Company of Angels 02 - The Demoness of Waking Dreams

sliding down it to sit on the floor. He shook his head, trying to clear the exhaustion out of it, and for a mere instant, let his eyelids drift shut.
    Just to rest my eyes. Just for a second.
    And when he opened them, he checked his pocket, touched the watch.
    I’m dreaming .
    He stood by the edge of a swimming pool. The moon’s reflection splayed across the surface of the water, and as Brandon looked into its crystalline blue depths, the pool looked so unbelievably alluring that the promise of diving into it was almost more seductive than the demoness herself.
    Almost .
    When he saw her, he realized how ridiculous that thought was. She wore her long, dark hair pulled back in a sleek ponytail. Her lush body in a tiny silver bikini seemed to Brandon like evidence of the divine if he’d ever seen it. The miniscule garment she wore seemed to have been designed to catch the moonlight, as though it had some power to draw light into it. And where light was drawn, so was the eye.
    “ Buona sera . It has been so hot in the city these past few days, don’t you think? Why don’t you take a little break with me?” she said, the coy slide of her green eyes a calculation in seduction, the angle of her face so shockingly lovely, the movement so simple and yet so arresting.
    Everything Luciana did was measured. Every gesture, perfectly choreographed, every glance, perfectly timed. It only seemed simple, he told himself, because she had perfected it, had practiced it for hundreds of years on hundreds of men. Perhaps thousands.
    Beauty can be evil, he reminded himself for the hundredth time in the past several days. And for the hundredth time, his body answered back, But not beauty like this .
    She strode toward him, her skin luminescent in the moonlight.
    Look away, said his gut.
    That would be an utter waste, said the rest of him.
    In any case, he found that he could not tear his eyes away, even if he had wanted to. Why he had thought he had any chance of resisting her, caught up in this world of dreaming with her, he had no idea. He was a fool, full of bravado and good intentions.
    Intentions he now realized were mere paving stones along the road to hell.
    As if he had a choice.
    “Enjoying the show?” she asked, tilting her head slightly as she walked toward the pool. “In case you were wondering, they’re real.”
    He flushed red, because he had wondered…
    She ran a finger along the edge of one taut silver triangle. Then she went to sit on the edge of the pool, dipped her toe into the water. “ Così buono , ‘that feels so good.’”
    He rolled his eyes toward the darkened sky.
    Somewhere up there, Michael and the rest of the Archangels must be looking down and having a good laugh at his expense.
    “Well, are you just going to stand around and watch? Why don’t you join me for a swim? I know you must be hot. It would be such a relief just to take a little dip, wouldn’t it?” She beckoned, holding out her open hand toward him. “Come on. You know you want to. We could even swim senza vestiti .”
    “What does that mean?” he said, feeling like a complete moron when the answer was so glaringly obvious. Still, he could not control himself. It was as if someone else was speaking for him, controlling his tongue here in his dreamworld.
    Luciana, he thought wildly, is gaining more and more of a hold over me .
    She smiled as though she understood everything perfectly.
    “I could tell you. But why don’t I demonstrate instead?” she said, reaching behind her neck. Two quick pulls of a silver string, and the top of her bikini fell away. He felt himself harden at the sight of her large, dark nipples. “See? Isn’t learning Italian fun?”
    His mouth was completely dry; he didn’t even try to speak.
    “Come,” she beckoned.
    He found it impossible to resist.
    He went to her, shedding his clothes along the way, dropping them onto the pool deck behind him. He came to sit beside her, lowering his own legs into the pool. After days of sweating in that abandoned building, he was ready to plunge right into the depths of the water.
    Reaching up, she brushed the side of his cheek with her fingertips. He reached down to cup one of those glorious breasts, brushing his fingers over the nipple, feeling it tighten beneath his touch.
    She kissed him. The sweetness of it was impossible. He pulled her into the water so they stood waist-deep, lifted her leg so it rode his thigh. He was just on the verge of entering her, of