Felicity Heaton's Blog, page 113
September 2, 2011
August paranormal romance book news
My fantastic offer on my angel romance novella
Her Dark Angel
made August very special for me. It was the first time I had managed to break into the top 1000 on the US Kindle Store. At its peak,
Her Dark Angel
reached #735 out of over 750000 books and was #11 in Kindle Store > Romance > Fantasy and #12 in Books > Romance > Fantasy. It would have been wonderful to break into the top 10 in those categories but I'm sure I'll manage it soon.On the UK Kindle Store, Her Dark Angel reached #320 out of the hundreds of thousands of books listed there and ranked at #2 in Books > Fantasy > Paranormal, #7 in Books > Fantasy >Romance and #7 in Books > Romance > Paranormal.
Her Dark Angel is still only $0.99 and is a great introduction to my best selling angel romance series Her Angel . Since I'm offering this book at a $2.00 discount, you can get the entire series in e-book for less than $11 right now!
Since the release of
Her Guardian Angel
, the fourth book in my
Her Angel
series, I've been scribbling down ideas for the next novel, Her Demonic Angel. It's going to be as big, emotional and hard-hitting as
Her Guardian Angel
, so you had better all prepare yourself. This time, you'll probably need to make sure you've read
Her Guardian Angel
so you know enough about the world to really enjoy the plot to the maximum degree.Her Guardian Angel has started receiving reviews at various book blogs and it's doing great so far. I think reviewers are really surprised by the depth of the plot and just how emotional the book is, and also the course the series is taking. I had promised that it was going to be one heck of a thrill ride and I think I delivered. It's great to see it doing so well, getting four and five star reviews, and it makes me happy as I put so much effort into making it original and I had wanted to write something with emotional punch. Yes, I know most of my stories play on the readers emotions, but this one is really intense and the action and pace is super-fast. Here are snippets from some of the reviews:
"I feel like this book has changed the entire dynamic of the universe Felicity Heaton has created. Something big is introduced and if the series continues I can see it having huge impact on the overall battle between heaven and hell. The battles are big, the love is even bigger and the betrayals our heroes face is game-changing. Just the way I like my romances." -- Kelly, Reading the Paranormal -- click here for the full review
"This book had me glued to the pages. It was an unputdownable read with an array of characters that you feel an instant connection with, a swoon worthy hero who risks it all for the woman he loves, and a strong heroine who will fight right along side him, this book truly has it all." -- Paromantasy -- 5 STARS -- click here for the full review
"I LOVED this book!! It has to be the best in the series so far. I couldn't put it down. I read the whole thing in one sitting, and used a box of Kleenex in the process. I swear I cried my way through it, and was a total emotional train wreck by the end of it all. But it made for an amazing read!... You have to grab a copy, it will awe you." -- Madame D, Madame D's Boudoir -- 5 STARS -- click here for the full review
Awesome, huh?
August also saw me complete the second draft of my upcoming vampire romance book, Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness is a stand alone vampire romance novel, and features one of my favourite heroes, Aleksandr. He's a bit of a rake and a little behind the times on modern women because he's spent the past four hundred years focusing on hunting the vampire hunters that plague his species, but Elise, the heroine, whips him into shape as he pursues her like a predator chasing prey. Heart of Darkness will be out on October 22nd, so make sure you pencil it into your diaries!
I also had a great chat with fellow author Candy Nicks / Alexandra Marell and hit upon a great idea for a trio of very hot vampire erotic romance novellas. I quickly typed out around 6000 words of outline for the three novellas and now that I have the stories set out on paper and in my head, I'll be writing them soon.
Masquerade, the tenth book in my vampire romance series, Vampires Realm , has taken another bump because of the novellas ideas I have, so I'll be pushing that down the queue. Since the trouble it gave me that forced me to stop writing it at 30000 words in and made me re-evaluate the plot of this vampire romance novel, I've spent time writing down new ideas for the improved plot and figuring out how to overcome the problems I thought it had in terms of characters. I've got everything together for it now and I just need to rewrite the outline to include all the new plot ideas and changes I want to make and then I'll be ready to start writing it. Thankfully most of the 30000 words I had already written is still usable.
I think that was all my writing news for August. It was a really eventful and busy month for me, and now I have a new trio of vampire erotic romance novellas to write, September and the rest of the year will be just as busy!
August 29, 2011
When writing becomes a business
Remember when you were young and you did whatever you wanted and that was okay? You didn't have a care in the world and took life one day at a time, searching for fun and doing as you pleased. Then, one day, you grew a little older and realised that at the same time you were growing up, and if you wanted to make something of yourself, you had to cast aside your Devil may care attitude and don one of responsibility instead... you had to approach things differently because now everything mattered.
I've been writing since 2005, back when I was e-published, and became an indie romance author in 2006, and since then I haven't ever thought about writing as a business. To me it was a bit of fun and I wrote whatever I wanted and did as I pleased, much like a kid, without any thought about what type of story sold and where my career was heading. I was the rebellious youth without a care in the world, content with writing whatever came to me and if it sold, then that was great, fantastic in fact considering the poor e-book market prior to 2010. Back then, I never believed writers when they said it was all about market research and what books were popular, and writing for that market. I wanted to write whatever I felt like writing, so I did. I paid no attention to the market, but I guess it helped that I love vampires and decided to write them, and also seemed to end up writing stories quite different to the rest out there, gaining myself a bit of a following.
Just like a reckless youth, I have finally found myself growing up. Late last year, after talking to my husband about it and seeing my sales increasing and my readership increasing with it, I decided to take the plunge and say goodbye to my full-time job. Originally I was going to spend a few months a year contracting because that brings in enough money to keep me afloat, but I've been able to go from March 2011 until now living comfortably on my book royalties. At the moment, I don't have to contract, but I'm well aware that the tide is always turning and things rarely stay perfect, no matter how much we would like them to.
Anyway, the change in my life, the leap from the safety of having a full-time job to becoming a full-time writer instead, has been a catalyst for greater change. I think I've grown up and now I can understand all those authors who talk about keeping an eye on the market and what sells, and focusing on that. I'm not talking about writing for market, because I don't think I can ever do that, but I'm talking about harnessing what I have that is selling well for me and focusing on that. It's very strange for me to do this and it's been a gradual process, a gentle evolution of my approach to writing, and it was only recently that I realised what had happened to me. Growing up is never easy though, but with my writing having become more than just a fun past time in a part time capacity and without the safety of my full-time job as a developer, I have to suck it up and deal with it. I can always contract, but I think I want to give this writing thing my all and really make something of it.
So I've been looking over my stories, and monitoring what books sell and what don't do as well as those, and where my strengths lie right now. It's been quite painful at times, because there's still that rebellious part of me that wants to write whatever the heck she likes and get away with it. I guess I'm disappointed that books I thought would sell well aren't doing that good. It's great that other paranormal romances books of mine are doing fantastically though, and it just means that I have to be more fluid about the timings of new books in the series that aren't doing as well. I guess that boils down to if it's selling really well for me right now then the next book in that series is going to be shifted up the writing order, and if it's not doing well, then it has to take a back seat.
At the moment, my strong series are Vampires Realm (which has always done well for me and deserves more attention) and the Her Angel series. I'm watching the sales figures for Vampire Venators to see if Forbidden Blood picks up speed. I have faith that it will as it's vampire romance and quite unique. My real trouble maker is the Shadow & Light Trilogy. It's not doing well and is selling far less than I expected for an urban fantasy type paranormal romance. I'm not sure whether it's the decision to have a witch heroine coupled with a half-demon hero that has caused the low sales. It's quite different from other books on the market because most of them include a vampire somewhere, or perhaps a shape-shifter.
I really want to continue with the Shadow & Light Trilogy, and have some fantastic ideas for the remaining two books and a little side-story with other characters, but I will have to drop it down the writing order along with Vampire Venators. It's a shame really, but that's the business of writing. I can't put off writing the next Vampires Realm book or Her Angel book for the sake of writing a series that is floundering. It doesn't make sense to do that, no matter how much I wanted to have the next book in the Shadow & Light trilogy out in early 2012. It doesn't make financial sense, and it seems cruel to make readers wait for more in the two selling series so I can do as I please. If readers are eager for Vampires Realm and Her Angel, then I have to give them what they want. Of course, I don't want to disappoint readers who are eager for more in the Shadow & Light Trilogy or Vampire Venators series either. It's a double-edged sword really. I want to make everyone, including myself, happy... but some things have to give and my business head engages and tells me that you've got to write what's hot while it's hot.
This doesn't mean you won't get an instalment in the Shadow & Light Trilogy or Vampire Venators series next year, it just means that you'll be waiting until I have Her Demonic Angel released and another Vampires Realm story out before you get them. Don't worry, I can write fast enough to get them all out next year, I hope. It's still a strange feeling for me to have and it tightens my stomach thinking about having to move books down the pecking order for the sake of playing the market. I guess I just have to go with readers and the votes they make with their wallets. If I have several hundred readers a month buying Vampires Realm and Her Angel books on Kindle and less than a hundred readers paying for Shadow & Light Trilogy, I have to go with the larger group. That sounds harsh even to me. lol. That's business though, folks. Whether I like it or not, I have to grow up now and put on my serious face.
One thing I can promise though... you can expect at least five novels out of me next year!
I've been writing since 2005, back when I was e-published, and became an indie romance author in 2006, and since then I haven't ever thought about writing as a business. To me it was a bit of fun and I wrote whatever I wanted and did as I pleased, much like a kid, without any thought about what type of story sold and where my career was heading. I was the rebellious youth without a care in the world, content with writing whatever came to me and if it sold, then that was great, fantastic in fact considering the poor e-book market prior to 2010. Back then, I never believed writers when they said it was all about market research and what books were popular, and writing for that market. I wanted to write whatever I felt like writing, so I did. I paid no attention to the market, but I guess it helped that I love vampires and decided to write them, and also seemed to end up writing stories quite different to the rest out there, gaining myself a bit of a following.
Just like a reckless youth, I have finally found myself growing up. Late last year, after talking to my husband about it and seeing my sales increasing and my readership increasing with it, I decided to take the plunge and say goodbye to my full-time job. Originally I was going to spend a few months a year contracting because that brings in enough money to keep me afloat, but I've been able to go from March 2011 until now living comfortably on my book royalties. At the moment, I don't have to contract, but I'm well aware that the tide is always turning and things rarely stay perfect, no matter how much we would like them to.
Anyway, the change in my life, the leap from the safety of having a full-time job to becoming a full-time writer instead, has been a catalyst for greater change. I think I've grown up and now I can understand all those authors who talk about keeping an eye on the market and what sells, and focusing on that. I'm not talking about writing for market, because I don't think I can ever do that, but I'm talking about harnessing what I have that is selling well for me and focusing on that. It's very strange for me to do this and it's been a gradual process, a gentle evolution of my approach to writing, and it was only recently that I realised what had happened to me. Growing up is never easy though, but with my writing having become more than just a fun past time in a part time capacity and without the safety of my full-time job as a developer, I have to suck it up and deal with it. I can always contract, but I think I want to give this writing thing my all and really make something of it.
So I've been looking over my stories, and monitoring what books sell and what don't do as well as those, and where my strengths lie right now. It's been quite painful at times, because there's still that rebellious part of me that wants to write whatever the heck she likes and get away with it. I guess I'm disappointed that books I thought would sell well aren't doing that good. It's great that other paranormal romances books of mine are doing fantastically though, and it just means that I have to be more fluid about the timings of new books in the series that aren't doing as well. I guess that boils down to if it's selling really well for me right now then the next book in that series is going to be shifted up the writing order, and if it's not doing well, then it has to take a back seat.
At the moment, my strong series are Vampires Realm (which has always done well for me and deserves more attention) and the Her Angel series. I'm watching the sales figures for Vampire Venators to see if Forbidden Blood picks up speed. I have faith that it will as it's vampire romance and quite unique. My real trouble maker is the Shadow & Light Trilogy. It's not doing well and is selling far less than I expected for an urban fantasy type paranormal romance. I'm not sure whether it's the decision to have a witch heroine coupled with a half-demon hero that has caused the low sales. It's quite different from other books on the market because most of them include a vampire somewhere, or perhaps a shape-shifter.
I really want to continue with the Shadow & Light Trilogy, and have some fantastic ideas for the remaining two books and a little side-story with other characters, but I will have to drop it down the writing order along with Vampire Venators. It's a shame really, but that's the business of writing. I can't put off writing the next Vampires Realm book or Her Angel book for the sake of writing a series that is floundering. It doesn't make sense to do that, no matter how much I wanted to have the next book in the Shadow & Light trilogy out in early 2012. It doesn't make financial sense, and it seems cruel to make readers wait for more in the two selling series so I can do as I please. If readers are eager for Vampires Realm and Her Angel, then I have to give them what they want. Of course, I don't want to disappoint readers who are eager for more in the Shadow & Light Trilogy or Vampire Venators series either. It's a double-edged sword really. I want to make everyone, including myself, happy... but some things have to give and my business head engages and tells me that you've got to write what's hot while it's hot.
This doesn't mean you won't get an instalment in the Shadow & Light Trilogy or Vampire Venators series next year, it just means that you'll be waiting until I have Her Demonic Angel released and another Vampires Realm story out before you get them. Don't worry, I can write fast enough to get them all out next year, I hope. It's still a strange feeling for me to have and it tightens my stomach thinking about having to move books down the pecking order for the sake of playing the market. I guess I just have to go with readers and the votes they make with their wallets. If I have several hundred readers a month buying Vampires Realm and Her Angel books on Kindle and less than a hundred readers paying for Shadow & Light Trilogy, I have to go with the larger group. That sounds harsh even to me. lol. That's business though, folks. Whether I like it or not, I have to grow up now and put on my serious face.
One thing I can promise though... you can expect at least five novels out of me next year!
August 27, 2011
Long Samples of my Paranormal Romance Books
Hi all... I hope you've had a good week and are having a great weekend so far!
I've uploaded a great extended excerpt for Her Guardian Angel now. You can download a five chapter sample in PDF format from my website.
You can also download long excerpts for two more of my books, Ascension and Forbidden Blood.
Just go to the book page on my site and click the large "download extended excerpt" button in the column below the book cover!
Here's the links to books with special extended excerpts. Just click on the covers or the read more button to go to the website and download them!
#excerpts-booklist, #excerpts-booklist .book {width: 460px; display: block; clear: both; overflow: hidden;}
#excerpts-booklist .book {padding: 10px 0 10px;}
#excerpts-booklist h2 {font-size: 16px; padding: 15px 0; margin: 0;}
#excerpts-booklist .cover {width: 140px; padding-right: 10px; float: left;}
#excerpts-booklist .information {width: 310px; float: left;}
#excerpts-booklist .information p {font-size: 12px; padding: 0 0 10px 0; margin: 0;}
#excerpts-booklist .information p.detail {font-size: 10px; text-transform: uppercase; color: #666; padding: 0 0 2px 0;}
#excerpts-booklist .information p.readmore {padding: 10px 0 15px;}
#excerpts-booklist .information h3 {font-size: 14px; margin: 0; padding: 0 0 7px;}
Her Guardian Angel 
Forbidden Blood 
Ascension 
Hunter's Moon 
Love Immortal
Winter's Kiss
Seventh Circle
![Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1] - Paranormal Vampire Romance Ebook](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380449271i/1835348.jpg)
Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1]
My extended excerpts are generally between 4-10 chapters long!
Happy reading!
I've uploaded a great extended excerpt for Her Guardian Angel now. You can download a five chapter sample in PDF format from my website.
You can also download long excerpts for two more of my books, Ascension and Forbidden Blood.
Just go to the book page on my site and click the large "download extended excerpt" button in the column below the book cover!
Here's the links to books with special extended excerpts. Just click on the covers or the read more button to go to the website and download them!
#excerpts-booklist, #excerpts-booklist .book {width: 460px; display: block; clear: both; overflow: hidden;}
#excerpts-booklist .book {padding: 10px 0 10px;}
#excerpts-booklist h2 {font-size: 16px; padding: 15px 0; margin: 0;}
#excerpts-booklist .cover {width: 140px; padding-right: 10px; float: left;}
#excerpts-booklist .information {width: 310px; float: left;}
#excerpts-booklist .information p {font-size: 12px; padding: 0 0 10px 0; margin: 0;}
#excerpts-booklist .information p.detail {font-size: 10px; text-transform: uppercase; color: #666; padding: 0 0 2px 0;}
#excerpts-booklist .information p.readmore {padding: 10px 0 15px;}
#excerpts-booklist .information h3 {font-size: 14px; margin: 0; padding: 0 0 7px;}
Her Guardian Angel A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia's trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings...
paranormal angel romance book
110000 words
released: July 2011
Forbidden Blood In a dark world where vampires exist and where Source Blood, a rare human blood type, can bestow godlike powers upon them, the vampire Venators of the Sovereignty fight to protect the humans by banishing those who drink it to the endless dark...
paranormal vampire romance book
126000 words
released: June 2011
Ascension A witch on the verge of achieving phenomenal power, Lealandra must turn to her half-breed demon ex-lover Taig for protection from the dark force that is after her and also from her own magic. With her Counter-Balance dead and her coven against her...
paranormal / urban fantasy romance book
91000 words
released: April 2011
Hunter's Moon The horror of the night he failed to save his werewolf pack from the cruelty of their vampire masters has haunted Nicolae for one hundred years, driving him deep into the Canadian wilderness in search of peace. That peace is threatened when...
paranormal werewolf romance book
65000 words
released: February 2011
Love Immortal Rescued from werewolves by the most breathtaking man she's ever seen, Lauren is dragged into the fight of her life and a dark world she never knew existed. There, she discovers that she's the latest reincarnation of a goddess and must drink the...
paranormal vampire romance book
157000 words
released: January 2011
Winter's Kiss Their lord drinks blood and they are dead men walking. The tales of the mansion don't stop Nika from falling for one of the guards, but when wolves attack her and he rides to her rescue, she discovers that her knight is anything but saintly. He is...
paranormal werewolf romance book
78000 words
released: June 2009
Seventh Circle Born with powers similar to a vampire's, Lilith has spent her life hunting demons for Section Seven. On the same night as she watches a vampire kill her best friend, she is faced with her worst nightmare—a client who is not only attractive but a...
paranormal vampire romance book
106112 words
released: November 2008
Prophecy: Child of Light [book 1] A vampire unlike any other, Prophecy lives life in the dark until the night she encounters Valentine, a gorgeous vampire who is both her enemy and the man who will change her life forever. Convinced that the prophecy about her is wrong and unable...
paranormal vampire romance book
135000 words
released: March 2007
My extended excerpts are generally between 4-10 chapters long!
Happy reading!
Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #4) - Chapter Five
It's time for another chapter of
Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel romance series #4)
as part of my Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour. I'll be posting the first five chapters for FREE. You can find them all by clicking here: Her Guardian Angel chapters
Her Guardian Angel is currently available in e-book direct from my website, Amazon Kindle Stores, and Smashwords, Apple iBookstore and Kobo. It will soon be available from Barnes and Noble, Sony. It's also available as a paperback from Amazon sites and Barnes and Noble.
Other stories in the Her Angel series are: Her Dark Angel , Her Fallen Angel and Her Warrior Angel . Details of them and where they are available in e-book and paperback can be found at my website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebookseries.php?series=Her%20Angel
Her Guardian Angel
Felicity Heaton
A simple mission becomes a fight for survival in this fantastic instalment in the Her Angel series.
A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia's trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings for the beautiful woman he has watched over since her birth.
Amelia has gone from one bad relationship to another, so when a gorgeous guy moves in next door looking like Mr Right, she hopes he doesn't turn out to be another black knight in disguise. But there's more to Marcus than meets the eye, and when he rescues her from three demonic men, Amelia is thrust into his nightmarish world—a world where God and the Devil exist, and only one angel can save her from death—Marcus, the angel she's falling in love with.
On the run from demonic angels and the Devil himself, aided by Marcus's angel friends and their amazing women, fighting for survival against the odds, Marcus and Amelia discover a love that will last forever.
