His abdomen went tight. "You're giving me ideas." He could still taste the wild musk of her on his tongue, sumptuous and earthy. "Next time, I might use my teeth on far more delicate flesh."
Shuddering, she unsnapped the next two buttons . . . before leaning forward to press a wetly sensual kiss on the lowest part of his navel. His hips jerked, his hand fisting in her hair. "I," he ground out, "do not have that much control." Releasing her, he stepped back.
"That's no - " Her words trailed away as he stripped off what remained of his clothing, wanting nothing between his flesh and her touch.
Elena's breath whispered out of her. The impact of him was . . . indescribable.
Then he was walking back to her, his erection pure unadulterated temptation. She curved her fingers around him, aware of his hand going to her hair again, of him wrapping the strands around his fist. "Enough teasing." A gentle nudge. "Fulfill your promise."
Her skin went hot, tight at the rough sexual tone of that demand, but she shot him a teasing smile. "Giving orders even in bed?"
Elena.
Hearing the edge in that, suddenly violently aware of how long her archangel had waited for her - and it was still a kick to the heart, that she was loved by him - she dipped her head and ran her tongue over the vein that pulsed along the thick line of his arousal. He made an inarticulate sound of mingled pain and pleasure, his hand tugging slightly at her hair. Unable to resist now that she'd had a taste of him, her thighs clenching, she retraced her journey and took him into her mouth.
Elena!
She couldn't take all of him. He was too big, too thick.But I'll have eternity to refine my technique. The sensual thought blazed out on an inferno of need as she loved her archangel, licking and tasting and sucking.
Brilliant white fire against her skin and she knew he was glowing, this lethal being she dared tease in the most intimate of ways. His response when it came, was starkly sensual.Your mouth - his voice sandpaper in her mind - is a little piece of heaven and hell.
Moaning low in her throat, she stroked up, swirled her tongue around the head before sliding her mouth back down the enticement that was his body. She loved the taste of him, the contrast of steel and silk, the way he murmured hot little promises of retribution.
Under her hands, his muscles grew granite-hard, his skin sheened with heat. "Enough, Elena." A command.
She let him feel her teeth.
A crash of waves inside her mind, a wild storm.I am, he said, no trace of the civilized male in him now,tying you to the bed next time.
Knowing he was so close to the edge that another caress would tip him over, Raphael stroked his hand down the sensitive arch of Elena's left wing, sliding out of the sweet, hot prison of her mouth while she was distracted by the shock of sensation. But though her eyes glittered with the fever of their combined hunger, she didn't give in. Lifting a single taunting finger, she sucked it between the kiss-swollen beauty of her lips.
That was all the encouragement the voracious hunger inside him needed. Spreading through his veins, it took him over, a rippling black fire. He returned to the bed in a dark wave of heat, flipping Elena onto her front, pulling her legs up and spreading them wide.
It was the rawest, most primitive way to possess a woman, but his hunter pushed up on her elbows, gave him a challenging look, and said, "I'm waiting."
He slid into her in a single hard thrust. Her scream echoed off the walls, but it was a scream that held equal parts demand and need. Gripping her hips tight, he pulled out almost fully, then slammed back in. There was no mercy in him any longer, but Elena didn't ask it from him.
Learn to fly fast, Elena, he said as he pushed them both to a final, blinding peak.Then we will dance in the sky.
They did have that bath - much later, Raphael stroking the washcloth over her wings with lazy movements as she leaned on the rim. "That feels so intimate."
"It is." A kiss pressed to the ultra-sensitive edge where her right wing grew out of her back. "Allowing someone to care for your wings is considered an act that takes a relationship well beyond the sexual."
Limbs heavy with desire sated, she thought about that. "Can I wash your wings?" It would be the most delicious of indulgences, the most exquisite of pleasures.
"You've had that right since our first bath."
The unadorned truth of his words made her heart ache.
"But," he continued, placing the washcloth on the rim as he fit himself to her back, "right now, you're in no shape to do anything but relax."
She heard the thread of male pride in that, felt the ache translate into sensual affection.
"You give good sex, Archangel."
A squeeze of her breasts, his free hand reaching between them to stroke two fingers into her. Sucking in a breath, she found her voice. "Again?" Heat uncurled in her abdomen.
"Again." Withdrawing his fingers, he dropped a kiss to the curve of her neck, his erection nudging at her.
"Be gentle."
She felt him smile at her echo of his earlier words.For you, Elena, anything. He slid into her in a smooth thrust, her body stretching to accommodate him in sharp ecstasy. And when he moved this time, it was slow and deep, a claiming so tender, he would've stolen her heart if she hadn't already given it to him high above a ruined Manhattan.
Elena was fairly certain her muscles were jelly the next day, but she crawled to the training session with Galen regardless. Raphael had given her the massage he'd promised her before they fell asleep, and nothing was actually torn or broken, so it was going to be all about working through the muscle pain.
Galen took one look at her and threw her what felt like a ten-ton metal brick. She stared at the claymore - and it sure looked like the heavy Scottish weapon - for a second, then set her feet and lifted. Her biceps quivered, but the damn blade ended up vertical, the tip pointed to the cloudy blue sky.
Galen scanned her shoulders, her arms. "You're stronger than a normal mortal."
"I'm no longer mortal," she pointed out, only just keeping the claymore upright.
"No one has records on an angel Made, but if the same principles apply as with vampires, then your strength won't increase to immortal levels for a significant period."