J
onas waited for
the waif to speed off in the night air, red brake lights coming on just as they rounded the corner.
Perhaps I should have written him a note.
But, in case she was caught, she’d be caught with a wad of cash and no name to pin it on. Joshua had turned hundreds of souls in his centuries as a dark angel before his conversion. Someone might even think a grateful patron sent her up top to snag him again.
Cute little redhead. Hope you start making better choices.
Though Melanie was light brown haired, Josh’s preference had always been redheaded Guardian angels, until he met Melanie. “This little one could tempt the pants off him in the old days,” Jonas chuckled under his breath, “maybe even now.” He hoped he was doing the right thing.
He scanned the area, making sure he was alone. Sounds of a small town, with the occasional siren, highlighted an ordinary evening on a Saturday night. He ran up the steps to Audray’s home which was close to the transport entrance. He unlocked the door and made it upstairs to the bedroom. No one had disturbed a thing. He felt slightly relieved. He could smell his lover, and he wore it like an elixir. He opened her closet doors and inhaled the sweet scent of her body lingering on her clothes. He needed to feel her warm flesh undulating under him as he took her. His groin got hard thinking about it.
Best keep my wits about me.
He checked the windows for signs of a tail, but he appeared to be alone.
Jonas put some things in a canvas bag, showered quickly to get rid of the Underworld stench, and changed into his black long-sleeved tee shirt and leathers for the ride to San Francisco.
His beast was the only vehicle in the garage, since Audray had the Maserati. Stuffing the bag into the carriage box he kick-started the bike, punched the garage door opener and took off down the gravel road in a trail of dust. Before rounding the corner he took one last look at the home they shared, waiting for the metal garage door to slowly close.
His heart was racing faster than the bike all the way to the City. Across the Golden Gate Bridge the lights of San Francisco glittered like jewels. The ocean air calmed him. He raised his head and tried to pick up her scent, imagine her tightly gripping him from behind. He was starved for her touch. He was starved for the feel of her flesh all over him, peeling off the layers of fear and regret. She could make him soft again. He chuckled. She was such a powerful dark angel, she could almost make him feel human again.
Down Van Ness he tooled, turning down Geary after going around the block. At last he made it to Union Square and the St. Francis. He pulled up to the entrance, two red-suited doormen standing guard. They were boys, really. Only armed with a whistle to summon a taxi.
They couldn’t keep a dog out of the lobby if their life depended on it.
So funny, humans were. How they carried such a false sense of security. Only interested in appearances. For years he had appreciated the honesty of the Underworld. No pretenses; cheating and lying were expected. There wasn’t any such thing as disappointment, character or honor.
And there is no hope.
He handed one of the red boys a twenty. “I’m going to go inside and make arrangements for this,” he pointed to his bike. “There’s another twenty you can share if I come back and find not a soul has touched it, understand?”
“Yessir,” they said in unison. The taller one took the twenty.
The bell captain, Watts, was an old acquaintance. His chocolate skin and slicked back, curly hair made him look like a French dandy. He wore too much cologne, a little blush and sported a gold cravat with a diamond stickpin, which was unnecessary as far as the St. Francis was concerned, but very important when it came to Watts.
“Watts, my man. Good to see you.”
“Hey, Holmes! Been a while.” Watts looked out the glass doors and asked the question, “You bring the iron maiden?”
“Yes, sir. She’s primed and ready to ride.”
“Oh, she and I gon’ get some one-on-one time, my man. When she done wid me she gonna purr real sweet and not let your hairy legs straddle her again.”
“Yeah, she likes a good time. She’s been a bit jealous of late.”
“So I heard. So I heard.” He leaned into Jonas and whispered in his ear, “My friend, you let me know if you needs any help with that one too, okay?”
Jonas chuckled and nodded before he lifted Watts up with one hand at his throat, careful not to hurt the man but left him dangling six inches off the floor. “No help needed.” He set Watts down gently.
“I feel you. No problem.” Watts straightened his jacket and cravat. He lengthened his sleeves with a healthy tug at each gold braided cuff. Jonas thought he looked absolutely ridiculous.