A love so strong it will shake Heaven and Hell.
ebook price: $3.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal angel romance
length: 110000 words
rating: sultry
released: July 2011
Book 4 in the Her Angel series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1032773836
You can now download the extended excerpt of Her Guardian Angel (the first five chapters) in PDF from my website. Just click the large "download extended excerpt" button on the book page: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
CHAPTER FIVEThere was no doubt about it.
Marcus had put his foot in it.
Everything had been going well yesterday until Amelia had taken hold of his hand and he had quickly withdrawn his, and rather than making an excuse as planned, he had warned her away.
Instinct had pushed those words from his lips.
He had no desire to get any closer to her than was necessary.
Marcus raked his fingers through his overlong black hair, combing it away from his forehead, and stared into the distance across the rooftops of London.
Who was he fooling?
Not himself, that was certain.
The spark of desire her touch had reignited in him, bringing his hunger to caress her in return back to boiling point, and the warmth that travelled through his flesh, spreading outwards from the point where her fingers rested against his skin was unmistakably a sign of him harbouring an attraction towards her.
He paced the black tarred roof of his apartment building, scouring the horizon for an answer to his troubles. The problem of gaining Amelia's trust had been all but solved until he had foolishly told her to keep away from him.
He had always been aware that his instinct to protect her ran deep in his veins but had never suspected that it had corrupted his heart too and that he would even deem it necessary to protect her from himself. She'd had her share of pain and suffering, more than such a pure kind soul deserved, and he couldn't bring himself to add to it. When his mission was over, he was leaving Earth and Amelia behind him for good. If he used her desire against her, her heart would break when that happened. She would never understand. She would blame herself, just as she did whenever one of the vile men she involved herself with decided to leave her or did something that forced her to leave them.
He couldn't be like them.
Amelia deserved better.
Far better than him, that was for sure.
One day, she would meet the man who would become her world and who would treat her right and make her happy.
A flash of her smiling at him yesterday cut into his thoughts and deep into his chest.
He had made her smile.
Truly smile with happiness and warmth.
And then she had looked wounded, leaving him at the café alone to ponder what had possessed him to say such things to her and why he had decided to once again intervene in her destructive relationship with her ex-lover.
Duty.
In part it was a lie to say he did these things out of his sense of duty, but it was also his shield and he would not cast it aside.
The dying rays of the sun warmed his skin, the lingering heat of the day cocooning him in a soft breeze that stirred his soul as he watched the sun set over London. It was growing late. Time had passed quickly while he had been lost in his thoughts, hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the mortal realm far below him, and he still hadn't found the answers to the questions that plagued him. Questions about his mission had been joined by ones about Amelia and her feelings for him.
Why would a beautiful mortal female look upon him with such desire?
Marcus looked down at his hands and turned them palm up. These hands had killed many in the line of duty, harvesting souls of sinners and detaining them for judgement. In times past, when wars had been frequent, he had reaped battlefields and cities alike in the name of Heaven, following orders to the letter to assist the angels of death in their mission, never once feeling remorse over his actions.
Until now.
He had told her to keep away from him.
She deserved better than a man who had killed so many of her kind without flinching.
A role he would gladly resume once his current mission had come to an end.
He was no better than those men who had hurt her.
If anything, he was worse.
For all their noise and disgraceful behaviour, none of them had ever taken the life of another mortal. Amelia believed him good and kind, thought that he was different to the men she had previously been intimate with, but she would never see him that way if she knew the things he had done in his past, in the time before he had lost his wings.
Since being cursed, he had led a different life. Wars had become less frequent and the angels of death had no longer required outside assistance from the other branches of angels in Heaven. His kind, the guardians, had returned to their normal duties, shepherding souls and protecting Heaven, or watching over the mortals, both in the present and in the future.
He had never seen the single pool which held the future. Only a few angels were allowed entry to the room containing it in the grand palatial house of Heaven, and those angels were sworn to silence, allowed only to speak to their superior, who in turn relayed necessary information on critical events to other high ranking angels.
His superior included.
Which led Marcus to believe that he was aware of what fate awaited Amelia.
Marcus curled his fingers into fists and frowned at the vambraces protecting his forearms, watching the way the sunlight danced across the blue armour and reflected off the silver raised edges and the silver buckles on the leather straps against his underarms.
There was something freeing about changing out of his mortal appearance and donning his armour. He felt closer to home again and distant from the goings on of the mortal world around him. He shrugged his shoulders, raising the blue breastplate of his armour and exposing his bare stomach, and then stretched his arms out at his sides and closed his eyes as he unfurled his wings.
Warm summer air tickled his silvery-blue feathers, teasing his senses, and he basked in the sunlight, absorbing the heat and allowing it to relax him and chase away his troubled thoughts.
He was a soldier.
Soldiers followed their orders.
He didn't have to think. He just had to follow orders and his mission would be over.
Marcus opened his eyes and looked at the infinite sky. The pale blue dome turned to green and then hues of orange near the horizon, scattered with ribbons of cloud that caught the fading sunlight and burned gold and pink. It was beautiful and this evening it would be his playground again, his world in which he would immerse himself to escape the mortal realm and find peace for a few brief hours. He would fly until he ached from the exertion, until he couldn't beat his wings one last time, and then he would return to his apartment and sleep until morning finally came.
Free of this world.
Five centuries without wings and every day had been torture.
He beat his wings and lifted off the tarred roof only to be struck by a shaft of brilliant white light.
Marcus closed his eyes and waited for the tingling sensation caused by the light to pass before opening them again.
He sighed at the sight of the white double doors ahead and the reception room surrounding him.
All he had wanted was to fly for a while. Couldn't they have waited? By the time they returned him, it would be deep night. These things never moved swiftly and while they could return him to the same moment they had taken him, they never did.
Marcus pushed the double doors open and marched straight to the dock, facing the same three angels who had questioned him the last time they had brought him here.
"There has been a development." His superior sat at the head of the triangle closest to Marcus, his sandy hair as neat as his blue armour and the large silver-blue wings tucked against his back.
The dark haired mediator and white-blond haired angel of death murmured in agreement.
"May I ask what this development is?" Marcus hid none of his displeasure at having his plans for the evening ruined. They had brought him here and he would make the most of it. While they hadn't answered direct questions about his mission, perhaps they would answer one about the date of the event if he asked it in such a way that linked it to this development. "Does it mean my mission will end soon?"
All three angels nodded.
"Your final task approaches." There was no lie in his superior's expression, or that of the other two angels. "Soon your mission will end, Marcus."
"You have been patient in your duty and we appreciate everything you have done for us. Once this final task has been completed, you will be free to return to Heaven." The mediator to his superior's left smiled at him and then looked across at the angel of death.
"You must be relieved to know that your final task will be over soon and you can return home," the white-blond haired man said.
Marcus nodded and his shoulders relaxed with the relief that swept through him but he didn't quite feel as he had expected to on hearing such good news. There was something about the appearances of all three angels, and the soft way they spoke to him, that set him on edge and filled his head with more questions than ever before.
"What is my final task?" All three angels had mentioned it so all three knew what it was, but the moment the question left his lips, their expressions turned stony and closed.
"You will find out soon enough." His superior leaned back in his chair on the raised platform. The other two angels seated slightly behind him looked at each other and then at his superior, and then at Marcus.
"In the meantime, you must continue to protect her from the world." Those words leaving the mediator's lips startled Marcus into looking straight at him.
It was more than he had been told before.
"Am I to believe that there is someone who seeks to harm her?" It had always been there at the back of his mind. Why would a mortal need an angel to watch over them until a certain point in time? Why would they need a protector unless someone intended to hurt them? He had never been told to guide her on her path. His mission had always been phrased in a way that made him believe it was physical protection that she had needed in order to achieve her destiny.
"You must not allow demons to interfere with her existence."
Marcus's gaze snapped back to his superior and he stared wide-eyed at him. "Demons?"
The sandy-haired man nodded. "You must keep the female safe until the event that we have witnessed comes to pass."
"And what is this event?" Marcus knew he had pushed too far again when darkness crossed his superior's face.
"It is not necessary for you to know that right now, Marcus. We need you to focus on your mission. It has become critical that you gain her trust. Your attempt failed. Your mission was clear. You will get closer to her by any means. Do you understand?"
Marcus wasn't sure that he wanted to understand.
"What are you implying exactly?" He frowned at his superior, wanting him to say the words so he knew exactly what they were ordering him to do. So everyone here knew and acknowledged the order they were giving him.
"The female is enamoured with you. You are to use that to gain her trust."
Marcus's heart raced, anger curling through his body as he looked at all three men seated before him and searched each of their faces for a sign that this was some sort of sick joke. Their expressions remained cold and fixed, hard as they stared back at him. He reined in his outrage and stifled it, unwilling to allow it to control him and give away how much he despised the thought of what they were asking of him let alone the reality of it.
He had no desire to be false with Amelia or hurt her, and they were ordering him to do just that.
"Why is having her trust so important?" he bit out the words and then clamped his jaw shut before he could add that it was despicable of them to do such a thing to a mortal. He had no love for the mortals himself but he had principles. He was an angel, born into a race created to protect humans, not deceive them and lead them into sinning. That was the job of those in the service of the Devil.
"Silence, Marcus."
He glared at his superior, barely restraining his fury and desire to argue. Using Amelia's feelings in such a way went against everything he stood for, all of his principles and his honour, and was callous and cruel. He had no desire to hurt her.
"Follow your orders."
Marcus went to speak but the light engulfed him again. When it faded, he was standing outside the café where he had shared coffee with Amelia.
He tilted his head back and frowned at the colourful evening sky. They had returned him to the exact moment in time that they had taken him. Why? It wasn't like them.
He looked down at himself and noted that he was dressed now, wearing a dark blue shirt and dark jeans with his boots. It was a little smarter than his usual attire and it was his true appearance, not a glamour they had cast upon him. They had even neatened his hair for him, combing the unruly black lengths back out of his face. Why? They had to be up to something.
The answer became apparent when Amelia walked past him, heavy white plastic grocery bags hanging from her arms.
They certainly weren't wasting any time. They had dressed him up and sent him back to the moment they had taken him so he could seduce Amelia tonight.
Marcus shook his head. He couldn't do such a thing and he doubted she would go for it even if he tried. His actions the other day had driven her away and she hadn't even looked at him the two times they had passed each other today.
Although, he suspected that her reason for ignoring him just now was because she literally hadn't seen him.
He waved at another passerby, his hand close to their face, and they didn't even flinch.
When the person had passed him and there were no others in sight, he lifted the glamour that made him invisible to mortal eyes and hurried towards the entrance to his apartment building, determined to reach it before Amelia stepped into the lift. The dull silver lift doors were closing just as he stepped into the foyer and he raced for them.
"Hold it," he hollered and was surprised when the doors opened again and he stepped inside to find that Amelia was alone.
Had she known it was him and that was why she had held the doors, or hadn't she realised? He pinched the bridge of his nose. A man could go crazy trying to figure out the inner workings of the female mind. It was little wonder he had never bothered to try before now.
The journey up to their floor passed in uncomfortable silence and it was only when they were stepping out of the lift that inspiration struck Marcus.
He couldn't disobey his orders to gain her trust but that didn't mean he had to play the cad and seduce her. He would try the friendship thing again and hopefully this time he wouldn't mess it up. Rather than using her attraction towards him, he would do something he had never done. He would lower his guard and let her in instead, and gain her trust that way, as a man would, not a devil. No deception.
Marcus reminded himself that he was already deceiving her. She had no idea what he really was and why he had been living next door to her for a month now.
"Amelia," he said and she stopped at her door and turned to face him. Her beauty arrested his steps and his breath, chasing away some of his anger. He hesitated and then walked over to her, broadcasting as much confidence as he could manage given the unfamiliar situation. "I apologise about yesterday. Can I make it up to you somehow?"
She smiled. "Dinner would be good."
Like a date? That didn't sound good at all. That sounded like what his superior had ordered him to do. Marcus squirmed for a few seconds, battling the part of him that said it wouldn't be so bad to seduce her. She was beautiful and he was finding it increasingly difficult to get dancing Amelia out of his head and his dreams.
"How about dinner at my place?" he said without thinking and the way her face lit up was all the answer he needed. It had been impulsive but it had avoided taking her out to dinner and therefore any sense that this was more than platonic.
He frowned.
Or had he only made it sound more like an offer of sex?
Dinner in his apartment could easily be classified as more intimate than dinner in a restaurant.
"Great. I'll be over in half an hour." With that, she opened the door to her apartment and closed it behind her, leaving him standing in the cream hallway trying to figure out what he had offered her.
Perhaps he should call for assistance. He knew one angel in London. Einar was fallen thanks to his forbidden relationship with a female half-demon but that very fact only meant that he was qualified to answer Marcus's questions.
Marcus opened the door to his own apartment with the intent of calling Einar and interrogating him about women and whether he had just offered something a touch more intimate than anticipated but halted halfway to the telephone. The apartment was a mess.
He had never really paid much attention to his living quarters but it certainly didn't look like the sort of place a man should invite a woman into. He swapped calling Einar for a quick sweep of his apartment, using his supernatural speed to toss all dirty clothes into the laundry basket in his bathroom, straighten furniture, and clear the dust away before Amelia knocked on his door. If there was any time left on the clock, he would phone his friend for advice, but it wasn't looking promising. The bathroom was a mess too and so was the kitchen, and she was likely to visit both of those places.
Dinner in a restaurant suddenly looked more appealing.
Marcus stopped dead in the middle of the kitchen, turned on his heel, and gingerly opened the white refrigerator. The only thing in it was some old cheese he hadn't particularly enjoyed the taste of and a half eaten melon that had seen better days. There was no need to inspect the dark wooden cupboards. He could definitely recall eating the remaining half a box of cereal this morning whilst thinking and the carton was still on his bedside table to prove it.
Someone knocked on the door.
Marcus spun to face the kitchen doorway and looked through it to the entertainment centre in the living room. He glared at the clock on his DVD player. Amelia was ten minutes early. He cursed. No time to correct the food problem or call Einar. He scanned the pale apartment en route to the door and, satisfied that it now appeared far less like the bachelor pad it was, opened it.
His greeting fled his lips the moment he set eyes on her.
She had changed out of the short jacket, t-shirt and jeans she had been wearing in the lift and into a rather alluring little dark red dress that had him clearing his throat and searching for a compliment.
"You look…" What would she like to hear? The expectant shine to her eyes and the tentative smile curving the corners of her glossy cherry lips said that she was hoping to hear beautiful or similar, and he would be a liar if he said anything less. "Stunning."
Stunning was apt. He certainly felt as though she had clobbered him.
"You don't look half bad yourself." She smiled and he went to follow suit but then she held up a bottle in front of her and he froze. "I only had rosé. I know it's a bit girly but it would've been rude to bring nothing."
He hadn't really taken in anything she had said whilst he had been staring at his nemesis.
Alcohol.
Of course she would bring alcohol. It was the right response to the situation, wasn't it? A man invited her to dinner in his apartment. She brought something to make the evening go without a hitch.
He forced a smile and reached out to take it, but she drew it back to her chest, clutching it there and eyeing him closely.
"That's not a good smile. I've seen that smile before," she said with a small frown and looked down at the bottle. "It's really all I had but then I guess you're probably a beer drinker."
"No." He snatched the bottle from her, accidentally brushing her cleavage at the same time. Could someone in Heaven reverse the past thirty minutes for him and give him a second chance in which not to make a complete idiot of himself?
The blush on Amelia's cheeks and the way she was staring at her breasts said it all. He had practically groped her. Considering he had wanted this evening to be little more than just opening up to her and gaining her trust through friendship, he was certainly sending out the wrong sort of signals. Were his superiors in Heaven tampering with him or something? He didn't feel at all like himself and he was currently on course for gaining her trust the way they wanted.
Still, the feel of her soft breasts beneath his fingers in that flash of a caress had his heart racing and palms sweating. He was a stranger to physical intimacy but had witnessed enough carnal matters as a watcher to know the sordid things humans did. It hadn't interested him much in the past, but the more he focused on his hand and the area that had brushed her chest and on how beautiful Amelia looked tonight, the more appealing interacting with her physically became.
Cad.
The object of tonight's mission wasn't seduction. It was forming the foundations of friendship.
She stared at him, making him heavily aware that he should have said something to explain his reaction rather than drifting off into a fantasy world.
"The wine you have brought is not the problem... and it is most appreciated... but... I just don't really drink." He shrugged and hoped she would let it go and not pursue the subject. He wasn't sure what he would say if she asked him why he didn't drink. Could he play the role of recovering alcoholic? Would that dampen Amelia's desire for him?
Marcus wasn't sure whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing.
"Oh." Her eyebrows rose, bringing her head up with them, and he wished she would stop looking at him in a way that left him feeling emasculated. She nodded a few times and then said, "So you don't drink coffee and you avoid alcohol. Are you one of those vegan types too?"
"Hell no." He stepped back, horrified at the suggestion. He could eat a whole cow in one sitting when on Earth. In Heaven, he didn't have to eat at all, but that certainly didn't place him in the vegan category. There was nothing wrong with abstaining from certain substances that didn't agree with your lifestyle choice, but this wasn't one of those times and he would be happy to prove it to her.
Amelia closed the door behind her and walked into his apartment, casting her gaze over everything and then him, and he felt the challenge in her look. She was trying to figure him out and he didn't particularly like the tone of her expression.
In a fit of desire to prove himself a man, he strode into the kitchen, unscrewed the cap on the wine and set it down on the counter. Another flaw in his plan produced itself as he searched the dark wooden cupboards for wine glasses but he overcame it by using two short tumblers instead. If anything, rosé wine could only look more manly in such a glass, surely?
He poured two healthy glasses of wine as Amelia approached the open double doors and then held one out to her. She took it without questioning his choice of glass and then raised it towards him.
"Cheers," she said in a low sexy voice that had his gaze drifting towards her lips so he could watch her drink and then added, "Cheers?"
Marcus realised he was supposed to respond in kind, so raised his glass too. "Cheers."
"Or bottoms up." Amelia giggled, turned and walked back into the living room.
Bottoms up.
Marcus's eyes dropped to her backside. The deep red material of her dress clung to it, emphasising the shape of her bottom in a way that had his blood pounding through his temples again. He took a deep breath and joined her in the living room. Amelia sipped her drink. Marcus stared at his.
Alcohol hadn't passed his lips in five centuries, not since the one and only time he had dared to drink it and had awoken with a demonic curse scrawled on his back. Back then, it had been a forbidden item. Now, any angel could drink it without castigation.
Marcus had no desire to do such a thing.
He took another deep breath and blew it out, trying to psych himself up. He could feel Amelia's gaze on him and he hoped she didn't think he was spacing out again or had noticed his fear of what might happened when he finally took a sip of the wine. Blood whooshed through his ears, drowning out all sound as he stared at the innocent looking pink liquid in the glass. Alcohol released inhibitions. It would be a good way of lowering his guard so he could grow closer to Amelia and gain her trust.
Marcus lifted it to his lips and breathed in, catching the fiery hint of alcohol in its scent, and then continued. The moment it passed his lips, a shiver raced down his spine and along his arms, and heat followed it down his throat.
The effect was instantaneous. He had spent the whole day thinking over his mission and had ignored his body's cries for nourishment, leaving him ravenous and his stomach empty. The wine rocketed straight to his head, sending it spinning, and a second sip only made the situation worse, lessening his control over his body.
His eyes widened in alarm when his wings pushed for freedom and he concentrated hard in an attempt to contain them and stop them from tearing through his navy shirt.
"I'll be just a minute." He rushed into the bathroom, slammed the door, and turned to face the white vanity unit and the large rectangular mirror above it on the wall.
Marcus set his glass down and fumbled with it, almost knocking his wine down the sink, and then turned the cold tap on so fast that he had to dash to his right to avoid the spray of water that bounced off the porcelain, threatening to douse his crotch. With a grimace, he turned the tap down to a steady flow and splashed the water on his face. His wings pushed again and he ached with the desire to strip off his shirt and unleash them for a moment, to surrender to his desire to beat them and shed his mortal appearance.
He couldn't.
