When he reaches my shoulder, he bites me again, perfectly positioned over a pressure point I didn’t even know existed. Every muscle in my body tightens. The pleasure runs through me like lightning. For a second, I wonder if he did slip a little electricity in there—but then he does it again to my other side and,holy fuck,that is nothing but pure bliss. Sweet, erotic ecstasy that leaves me gasping up at him and desperate for more.
Suddenly, he pulls back, leaving my wet skin open to the air.
I scowl in frustration, but before I can complain, he leans back on his hips. Everything I need presses against me, hard as a rock under his clothes. My annoyance evaporates. I watch, captivated, as he pulls his shirt off. A second later, I’m blinded by a bright flash of light—quickly followed by the absolute vision of the gold-tipped, alabaster wings on hisback.
For a moment, I forget how to breathe.
An angel,my mind whispers.Here is an angel.
The first time I saw his primary evidence, I was too terrified to breathe in the magnificence of it all. Now, I’m acutely aware of how I’m gazing upon a slice of divinity. I have not earned this beautiful, extraordinary thing—a man sculpted by God and cured by sunlight. Yet, here I am, regardless. So eager to join our bodies in ecstasy.
I am dying of thirst, and he is my oasis.
I can’t stop drinking him in.
He reaches out a hand to stroke my cheek, gently, just once. His eyes darken, filling with the lust of an unrepentant sinner, and suddenly, his lips are on mine again. His hands find the bare skin between my shirt and pants, gripping me tightly. Need presses into me. His tongue slips into my mouth, consuming me.
I drag my fingers across the hard planes of his torso, exploring the perfect ridges of his abs, his chest, his back. When I reach his ass, he grinds against me, flexing his muscles.
My gasp breaks our kiss.
“Dawn,” he whispers, almost in warning.
I take it as an invitation. Leaning up to bring my mouth to his throat, I flick my tongue down the side of it, tasting his skin. It’s far sweeter than I expected, as if the salt in his sweat was replaced by sugar. It gives me ideas, vivid images that spill into my head, and I become ravenous. My lips melt into him, sucking deep and long on his neck.
He releases the sexiest moan I’ve ever heard in my life, just before rasping,“Kae.”
It’s so insanely attractive, I could spend my whole life hearing it and never get enough. My nails dig into his hips, and I pause to breathe. To beg for him. “I need you, Malak.”
His whole body stills, turning my smile devious. I know I’ve won. He’s a predator, coiled and ready to pounce. I’ve never been more willing to be prey?—
He pulls back suddenly, looking at me with an intense, maybe evenfearful expression. “We should stop here.”
I blink, my brain lagging, before falling into bewildered confusion. “We should absolutelynotstop here.”
What a ridiculous suggestion. How many times do I have to consent to appease him? I don’t care how long we have or haven’t known each other, how mythical his very existence is, or what this might mean to our relationship. I do not care to limit myself any longer.
But, much to my dismay, Dusk rolls off me anyway.
He falls still and quiet by my side, leaving me with a body that aches from the loss of him.
I don’t know if I’ve done something wrong. Even worse, I feel rejected. Undesirable, humiliated. Like I shouldn’t have believed for a moment that he’d lie with a person like me, even out of desperation. I am a human, a piss poor mortal, wholly inadequate for him.
Before my anxiety can spiral any further, I decide to demand answers?—
“I know,” he stops me the moment I open my mouth. “I’m sorry. I just… I don’t want you to rush into anything. There’s this… This innate attractionthat humans have to us.”
Seriously?That’s what this is about?
“Yeah, no fucking shit.” I turn onto my side, making sure he can see how utterly unamused I am. “Have you looked in a mirror lately? You’re gorgeous. A ten out of ten. Of course I’m attracted to you!”
That only makes him look more concerned, turning his head towards me with his brows set deep. “I can’t tell how far it goes, Kae. I care about you enough to want you to be able to fully consent.”
I can’t help but feel infantilized. “If you really think I’m not capable of deciding for myself what I want, Malak, then why did you bother to make all these lusty advances, hmm? You could have tried much, muchharder to repel me.”
“I…” He seems caught off guard, but then his expression becomes colder. “There are some very old rules forbidding angel-human intimacy. I’m willing to accept the potential consequences for myself, but I hadn’t stopped to think ifyoucould alsobe at risk.”
“Dusk, have you neverslept with a human before?”