“Do you know if she’s here?”
“Don’t think so. Check with Estelle at the front desk. She’d know.”
“Thanks.” Jonas patted the lean black face of his friend and tucked a hundred dollar bill into his hand without anyone being able to see. “Gas money,” he whispered and winked. And give the boys this.” He handed Watts another twenty.
He walked across the thick gold and red carpet of the lobby, anxious to get upstairs.
Audray could still
smell the smoke on her clothes and in her hair, the charred remains of her mother mingled with twisted metal and plywood. She also hadn’t stopped crying, feeling a lump of coal in her soul at the thought she had planned and plotted the demise of the angel, her sister, who had saved her life. Did Claire know this? Somehow, she didn’t think Claire did.
Then she thought about their mother’s death. She hoped the woman was already dead by the time the flames hit her. Audray had grilled the policewoman who was first on the scene, informing her she who she was.
“You have any idea how it happened?”
“No. We just got the fire out. We gotta wait for the arson investigator.”
“You suspect arson?”
“It’s routine.”
Audray thought the cause of the fire had been her mother’s cigarettes, but the fact that they were doing an investigation, though they said it was routine, made her worry. Everything was happening so quickly. If this was arson, someone had been one step ahead of her. Had that someone also found out about Burt?
She stormed up the freeway and made it to San Francisco close to ten o’clock. Jonas had not answered his cell, and she was annoyed and worried at the same time. She was in need of his strong arms. She needed to bury her head in his chest and let him take her away someplace.
Watts came out the glass doors when she pulled up to the entrance to the St. Francis.
She fished for some money, but Watts stopped her. “He already paid me well.”
She handed him the keys. “How long’s he been here?”
“About two hours.” He picked up her scorched scent. “You been to a barbeque?”
“Hardly.”
She ran through the lobby and then remembered she’d left her bag in the car. As she whirled around, Watts was standing behind her with a smile, holding the black leather satchel. He gave her a smirk. “Unless you were willing to stay naked during your stay, I’m thinking you’ll need this.”
Audray managed to eek out a smile and took the bag. “Thanks.”
“Course, the look on his face, I think he’d be happy just the same if you didn’t have any clothes. And the robes are nice, I hear.”
She picked up her room key, although she was hoping she didn’t need it.
The elevator took her up to the tenth floor. She sniffed the sleeves of her jacket and a lock of hair, then sighed. She felt like she’d been at the bottom of a coal mine.
Before she could turn the handle, the door flew open and Jonas stood there bare-chested wrapped in a towel hung low on his waste. He lifted her up off the ground, and carried her into the room. She wrapped her arms around his neck and smelled the soap and muskiness of her man. She held him, trying to eliminate all the memories of the last two days. He put her feet on the ground and let her slide down his frame until he could gaze into her eyes and claim her mouth. Audray knew he read everything inside her when he did this.
“What is this, Audray?” he brushed away her tears as he tilted his head and scanned her thoughts. “Is this about your mother or about Claire?” She could feel him tense up.
“My mother is gone, Jonas. There was a fire.” Audray buried her head in his bare chest.
“Oh, baby, so sorry. Why didn’t you call me? I should have been there.” he asked.
She untangled enough so that their faces could meet. Their lips touched and some of the burdens of the day were lifted from her.
“When did this happen, Audray?”
“Today. When I came back—” She concentrated on the gravesite so she wouldn’t have to reveal her visit with Burt. She hoped he didn’t pick up her ruse. “I saw her grave, Jonas. Hers and my father’s graves. I visited them.”
“I’m glad. I’m glad you know about Claire now.”
Audray wasn’t sure “The world is coming unraveled. The more I search into my past, the more I wish I’d never known these things. I almost destroyed my own sister who had saved my life. What kind of a despicable person does that make me?”
“You didn’t know.”
“But I
should
have known. I should have felt it.”
He hugged her again, his powerful fingers massaging her scalp again. “You are way too hard on yourself, Audray. These special powers didn’t come until you’d turned. You’ve been a pawn in a dangerous game.”