Not only could Amelia end up seeing them, ruining any chance of gaining her trust, but he might not want to put them away again. He couldn't spend the whole evening in the bathroom.
His stomach growled and he pressed his damp hand against it.
If tonight was going to be anything near to a success, he needed to eat and soon, but there was nothing in his apartment. He had promised Amelia dinner. Even if she was kind enough to offer her own groceries, he wouldn't know how to cook her anything. He had never used a stove for anything other than warming basic foodstuffs, such as soup and other items that came in neat little cans with clear instructions on the labels.
This whole plan was ridiculously flawed.
His head turned again and he reached for his wine, taking a greedy gulp of it in the hope that it would dull his senses enough that his wings would relent and he would forget his desire to fly off somewhere.
With Amelia.
That was a thought.
He looked into the mirror at the reflection of the white door behind him. Water dripped from the tip of his nose and rolled off his jaw. His heavy breathing filled the silence.
How would a human react to the sight of his wings and the knowledge that angels existed? If she knew what he was, he wouldn't be deceiving her and there was a chance that he could convince her that his reason for being here was to protect her. Would that gain her trust?
He laughed at himself.
Any sane mortal would run a mile if they saw an angel.
She would never trust him.
"Are you feeling alright?" The sound of her voice, soft through the door, roused a different sort of hunger in him. He stared at the door, picturing her on the other side, how concerned she would look and how that caring edge to her expression would only add to her beauty.
If forced, could he seduce her?
Could it be called deception if he wanted her too?
It wasn't going to happen.
Marcus dried his face on a hand towel, opened the door and smiled at her. "Never better."
She gave him a hesitant and unconvinced smile in return, and looked past him at the bathroom, her eyebrows raised high. What was she looking for? It dawned on him that she thought the wine had made him sick. He could laugh at that. The one time he had turned to drink, it had taken close to a barrel of mead to render him unconscious, and even then he hadn't thrown up.
He picked up his glass of wine, sipped it again to prove that he could handle it, and then smiled at her. Crimson spread across her cheeks, a delightful rosy tint that his smile had caused, and she held her own glass up, revealing that it was already empty.
Marcus took it from her and went into the kitchen to top it up. He took another swig from his own glass to give himself a little Dutch courage and then filled it too. When he walked back into the living room, Amelia was perched on the arm of his pale couch, her slender legs crossed at the knee, smiling at him. A different urge struck him, one that would definitely give her the impression that he was out to seduce her should she notice the effect it had on him.
He handed her the glass and stood in a way that wouldn't reveal the growing bulge in his jeans, waiting for it to pass.
Amelia toyed with the glass, delicately running her right index finger around the rim, mesmerising him and filling his head with images of her stroking him in such a fashion. She looked up at him. "So what are we eating?"
Marcus grinned. "About that… you see… I don't actually have any food that is edible and even if I did, I am not a good cook."
The expression that settled on her face looked decidedly like relief.
"Something I said?"
A smile teased her lips. "I half expected you to be this incredible cook and to show me up. I'm atrocious."
Marcus felt her relief sweep through him too and remembered how often she ate take away food. His gaze dropped to the bare slip of a dress she wore. Take out didn't look bad on her. She had to work out more often than he knew. He had watched her jogging around Hyde Park before and had even jogged there once or twice himself before giving up the pretence and flying above her instead, invisible to mortal eyes.
"How does Chinese food suit you?" She took another sip of her wine before picking up the black cordless phone from the coffee table. "I know a great place that delivers."
Marcus nodded in approval and then listened as she recited what sounded like the entire menu. He didn't care what he ate as long as it got here fast and gave him some defence against the wine so he let her order some of her favourite dishes for them to share.
He paid for the food when it arrived twenty minutes later and Amelia helped him arrange the dishes on the long wooden coffee table between the sofa and the entertainment centre in the corner of the room. While he went to top up their drinks and get some plates and cutlery, she found a movie in the small collection of DVDs he had acquired in his short time on Earth, and put it into the player.
It felt far too much like a date as he sat beside her on the couch. He wasn't sure what a date felt like, but in all the movies he had watched on Earth and couples he had observed during his time in Heaven, this sort of thing was frequently classified as one. Dinner. Movie. Wine. Man and a woman. Date.
Marcus finished off the remains of his food and leaned back into the corner of the couch, bringing his wine with him. He crossed his legs and stretched his right arm out along the back of the sofa, settling his hand close to Amelia, and rested the bottom of his glass on his knee. He paid little attention to the movie playing on the large flat screen television. Amelia held it too firmly, keeping his eyes locked on her face as she laughed, oblivious to his watching her. She was beautiful, and it wasn't the wine talking.
A pure soul, full of kindness and warmth. Her internal beauty shone through, enhancing her external looks and leading him to wonder how such a pretty woman could fall for such disgusting men. She couldn't see the damage to their souls, so it was understandable that she would occasionally fall for males who were beneath her, but to always find the bad seed amongst the many decent men in the world? He had at least expected her to get rid of them the moment she realised they were no good for her, but she persevered, attempting to change their ways, as though she hoped that she could make them into a good man if she tried hard enough.
Impossible.
Men were resistant to change.
As were angels.
Amelia looked at him over her shoulder, her laughter dying away when she caught his gaze and her expression turning serious.
"Do I have something on my face?" she said with a hint of a smile and a blush.
Marcus wanted to say that she did and use the excuse to reach across and sweep the backs of his fingers across her cheek. He wanted to see if his touch could affect her with the same intensity that hers affected him. He shook his head instead, expecting her to go back to watching the movie. She didn't.
She turned and leaned over him, kneeling on the couch seat, and pressed her hand against his chest.
Marcus stared at her mouth, everything good in him screaming to break away and stop her. He didn't. He stayed stock still and let it happen.
His first kiss in this lifetime was a tentative sweep of soft lips over his followed by the press of her body into his. The feel of her against him sent a flood of feelings surging through him, setting his blood aflame with desire and the need to clutch her to him and possess her. It overwhelmed him and his restraint, crushing the good part that was still struggling to resist, and while he stopped himself from sliding his arm around her back and pulling the full length of her body flush against his, he couldn't stop himself from kissing her.
She moaned softly when he responded, grazing his lips against hers in a gentle caress that fanned the flames within him until he burned for her and for more. Her tongue brushed along the seam of his mouth and he brought his to meet it, tangling softly and luring it into his mouth where they danced. He couldn't remember kissing in his past lifetime but he certainly would have if it had felt like this. Warmth suffused him right down to his bones and every breathy little moan he elicited from Amelia turned the heat up another notch, until he was close to grabbing the nape of her neck and holding her mouth against his.
He breathed hard when she broke away to kneel on the sofa in front of him, her grey eyes wide and hand coming up to cover her mouth. She touched her lips, drawing his hungry gaze there, and he was ravenous all over again, starving for the sweet taste of her on his tongue.
"Shit… I'm sorry," she said, instantly deflating his desire, and scrambled from the couch.
She was leaving?
Not good.
Marcus was off the sofa and had his hand locked around her wrist before she could reach the door.
"Wait," he said and wasn't sure what to do when she looked back at him so he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again.
And damn she tasted just as good as she had the first time.
And damn he needed more.
She moaned when he backed her into the wall beside the door, pressing the hard length of his body against hers, and grabbed his shoulders. For a moment, he thought she would push him away, and then she dragged him closer still and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her fingers into his hair.
Part of him was vaguely aware that alcohol was responsible for his current situation and that he was going to regret it come the morning but the rest of him didn't care. He had wanted to release his inhibitions and he had. He just hadn't expected that this would be the result, and right now he didn't care that he was on the verge of doing exactly as his superior had ordered.
All he cared about was satisfying his hunger to taste Amelia.
The part of him that was chanting about deception wouldn't shut up and the more he listened to it, the more he felt like a demon.
Marcus stepped back, leaving Amelia sagged against the wall, panting so hard that her breasts rose and fell with each breath, presenting him with a glorious view that had him reconsidering what he was about to say.
She slowly opened her grey eyes and smiled shyly before raking her gaze over him. It lingered on his groin and her eyes widened, pupils dilating until her irises turned dark with desire. There was a wicked edge to her eyes when they met his again and she inclined her head, her pouty come hither look almost luring him in. Desire wasn't the only thing written plainly across her face. There was expectation there too, and that alone pushed him into saying what he needed to.
"I think this is a bad idea."
Her sultry temptress look immediately dissipated, leaving the Amelia he was familiar with standing before him.
"You really don't like me," she whispered and the hurt in her heart beat within his.
He wasn't saying anything of the sort. But what could he tell her? He was halfway to drunk and not only did he need to get his head on straight so he was certain that he wasn't doing this because he was subconsciously following orders but he was hardly going to produce the stellar performance she expected of him.
He had been celibate this entire lifetime.
And he was damned if his first time was going to be under orders.
If something was going to happen between them, it was going to happen naturally. He wasn't going to seduce her and use her feelings against her.
"I do… but… I think the wine has gone to my head and I think it might have gone to yours too."
"And that's a bad thing?" She glanced at the empty bottle and his half-full glass on the table.
"It is." Marcus ventured a step towards her and brushed the backs of his fingers against her cheek, sweeping her straight dark hair from her face. Her skin was as smooth as he had imagined it would be and the way she closed her eyes, slowly inhaling at the same time, empowered him. He opened his hand and cupped her face, resting his fingers along her jaw and bringing his thumb close to her mouth. Such soft lips. He wanted to dip his head and kiss her again but he wasn't sure he would be able to stop at just kissing if he did. "It is all a little quick and I don't want you waking tomorrow feeling like crap because of what we did tonight."
"I doubt I would feel crappy." There it was again. Blatant expectation. Why? Because he was handsome to her? That instantly made him Casanova?
No pressure then.
"Amelia… how about we take it slow and steady?"
Her eyes lit up and he realised there could be another meaning in his words but he didn't bother to correct her because he wasn't about to let things get that far. His final task was coming. Everything that had happened tonight would satisfy his superior and his orders to gain her trust. He would date her a few times, keeping a suitable distance, and once his mission was over he would leave.
She nodded, tiptoed and kissed him.
Resisting was impossible.
He swept his lips over hers, tasting her again and savouring this brief contact between them. When she broke away this time, he led her back to the couch and settled there with her, his thoughts weighing him down. He watched her again, fascinated by the amusement she got from the movie and how she curled up next to him, her bare knees brushing his thigh. A deep ache to slide his arm around her shoulders and draw her closer still beat in his bones but he resisted.
He couldn't use her feelings against her.
Not when he was starting to feel something for her too.
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
and the Apple iBookstore
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/
I hope you've enjoyed these five free chapters and that you'll purchase Her Guardian Angel, and perhaps others in the Her Angel series, and tell your friends about it if you enjoy the stories.
Her Guardian Angel is currently available in e-book direct from my website, Amazon Kindle Stores, and Smashwords, Apple iBookstore and Kobo. It will soon be available from Barnes and Noble, Sony. It's also available as a paperback from Amazon sites and Barnes and Noble.
Other stories in the Her Angel series are: Her Dark Angel , Her Fallen Angel and Her Warrior Angel . Details of them and where they are available in e-book and paperback can be found at my website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebookseries.php?series=Her%20Angel
Her Guardian Angel
Felicity HeatonA simple mission becomes a fight for survival in this fantastic instalment in the Her Angel series.
A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia's trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings for the beautiful woman he has watched over since her birth.
Amelia has gone from one bad relationship to another, so when a gorgeous guy moves in next door looking like Mr Right, she hopes he doesn't turn out to be another black knight in disguise. But there's more to Marcus than meets the eye, and when he rescues her from three demonic men, Amelia is thrust into his nightmarish world—a world where God and the Devil exist, and only one angel can save her from death—Marcus, the angel she's falling in love with.
On the run from demonic angels and the Devil himself, aided by Marcus's angel friends and their amazing women, fighting for survival against the odds, Marcus and Amelia discover a love that will last forever.
A love so strong it will shake Heaven and Hell.
ebook price: $3.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal angel romance
length: 110000 words
rating: sultry
released: July 2011
Book 4 in the Her Angel series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1032773836
You can now download the extended excerpt of Her Guardian Angel (the first five chapters) in PDF from my website. Just click the large "download extended excerpt" button on the book page: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
CHAPTER FIVEThere was no doubt about it.
Marcus had put his foot in it.
Everything had been going well yesterday until Amelia had taken hold of his hand and he had quickly withdrawn his, and rather than making an excuse as planned, he had warned her away.
Instinct had pushed those words from his lips.
He had no desire to get any closer to her than was necessary.
Marcus raked his fingers through his overlong black hair, combing it away from his forehead, and stared into the distance across the rooftops of London.
Who was he fooling?
Not himself, that was certain.
The spark of desire her touch had reignited in him, bringing his hunger to caress her in return back to boiling point, and the warmth that travelled through his flesh, spreading outwards from the point where her fingers rested against his skin was unmistakably a sign of him harbouring an attraction towards her.
He paced the black tarred roof of his apartment building, scouring the horizon for an answer to his troubles. The problem of gaining Amelia's trust had been all but solved until he had foolishly told her to keep away from him.
He had always been aware that his instinct to protect her ran deep in his veins but had never suspected that it had corrupted his heart too and that he would even deem it necessary to protect her from himself. She'd had her share of pain and suffering, more than such a pure kind soul deserved, and he couldn't bring himself to add to it. When his mission was over, he was leaving Earth and Amelia behind him for good. If he used her desire against her, her heart would break when that happened. She would never understand. She would blame herself, just as she did whenever one of the vile men she involved herself with decided to leave her or did something that forced her to leave them.
He couldn't be like them.
Amelia deserved better.
Far better than him, that was for sure.
One day, she would meet the man who would become her world and who would treat her right and make her happy.
A flash of her smiling at him yesterday cut into his thoughts and deep into his chest.
He had made her smile.
Truly smile with happiness and warmth.
And then she had looked wounded, leaving him at the café alone to ponder what had possessed him to say such things to her and why he had decided to once again intervene in her destructive relationship with her ex-lover.
Duty.
In part it was a lie to say he did these things out of his sense of duty, but it was also his shield and he would not cast it aside.
The dying rays of the sun warmed his skin, the lingering heat of the day cocooning him in a soft breeze that stirred his soul as he watched the sun set over London. It was growing late. Time had passed quickly while he had been lost in his thoughts, hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the mortal realm far below him, and he still hadn't found the answers to the questions that plagued him. Questions about his mission had been joined by ones about Amelia and her feelings for him.
Why would a beautiful mortal female look upon him with such desire?
Marcus looked down at his hands and turned them palm up. These hands had killed many in the line of duty, harvesting souls of sinners and detaining them for judgement. In times past, when wars had been frequent, he had reaped battlefields and cities alike in the name of Heaven, following orders to the letter to assist the angels of death in their mission, never once feeling remorse over his actions.
Until now.
He had told her to keep away from him.
She deserved better than a man who had killed so many of her kind without flinching.
A role he would gladly resume once his current mission had come to an end.
He was no better than those men who had hurt her.
If anything, he was worse.
For all their noise and disgraceful behaviour, none of them had ever taken the life of another mortal. Amelia believed him good and kind, thought that he was different to the men she had previously been intimate with, but she would never see him that way if she knew the things he had done in his past, in the time before he had lost his wings.
Since being cursed, he had led a different life. Wars had become less frequent and the angels of death had no longer required outside assistance from the other branches of angels in Heaven. His kind, the guardians, had returned to their normal duties, shepherding souls and protecting Heaven, or watching over the mortals, both in the present and in the future.
He had never seen the single pool which held the future. Only a few angels were allowed entry to the room containing it in the grand palatial house of Heaven, and those angels were sworn to silence, allowed only to speak to their superior, who in turn relayed necessary information on critical events to other high ranking angels.
His superior included.
Which led Marcus to believe that he was aware of what fate awaited Amelia.
Marcus curled his fingers into fists and frowned at the vambraces protecting his forearms, watching the way the sunlight danced across the blue armour and reflected off the silver raised edges and the silver buckles on the leather straps against his underarms.
There was something freeing about changing out of his mortal appearance and donning his armour. He felt closer to home again and distant from the goings on of the mortal world around him. He shrugged his shoulders, raising the blue breastplate of his armour and exposing his bare stomach, and then stretched his arms out at his sides and closed his eyes as he unfurled his wings.
Warm summer air tickled his silvery-blue feathers, teasing his senses, and he basked in the sunlight, absorbing the heat and allowing it to relax him and chase away his troubled thoughts.
He was a soldier.
Soldiers followed their orders.
He didn't have to think. He just had to follow orders and his mission would be over.
Marcus opened his eyes and looked at the infinite sky. The pale blue dome turned to green and then hues of orange near the horizon, scattered with ribbons of cloud that caught the fading sunlight and burned gold and pink. It was beautiful and this evening it would be his playground again, his world in which he would immerse himself to escape the mortal realm and find peace for a few brief hours. He would fly until he ached from the exertion, until he couldn't beat his wings one last time, and then he would return to his apartment and sleep until morning finally came.
Free of this world.
Five centuries without wings and every day had been torture.
He beat his wings and lifted off the tarred roof only to be struck by a shaft of brilliant white light.
Marcus closed his eyes and waited for the tingling sensation caused by the light to pass before opening them again.
He sighed at the sight of the white double doors ahead and the reception room surrounding him.
All he had wanted was to fly for a while. Couldn't they have waited? By the time they returned him, it would be deep night. These things never moved swiftly and while they could return him to the same moment they had taken him, they never did.
Marcus pushed the double doors open and marched straight to the dock, facing the same three angels who had questioned him the last time they had brought him here.
"There has been a development." His superior sat at the head of the triangle closest to Marcus, his sandy hair as neat as his blue armour and the large silver-blue wings tucked against his back.
The dark haired mediator and white-blond haired angel of death murmured in agreement.
"May I ask what this development is?" Marcus hid none of his displeasure at having his plans for the evening ruined. They had brought him here and he would make the most of it. While they hadn't answered direct questions about his mission, perhaps they would answer one about the date of the event if he asked it in such a way that linked it to this development. "Does it mean my mission will end soon?"
All three angels nodded.
"Your final task approaches." There was no lie in his superior's expression, or that of the other two angels. "Soon your mission will end, Marcus."
"You have been patient in your duty and we appreciate everything you have done for us. Once this final task has been completed, you will be free to return to Heaven." The mediator to his superior's left smiled at him and then looked across at the angel of death.
"You must be relieved to know that your final task will be over soon and you can return home," the white-blond haired man said.
Marcus nodded and his shoulders relaxed with the relief that swept through him but he didn't quite feel as he had expected to on hearing such good news. There was something about the appearances of all three angels, and the soft way they spoke to him, that set him on edge and filled his head with more questions than ever before.
"What is my final task?" All three angels had mentioned it so all three knew what it was, but the moment the question left his lips, their expressions turned stony and closed.
"You will find out soon enough." His superior leaned back in his chair on the raised platform. The other two angels seated slightly behind him looked at each other and then at his superior, and then at Marcus.
"In the meantime, you must continue to protect her from the world." Those words leaving the mediator's lips startled Marcus into looking straight at him.
It was more than he had been told before.
"Am I to believe that there is someone who seeks to harm her?" It had always been there at the back of his mind. Why would a mortal need an angel to watch over them until a certain point in time? Why would they need a protector unless someone intended to hurt them? He had never been told to guide her on her path. His mission had always been phrased in a way that made him believe it was physical protection that she had needed in order to achieve her destiny.
"You must not allow demons to interfere with her existence."
Marcus's gaze snapped back to his superior and he stared wide-eyed at him. "Demons?"
The sandy-haired man nodded. "You must keep the female safe until the event that we have witnessed comes to pass."
"And what is this event?" Marcus knew he had pushed too far again when darkness crossed his superior's face.
"It is not necessary for you to know that right now, Marcus. We need you to focus on your mission. It has become critical that you gain her trust. Your attempt failed. Your mission was clear. You will get closer to her by any means. Do you understand?"
Marcus wasn't sure that he wanted to understand.
