Demon Angel

bitterness within him—she hadn't believed him, didn't think very highly of his declaration of love—and found it was easy to push away in the face of her fear. Far more important to erase it than to wallow in his own pain. He lifted his head and pressed his lips to hers, then flipped her over onto her back.
    Only the barest light shone in from the windows, but it was enough to see the design between her breasts, the hesitation in her eyes. "Is that what this is? Your name?"
    She nodded.
    His mouth hovered over the mark. "What was it before?" He kissed the upper curve of the design, tracing it to the upper swell of her right breast.
    "I don't know." Her chest rose and fell with her quick breaths. "He took it from me; he stripped all halflings of the memory of their human names. Michael would know, I suppose"—he closed his lips over her nipple, unable to resist the taut bud so close—"but it hardly matters."
    He returned to the mark, his lips and tongue painting glistening strokes. It doesn't matter , he signed over his head, his mouth too busy for speech. Did you choose Lily Milton ?
    "Not Milton—" He heard the smile in her voice. "Lucifer wanted to remind me that 'They also serve who only stand and wait' as I spent my years in the Bureau, anticipating the onset of the bargain."
    Hugh lifted his head and stared at her. "You're joking." It was the last line of a poem John Milton had written after he'd lost his eyesight; it questioned whether he was as valuable to God if he could not perform any great and heroic deeds that served Him.
    She shook with laughter. "No. Lucifer is quite willing to twist anything that refers to Him to suit his own needs."
    "And Lily?" He lowered his head again to tug lightly at her other nipple.
    "I chose it," she gasped. "It is near to Lilith in sound, and I was tired of remembering which name I was supposed to respond to. You've called me Lily."
    He slid lower, and his lips caressed the dip of her navel. Only when I want to be inside you . He had to use his hand to push her knee over his shoulder, then cupped her bottom in both palms and lifted her to his mouth. "Lily," he said aloud against the silky skin of her inner thigh. Beautiful, wild, fragrant. He inhaled, and her scent filled him. That it was laced with his own masculine odor sent possessive lust surging through him, and he barely held it in check. If he hadn't just spent two hours hard and begging for release, he'd have already been inside her again. "But only if you want it."
    "The name?" She laughed, and tugged on his hair. "Or do I want your tongue on me, right now !"
    "The name. Hold yourself open for me." He blew lightly through her curls.
    "I love how you say it: Lily," she said the name languorously, her voice deepening; and he smiled against her skin. It echoed how he felt with her; he'd no idea it had been so obvious. Her hands left his head, then her fingers slipped between her thighs. "In that moment, I am soft and yielding." Her legs trembled as she bared herself, and he drank in the sight of her, wet and plump with arousal. "But not always, and only with you."
    "Only with me," he echoed hoarsely. "Lily."
    She shivered, and he bent his head. Her moisture flooded his mouth, exquisitely sweet, exquisitely Lilith. He'd meant to tease her, to draw it out, but as he laved lightly at her clit she begged, "Not soft now, Hugh," and he was lost. A growl of hunger escaped him, and he took from her mercilessly, lapped up her cries with each stroke of his tongue, each thrust of his fingers into her slick heat. She lifted, grinding her clit against his tongue, rubbing and rubbing, and he had to pump his hips against the bed to keep from slamming into her. Her back arched, her body drew tight beneath him.
    "Harder, harder." It became her chant; he used his teeth. She came with a guttural scream, and still he licked and sucked at her, until the clenching of the smooth muscles around his fingers became flutterings, until she fell back to the bed and her hands dropped from between her thighs.
    "Holy fuck," she said, her voice awed.
    He chuckled against her belly, then rose up to lie next to her. Rolled her so that her back was against his chest.
    "Lily," he said, his voice deliberately low and sensuous, and he laughed when she shivered again.
    He waited for her to sleep, but she seemed just as content to lie in his arms as he was to hold her. It wasn't until the first rays of the sun settled in stripes across the bed that he