at Haziel and Wrath across the greenroom. “It’s unprecedented.”