"What are you implying exactly?" He frowned at his superior, wanting him to say the words so he knew exactly what they were ordering him to do. So everyone here knew and acknowledged the order they were giving him.
"The female is enamoured with you. You are to use that to gain her trust."
Marcus's heart raced, anger curling through his body as he looked at all three men seated before him and searched each of their faces for a sign that this was some sort of sick joke. Their expressions remained cold and fixed, hard as they stared back at him. He reined in his outrage and stifled it, unwilling to allow it to control him and give away how much he despised the thought of what they were asking of him let alone the reality of it.
He had no desire to be false with Amelia or hurt her, and they were ordering him to do just that.
"Why is having her trust so important?" he bit out the words and then clamped his jaw shut before he could add that it was despicable of them to do such a thing to a mortal. He had no love for the mortals himself but he had principles. He was an angel, born into a race created to protect humans, not deceive them and lead them into sinning. That was the job of those in the service of the Devil.
"Silence, Marcus."
He glared at his superior, barely restraining his fury and desire to argue. Using Amelia's feelings in such a way went against everything he stood for, all of his principles and his honour, and was callous and cruel. He had no desire to hurt her.
"Follow your orders."
Marcus went to speak but the light engulfed him again. When it faded, he was standing outside the café where he had shared coffee with Amelia.
He tilted his head back and frowned at the colourful evening sky. They had returned him to the exact moment in time that they had taken him. Why? It wasn't like them.
He looked down at himself and noted that he was dressed now, wearing a dark blue shirt and dark jeans with his boots. It was a little smarter than his usual attire and it was his true appearance, not a glamour they had cast upon him. They had even neatened his hair for him, combing the unruly black lengths back out of his face. Why? They had to be up to something.
The answer became apparent when Amelia walked past him, heavy white plastic grocery bags hanging from her arms.
They certainly weren't wasting any time. They had dressed him up and sent him back to the moment they had taken him so he could seduce Amelia tonight.
Marcus shook his head. He couldn't do such a thing and he doubted she would go for it even if he tried. His actions the other day had driven her away and she hadn't even looked at him the two times they had passed each other today.
Although, he suspected that her reason for ignoring him just now was because she literally hadn't seen him.
He waved at another passerby, his hand close to their face, and they didn't even flinch.
When the person had passed him and there were no others in sight, he lifted the glamour that made him invisible to mortal eyes and hurried towards the entrance to his apartment building, determined to reach it before Amelia stepped into the lift. The dull silver lift doors were closing just as he stepped into the foyer and he raced for them.
"Hold it," he hollered and was surprised when the doors opened again and he stepped inside to find that Amelia was alone.
Had she known it was him and that was why she had held the doors, or hadn't she realised? He pinched the bridge of his nose. A man could go crazy trying to figure out the inner workings of the female mind. It was little wonder he had never bothered to try before now.
The journey up to their floor passed in uncomfortable silence and it was only when they were stepping out of the lift that inspiration struck Marcus.
He couldn't disobey his orders to gain her trust but that didn't mean he had to play the cad and seduce her. He would try the friendship thing again and hopefully this time he wouldn't mess it up. Rather than using her attraction towards him, he would do something he had never done. He would lower his guard and let her in instead, and gain her trust that way, as a man would, not a devil. No deception.
Marcus reminded himself that he was already deceiving her. She had no idea what he really was and why he had been living next door to her for a month now.
"Amelia," he said and she stopped at her door and turned to face him. Her beauty arrested his steps and his breath, chasing away some of his anger. He hesitated and then walked over to her, broadcasting as much confidence as he could manage given the unfamiliar situation. "I apologise about yesterday. Can I make it up to you somehow?"
She smiled. "Dinner would be good."
Like a date? That didn't sound good at all. That sounded like what his superior had ordered him to do. Marcus squirmed for a few seconds, battling the part of him that said it wouldn't be so bad to seduce her. She was beautiful and he was finding it increasingly difficult to get dancing Amelia out of his head and his dreams.
"How about dinner at my place?" he said without thinking and the way her face lit up was all the answer he needed. It had been impulsive but it had avoided taking her out to dinner and therefore any sense that this was more than platonic.
He frowned.
Or had he only made it sound more like an offer of sex?
Dinner in his apartment could easily be classified as more intimate than dinner in a restaurant.
"Great. I'll be over in half an hour." With that, she opened the door to her apartment and closed it behind her, leaving him standing in the cream hallway trying to figure out what he had offered her.
Perhaps he should call for assistance. He knew one angel in London. Einar was fallen thanks to his forbidden relationship with a female half-demon but that very fact only meant that he was qualified to answer Marcus's questions.
Marcus opened the door to his own apartment with the intent of calling Einar and interrogating him about women and whether he had just offered something a touch more intimate than anticipated but halted halfway to the telephone. The apartment was a mess.
He had never really paid much attention to his living quarters but it certainly didn't look like the sort of place a man should invite a woman into. He swapped calling Einar for a quick sweep of his apartment, using his supernatural speed to toss all dirty clothes into the laundry basket in his bathroom, straighten furniture, and clear the dust away before Amelia knocked on his door. If there was any time left on the clock, he would phone his friend for advice, but it wasn't looking promising. The bathroom was a mess too and so was the kitchen, and she was likely to visit both of those places.
Dinner in a restaurant suddenly looked more appealing.
Marcus stopped dead in the middle of the kitchen, turned on his heel, and gingerly opened the white refrigerator. The only thing in it was some old cheese he hadn't particularly enjoyed the taste of and a half eaten melon that had seen better days. There was no need to inspect the dark wooden cupboards. He could definitely recall eating the remaining half a box of cereal this morning whilst thinking and the carton was still on his bedside table to prove it.
Someone knocked on the door.
Marcus spun to face the kitchen doorway and looked through it to the entertainment centre in the living room. He glared at the clock on his DVD player. Amelia was ten minutes early. He cursed. No time to correct the food problem or call Einar. He scanned the pale apartment en route to the door and, satisfied that it now appeared far less like the bachelor pad it was, opened it.
His greeting fled his lips the moment he set eyes on her.
She had changed out of the short jacket, t-shirt and jeans she had been wearing in the lift and into a rather alluring little dark red dress that had him clearing his throat and searching for a compliment.
"You look…" What would she like to hear? The expectant shine to her eyes and the tentative smile curving the corners of her glossy cherry lips said that she was hoping to hear beautiful or similar, and he would be a liar if he said anything less. "Stunning."
Stunning was apt. He certainly felt as though she had clobbered him.
"You don't look half bad yourself." She smiled and he went to follow suit but then she held up a bottle in front of her and he froze. "I only had rosé. I know it's a bit girly but it would've been rude to bring nothing."
He hadn't really taken in anything she had said whilst he had been staring at his nemesis.
Alcohol.
Of course she would bring alcohol. It was the right response to the situation, wasn't it? A man invited her to dinner in his apartment. She brought something to make the evening go without a hitch.
He forced a smile and reached out to take it, but she drew it back to her chest, clutching it there and eyeing him closely.
"That's not a good smile. I've seen that smile before," she said with a small frown and looked down at the bottle. "It's really all I had but then I guess you're probably a beer drinker."
"No." He snatched the bottle from her, accidentally brushing her cleavage at the same time. Could someone in Heaven reverse the past thirty minutes for him and give him a second chance in which not to make a complete idiot of himself?
The blush on Amelia's cheeks and the way she was staring at her breasts said it all. He had practically groped her. Considering he had wanted this evening to be little more than just opening up to her and gaining her trust through friendship, he was certainly sending out the wrong sort of signals. Were his superiors in Heaven tampering with him or something? He didn't feel at all like himself and he was currently on course for gaining her trust the way they wanted.
Still, the feel of her soft breasts beneath his fingers in that flash of a caress had his heart racing and palms sweating. He was a stranger to physical intimacy but had witnessed enough carnal matters as a watcher to know the sordid things humans did. It hadn't interested him much in the past, but the more he focused on his hand and the area that had brushed her chest and on how beautiful Amelia looked tonight, the more appealing interacting with her physically became.
Cad.
The object of tonight's mission wasn't seduction. It was forming the foundations of friendship.
She stared at him, making him heavily aware that he should have said something to explain his reaction rather than drifting off into a fantasy world.
"The wine you have brought is not the problem... and it is most appreciated... but... I just don't really drink." He shrugged and hoped she would let it go and not pursue the subject. He wasn't sure what he would say if she asked him why he didn't drink. Could he play the role of recovering alcoholic? Would that dampen Amelia's desire for him?
Marcus wasn't sure whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing.
"Oh." Her eyebrows rose, bringing her head up with them, and he wished she would stop looking at him in a way that left him feeling emasculated. She nodded a few times and then said, "So you don't drink coffee and you avoid alcohol. Are you one of those vegan types too?"
"Hell no." He stepped back, horrified at the suggestion. He could eat a whole cow in one sitting when on Earth. In Heaven, he didn't have to eat at all, but that certainly didn't place him in the vegan category. There was nothing wrong with abstaining from certain substances that didn't agree with your lifestyle choice, but this wasn't one of those times and he would be happy to prove it to her.
Amelia closed the door behind her and walked into his apartment, casting her gaze over everything and then him, and he felt the challenge in her look. She was trying to figure him out and he didn't particularly like the tone of her expression.
In a fit of desire to prove himself a man, he strode into the kitchen, unscrewed the cap on the wine and set it down on the counter. Another flaw in his plan produced itself as he searched the dark wooden cupboards for wine glasses but he overcame it by using two short tumblers instead. If anything, rosé wine could only look more manly in such a glass, surely?
He poured two healthy glasses of wine as Amelia approached the open double doors and then held one out to her. She took it without questioning his choice of glass and then raised it towards him.
"Cheers," she said in a low sexy voice that had his gaze drifting towards her lips so he could watch her drink and then added, "Cheers?"
Marcus realised he was supposed to respond in kind, so raised his glass too. "Cheers."
"Or bottoms up." Amelia giggled, turned and walked back into the living room.
Bottoms up.
Marcus's eyes dropped to her backside. The deep red material of her dress clung to it, emphasising the shape of her bottom in a way that had his blood pounding through his temples again. He took a deep breath and joined her in the living room. Amelia sipped her drink. Marcus stared at his.
Alcohol hadn't passed his lips in five centuries, not since the one and only time he had dared to drink it and had awoken with a demonic curse scrawled on his back. Back then, it had been a forbidden item. Now, any angel could drink it without castigation.
Marcus had no desire to do such a thing.
He took another deep breath and blew it out, trying to psych himself up. He could feel Amelia's gaze on him and he hoped she didn't think he was spacing out again or had noticed his fear of what might happened when he finally took a sip of the wine. Blood whooshed through his ears, drowning out all sound as he stared at the innocent looking pink liquid in the glass. Alcohol released inhibitions. It would be a good way of lowering his guard so he could grow closer to Amelia and gain her trust.
Marcus lifted it to his lips and breathed in, catching the fiery hint of alcohol in its scent, and then continued. The moment it passed his lips, a shiver raced down his spine and along his arms, and heat followed it down his throat.
The effect was instantaneous. He had spent the whole day thinking over his mission and had ignored his body's cries for nourishment, leaving him ravenous and his stomach empty. The wine rocketed straight to his head, sending it spinning, and a second sip only made the situation worse, lessening his control over his body.
His eyes widened in alarm when his wings pushed for freedom and he concentrated hard in an attempt to contain them and stop them from tearing through his navy shirt.
"I'll be just a minute." He rushed into the bathroom, slammed the door, and turned to face the white vanity unit and the large rectangular mirror above it on the wall.
Marcus set his glass down and fumbled with it, almost knocking his wine down the sink, and then turned the cold tap on so fast that he had to dash to his right to avoid the spray of water that bounced off the porcelain, threatening to douse his crotch. With a grimace, he turned the tap down to a steady flow and splashed the water on his face. His wings pushed again and he ached with the desire to strip off his shirt and unleash them for a moment, to surrender to his desire to beat them and shed his mortal appearance.
He couldn't.
Not only could Amelia end up seeing them, ruining any chance of gaining her trust, but he might not want to put them away again. He couldn't spend the whole evening in the bathroom.
His stomach growled and he pressed his damp hand against it.
If tonight was going to be anything near to a success, he needed to eat and soon, but there was nothing in his apartment. He had promised Amelia dinner. Even if she was kind enough to offer her own groceries, he wouldn't know how to cook her anything. He had never used a stove for anything other than warming basic foodstuffs, such as soup and other items that came in neat little cans with clear instructions on the labels.
This whole plan was ridiculously flawed.
His head turned again and he reached for his wine, taking a greedy gulp of it in the hope that it would dull his senses enough that his wings would relent and he would forget his desire to fly off somewhere.
With Amelia.
That was a thought.
He looked into the mirror at the reflection of the white door behind him. Water dripped from the tip of his nose and rolled off his jaw. His heavy breathing filled the silence.
How would a human react to the sight of his wings and the knowledge that angels existed? If she knew what he was, he wouldn't be deceiving her and there was a chance that he could convince her that his reason for being here was to protect her. Would that gain her trust?
He laughed at himself.
Any sane mortal would run a mile if they saw an angel.
She would never trust him.
"Are you feeling alright?" The sound of her voice, soft through the door, roused a different sort of hunger in him. He stared at the door, picturing her on the other side, how concerned she would look and how that caring edge to her expression would only add to her beauty.
If forced, could he seduce her?
Could it be called deception if he wanted her too?
It wasn't going to happen.
Marcus dried his face on a hand towel, opened the door and smiled at her. "Never better."
She gave him a hesitant and unconvinced smile in return, and looked past him at the bathroom, her eyebrows raised high. What was she looking for? It dawned on him that she thought the wine had made him sick. He could laugh at that. The one time he had turned to drink, it had taken close to a barrel of mead to render him unconscious, and even then he hadn't thrown up.
He picked up his glass of wine, sipped it again to prove that he could handle it, and then smiled at her. Crimson spread across her cheeks, a delightful rosy tint that his smile had caused, and she held her own glass up, revealing that it was already empty.
Marcus took it from her and went into the kitchen to top it up. He took another swig from his own glass to give himself a little Dutch courage and then filled it too. When he walked back into the living room, Amelia was perched on the arm of his pale couch, her slender legs crossed at the knee, smiling at him. A different urge struck him, one that would definitely give her the impression that he was out to seduce her should she notice the effect it had on him.
He handed her the glass and stood in a way that wouldn't reveal the growing bulge in his jeans, waiting for it to pass.
Amelia toyed with the glass, delicately running her right index finger around the rim, mesmerising him and filling his head with images of her stroking him in such a fashion. She looked up at him. "So what are we eating?"
Marcus grinned. "About that… you see… I don't actually have any food that is edible and even if I did, I am not a good cook."
The expression that settled on her face looked decidedly like relief.
"Something I said?"
A smile teased her lips. "I half expected you to be this incredible cook and to show me up. I'm atrocious."
Marcus felt her relief sweep through him too and remembered how often she ate take away food. His gaze dropped to the bare slip of a dress she wore. Take out didn't look bad on her. She had to work out more often than he knew. He had watched her jogging around Hyde Park before and had even jogged there once or twice himself before giving up the pretence and flying above her instead, invisible to mortal eyes.
"How does Chinese food suit you?" She took another sip of her wine before picking up the black cordless phone from the coffee table. "I know a great place that delivers."
Marcus nodded in approval and then listened as she recited what sounded like the entire menu. He didn't care what he ate as long as it got here fast and gave him some defence against the wine so he let her order some of her favourite dishes for them to share.
He paid for the food when it arrived twenty minutes later and Amelia helped him arrange the dishes on the long wooden coffee table between the sofa and the entertainment centre in the corner of the room. While he went to top up their drinks and get some plates and cutlery, she found a movie in the small collection of DVDs he had acquired in his short time on Earth, and put it into the player.
It felt far too much like a date as he sat beside her on the couch. He wasn't sure what a date felt like, but in all the movies he had watched on Earth and couples he had observed during his time in Heaven, this sort of thing was frequently classified as one. Dinner. Movie. Wine. Man and a woman. Date.
Marcus finished off the remains of his food and leaned back into the corner of the couch, bringing his wine with him. He crossed his legs and stretched his right arm out along the back of the sofa, settling his hand close to Amelia, and rested the bottom of his glass on his knee. He paid little attention to the movie playing on the large flat screen television. Amelia held it too firmly, keeping his eyes locked on her face as she laughed, oblivious to his watching her. She was beautiful, and it wasn't the wine talking.
A pure soul, full of kindness and warmth. Her internal beauty shone through, enhancing her external looks and leading him to wonder how such a pretty woman could fall for such disgusting men. She couldn't see the damage to their souls, so it was understandable that she would occasionally fall for males who were beneath her, but to always find the bad seed amongst the many decent men in the world? He had at least expected her to get rid of them the moment she realised they were no good for her, but she persevered, attempting to change their ways, as though she hoped that she could make them into a good man if she tried hard enough.
Impossible.
Men were resistant to change.
As were angels.
Amelia looked at him over her shoulder, her laughter dying away when she caught his gaze and her expression turning serious.
"Do I have something on my face?" she said with a hint of a smile and a blush.
Marcus wanted to say that she did and use the excuse to reach across and sweep the backs of his fingers across her cheek. He wanted to see if his touch could affect her with the same intensity that hers affected him. He shook his head instead, expecting her to go back to watching the movie. She didn't.
She turned and leaned over him, kneeling on the couch seat, and pressed her hand against his chest.
Marcus stared at her mouth, everything good in him screaming to break away and stop her. He didn't. He stayed stock still and let it happen.
His first kiss in this lifetime was a tentative sweep of soft lips over his followed by the press of her body into his. The feel of her against him sent a flood of feelings surging through him, setting his blood aflame with desire and the need to clutch her to him and possess her. It overwhelmed him and his restraint, crushing the good part that was still struggling to resist, and while he stopped himself from sliding his arm around her back and pulling the full length of her body flush against his, he couldn't stop himself from kissing her.
She moaned softly when he responded, grazing his lips against hers in a gentle caress that fanned the flames within him until he burned for her and for more. Her tongue brushed along the seam of his mouth and he brought his to meet it, tangling softly and luring it into his mouth where they danced. He couldn't remember kissing in his past lifetime but he certainly would have if it had felt like this. Warmth suffused him right down to his bones and every breathy little moan he elicited from Amelia turned the heat up another notch, until he was close to grabbing the nape of her neck and holding her mouth against his.
He breathed hard when she broke away to kneel on the sofa in front of him, her grey eyes wide and hand coming up to cover her mouth. She touched her lips, drawing his hungry gaze there, and he was ravenous all over again, starving for the sweet taste of her on his tongue.
"Shit… I'm sorry," she said, instantly deflating his desire, and scrambled from the couch.
She was leaving?
Not good.
Marcus was off the sofa and had his hand locked around her wrist before she could reach the door.
"Wait," he said and wasn't sure what to do when she looked back at him so he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again.
And damn she tasted just as good as she had the first time.
And damn he needed more.
She moaned when he backed her into the wall beside the door, pressing the hard length of his body against hers, and grabbed his shoulders. For a moment, he thought she would push him away, and then she dragged him closer still and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her fingers into his hair.
Part of him was vaguely aware that alcohol was responsible for his current situation and that he was going to regret it come the morning but the rest of him didn't care. He had wanted to release his inhibitions and he had. He just hadn't expected that this would be the result, and right now he didn't care that he was on the verge of doing exactly as his superior had ordered.
All he cared about was satisfying his hunger to taste Amelia.
The part of him that was chanting about deception wouldn't shut up and the more he listened to it, the more he felt like a demon.
Marcus stepped back, leaving Amelia sagged against the wall, panting so hard that her breasts rose and fell with each breath, presenting him with a glorious view that had him reconsidering what he was about to say.
She slowly opened her grey eyes and smiled shyly before raking her gaze over him. It lingered on his groin and her eyes widened, pupils dilating until her irises turned dark with desire. There was a wicked edge to her eyes when they met his again and she inclined her head, her pouty come hither look almost luring him in. Desire wasn't the only thing written plainly across her face. There was expectation there too, and that alone pushed him into saying what he needed to.
