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“There are always people who need help, Evie,” he mumbled. “It’s not enough.”
“It’s more than enough.” I set the wine down on the bedside table and stood next to him, looking out across the city. “You’re giving so much of yourself to this city, it’s killing you.”
Wrapping an arm around my waist, he pulled me against him. I looked up, and there was that almost smile I had grown to love. It made his proper smiles all the more special. “It won’t kill me.”
I slapped the ball of my palm into my forehead in an exaggerated manner. “Sorry, forgot you were anangel.”
There was the twitch of the corner of his mouth again. “Must you say it like that?”
“Like what?”
“Angel,like you’re one step away from holding up your fingers and making air quotes. I’m an angel. Pure and simple.”
I chuckled and nodded against his chest as I leaned into him. “Pure and simple.”
Turning as there was a knock on the bedroom door, I called Heidi in. She had her stitches removed earlier today and had a gauze pad covering half of her face.
“I thought of something,” Heidi said. I watched as she twisted her hands together and waited for her to speak again. “What about Paul?” she whispered.
My heart sank, and Zaqiel’s brows pulled together as he felt me stiffen next to him. “Who’s Paul?” he asked.
I hesitated, but I could already feel Zaqiel tensing as if he already knew what the answer was. Heidi must have seen something in his eyes, for her own grew wide before she glanced away, looking at me instead while she answered the question.
“He’s the one who gave me this scar and who almost killed Evie.”
A deep growl emanated from Zaqiel, rumbling through his chest. “Give me his name.” He forced the words out through gritted teeth. I placed my palms flat on his chest as though I could force him to calm through will alone. I don’t know how Heidi would react if he lost control and unfurled his wings. As Heidi told Zaqiel Paul’s full name, he stilled, thinking.
“Zaqiel, please don’t do anything stupid,” I said.
I wasn’t sure he had heard me, and when he looked down at me after a long pause, I saw the white flash across his eyes, even as his lips curled into a dark smile.
“Evie, when have you ever known me to do something stupid?”
EVIE
Before Heidi had moved out, she had agreed to meet with Clive. She returned from their dinner date gushing like a schoolgirl, and unlike me, she had allowed him to walk her home. Except they hadn’t walked, he had driven her, and while part of me expected a red sports car, he instead drove a practical black sedan that screamed class.
Heidi moved into a different apartment in the same building as us, and Zaqiel stood in the hall with his arms crossed, surveying her new neighbors as I helped her unpack her clothes.
Protective and possessive—sides of him he hadn’t let out before.
And I liked it.
But he wasn’t yet fully out of his shell and didn’t want to have sex while Heidi was in our apartment—he felt it was disrespectful. So, our naked time, which I felt was nowhere near enough, had been limited to when she was out.
But judging by the way he was staring at me from his vantage point in the hall, the darkness that passed over his face with every move I made, I was in trouble tonight.
He was on me before we had even crossed the threshold into the apartment, backing me up against the wall as he kicked the door closed with a slam. His mouth was hungry and greedy on mine, and his hands wandered over my body, trying to touch as much of me as he could. I moaned even as I giggled against his mouth.
“What are you laughing at?” he grunted as he mouthed his way down my neck and over my collar bone, nipping at the sensitive skin.
“You,” I whispered. “You’re so eager.”
I felt his smile against my neck as his hands found my breasts and kneaded them gently, enticing another moan from me.
“Is that a problem?”
“Not at all.”
