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When I broke free to suck in a much-needed breath, he cradled the back of my head and brought me back down to run the tip of his nose back and forth against mine. We peppered light kisses on the other where we could reach and simply existed in each other’s orbit.
“Please don’t send me away,” I whispered. The thought of being away from him made my stomach clench, and my chest felt like it was caving in on itself.
He closed his eyes and sighed. “I never did have much willpower when it came to you,” he grumbled. Then he slowly lifted his gaze to lock with mine. “I hope I don’t regret this, but okay.”
Relief flooded through me, and I smiled. “Tell me how we met.”
The corner of his mouth lifted, and his silvery-gray eyes opened. He shifted me to curl into his side, and I rested my head over his beating heart. I wrapped one leg over his to be closer. His fingertips ran lazily up and down my side.
“Your brother was home between battles. While he was meeting with your father, I decided to enjoy the extensive gardens your family had. You came walking up the path, and I could hear you talking. It was your voice that intrigued me at first. Soft and melodic, it called to me. Then I realized you were speaking to the flowers as you ran your hand along the velvety petals. I was utterly captivated as I’d never been before.” A faraway look darkened the silver of his eyes to gunmetal.
“Your dark red hair fell in a satiny curtain over your shoulders in shiny waves,” he continued, “and I needed to feel it between my fingers. I shifted into my human form and appeared to you as a gardener.”
“So, this isn’t what you looked like as an angel?”
“Technically, I was a eudaemon, but regardless, this was how my face and body looked, but I had wings. They were glorious, with sleek feathers of a silvery dove gray.” He appeared melancholy as he remembered what he used to be.
“Like your eyes,” I observed, and he chuckled, causing his chest to vibrate beneath me.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Why do your eyes seem to go dark at times?” I asked as I traced around his flat nipple, down his chest, and then his back.
He sighed. “When I’m angry or highly emotional, the darkness takes over. They never did that until I was cast to Earth.”
“So, I’ll always be able to judge your mood by your eyes?” I teased and propped my chin on my hand to look into the eyes in question.
He laughed. “Sort of. Now, do you want to hear this or not?”
“Okay, sorry, continue,” I encouraged with a kiss to his firm pec. “So, was I instantly smitten with you?”
“Not exactly, but the attraction was there—or I like to think it was. We definitely flirted, and I shamelessly influenced your brother to make more frequent trips home. Over time, you became ‘smitten,’ though I was a lost cause for you from the beginning. I don’t know what I was thinking when I asked you to marry me, though. It was foolish, but like I said, I wanted you—no, Ineededyou. When I wasn’t with you, my soul seemed… incomplete.” He trailed a finger over the curve of my cheek.
I turned my head to press my lips to it.
“What I didn’t count on was your brother going into the village while you and I were together. I thought he was going to bed when he left the great hall and went upstairs that night. Because I was with you, I wasn’t there to watch over him, and he was killed. For that, I will always carry guilt. You don’t remember, but you adored him, and he you.”
“Surely, they couldn’t hold that against you.” I was outraged on his behalf.
“That was my sole reason for existing—to keep him safe. We are only supposed to leave our charges to report back to the gods.”
“But who watches over them when you’re called back?”
“It’s hard to explain, but time there doesn’t exist like it does here. I could go home for months, but I could come back to my charge at the same minute I left.”
“Holy shit,” I murmured.
“There are a lot of things people don’t believe or understand because they can’t see it. Anyway, the gods called me before them after your brother died. I didn’t count on them finding out about us. I thought I’d been cautious because I’d kept us veiled when we were together. Except I was foolishly blinded by love, which made me careless—they had eyes and ears everywhere, and I damn well knew it. They decided my punishment was that I would languish on earth forever—without you. Death would never be an escape. I would essentially be alone forever because I couldn’t be with someone for long or they would notice I didn’t age.” He dragged his free hand down his face.
“You sound like a vampire—if they existed,” I joked.
His gaze immediately narrowed.
“Wait… you can’t mean….”
“That’s a story for another time.”
“Speaking of, I asked the girls if the other guys had gifts like Angel, but they told me I needed to ask you.”
“Jesus, this is a much deeper night than I planned on,” he said with a shake of his head. “What I can tell you right now is that yes, they all have some type of gift. It’s not my place to tell you what they are. That’s their business and their lives. Angel told you about his ability when you woke up in the infirmary, but that was this choice. He obviously trusts you.”
Which blew my mind because none of them really knew me.
There may not be much I could do to help with everything that was happening, but I could do everything in my power to be worthy of their trust.
I nestled into his side, and he kissed the top of my head.
I sighed and fell asleep, content and happy.
For the moment.