"I think this is a bad idea."
Her sultry temptress look immediately dissipated, leaving the Amelia he was familiar with standing before him.
"You really don't like me," she whispered and the hurt in her heart beat within his.
He wasn't saying anything of the sort. But what could he tell her? He was halfway to drunk and not only did he need to get his head on straight so he was certain that he wasn't doing this because he was subconsciously following orders but he was hardly going to produce the stellar performance she expected of him.
He had been celibate this entire lifetime.
And he was damned if his first time was going to be under orders.
If something was going to happen between them, it was going to happen naturally. He wasn't going to seduce her and use her feelings against her.
"I do… but… I think the wine has gone to my head and I think it might have gone to yours too."
"And that's a bad thing?" She glanced at the empty bottle and his half-full glass on the table.
"It is." Marcus ventured a step towards her and brushed the backs of his fingers against her cheek, sweeping her straight dark hair from her face. Her skin was as smooth as he had imagined it would be and the way she closed her eyes, slowly inhaling at the same time, empowered him. He opened his hand and cupped her face, resting his fingers along her jaw and bringing his thumb close to her mouth. Such soft lips. He wanted to dip his head and kiss her again but he wasn't sure he would be able to stop at just kissing if he did. "It is all a little quick and I don't want you waking tomorrow feeling like crap because of what we did tonight."
"I doubt I would feel crappy." There it was again. Blatant expectation. Why? Because he was handsome to her? That instantly made him Casanova?
No pressure then.
"Amelia… how about we take it slow and steady?"
Her eyes lit up and he realised there could be another meaning in his words but he didn't bother to correct her because he wasn't about to let things get that far. His final task was coming. Everything that had happened tonight would satisfy his superior and his orders to gain her trust. He would date her a few times, keeping a suitable distance, and once his mission was over he would leave.
She nodded, tiptoed and kissed him.
Resisting was impossible.
He swept his lips over hers, tasting her again and savouring this brief contact between them. When she broke away this time, he led her back to the couch and settled there with her, his thoughts weighing him down. He watched her again, fascinated by the amusement she got from the movie and how she curled up next to him, her bare knees brushing his thigh. A deep ache to slide his arm around her shoulders and draw her closer still beat in his bones but he resisted.
He couldn't use her feelings against her.
Not when he was starting to feel something for her too.
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
and the Apple iBookstore
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/
I hope you've enjoyed these five free chapters and that you'll purchase Her Guardian Angel, and perhaps others in the Her Angel series, and tell your friends about it if you enjoy the stories.
Masquerade, books on writing, and ear ache
My ear is giving me hell today, so I'm mostly sitting on the couch in my living room reading a good book on Characters & View Point. I want to finish this one, and then read one about story structure I bought recently, and then I'll continue plotting Masquerade. I read a section of Masquerade yesterday, the 30k I had written before realising the story was taking a new direction and that I needed to rethink the current plot in light of that, and the changes to the characters.
I'm getting good ideas for it, but it's going to be difficult to take Vivek, the hero, who is shown in poor light in the first chapter because we're in Sophis's, the heroine, point of view and she's pretty riled at him and set on being in a bad mood with him, and is therefore slightly off in her opinion of him (heck, we've all been there right? Someone does something and we interpret it the way we want to because our judgement is coloured by our current emotions... rather than seeing things clearly and for what they really are, we put what the person has done in a bad light and grow angrier at them when in reality we should find out why they did something and perhaps their explanation would temper our foul mood). Basically, Vivek comes across as a less than sterling bloke, but she's totally misinterpreting everything and flying off the handle because he's hurt her feelings and she feels as though he's on a non-stop mission to get her kicked out of the guard.
Okay, he is in a way, but only because he's going about tackling his desire to protect her in the wrong way and the guy wants to keep her safe to a fault, so he doesn't quite see that what he's doing is actually hurting her since her life is the guard.
So you see... it's the age old dilemma. I need the tension between them, but I don't want the reader to lose all sympathy for the hero in chapter one and have him painted as a bad guy that is then irredeemable to the reader. No one loves a hero like that. I guess I need to make sure that it's clear in chapter one that Sophis knows that this isn't like Vivek and she feels she needs to find out what changed him from the man who saw her through her training and had always had time for her. I need to make sure that the reader... yes, you... realise in the first chapter that Vivek isn't usually like this and what he used to be like, how close they once were, and make you stick it out so you find out why he's acting like an ass in her opinion (he's not really... she's just blinded by her anger towards him because of his behaviour towards her).
Why do my heroes always give me trouble? lol. It's never the heroines. It's always the men in my life that like that cause these little upsets. Although... if Vivek hadn't given me such grief, and therefore my writer heart hadn't tried so tirelessly to give him a reason to be so hard-headed and a bit of a male pig, then I wouldn't have found a new depth to Vivek and the story.
My meds are kicking in to get rid of the ear ache but Vivek is giving me a royal headache! I'm sure I'll find a way to balance him in the first chapter so readers aren't judging him badly and will give the guy a chance to show just how fiercely protective, passionate and brave he is. I can vouch for him. He's a good bloke once you get to know him. lol.
Anyway, I'm off to assess my work load and continue reading this book on Characterisation. I think it's really important as a writer to keep learning. I've read a lot of books on writing but I find something new in each book I read, so every one is worth it and I feel it really helps me hone my craft and offer a better experience to readers. Maybe while I'm reading I'll find a way to fix Vivek and that first chapter, and find that balance I need to intrigue readers about Vivek and have them questing to discover just why he wants her off the guard, and just what happened in their past to change him.
:D
I'm getting good ideas for it, but it's going to be difficult to take Vivek, the hero, who is shown in poor light in the first chapter because we're in Sophis's, the heroine, point of view and she's pretty riled at him and set on being in a bad mood with him, and is therefore slightly off in her opinion of him (heck, we've all been there right? Someone does something and we interpret it the way we want to because our judgement is coloured by our current emotions... rather than seeing things clearly and for what they really are, we put what the person has done in a bad light and grow angrier at them when in reality we should find out why they did something and perhaps their explanation would temper our foul mood). Basically, Vivek comes across as a less than sterling bloke, but she's totally misinterpreting everything and flying off the handle because he's hurt her feelings and she feels as though he's on a non-stop mission to get her kicked out of the guard.Okay, he is in a way, but only because he's going about tackling his desire to protect her in the wrong way and the guy wants to keep her safe to a fault, so he doesn't quite see that what he's doing is actually hurting her since her life is the guard.
So you see... it's the age old dilemma. I need the tension between them, but I don't want the reader to lose all sympathy for the hero in chapter one and have him painted as a bad guy that is then irredeemable to the reader. No one loves a hero like that. I guess I need to make sure that it's clear in chapter one that Sophis knows that this isn't like Vivek and she feels she needs to find out what changed him from the man who saw her through her training and had always had time for her. I need to make sure that the reader... yes, you... realise in the first chapter that Vivek isn't usually like this and what he used to be like, how close they once were, and make you stick it out so you find out why he's acting like an ass in her opinion (he's not really... she's just blinded by her anger towards him because of his behaviour towards her).
Why do my heroes always give me trouble? lol. It's never the heroines. It's always the men in my life that like that cause these little upsets. Although... if Vivek hadn't given me such grief, and therefore my writer heart hadn't tried so tirelessly to give him a reason to be so hard-headed and a bit of a male pig, then I wouldn't have found a new depth to Vivek and the story.
My meds are kicking in to get rid of the ear ache but Vivek is giving me a royal headache! I'm sure I'll find a way to balance him in the first chapter so readers aren't judging him badly and will give the guy a chance to show just how fiercely protective, passionate and brave he is. I can vouch for him. He's a good bloke once you get to know him. lol.
Anyway, I'm off to assess my work load and continue reading this book on Characterisation. I think it's really important as a writer to keep learning. I've read a lot of books on writing but I find something new in each book I read, so every one is worth it and I feel it really helps me hone my craft and offer a better experience to readers. Maybe while I'm reading I'll find a way to fix Vivek and that first chapter, and find that balance I need to intrigue readers about Vivek and have them questing to discover just why he wants her off the guard, and just what happened in their past to change him.
:D
August 23, 2011
Guest Blogger: Gabrielle Bisset
I have the lovely Gabrielle Bisset on my blog today to share an excerpt of her recent release, Love's Master, with us all. Gabrielle's excerpt contains adult material, so it might not be suitable for everyone on my blog, but I'm sure most of you won't mind ;)
Love's Master
Second in my trilogy of erotic romance novellas set in Victorian England, Love's Master is at its heart the story of a woman who finds someone who she can truly be herself with, and that includes being the submissive she yearns to be.
Blurb: 23 year old Lily finds herself widowed and forced to live with her brother and his family, including his eight year old son William, who is nothing short of a terror. Sure she cannot go another day with his behavior, she begins to search for a new nanny and tutor for her nephew with little success. But when she happens across an advertisement in the Times that seems to be the answer to her problem, she is set on a path that will take her where she's never been before. Victorian England is a place of strict social codes, and the sensual world she enters is strictly forbidden for a woman of her social stature.
Her guide in this world is a man named Kadar, and the feelings he stirs in Lily threaten to change her forever. However, Victorian society is never far away, and her brother intends on seeing his sister remarried and settled into a home near him in Regent's Park. Lily will have to choose between Kadar, who makes her feel more alive than she ever believed she could and Captain Mason Danvers, the gentleman who can offer her security and comfort for the rest of her life.
Excerpt The door closed and a mixture of aromas wafted across the room. Sweet and spicy smells filled her nose, along with other fragrances she couldn't place at first. The variety was pleasantly overwhelming, and she breathed in deeply trying experience each of them.
She sensed him sitting in front of her, but she remained still as he'd ordered. Her fear had faded, and now she waited for him to hand her a plate and fork to eat the delicious food he'd kindly prepared for her.
"Lily, have you ever been fed by a man who wants to make love to you?"
The effect of his frank words left her speechless, and she merely shook her head. Was he going to feed her before they made love? Just the thought of it was more erotic than anything she'd ever heard of, let alone done.
"Open your mouth," he said in his softly commanding tone that made her wish they were already finished with the meal and moved on to what was to follow.
She obeyed and tasted something sweet on her tongue. A wedge of orange exploded juice into her mouth as she bit into it. When she'd finished, his lips pressed against hers, and he kissed her, slipping his tongue into her mouth and tasting the remaining juice from the fruit.
As he pulled away, he whispered against her lips, "Delicious."
She heard him open something, possibly a jar, and then he returned to her and ordered her to open her mouth again. When she did, he stuck his finger in and she closed her lips to suck sweet honey from it. Never before had honey tasted so incredibly good! Aroused, she playfully flicked her tongue against his fingertip as he slowly withdrew his cleaned finger.
Lily licked her lips and waited for the next taste she'd experience, but as she sat there, she realized she'd never learned the name of the man who was feeding her and soon would be inside her.
"What's your name?"
She heard him stop what he was doing next to her, and for a tense moment, she worried she'd done something wrong by asking.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." she began, but let her voice trail off when she felt his lips brush the shell of her ear and his hand encircle her neck.
"Kadar."
As his hand glided down her neck to rest on her collarbone, she said, "Kadar," repeating his name as if to seal it in her memory.
Again, he kissed her, his tongue sensually gliding over hers and tasting the sweetness he'd just given her. His kiss, long and passionate, tasted better than any food she'd ever eaten.
He pulled away too soon, and she wished he would end his feeding her and proceed to making love to her. When he began to speak again, she sensed he saw the disappointment on her face.
"When a man truly makes love to a woman, it's more than just thrusting his cock in and out of her, Lily. To truly make love to her, he needs to show her he can take care of her every need."
As he spoke, his fingers lightly caressed her cheek below the blindfold. Leaning in to kiss her, he reassured her, "When I finally make love to you, every other need will have been met."
Lily wasn't sure how much more she could handle. Every touch, every kiss increased her arousal, as evidenced by the growing dampness between her legs. She was glad for a respite when he began asking her questions about herself.
"Tell me about your life, Lily."
Hesitantly at first, she began to explain how she's been married young but happily for just a few short years before her husband was taken by cholera. Overcome by emotion, both from memories of Jeremy and the sweet assault on her senses by Kadar, she began to cry.
"I'm sorry. I should be past crying by now," she said as she lowered her chin to her chest. She may not have been able to see him, but she was sure he was watching her and she didn't want him to see her face.
Silently, he lifted her chin and forced her to face him. Then, very tenderly, he kissed where her tears had fallen on her cheeks but said nothing about her sadness.
"Drink," he ordered as he put a china cup to her lips and tipped it toward her. Slowly, she tasted a very strong tea and its warmth as it flowed down her throat eased her.
"Thank you. That's quite delicious. What kind of tea is it?"
"Chai. It's served black with cardamom. Did you taste that?"
"I thought it was cinnamon."
"No, cardamom is sweeter with a spiciness. Like many great things, it's a mixture of danger and comfort. Like the love I intend to give you."
Lily's eyes grew wide behind the blindfold. So now they'd move on to the lovemaking like she'd had with Jeremy. But his description of love sounded nothing like what she'd done as a wife. There'd been no danger of any sort then.
Tensing, she waited for him to begin, almost afraid of the danger he'd mentioned but desperate for him to ease the ache inside her. But instead of undressing her, she felt his fingers at her mouth ready to feed her again.
"What I'm feeding you now is called Qabili Palau. It's raisins, carrots, and lamb with brown rice. Let it sit on your tongue a few moments before you begin chewing."
Lily did as he said and let the flavors of each ingredient dance over her taste buds before she finished the helping he'd given her. Each individual taste exploded into her mouth in a mixture just as delicious as the previous flavors but distinctly foreign tasting.
To read more from Love's Master and my other books, visit my blog at http://gbisset.blogspot.com/ Readers can also find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002481284652 and Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/gabriellebisset
Love's Master is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, All Romance eBooks, and Smashwords.
Love's Master
Second in my trilogy of erotic romance novellas set in Victorian England, Love's Master is at its heart the story of a woman who finds someone who she can truly be herself with, and that includes being the submissive she yearns to be.
Blurb: 23 year old Lily finds herself widowed and forced to live with her brother and his family, including his eight year old son William, who is nothing short of a terror. Sure she cannot go another day with his behavior, she begins to search for a new nanny and tutor for her nephew with little success. But when she happens across an advertisement in the Times that seems to be the answer to her problem, she is set on a path that will take her where she's never been before. Victorian England is a place of strict social codes, and the sensual world she enters is strictly forbidden for a woman of her social stature. Her guide in this world is a man named Kadar, and the feelings he stirs in Lily threaten to change her forever. However, Victorian society is never far away, and her brother intends on seeing his sister remarried and settled into a home near him in Regent's Park. Lily will have to choose between Kadar, who makes her feel more alive than she ever believed she could and Captain Mason Danvers, the gentleman who can offer her security and comfort for the rest of her life.
Excerpt The door closed and a mixture of aromas wafted across the room. Sweet and spicy smells filled her nose, along with other fragrances she couldn't place at first. The variety was pleasantly overwhelming, and she breathed in deeply trying experience each of them.
She sensed him sitting in front of her, but she remained still as he'd ordered. Her fear had faded, and now she waited for him to hand her a plate and fork to eat the delicious food he'd kindly prepared for her.
"Lily, have you ever been fed by a man who wants to make love to you?"
The effect of his frank words left her speechless, and she merely shook her head. Was he going to feed her before they made love? Just the thought of it was more erotic than anything she'd ever heard of, let alone done.
"Open your mouth," he said in his softly commanding tone that made her wish they were already finished with the meal and moved on to what was to follow.
She obeyed and tasted something sweet on her tongue. A wedge of orange exploded juice into her mouth as she bit into it. When she'd finished, his lips pressed against hers, and he kissed her, slipping his tongue into her mouth and tasting the remaining juice from the fruit.
As he pulled away, he whispered against her lips, "Delicious."
She heard him open something, possibly a jar, and then he returned to her and ordered her to open her mouth again. When she did, he stuck his finger in and she closed her lips to suck sweet honey from it. Never before had honey tasted so incredibly good! Aroused, she playfully flicked her tongue against his fingertip as he slowly withdrew his cleaned finger.
Lily licked her lips and waited for the next taste she'd experience, but as she sat there, she realized she'd never learned the name of the man who was feeding her and soon would be inside her.
"What's your name?"
She heard him stop what he was doing next to her, and for a tense moment, she worried she'd done something wrong by asking.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." she began, but let her voice trail off when she felt his lips brush the shell of her ear and his hand encircle her neck.
"Kadar."
As his hand glided down her neck to rest on her collarbone, she said, "Kadar," repeating his name as if to seal it in her memory.
Again, he kissed her, his tongue sensually gliding over hers and tasting the sweetness he'd just given her. His kiss, long and passionate, tasted better than any food she'd ever eaten.
He pulled away too soon, and she wished he would end his feeding her and proceed to making love to her. When he began to speak again, she sensed he saw the disappointment on her face.
"When a man truly makes love to a woman, it's more than just thrusting his cock in and out of her, Lily. To truly make love to her, he needs to show her he can take care of her every need."
As he spoke, his fingers lightly caressed her cheek below the blindfold. Leaning in to kiss her, he reassured her, "When I finally make love to you, every other need will have been met."
Lily wasn't sure how much more she could handle. Every touch, every kiss increased her arousal, as evidenced by the growing dampness between her legs. She was glad for a respite when he began asking her questions about herself.
"Tell me about your life, Lily."
Hesitantly at first, she began to explain how she's been married young but happily for just a few short years before her husband was taken by cholera. Overcome by emotion, both from memories of Jeremy and the sweet assault on her senses by Kadar, she began to cry.
"I'm sorry. I should be past crying by now," she said as she lowered her chin to her chest. She may not have been able to see him, but she was sure he was watching her and she didn't want him to see her face.
Silently, he lifted her chin and forced her to face him. Then, very tenderly, he kissed where her tears had fallen on her cheeks but said nothing about her sadness.
"Drink," he ordered as he put a china cup to her lips and tipped it toward her. Slowly, she tasted a very strong tea and its warmth as it flowed down her throat eased her.
"Thank you. That's quite delicious. What kind of tea is it?"
"Chai. It's served black with cardamom. Did you taste that?"
"I thought it was cinnamon."
"No, cardamom is sweeter with a spiciness. Like many great things, it's a mixture of danger and comfort. Like the love I intend to give you."
Lily's eyes grew wide behind the blindfold. So now they'd move on to the lovemaking like she'd had with Jeremy. But his description of love sounded nothing like what she'd done as a wife. There'd been no danger of any sort then.
Tensing, she waited for him to begin, almost afraid of the danger he'd mentioned but desperate for him to ease the ache inside her. But instead of undressing her, she felt his fingers at her mouth ready to feed her again.
"What I'm feeding you now is called Qabili Palau. It's raisins, carrots, and lamb with brown rice. Let it sit on your tongue a few moments before you begin chewing."
Lily did as he said and let the flavors of each ingredient dance over her taste buds before she finished the helping he'd given her. Each individual taste exploded into her mouth in a mixture just as delicious as the previous flavors but distinctly foreign tasting.
To read more from Love's Master and my other books, visit my blog at http://gbisset.blogspot.com/ Readers can also find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002481284652 and Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/gabriellebisset
Love's Master is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, All Romance eBooks, and Smashwords.
August 22, 2011
Manday hottie
It's that time again. Yes, it's the start of another week but that also means that it's Manday again at my blog and my Facebook. This week I'm sticking with Jed Hill, although I do have some yummy Joshua Kloss pictures to post still, and I'm giving you a double treat on my blog as I'm in a good mood.
So, here's your sweet treat to kick off this week!
I cannot think of a better view I would like to see on looking up at a balcony... that towel is way too big though! It needs to be a heck of a lot smaller :)
Here's your extra treat...
I'll play ball with that hunk! Wouldn't you?
Which is your favourite picture this week?
So, here's your sweet treat to kick off this week!
I cannot think of a better view I would like to see on looking up at a balcony... that towel is way too big though! It needs to be a heck of a lot smaller :)
Here's your extra treat...
I'll play ball with that hunk! Wouldn't you?