“We still are pawns, Jonas. I don’t want to lose you. Whatever I have done, I don’t want to lose what we have together.”
God, I hope this never ends. Let me stay here forever.
“Yes, my Queen.”
Do not think of these things. The past is the past. Live here with me now, in our future. Bring your mind back to me and be with me here, what we have today.
She felt her powerful need eclipse her pain and remorse. Their tongues played through the long kissing as he drew her into the white marble bathroom and, without slowing the sucking and pressing of their lips, began to peel off her clothes, some pieces coming easily and some needing to be shredded. At last, she stood before him naked, and he took her to the shower, turning on the double heads and the steam. He dropped his towel and joined her.
“I don’t ever want to be gone from you that long again,” she said.
“Me neither.” His erection touched her, teasing and bobbing, full and expectant. Jonas put her head under the water and kissed her eyes, under her chin and then on her lips as the warm water cascaded over both of them. It was a safe place to cry, the warm liquid carrying away all the grief along with the tears.
He lathered her hair with his probing fingers, pushing up from the bottom of her skull, his thumbs pressing with strong deliberate strokes. He rubbed her temples and kissed her neck. She melted with the sound of his deep breathing in her ear, as he slipped soapy fingers behind and rubbed the back of her neck. His hands moved lower as he put her head under the water spray and turned her around. He swirled the lemon shower gel into her back and down to the crack between her butt cheeks. She put her palms on the snow-white wall and pressed her forehead into the cool wetness as he went to his knees to rub between her legs from behind, kissing her soapy cheeks. He formed a ring with his massive hands and worked the soap down her thighs, over her knees and down and over her ankles.
She turned to look into the face of the only man she had ever loved, kneeling before her.
“I have so much to say…” she started.
“Shhh. Not tonight, my love. Not tonight. Tonight we don’t talk.”
“Yes.”
His eyes smiled but his full lips only parted in a half smile. He slipped his index finger between the lips of her pink peach, rubbing back and forth. Audray began to feel her body come alive again. She felt like she’d been buried in a shallow, dusty grave. Blood rushed to fill the delicate parts of her anatomy. She reveled in the pleasure of his ministrations, and let him tickle her soul.
She arched up, placing her face in the warm spray. The feel of his tongue on her sex was beautiful and perfect and exactly what she needed, but there were tears anyway. She looked down on him, his mouth savoring her juices, then laying his cheek flat against her lower belly to gently part her thighs and feed from her again. Audray played with the wet curls of his head and caressed the undersides of his ears. Her sex quivered and he swept his eyes up the full length of her body, slowly.
He loves pleasuring me more than taking the pleasure himself.
She saw the man, the hero, the warrior, the protector.
The keeper of my flame.
Jonas rose and their bodies pressed against one another in the warm sluicing rain. She made room for his hardness, but pressed her mound against him, rubbing up and down. They both sighed, sending erotic steamy air over each other, inhaling the other’s passion. Jonas turned her body and lightly bit the side of her neck, claiming her. Her shoulder needed his touch. He kissed the violated skin and gently grazed his teeth over her flesh.
He pulled back, Audray feeling the airspace between them for a second before he placed his cock at her backside and bent her gently at the waist. He let her wait there, his readiness primed, encroaching just barely on her wet opening. She pushed back to lean into him and he held her but kept his cock only part way inside, teasing.
She turned her head around to him and he covered her mouth from the side, lips sucking hers, tasting her with his tongue. One of his hands was firmly placed on her lower belly as his other migrated up over her breasts and splayed out at her chest and lower neck, holding her in position. She knew if she melted, and she was in danger of doing so, he would hold her up, and it would be no effort at all. Her thighs enjoyed the feel of the length of his against them. She swayed her lower body from side to side to feel him at her pink rim.
And then he held her tight and plunged in. She exploded. She saw the vision of every happy moment of her life play out before her, like her soul had released the dark holds and black smoky rags that had encapsulated it so it could run free. He ground into her and then pulled back, and then plunged in, each time deeper. Each time her eyes saw the tiny particles of light like stars in the midnight sky, little lanterns flashing underneath her eyelids.