Which is your favourite picture this week?
August 20, 2011
Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #4) - Chapter Four
It's time for another chapter of
Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel romance series #4)
as part of my Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour. I'll be posting the first five chapters for FREE. You can find them all by clicking here: Her Guardian Angel chapters
Her Guardian Angel is currently available in e-book direct from my website, Amazon Kindle Stores, and Smashwords. It will soon be available from Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Apple iBookstore, and also as a paperback from Amazon sites.
Other stories in the Her Angel series are: Her Dark Angel , Her Fallen Angel and Her Warrior Angel . Details of them and where they are available in e-book and paperback can be found at my website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebookseries.php?series=Her%20Angel
Her Guardian Angel
Felicity Heaton
A simple mission becomes a fight for survival in this fantastic instalment in the Her Angel series.
A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia's trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings for the beautiful woman he has watched over since her birth.
Amelia has gone from one bad relationship to another, so when a gorgeous guy moves in next door looking like Mr Right, she hopes he doesn't turn out to be another black knight in disguise. But there's more to Marcus than meets the eye, and when he rescues her from three demonic men, Amelia is thrust into his nightmarish world—a world where God and the Devil exist, and only one angel can save her from death—Marcus, the angel she's falling in love with.
On the run from demonic angels and the Devil himself, aided by Marcus's angel friends and their amazing women, fighting for survival against the odds, Marcus and Amelia discover a love that will last forever.
A love so strong it will shake Heaven and Hell.
ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal angel romance
length: 110000 words
rating: sultry
released: July 2011
Book 4 in the Her Angel series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
CHAPTER FOURAmelia sat back in her seat when Marcus took his hand away from hers and leaned back in his chair. She toyed with her slim black mobile phone for a moment to distract herself from the disturbed look on Marcus's face. When he didn't stop glaring at her, she put her phone down on the round dark metal table and nursed her drink, feeling incredibly foolish for taking hold of his hand. She sipped her coffee, grimacing internally as the cold liquid touched her tongue. Nothing was going right for her today. No, some things had been going right. She hadn't been imagining the way Marcus's eyes had lingered on her body, or how quick he was to smile at her whenever she smiled at him. Those smiles had reached his beautiful silver-blue eyes too, lighting them in a way that wasn't fake and that told her they were real this time, not the usual polite ones he forced whenever someone spoke to him.
He had been different since last night.
She wasn't usually in the habit of relying on men to fight her battles for her but she had appreciated his intervention. It was the first time that a man had come to her rescue and when he had punched Mike, her heart had fluttered and she had looked at Marcus with new eyes. She had noticed him the moment he had moved in next door to her, had registered him as handsome, but she had never really taken the time to look at him. The man had a body that could put models to shame and she hadn't stopped wondering what he did for a profession since setting eyes on it. Was he a model? She hoped to God he wasn't a hand model because her own stupid choice of men had gone and wrecked one of his lovely strong hands.
Amelia stared at his injured one, her heart beating hard in her throat. He had large hands, made for cupping and holding, or made for fighting. He had landed a hefty punch on Mike, sending him down with one blow, and for a brief moment she had feared he wasn't going to get back up. She had almost gone to him but then instinct had kicked in and reminded her that Mike had been intent on fighting Marcus. He must have been drunk. Only an idiot would pick a fight with Marcus if they were sober, and Mike wasn't that stupid. He should have known he didn't stand a chance.
Marcus had a seriously cut physique, lithe muscles that radiated strength and raw masculinity.
Once she had noticed that he was topless, it had been difficult not to stare. The few times that she had managed to peel her eyes off his body and found the courage to meet his, he had been looking at her with wide pupils darkening his amazing eyes, a sure sign of desire.
So why had he been so quick to snatch his hand away from hers?
Amelia almost laughed at herself. Since when had she given a damn about what men thought of her? Men were trouble. Mike had hammered that nail so firmly into her head that she had got the message this time. Men were something she could live without and that life would certainly be a lot easier and less painful than hers had been up to this point.
Her eyes betrayed her and snuck back to Marcus. He sat opposite her with his head tilted back and eyes on the sky. The lines of his defined jaw led her gaze up to his square chin and sensual mouth and her pulse picked up, jittery in its beat, when she licked her lips and contemplated what kissing him would be like. He lowered his head, their eyes met and then he looked away, an air of irritation about him.
Her fault?
She had taken his hand last night when icing his knuckles and he hadn't reacted so coldly then. If anything, the desire in his eyes had increased. What had happened between then and today? Had she said or done something wrong? She could have sworn that she had read the signals right and that Marcus liked her. Now she felt as though a vast frigid ocean had opened between them and that she would drown if she tried to traverse it to reach him.
She wanted to.
Last night had opened her eyes to the fact that there was a fantastic man living next door to her and since then she had felt tied up in knots, twisted inside out and back to front. She had never been backwards about being forward before but something about Marcus made her hesitate. It wasn't just because he would think she was rebounding. It was because he seemed like a nice guy, a cut above gorgeous in looks and personality, and she didn't want to screw things up. He had been on her mind all day and she had tried to think of a way to bump into him again so she could strike up a conversation and get to know him better. When she had spotted him outside their building, it had felt as though fate had brought them together, but her nerve had failed at the sight of him standing staring at the floor as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world. He hadn't heard her at first. It had taken her three attempts before he had lifted his head and noticed her, and by then her confidence had been shattered. Had he been thinking too?
About her?
Amelia rolled her eyes at her thoughts. As if. The poor man was sleep-deprived thanks to her terrible choice in men. He had probably been spacing out just as she had said he was, unable to function with only a few hours sleep. When he had gone back to his own apartment half an hour after she had iced his left hand, she hadn't heard a peep out of him until gone six in the morning when there had been some movement next door. She hadn't been able to sleep herself. Fear had kept her awake and she had watched one movie after another in an attempt to push it to the back of her mind. She was running on empty today, half asleep and feeling as though what had been a dream was turning into a nightmare.
Amelia leaned one elbow on the metal table and stared at Marcus, studying the nuances that crossed his handsome face as he watched the people passing them by on the pavement. For all she knew, Marcus was Mr Right for someone already. It wouldn't surprise her. He had looks, a fabulous body, was quick to defend women, and had proven himself intelligent in the brief conversations they had shared. Her younger sister would have taken one look at him, with his dark tousled hair that caressed the nape of his neck and sometimes fell down to brush his forehead, causing him to sweep his fingers through it to groom it back, incredible pale blue eyes, and scorching hot body, and declared him 'smexy'. Smart and sexy apparently. Her mother would have taken one look at him and told her that he was a keeper and not to give up on him.
Someone else was probably already keeping him.
Maybe that was why he had taken his hand back so quickly.
Marcus looked across the table at her and Amelia felt cold inside from the emptiness in his eyes. Where had the nice Marcus gone? Had she chased him away? A sense of impatience surrounded him, as though he didn't want to sit with her anymore, and he couldn't hold her gaze for more than a few seconds.
Amelia mused that he was always detached from everyone and distant. She shouldn't be so surprised that he had withdrawn from her.
"I wouldn't be any good for you," he said, his deep voice as devoid of emotion as his face, and Amelia held her hands up, desperate to shift the course of conversation away from her feelings. "You are better off keeping away from me."
"I didn't mean it like that." She had but he didn't need to know that. Her heart ached as he crushed it in her chest with just a glance and a handful of words. She blushed, her face on fire, and stuttered, trying to get an excuse into order.
She couldn't find the words as he stared at her, his expression gradually turning from awkwardness towards anger, and she knew in her heart that she couldn't have been more wrong about him.
His appearance now was a harsh contrast to how he had looked just a few minutes ago and last night. The heat that had touched his handsome features then, warming them and giving her the impression that she stood a chance with him, and the undeniable spark of desire that had lit his eyes, made her feel as though she had met a different person in that moment and not the real Marcus.
Perhaps all her thoughts about him were wrong, even last night, and he was right. She really didn't know anything about him. Her white knight might just be another black one in disguise and she really didn't need that on top of everything else. What would she do if Marcus turned out to be another wrong choice when he looked so much like a good man? It would certainly compound the growing notion inside her that she was doomed to spend her life with a string of Mr Wrongs in an impossible search for one Mr Right.
"Did I thank you for last night?" Desperate times called for desperate measures. All she could do now was try to deflect his attention away from what she had done in some dire hope of easing the tension mounting between them.
He nodded. Silent treatment was it? He was the first man to do that to her, but it wasn't going to deter her. Once they were back on steady ground, she would make her excuses and leave, and hopefully things wouldn't be too awkward between them whenever they met in the hallways of their apartment building.
"Was your coffee good?" Amelia looked at the white mug. He had barely touched it. In fact, he hadn't done or said much since sitting down with her. He really didn't want to be here. Had he only agreed to coffee out of politeness?
Marcus lifted his broad shoulders in a shrug. He had looked so good in only his deep grey sweat pants, his bare upper body on display as a midnight feast for her eyes. She tried to keep her focus on the more pressing matters of her present situation and failed, ending up picturing him as he had appeared last night instead. He had an athletic physique, toned and powerful but not overly built. The sort of body she would love to run her fingers over and had fantasised about. The sweat pants had barely hidden the muscular shape of his thighs and had rode low on his hips, revealing a V line that had stirred all manner of wicked thoughts in her head, as well as a treasure trail of dark hair that her lips and fingers ached to follow. When he had punched Mike, his entire body had come alive with movement, fascinating her. The way his muscles shifted and moved with him, tensing or stretching beneath his pale skin, had been mesmerising. It had taken her a moment to realise that Mike was flat on his backside and that she should react to it in some way other than gawping at Marcus.
When she had taken him into her apartment and iced his knuckles, she had put his body to memory, including the beautiful tattoo of angel wings he had on his back. She hadn't figured him as a tattoo type so the swirling blue-grey elaborate wings that decorated his shoulder blades had surprised her. She had wanted to ask him about them but hadn't been able to find her voice at the time, and asking him about them now certainly wouldn't help her cause, not when she wanted to ask him why such an elementally masculine man had such beautifully delicate tattoos. They seemed like a strange choice.
Unless he was gay.
Was that a possibility?
Amelia's gaze darted to his face and her eyes widened when she caught him staring at her chest. He quickly looked away, turning his right cheek to her and taking in the people walking along the street, lending her a view of his noble profile. Bi? He was gorgeous, clearly looked after himself, and also kept to himself. Was that a bad sign? Amelia frowned at her thoughts. She was overanalysing things. Just because he was good looking and not interested in her didn't mean he was gay or involved in a relationship, or any of those things that she wanted him to be so she would feel better about his rejection.
He just didn't find her attractive.
He had said it straight. Stay away.
Maybe she would do just that.
Amelia went to pick up her black leather handbag and then hesitated. Flushed with bravery and unwilling to give up so easily, she fixed Marcus with a hard look and was surprised when he turned his head and looked at her, as though he had felt her staring.
"Is something wrong?" Not a trace of a tremble in her voice. Her heart pounded, adrenaline thundering in her veins, but she held her ground. It was a horribly personal question to ask him but she had to find out whether his reaction to her touch was because he didn't want her or because he did but felt he wasn't good for her, as he had said.
Marcus stared at her for almost a full minute, the fading evening light reflecting off the windows and his white shirt, illuminating his face and chasing the shadows away. The edge of darkness his expression had gained lifted to reveal something that wasn't quite warmth, but wasn't icy cold either.
"Why?" A slight frown pinched his black eyebrows together.
"You… it's just you seem more out of spirits than normal."
He gave her an odd look. It was the truth. He never seemed very happy and now she couldn't help wondering why. His warning to keep away from him had brought back all the previous times she had seen him and the distance he maintained between him and everyone in their building, and now she wanted to know whether the man sitting opposite her was more similar to her than she had thought possible.
Did he go from one bad experience to the next too?
He had to have a reason for wanting to keep his distance from everyone and not letting anyone in. Was he afraid of being hurt or feeling something for someone? She feared that too, entered into relationships believing that eventually they would end and she would be hurt, but as much as she tried to live alone and be the independent woman she wanted to be, she couldn't help feeling lonely and wanting to share her life with someone.
For a brief moment, Marcus had seemed like someone she could do that with, and this time she had felt it wouldn't end in tears.
He could have been her Mr Right, but such a man wouldn't have told her to keep away from him. That hadn't been in her dream of what would happen today when she bumped into him. She hadn't anticipated that response at all. She couldn't blame him though. Chatty old Mrs McCartney next door had probably told him all about her poor choice in men and he was telling her to keep away because he didn't want to get sucked into her miserable life.
Amelia jumped when her mobile phone rang, the jaunty tune breaking the heavy silence as it buzzed on the table. Marcus frowned, his blue eyes darting to it. She wanted to ignore it, knowing that it would be Mike calling to chew her ear off about last night and make her feel wretched for the rest of the weekend, but the ring was so loud that people around her were staring.
Instead of answering, she picked it up, put her handbag on the table, and dumped the phone into it, muffling the annoying ringtone.
"Why didn't you answer it?" Marcus stared at her bag. Amelia tapped the table, cringing inside and wishing the phone would stop ringing.
"It's my ex." Ignoring him was preferable to speaking with him.
Marcus surprised her by reaching across the table, fishing the phone out of her handbag, and flicking it open. Amelia could only stare as he brought the phone to his ear, his face set in grim dark lines, and glared at the table as though he wanted to kill it.
"I thought I told you to leave Amelia alone?" He paused, his expression darkening further and the muscle in his jaw tensing. Amelia's heart pounded hard and she wished she could hear what Mike was saying to Marcus, because he looked close to going ahead and breaking something. Anger radiated from him in strong waves and everyone stared as he barked into the phone, "Stay away from her because the next time you dare to go near her, I'm not going to be so kind as to let you walk away."
Amelia's hands shook, her limbs trembling with them, and she joined everyone in staring at Marcus as he clicked the phone shut and dropped it back into her purse. What had just happened?
He had defended her again when she had been convinced that he wanted nothing to do with her.
His eyes met hers across the table and the trace of compassion in them only confused her further. He blinked slowly, dark lashes shuttering his pale blue irises, stealing them from view before lifting again to reveal the full extent of their beauty. Warmth shone in them, a softness that reached out and curled around her, filling her with a sense of safety even as her whole body quaked with the fear that Mike wouldn't heed Marcus's warning and would come after her again.
"I won't let him near you, Amelia. You don't have to worry about him. I will keep you safe." Those words, so softly spoken in his deep voice, weren't a lie. There was truth in his eyes and his open expression, and she believed him.
She just wasn't sure what to make of him.
What sort of man told a woman to stay away from him and then promised to keep her safe?
Marcus was an enigma and something inside her was telling her to take his advice and keep away from him, because if he turned out to be another black knight and broke her heart, she didn't think she would recover from it.
She gathered her things, rose from her seat and hesitated only long enough to catch the confusion surfacing in his eyes before making a swift exit.
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
Be sure to come back next week for the next free chapter of this angel romance novel!
Her Guardian Angel is currently available in e-book direct from my website, Amazon Kindle Stores, and Smashwords. It will soon be available from Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Apple iBookstore, and also as a paperback from Amazon sites.
Other stories in the Her Angel series are: Her Dark Angel , Her Fallen Angel and Her Warrior Angel . Details of them and where they are available in e-book and paperback can be found at my website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebookseries.php?series=Her%20Angel
Her Guardian Angel
Felicity HeatonA simple mission becomes a fight for survival in this fantastic instalment in the Her Angel series.
A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia's trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings for the beautiful woman he has watched over since her birth.
Amelia has gone from one bad relationship to another, so when a gorgeous guy moves in next door looking like Mr Right, she hopes he doesn't turn out to be another black knight in disguise. But there's more to Marcus than meets the eye, and when he rescues her from three demonic men, Amelia is thrust into his nightmarish world—a world where God and the Devil exist, and only one angel can save her from death—Marcus, the angel she's falling in love with.
On the run from demonic angels and the Devil himself, aided by Marcus's angel friends and their amazing women, fighting for survival against the odds, Marcus and Amelia discover a love that will last forever.
A love so strong it will shake Heaven and Hell.
ebook price: $3.99
genre: paranormal angel romance
length: 110000 words
rating: sultry
released: July 2011
Book 4 in the Her Angel series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
CHAPTER FOURAmelia sat back in her seat when Marcus took his hand away from hers and leaned back in his chair. She toyed with her slim black mobile phone for a moment to distract herself from the disturbed look on Marcus's face. When he didn't stop glaring at her, she put her phone down on the round dark metal table and nursed her drink, feeling incredibly foolish for taking hold of his hand. She sipped her coffee, grimacing internally as the cold liquid touched her tongue. Nothing was going right for her today. No, some things had been going right. She hadn't been imagining the way Marcus's eyes had lingered on her body, or how quick he was to smile at her whenever she smiled at him. Those smiles had reached his beautiful silver-blue eyes too, lighting them in a way that wasn't fake and that told her they were real this time, not the usual polite ones he forced whenever someone spoke to him.
He had been different since last night.
She wasn't usually in the habit of relying on men to fight her battles for her but she had appreciated his intervention. It was the first time that a man had come to her rescue and when he had punched Mike, her heart had fluttered and she had looked at Marcus with new eyes. She had noticed him the moment he had moved in next door to her, had registered him as handsome, but she had never really taken the time to look at him. The man had a body that could put models to shame and she hadn't stopped wondering what he did for a profession since setting eyes on it. Was he a model? She hoped to God he wasn't a hand model because her own stupid choice of men had gone and wrecked one of his lovely strong hands.
Amelia stared at his injured one, her heart beating hard in her throat. He had large hands, made for cupping and holding, or made for fighting. He had landed a hefty punch on Mike, sending him down with one blow, and for a brief moment she had feared he wasn't going to get back up. She had almost gone to him but then instinct had kicked in and reminded her that Mike had been intent on fighting Marcus. He must have been drunk. Only an idiot would pick a fight with Marcus if they were sober, and Mike wasn't that stupid. He should have known he didn't stand a chance.
Marcus had a seriously cut physique, lithe muscles that radiated strength and raw masculinity.
Once she had noticed that he was topless, it had been difficult not to stare. The few times that she had managed to peel her eyes off his body and found the courage to meet his, he had been looking at her with wide pupils darkening his amazing eyes, a sure sign of desire.
So why had he been so quick to snatch his hand away from hers?
Amelia almost laughed at herself. Since when had she given a damn about what men thought of her? Men were trouble. Mike had hammered that nail so firmly into her head that she had got the message this time. Men were something she could live without and that life would certainly be a lot easier and less painful than hers had been up to this point.
Her eyes betrayed her and snuck back to Marcus. He sat opposite her with his head tilted back and eyes on the sky. The lines of his defined jaw led her gaze up to his square chin and sensual mouth and her pulse picked up, jittery in its beat, when she licked her lips and contemplated what kissing him would be like. He lowered his head, their eyes met and then he looked away, an air of irritation about him.
Her fault?
She had taken his hand last night when icing his knuckles and he hadn't reacted so coldly then. If anything, the desire in his eyes had increased. What had happened between then and today? Had she said or done something wrong? She could have sworn that she had read the signals right and that Marcus liked her. Now she felt as though a vast frigid ocean had opened between them and that she would drown if she tried to traverse it to reach him.
She wanted to.
Last night had opened her eyes to the fact that there was a fantastic man living next door to her and since then she had felt tied up in knots, twisted inside out and back to front. She had never been backwards about being forward before but something about Marcus made her hesitate. It wasn't just because he would think she was rebounding. It was because he seemed like a nice guy, a cut above gorgeous in looks and personality, and she didn't want to screw things up. He had been on her mind all day and she had tried to think of a way to bump into him again so she could strike up a conversation and get to know him better. When she had spotted him outside their building, it had felt as though fate had brought them together, but her nerve had failed at the sight of him standing staring at the floor as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world. He hadn't heard her at first. It had taken her three attempts before he had lifted his head and noticed her, and by then her confidence had been shattered. Had he been thinking too?
About her?
Amelia rolled her eyes at her thoughts. As if. The poor man was sleep-deprived thanks to her terrible choice in men. He had probably been spacing out just as she had said he was, unable to function with only a few hours sleep. When he had gone back to his own apartment half an hour after she had iced his left hand, she hadn't heard a peep out of him until gone six in the morning when there had been some movement next door. She hadn't been able to sleep herself. Fear had kept her awake and she had watched one movie after another in an attempt to push it to the back of her mind. She was running on empty today, half asleep and feeling as though what had been a dream was turning into a nightmare.
Amelia leaned one elbow on the metal table and stared at Marcus, studying the nuances that crossed his handsome face as he watched the people passing them by on the pavement. For all she knew, Marcus was Mr Right for someone already. It wouldn't surprise her. He had looks, a fabulous body, was quick to defend women, and had proven himself intelligent in the brief conversations they had shared. Her younger sister would have taken one look at him, with his dark tousled hair that caressed the nape of his neck and sometimes fell down to brush his forehead, causing him to sweep his fingers through it to groom it back, incredible pale blue eyes, and scorching hot body, and declared him 'smexy'. Smart and sexy apparently. Her mother would have taken one look at him and told her that he was a keeper and not to give up on him.
Someone else was probably already keeping him.
Maybe that was why he had taken his hand back so quickly.
Marcus looked across the table at her and Amelia felt cold inside from the emptiness in his eyes. Where had the nice Marcus gone? Had she chased him away? A sense of impatience surrounded him, as though he didn't want to sit with her anymore, and he couldn't hold her gaze for more than a few seconds.
Amelia mused that he was always detached from everyone and distant. She shouldn't be so surprised that he had withdrawn from her.
"I wouldn't be any good for you," he said, his deep voice as devoid of emotion as his face, and Amelia held her hands up, desperate to shift the course of conversation away from her feelings. "You are better off keeping away from me."
"I didn't mean it like that." She had but he didn't need to know that. Her heart ached as he crushed it in her chest with just a glance and a handful of words. She blushed, her face on fire, and stuttered, trying to get an excuse into order.
She couldn't find the words as he stared at her, his expression gradually turning from awkwardness towards anger, and she knew in her heart that she couldn't have been more wrong about him.
His appearance now was a harsh contrast to how he had looked just a few minutes ago and last night. The heat that had touched his handsome features then, warming them and giving her the impression that she stood a chance with him, and the undeniable spark of desire that had lit his eyes, made her feel as though she had met a different person in that moment and not the real Marcus.
Perhaps all her thoughts about him were wrong, even last night, and he was right. She really didn't know anything about him. Her white knight might just be another black one in disguise and she really didn't need that on top of everything else. What would she do if Marcus turned out to be another wrong choice when he looked so much like a good man? It would certainly compound the growing notion inside her that she was doomed to spend her life with a string of Mr Wrongs in an impossible search for one Mr Right.
"Did I thank you for last night?" Desperate times called for desperate measures. All she could do now was try to deflect his attention away from what she had done in some dire hope of easing the tension mounting between them.
He nodded. Silent treatment was it? He was the first man to do that to her, but it wasn't going to deter her. Once they were back on steady ground, she would make her excuses and leave, and hopefully things wouldn't be too awkward between them whenever they met in the hallways of their apartment building.
"Was your coffee good?" Amelia looked at the white mug. He had barely touched it. In fact, he hadn't done or said much since sitting down with her. He really didn't want to be here. Had he only agreed to coffee out of politeness?
Marcus lifted his broad shoulders in a shrug. He had looked so good in only his deep grey sweat pants, his bare upper body on display as a midnight feast for her eyes. She tried to keep her focus on the more pressing matters of her present situation and failed, ending up picturing him as he had appeared last night instead. He had an athletic physique, toned and powerful but not overly built. The sort of body she would love to run her fingers over and had fantasised about. The sweat pants had barely hidden the muscular shape of his thighs and had rode low on his hips, revealing a V line that had stirred all manner of wicked thoughts in her head, as well as a treasure trail of dark hair that her lips and fingers ached to follow. When he had punched Mike, his entire body had come alive with movement, fascinating her. The way his muscles shifted and moved with him, tensing or stretching beneath his pale skin, had been mesmerising. It had taken her a moment to realise that Mike was flat on his backside and that she should react to it in some way other than gawping at Marcus.
When she had taken him into her apartment and iced his knuckles, she had put his body to memory, including the beautiful tattoo of angel wings he had on his back. She hadn't figured him as a tattoo type so the swirling blue-grey elaborate wings that decorated his shoulder blades had surprised her. She had wanted to ask him about them but hadn't been able to find her voice at the time, and asking him about them now certainly wouldn't help her cause, not when she wanted to ask him why such an elementally masculine man had such beautifully delicate tattoos. They seemed like a strange choice.
Unless he was gay.
Was that a possibility?
Amelia's gaze darted to his face and her eyes widened when she caught him staring at her chest. He quickly looked away, turning his right cheek to her and taking in the people walking along the street, lending her a view of his noble profile. Bi? He was gorgeous, clearly looked after himself, and also kept to himself. Was that a bad sign? Amelia frowned at her thoughts. She was overanalysing things. Just because he was good looking and not interested in her didn't mean he was gay or involved in a relationship, or any of those things that she wanted him to be so she would feel better about his rejection.
He just didn't find her attractive.
He had said it straight. Stay away.
Maybe she would do just that.
Amelia went to pick up her black leather handbag and then hesitated. Flushed with bravery and unwilling to give up so easily, she fixed Marcus with a hard look and was surprised when he turned his head and looked at her, as though he had felt her staring.
"Is something wrong?" Not a trace of a tremble in her voice. Her heart pounded, adrenaline thundering in her veins, but she held her ground. It was a horribly personal question to ask him but she had to find out whether his reaction to her touch was because he didn't want her or because he did but felt he wasn't good for her, as he had said.
Marcus stared at her for almost a full minute, the fading evening light reflecting off the windows and his white shirt, illuminating his face and chasing the shadows away. The edge of darkness his expression had gained lifted to reveal something that wasn't quite warmth, but wasn't icy cold either.
"Why?" A slight frown pinched his black eyebrows together.
"You… it's just you seem more out of spirits than normal."
He gave her an odd look. It was the truth. He never seemed very happy and now she couldn't help wondering why. His warning to keep away from him had brought back all the previous times she had seen him and the distance he maintained between him and everyone in their building, and now she wanted to know whether the man sitting opposite her was more similar to her than she had thought possible.
Did he go from one bad experience to the next too?
He had to have a reason for wanting to keep his distance from everyone and not letting anyone in. Was he afraid of being hurt or feeling something for someone? She feared that too, entered into relationships believing that eventually they would end and she would be hurt, but as much as she tried to live alone and be the independent woman she wanted to be, she couldn't help feeling lonely and wanting to share her life with someone.
For a brief moment, Marcus had seemed like someone she could do that with, and this time she had felt it wouldn't end in tears.
He could have been her Mr Right, but such a man wouldn't have told her to keep away from him. That hadn't been in her dream of what would happen today when she bumped into him. She hadn't anticipated that response at all. She couldn't blame him though. Chatty old Mrs McCartney next door had probably told him all about her poor choice in men and he was telling her to keep away because he didn't want to get sucked into her miserable life.
Amelia jumped when her mobile phone rang, the jaunty tune breaking the heavy silence as it buzzed on the table. Marcus frowned, his blue eyes darting to it. She wanted to ignore it, knowing that it would be Mike calling to chew her ear off about last night and make her feel wretched for the rest of the weekend, but the ring was so loud that people around her were staring.
Instead of answering, she picked it up, put her handbag on the table, and dumped the phone into it, muffling the annoying ringtone.
"Why didn't you answer it?" Marcus stared at her bag. Amelia tapped the table, cringing inside and wishing the phone would stop ringing.
"It's my ex." Ignoring him was preferable to speaking with him.
Marcus surprised her by reaching across the table, fishing the phone out of her handbag, and flicking it open. Amelia could only stare as he brought the phone to his ear, his face set in grim dark lines, and glared at the table as though he wanted to kill it.
"I thought I told you to leave Amelia alone?" He paused, his expression darkening further and the muscle in his jaw tensing. Amelia's heart pounded hard and she wished she could hear what Mike was saying to Marcus, because he looked close to going ahead and breaking something. Anger radiated from him in strong waves and everyone stared as he barked into the phone, "Stay away from her because the next time you dare to go near her, I'm not going to be so kind as to let you walk away."
Amelia's hands shook, her limbs trembling with them, and she joined everyone in staring at Marcus as he clicked the phone shut and dropped it back into her purse. What had just happened?
He had defended her again when she had been convinced that he wanted nothing to do with her.
His eyes met hers across the table and the trace of compassion in them only confused her further. He blinked slowly, dark lashes shuttering his pale blue irises, stealing them from view before lifting again to reveal the full extent of their beauty. Warmth shone in them, a softness that reached out and curled around her, filling her with a sense of safety even as her whole body quaked with the fear that Mike wouldn't heed Marcus's warning and would come after her again.
"I won't let him near you, Amelia. You don't have to worry about him. I will keep you safe." Those words, so softly spoken in his deep voice, weren't a lie. There was truth in his eyes and his open expression, and she believed him.
She just wasn't sure what to make of him.
What sort of man told a woman to stay away from him and then promised to keep her safe?
Marcus was an enigma and something inside her was telling her to take his advice and keep away from him, because if he turned out to be another black knight and broke her heart, she didn't think she would recover from it.
She gathered her things, rose from her seat and hesitated only long enough to catch the confusion surfacing in his eyes before making a swift exit.
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776
Be sure to come back next week for the next free chapter of this angel romance novel!
August 16, 2011
Teaseday - Her Warrior Angel - Her Angel Romance Series
It's Teaseday and this week it's brought to you by HER WARRIOR ANGEL. We've already had the first chapter of Her Warrior Angel as a Teaseday, so now it's time for a new teaser for this angel romance book in my Her Angel romance series
Read chapter one of Her Warrior Angel at my website
On to the tease...
Her Warrior Angel
Felicity Heaton
Einar is one of Heaven's best hunters and he's on a mission to uncover why an angel was working with demons. When he finds the first demon fighting a beautiful woman named Taylor, he intervenes and saves her life. Taylor has spent her whole life protecting London from the lowest demons and she's not about to let an angel waltz into her city and take over her job, and she's certainly not about to fall in love with him, even if he is gorgeous. The reason why she can't is simple—she's half demon.
There is no love in this world more forbidden than that between an angel and a demon.
Sense tells Taylor to get out before she gets her heart broken, but she winds up convincing Einar to partner with her instead. Einar is certain that working with Taylor is a bad idea, and not only because he can't focus when he's around her, but he can't let her go. The mission leads them deep into the city's underworld, where old flames burn Taylor while new flames of passion and fear of the consequences consume them, and the threat of Einar's demons hangs over them both.
Can a love so forbidden ever have a happy ending or are they destined to break each other's hearts?
ALL OF THE STORIES IN THE HER ANGEL SERIES STAND ALONE, JOINED BY CHARACTER AND WORLD ONLY, AND DO NOT NEED TO BE READ IN ORDER.
ebook price: $2.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal angel romance
length: 36000 words
rating: sultry
released: November 2010
Book 3 in the Her Angel series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Warrior%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004CFAS06/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004CFAS06/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004CFAS06/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Warrior-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940011180330/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31060
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/her-warrior-angel-her-angel-romance-series/_/R-400000000000000322708
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1456489836/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489836/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/9781456489830/
EXCERPTTaylor shivered against Einar's broad breastplate as he carried her into the brightly lit cream foyer of a grand hotel. She peered through the dark curtain of her hair, keeping her face obscured to hide the blood on it. No one stared at them, which meant two things. This was the sort of upmarket hotel where staff didn't ask questions, not even when a guest walked in at gone midnight carrying a woman as though she was a damsel in distress, and they couldn't see his wings.
He had paused outside and she knew that he had been changing his appearance. When he'd looked at her, she'd feigned surprise, afraid that he would realise that she could see through his glamour, and could still see his armour and his tawny wings. She needed to get the poison out of her system, and this angel wasn't lying when he said that he could do such a thing for her. It was quicker and easier to let him tend to her than trying to find the local demon medic to get rid it for her. She had been foolish. Trying to run from him had quickened the spread of the poison through her body and it was on the verge of entering the final phase and killing her.
Einar looked impatient as they stood in the lift, heading upwards. Did he know how deep the poison was in her body now? Would it be too late to save her? He glanced down when she took hold of his chest armour and gripped it. Her breathing turned shaky when panic sparked through her. She focused on him to drive it away again.
"Just a few moments longer," he whispered and the soft deep sound of his voice soothed her. "Hold on."
His rich brown eyes met hers, the flecks of gold in them shifting in a way that an angel's irises did. When she had met her first angel, that had scared her more than the wings. Nothing about them felt real. It never had. They weren't of this world. They were something else.
Taylor looked deep into Einar's eyes.
He seemed real though, and looked handsome with his eyes brimming with concern and his grip on her tight and reassuring. He smiled when the lift pinged and the doors opened.
"Keep holding on," he said and she nodded, lost in his gaze.
He walked down a warmly lit corridor with her and then she held on to his neck when he struggled to open the door while holding her. Her fingers brushed the back of his neck, grazing the strands of his mousy ponytail, and she cursed herself for the way it affected her. Teasing him earlier had fired her up, and she had been surprised when she had pulled back and seen in his eyes that it had affected him too.
She knew angels weren't saints, and that they were as frivolous and passionate as the next man when given the chance, but she hadn't expected him to be affected by her attention and touch.
Unable to resist seeing if it had just been a momentary slip on his part, Taylor pushed her fingers into his hair, loosening it from the band that kept it tied back at the nape of his neck. The waves of golden brown fell down and he stilled. She felt his gaze on her and shyly met it, partly afraid of what she would see. His eyes were brighter, golden like a raptor's, and fixed intently on her. His pupils widened when she curled his hair around her fingers and his lips parted. Desire filled his eyes and she couldn't deny that she was affecting him.
Why?
It wasn't possible that he didn't know the secret she held in her heart and in her blood. It just wasn't possible.
But if he did, he wouldn't look at her that way, with such fire and hunger. He wouldn't look at her at all.
The door swung open. Taylor got the better of herself and removed her hands from his neck, settling them in her lap. She stared at her knees. Einar didn't move. He remained on the threshold of the hotel room, staring at her, his breathing heavy enough that she shifted with it in his arms.
Pain speared her chest. She flinched and pressed her hand to it. It spurred Einar into moving and before she could blink, she was in a bedroom with him. She clutched her chest, burning inside, and breathed deep and steadily. She wasn't afraid. The angel would help her. Her hands trembled and her limbs shook. She wasn't afraid.
She wasn't.
Einar settled her down on the white double bed and she curled up into a ball on her left side, clutching her right arm. She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw. Pain rippled through her, blazing like an inferno, stealing her strength and leaving her shaking. She wasn't afraid.
Panic twisted her stomach.
Okay. She was afraid.
"Shh," Einar said and took hold of her hand. She stared at it a moment, and then rolled onto her back, covered it with her other one and clung to him. He was her only hope now. The poison was too deep in her body. If he couldn't save her, she wouldn't have time to find someone who could. Einar moved her and she was too weak to fight him. He stretched her out on the bed so she lay with her head on the soft downy pillows and her body in a straight line. "Try to keep still."
Taylor's eyes widened when he held his hands out a foot above her, palms facing her, and, like a magician performing a trick, moved them back and forth along the length of her body. And just like magic, a white light appeared, beaming down from his hands, blinding her. She couldn't take her eyes off it though. They tracked it, unable to believe what she was seeing and feeling. Wherever the light touched, she felt warm, weightless, and better.
He moved his hands down to feet and then back up her legs, over her arms and stomach, and then finally settled with one over her chest and one over her head.
"Look at me."
She obeyed the command in his deep voice and stared up into his eyes. They were golden now, bright and sharp, holding hers in a way that was impossible to break free from.
"Keep looking at me."
Taylor nodded. A bright burst of light dulled her vision. Excruciating pain stabbed her heart and head. She gritted her teeth and arched off the bed, clutching the covers and bunching them into her fists. It didn't hurt like this when demons took the poison out.
But then, she had never been this close to dying before.
She tried to keep conscious and keep her eyes on Einar, just as he had said, but dark waves crashed over her, pulling her under. She fought with all of her might but couldn't hold on. They swept her away and she sank into the bed and into the blackness.
When the world finally drifted back and the nightmares receded, she slowly opened her eyes. Her mouth was dry, tacky, and her head felt as though someone was bashing it with a sledgehammer. It throbbed and ached along with the rest of her body. She shuddered and moaned when the ache went deeper, pulsing through her bones. A heavy hand settled against her left shoulder, keeping her on her back as she tried to roll onto her side. She remembered what had happened.
Her blurred vision came into focus and she looked at her right arm. Her jacket was gone, and so was the wound. Not even a scar remained. She swallowed and the pain began to recede, drifting away. A second strong hand came into view. His fingers brushed over her the area where the wound had been and she tracked the length of his arm up to his face. He looked worried again. He wouldn't look that way if he knew about her. He couldn't know, and she didn't want to tell him.
Einar smiled at her, not bright or cheerful, but full of warmth. Taylor told herself that he was an angel. That was the only reason he smiled at her that way. It was his duty to be concerned about damsels in distress. It had nothing to do with her being the one in danger.
But then, he had looked at her with such forceful hunger and passion too.
Had that been real?
Taylor stared up into his eyes for a few seconds. When they met hers, she glanced away, her gaze lighting on his shoulder and then taking in his brown armour. It didn't hide much of his body. All he wore was a breastplate detailed with dull gold, vambraces to protect his forearms, greaves to protect his shins, along with his boots, and a dark loincloth.
He looked like a gladiator, with wings. They were large and furled against his back, as tawny as the rest of him, the long feathers brown but flecked with paler hues of tan and grey. Like an eagle. He had eyes to match that image.
And he was handsome.
There was no denying that.
He was more than handsome. Gorgeous perhaps. Otherworldly. And with muscles to die for. Angels shouldn't have such godly bodies. They only led women into temptation, and she was sure that sort of thing was a sin.
"How long was I out?" she croaked and he sat back on the bed beside her, releasing her shoulder.
"Fourteen hours."
Taylor rubbed her throat. Fourteen hours and she still felt as though she needed to sleep it off. Einar shifted and offered her a tall glass of water. She took it and he moved towards her, leaning over her. He smelt good.
"Here, let me help you."
Taylor didn't fight him as he took hold of her arm with one hand and placed the other against her shoulder blade, helping her sit up. It took a lot out of her just to shuffle into a comfortable position. When she moved backwards to rest against the pillows, his hand slid down to the small of her back, touching the bare skin above the waist of her jeans. A shiver raced through her, bringing warmth in its wake. She stared at him, her thirst forgotten, replaced with something altogether more alarming.
Hunger.
Desire.
Two things she definitely shouldn't be feeling towards an angel.
"Thanks." Taylor shooed him away and sipped the water.
Einar sat beside her again.
The silence was too comfortable.
Taylor looked at her socks. He had taken her boots off. She ran her gaze up her jeans and over her waist. She frowned, glanced around the room, and found what she was looking for on the small wooden table beside the bed.
In a neat row, as though on display, every knife she'd had on her person gleamed under the table lamp.
"I did not want you to hurt yourself. I hope you do not mind that I removed them?"
Taylor frowned at the knives. They were in descending order by size. Either he had been bored while she had been sleeping, or he suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder.
"Not at all," she said, distant as she stared at the knives.
Some of them had been in her jacket, which now lay on a chair across the pale room along with her sword. Others had been sheathed in her boots. And then there were those she'd had strapped against her hips and ribs. The thought of Einar's hands so close to her breasts brought a blush onto her cheeks.
"You do not look well."
Her blush deepened and her gaze shot to Einar. She touched her blazing cheeks. "I'm fine. Tired, and groggy, and in need of some painkillers, but other than that, I'm good, Romeo."
"I wish you would stop calling me that." His eyes narrowed with his frown and his lips compressed. "I have a name, and I have told it to you."
"Oh." Taylor toyed with the glass of water, feeling unsure of herself. She didn't want to get on first name terms with him. Danger lay that way. It was better that they remained barely involved in each other's lives, and not calling him by his name was a good method for achieving that. "Sure."
"Taylor?" he husked and she cringed. He had to go and say it, didn't he?
"Yes?" Her gaze remained glued on the glass. She sipped the water, ran her finger around the base, did everything she could to avoid looking at him.
"Do you know much about the breed of demon you encountered last night?"
That seemed like a safe enough question to answer.
"Yes." She risked it and looked at him. She didn't mean to make eye contact, but hers leapt to his and she stared into them. They mesmerised her as the colours in them shifted and swirled. Not unsettling or scary at all. When his eyes did that, she wanted to look into them forever.
His dark pupils widened, filling his eyes with unmistakable desire, and erotic images of them together on this bed flickered through her mind like old silent movies. Taylor tried to shun them but they wouldn't go, not while he was looking at her with such hunger and need. The message in his eyes was clear, written in ten-foot high neon letters that blazed so brightly they blinded her. Men had given her that 'come get me' look plenty of times before, and she had fallen for it a few of those, wanting the passion their eyes had promised. Some of them had even come good on it. But there was one difference this time. When she had been promised the ride of her life in the past, it had been by men.
Not angels.
That shocked some sense into her.
She cleared her throat. It wasn't going to happen and her body had better get the message soon. It didn't matter just how good Einar looked, and how easily she could fall into his arms and this bed with him. It was wrong and it would turn out badly for her. This was going to be strictly business.
He knew something about the godforsaken scum she had encountered last night. She would bleed him for information on the demons and why they were in her city, deal with them and then dump him. It was the only reason she was going to propose something that would otherwise be the most stupid idea she'd ever had.
"I'll tell you about them on one condition." She raised a single finger, held his gaze, and gave him her best seductive smile. "We work together."
He shook his head.
"There is no reason for you to become involved." His deep voice held a note of warning and his face darkened. "I cannot risk you."
Taylor put the glass of water down and glared at him. "I don't need protecting. I can handle myself. I know this city, and the demons that run it, and if you want that information, you're going to have to work with me to get rid of that pain in the arse breed."
Einar's frown increased. "Like you handled yourself last night?"
She'd been waiting for that one. "You got in the way. I was doing fine until you showed up."
"I was watching you the whole time. You fought well, but he bested you, and you would have been dead had I not intervened."
Taylor sat forward, fury blazing through her and pushing her fatigue to the back of her mind. Who the hell did he think he was? She protected this city with her life, and had done for years before he had shown up to play white knight. She would have been fine if he hadn't got in the way. It was his fault the damned demon had managed to get a claw on her.
"Listen." She took hold of his breastplate at the edges near his shoulders and yanked him towards her. His eyes widened as he jerked forwards and then narrowed again. "Either we work together, or I show you up by killing all of that breed before you. I'm pretty sure that'll look bad on your record. A woman beating you to the kill."
Einar calmly removed her hands from his armour and her anger faltered when he didn't let go of them. He held them, gently cradling her fingers in his, and warmth eased up her arms. She snatched her hands back, rattled by how easily he could calm the darkness inside of her.
"I am already in the lead," he said and sighed. "I am only after another two. Without your information, it may take time for me to find them. People are in danger while those creatures roam the streets. They have killed many over the past four years. Please. Give me the information I need, Taylor."
Why did he have to keep saying her name? Whenever he said it, rolling it off his tongue in a sensual way, she wanted to melt and give him whatever he was asking for. Taking a deep breath, she bolstered her resolve and shook her head.
"This is my city. I protect it. You want to get those demons, then you're gonna have to partner with me."
His dark gaze drifted down over her body, a wicked smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. She could read that look too. It was more 'coming to get you' than 'come get me' this time but unnerved her just as much. She wouldn't relent. If he didn't know about her by now, he would certainly know if he got intimate with her. She didn't want that to happen. She didn't want him to hurt her. Never get involved. Her mother had taught her that and she had obeyed like a good girl, afraid of the consequences if she didn't. She couldn't get involved.
Maybe she should just tell him everything and then leave before things got complicated. She didn't think she could bear someone turning on her, not in the way she was picturing him doing in her head. It would tear her apart inside.
Just as she was resolved to give him the information and leave, he touched her hand and her eyes found his again.
He smiled.
"Deal."
Taylor's stomach dropped two inches.
What had she done?
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Warrior%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004CFAS06/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004CFAS06/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004CFAS06/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Warrior-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940011180330/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31060
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/her-warrior-angel-her-angel-romance-series/_/R-400000000000000322708
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1456489836/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489836/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/9781456489830/
Read more about the Her Angel series at my website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebookseries.php?series=Her%20Angel
Read chapter one of Her Warrior Angel at my website
On to the tease...
Her Warrior Angel
Felicity Heaton
Einar is one of Heaven's best hunters and he's on a mission to uncover why an angel was working with demons. When he finds the first demon fighting a beautiful woman named Taylor, he intervenes and saves her life. Taylor has spent her whole life protecting London from the lowest demons and she's not about to let an angel waltz into her city and take over her job, and she's certainly not about to fall in love with him, even if he is gorgeous. The reason why she can't is simple—she's half demon.
There is no love in this world more forbidden than that between an angel and a demon.
Sense tells Taylor to get out before she gets her heart broken, but she winds up convincing Einar to partner with her instead. Einar is certain that working with Taylor is a bad idea, and not only because he can't focus when he's around her, but he can't let her go. The mission leads them deep into the city's underworld, where old flames burn Taylor while new flames of passion and fear of the consequences consume them, and the threat of Einar's demons hangs over them both.
Can a love so forbidden ever have a happy ending or are they destined to break each other's hearts?
ALL OF THE STORIES IN THE HER ANGEL SERIES STAND ALONE, JOINED BY CHARACTER AND WORLD ONLY, AND DO NOT NEED TO BE READ IN ORDER.
ebook price: $2.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal angel romance
length: 36000 words
rating: sultry
released: November 2010
Book 3 in the Her Angel series
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Warrior%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004CFAS06/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004CFAS06/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004CFAS06/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Warrior-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940011180330/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31060
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/her-warrior-angel-her-angel-romance-series/_/R-400000000000000322708
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1456489836/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489836/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/9781456489830/
EXCERPTTaylor shivered against Einar's broad breastplate as he carried her into the brightly lit cream foyer of a grand hotel. She peered through the dark curtain of her hair, keeping her face obscured to hide the blood on it. No one stared at them, which meant two things. This was the sort of upmarket hotel where staff didn't ask questions, not even when a guest walked in at gone midnight carrying a woman as though she was a damsel in distress, and they couldn't see his wings.
He had paused outside and she knew that he had been changing his appearance. When he'd looked at her, she'd feigned surprise, afraid that he would realise that she could see through his glamour, and could still see his armour and his tawny wings. She needed to get the poison out of her system, and this angel wasn't lying when he said that he could do such a thing for her. It was quicker and easier to let him tend to her than trying to find the local demon medic to get rid it for her. She had been foolish. Trying to run from him had quickened the spread of the poison through her body and it was on the verge of entering the final phase and killing her.
Einar looked impatient as they stood in the lift, heading upwards. Did he know how deep the poison was in her body now? Would it be too late to save her? He glanced down when she took hold of his chest armour and gripped it. Her breathing turned shaky when panic sparked through her. She focused on him to drive it away again.
"Just a few moments longer," he whispered and the soft deep sound of his voice soothed her. "Hold on."
His rich brown eyes met hers, the flecks of gold in them shifting in a way that an angel's irises did. When she had met her first angel, that had scared her more than the wings. Nothing about them felt real. It never had. They weren't of this world. They were something else.
Taylor looked deep into Einar's eyes.
He seemed real though, and looked handsome with his eyes brimming with concern and his grip on her tight and reassuring. He smiled when the lift pinged and the doors opened.
"Keep holding on," he said and she nodded, lost in his gaze.
He walked down a warmly lit corridor with her and then she held on to his neck when he struggled to open the door while holding her. Her fingers brushed the back of his neck, grazing the strands of his mousy ponytail, and she cursed herself for the way it affected her. Teasing him earlier had fired her up, and she had been surprised when she had pulled back and seen in his eyes that it had affected him too.
She knew angels weren't saints, and that they were as frivolous and passionate as the next man when given the chance, but she hadn't expected him to be affected by her attention and touch.
Unable to resist seeing if it had just been a momentary slip on his part, Taylor pushed her fingers into his hair, loosening it from the band that kept it tied back at the nape of his neck. The waves of golden brown fell down and he stilled. She felt his gaze on her and shyly met it, partly afraid of what she would see. His eyes were brighter, golden like a raptor's, and fixed intently on her. His pupils widened when she curled his hair around her fingers and his lips parted. Desire filled his eyes and she couldn't deny that she was affecting him.
Why?
It wasn't possible that he didn't know the secret she held in her heart and in her blood. It just wasn't possible.
But if he did, he wouldn't look at her that way, with such fire and hunger. He wouldn't look at her at all.
The door swung open. Taylor got the better of herself and removed her hands from his neck, settling them in her lap. She stared at her knees. Einar didn't move. He remained on the threshold of the hotel room, staring at her, his breathing heavy enough that she shifted with it in his arms.
Pain speared her chest. She flinched and pressed her hand to it. It spurred Einar into moving and before she could blink, she was in a bedroom with him. She clutched her chest, burning inside, and breathed deep and steadily. She wasn't afraid. The angel would help her. Her hands trembled and her limbs shook. She wasn't afraid.
She wasn't.
Einar settled her down on the white double bed and she curled up into a ball on her left side, clutching her right arm. She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw. Pain rippled through her, blazing like an inferno, stealing her strength and leaving her shaking. She wasn't afraid.
Panic twisted her stomach.
Okay. She was afraid.
"Shh," Einar said and took hold of her hand. She stared at it a moment, and then rolled onto her back, covered it with her other one and clung to him. He was her only hope now. The poison was too deep in her body. If he couldn't save her, she wouldn't have time to find someone who could. Einar moved her and she was too weak to fight him. He stretched her out on the bed so she lay with her head on the soft downy pillows and her body in a straight line. "Try to keep still."
Taylor's eyes widened when he held his hands out a foot above her, palms facing her, and, like a magician performing a trick, moved them back and forth along the length of her body. And just like magic, a white light appeared, beaming down from his hands, blinding her. She couldn't take her eyes off it though. They tracked it, unable to believe what she was seeing and feeling. Wherever the light touched, she felt warm, weightless, and better.
He moved his hands down to feet and then back up her legs, over her arms and stomach, and then finally settled with one over her chest and one over her head.
"Look at me."
She obeyed the command in his deep voice and stared up into his eyes. They were golden now, bright and sharp, holding hers in a way that was impossible to break free from.
"Keep looking at me."
Taylor nodded. A bright burst of light dulled her vision. Excruciating pain stabbed her heart and head. She gritted her teeth and arched off the bed, clutching the covers and bunching them into her fists. It didn't hurt like this when demons took the poison out.
But then, she had never been this close to dying before.
She tried to keep conscious and keep her eyes on Einar, just as he had said, but dark waves crashed over her, pulling her under. She fought with all of her might but couldn't hold on. They swept her away and she sank into the bed and into the blackness.
When the world finally drifted back and the nightmares receded, she slowly opened her eyes. Her mouth was dry, tacky, and her head felt as though someone was bashing it with a sledgehammer. It throbbed and ached along with the rest of her body. She shuddered and moaned when the ache went deeper, pulsing through her bones. A heavy hand settled against her left shoulder, keeping her on her back as she tried to roll onto her side. She remembered what had happened.
Her blurred vision came into focus and she looked at her right arm. Her jacket was gone, and so was the wound. Not even a scar remained. She swallowed and the pain began to recede, drifting away. A second strong hand came into view. His fingers brushed over her the area where the wound had been and she tracked the length of his arm up to his face. He looked worried again. He wouldn't look that way if he knew about her. He couldn't know, and she didn't want to tell him.
Einar smiled at her, not bright or cheerful, but full of warmth. Taylor told herself that he was an angel. That was the only reason he smiled at her that way. It was his duty to be concerned about damsels in distress. It had nothing to do with her being the one in danger.
But then, he had looked at her with such forceful hunger and passion too.
Had that been real?
Taylor stared up into his eyes for a few seconds. When they met hers, she glanced away, her gaze lighting on his shoulder and then taking in his brown armour. It didn't hide much of his body. All he wore was a breastplate detailed with dull gold, vambraces to protect his forearms, greaves to protect his shins, along with his boots, and a dark loincloth.
He looked like a gladiator, with wings. They were large and furled against his back, as tawny as the rest of him, the long feathers brown but flecked with paler hues of tan and grey. Like an eagle. He had eyes to match that image.
And he was handsome.
There was no denying that.
He was more than handsome. Gorgeous perhaps. Otherworldly. And with muscles to die for. Angels shouldn't have such godly bodies. They only led women into temptation, and she was sure that sort of thing was a sin.
"How long was I out?" she croaked and he sat back on the bed beside her, releasing her shoulder.
"Fourteen hours."
Taylor rubbed her throat. Fourteen hours and she still felt as though she needed to sleep it off. Einar shifted and offered her a tall glass of water. She took it and he moved towards her, leaning over her. He smelt good.
"Here, let me help you."
Taylor didn't fight him as he took hold of her arm with one hand and placed the other against her shoulder blade, helping her sit up. It took a lot out of her just to shuffle into a comfortable position. When she moved backwards to rest against the pillows, his hand slid down to the small of her back, touching the bare skin above the waist of her jeans. A shiver raced through her, bringing warmth in its wake. She stared at him, her thirst forgotten, replaced with something altogether more alarming.
Hunger.
Desire.
Two things she definitely shouldn't be feeling towards an angel.
"Thanks." Taylor shooed him away and sipped the water.
Einar sat beside her again.
The silence was too comfortable.
Taylor looked at her socks. He had taken her boots off. She ran her gaze up her jeans and over her waist. She frowned, glanced around the room, and found what she was looking for on the small wooden table beside the bed.
In a neat row, as though on display, every knife she'd had on her person gleamed under the table lamp.
"I did not want you to hurt yourself. I hope you do not mind that I removed them?"
Taylor frowned at the knives. They were in descending order by size. Either he had been bored while she had been sleeping, or he suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder.
"Not at all," she said, distant as she stared at the knives.
Some of them had been in her jacket, which now lay on a chair across the pale room along with her sword. Others had been sheathed in her boots. And then there were those she'd had strapped against her hips and ribs. The thought of Einar's hands so close to her breasts brought a blush onto her cheeks.
"You do not look well."
Her blush deepened and her gaze shot to Einar. She touched her blazing cheeks. "I'm fine. Tired, and groggy, and in need of some painkillers, but other than that, I'm good, Romeo."
"I wish you would stop calling me that." His eyes narrowed with his frown and his lips compressed. "I have a name, and I have told it to you."
"Oh." Taylor toyed with the glass of water, feeling unsure of herself. She didn't want to get on first name terms with him. Danger lay that way. It was better that they remained barely involved in each other's lives, and not calling him by his name was a good method for achieving that. "Sure."
"Taylor?" he husked and she cringed. He had to go and say it, didn't he?
"Yes?" Her gaze remained glued on the glass. She sipped the water, ran her finger around the base, did everything she could to avoid looking at him.
"Do you know much about the breed of demon you encountered last night?"
That seemed like a safe enough question to answer.
"Yes." She risked it and looked at him. She didn't mean to make eye contact, but hers leapt to his and she stared into them. They mesmerised her as the colours in them shifted and swirled. Not unsettling or scary at all. When his eyes did that, she wanted to look into them forever.
His dark pupils widened, filling his eyes with unmistakable desire, and erotic images of them together on this bed flickered through her mind like old silent movies. Taylor tried to shun them but they wouldn't go, not while he was looking at her with such hunger and need. The message in his eyes was clear, written in ten-foot high neon letters that blazed so brightly they blinded her. Men had given her that 'come get me' look plenty of times before, and she had fallen for it a few of those, wanting the passion their eyes had promised. Some of them had even come good on it. But there was one difference this time. When she had been promised the ride of her life in the past, it had been by men.
Not angels.
That shocked some sense into her.
She cleared her throat. It wasn't going to happen and her body had better get the message soon. It didn't matter just how good Einar looked, and how easily she could fall into his arms and this bed with him. It was wrong and it would turn out badly for her. This was going to be strictly business.
He knew something about the godforsaken scum she had encountered last night. She would bleed him for information on the demons and why they were in her city, deal with them and then dump him. It was the only reason she was going to propose something that would otherwise be the most stupid idea she'd ever had.
"I'll tell you about them on one condition." She raised a single finger, held his gaze, and gave him her best seductive smile. "We work together."
He shook his head.
"There is no reason for you to become involved." His deep voice held a note of warning and his face darkened. "I cannot risk you."
Taylor put the glass of water down and glared at him. "I don't need protecting. I can handle myself. I know this city, and the demons that run it, and if you want that information, you're going to have to work with me to get rid of that pain in the arse breed."
Einar's frown increased. "Like you handled yourself last night?"
She'd been waiting for that one. "You got in the way. I was doing fine until you showed up."
"I was watching you the whole time. You fought well, but he bested you, and you would have been dead had I not intervened."
Taylor sat forward, fury blazing through her and pushing her fatigue to the back of her mind. Who the hell did he think he was? She protected this city with her life, and had done for years before he had shown up to play white knight. She would have been fine if he hadn't got in the way. It was his fault the damned demon had managed to get a claw on her.
"Listen." She took hold of his breastplate at the edges near his shoulders and yanked him towards her. His eyes widened as he jerked forwards and then narrowed again. "Either we work together, or I show you up by killing all of that breed before you. I'm pretty sure that'll look bad on your record. A woman beating you to the kill."
Einar calmly removed her hands from his armour and her anger faltered when he didn't let go of them. He held them, gently cradling her fingers in his, and warmth eased up her arms. She snatched her hands back, rattled by how easily he could calm the darkness inside of her.
"I am already in the lead," he said and sighed. "I am only after another two. Without your information, it may take time for me to find them. People are in danger while those creatures roam the streets. They have killed many over the past four years. Please. Give me the information I need, Taylor."
Why did he have to keep saying her name? Whenever he said it, rolling it off his tongue in a sensual way, she wanted to melt and give him whatever he was asking for. Taking a deep breath, she bolstered her resolve and shook her head.
"This is my city. I protect it. You want to get those demons, then you're gonna have to partner with me."
His dark gaze drifted down over her body, a wicked smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. She could read that look too. It was more 'coming to get you' than 'come get me' this time but unnerved her just as much. She wouldn't relent. If he didn't know about her by now, he would certainly know if he got intimate with her. She didn't want that to happen. She didn't want him to hurt her. Never get involved. Her mother had taught her that and she had obeyed like a good girl, afraid of the consequences if she didn't. She couldn't get involved.
Maybe she should just tell him everything and then leave before things got complicated. She didn't think she could bear someone turning on her, not in the way she was picturing him doing in her head. It would tear her apart inside.
Just as she was resolved to give him the information and leave, he touched her hand and her eyes found his again.
He smiled.
"Deal."
Taylor's stomach dropped two inches.
What had she done?
Available in e-book from:
Author's website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Warrior%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004CFAS06/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004CFAS06/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004CFAS06/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Warrior-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/2940011180330/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31060
Sony Reader Store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/felicity-heaton/her-warrior-angel-her-angel-romance-series/_/R-400000000000000322708
Available in paperback from:
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1456489836/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1456489836/
Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Her-Angel/Felicity-Heaton/e/9781456489830/
Read more about the Her Angel series at my website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/ebookseries.php?series=Her%20Angel
August 15, 2011
Manday hottie
It's Manday! This week I'm going to stick with Jed Hill again but I might post a different bloke next week for you all to enjoy... not that I expect to hear any complaints about this picture!
Yummy, no?
Right, I'm going back to my work. This book isn't editing itself.
Yummy, no?
Right, I'm going back to my work. This book isn't editing itself.
