Guild Hunter 02 - Angels' Flight

in front of him in a crumbling alleyway barely lit by the faint wash of yellow from a nearby streetlight, he folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Did you think no one was watching?”
     
    The leader of the little pack groaned, his eye turning a beautiful purple. “Fuck, nobody said anything about a fucking enforcer.”
     
    “Watch your mouth.” Noel had the satisfaction of seeingthe man pale. “This was a warning. Next time, I won’t hold back. Understood?”
     
    A sea of nods.
     
    Returning to his own room in the early-morning hours, while the world was still dark, Noel showered, hitched a towel around his hips, and headed into his bedroom with the intention of grabbing some clothes. What he really wanted to do was go to Nimra. She hadn’t slept since Fen’s death, would be in the gardens, but the fading bruise on his cheek where one of the vamps had managed to whack him with an elbow might alert her as to what he’d been up to. He wanted a little more time to settle into this new role before—“Nimra.”
     
    Seated on the edge of his bed, her wings spread behind her and her body clad in a long, flowing gown of deepest blue, she looked more like the angel who ruled a territory than she had in days. “Where have you been, Noel?”
     

10
     
    “N ew Orleans.” He would not lie to her.
    A wrinkling of her brow. “I see.”
     
    “Do you want the details?”
     
    “No, not tonight.” Her gaze lingered on the damp lines of his body before she rose from the bed, her wings sweeping across the sheets.
“Bonne nuit.”
     
    He hadn’t touched her intimately since the night he’d fed from her, so hot and sweet, but now he crossed the room to stop her with his hands on the silken heat of her upper arms, his chest pressed to her back… to her wings. “Nimra.” When she stilled, he swept aside the curling ebony of her hair to press his lips to her pulse.
     
    Reaching back, she touched her fingers to his face. “Do you hunger?”
     
    A simple question that staggered him with its generosity, but no longer surprised. Not now that he understood the truth of the woman in his arms. “Stay.” Kiss after kiss along the slender line of her neck, a delicate pleasure that made his skin go tight, his own pulse accelerate. “Let me hold you tonight.”
     
    A moment’s pause and he knew she was weighing up whether or not to trust him with the depth of her vulnerability. When she shifted to face him, when she allowed him to take her into his arms, to take her to his bed, it turned a key in a dark, hidden corner of his soul, a part that had not seen the light of day since the events that had almost broken him. But they hadn’t. And now he was awake.
     

     
    N imra’s need for Noel was a deep, unrelenting ache, but she fought the urge to take, to demand, from this captivating male with wounds that would take a long time to truly heal. Then his eyes met her own as he braced himself above her, his fingers stroking the sensitive arch of her wing, and there was an intensity to them she’d never before seen. “Put your hands on me, Nimra.” A command.
    One she was happy to accept. Running her foot over the back of his calf, her gown sliding down her leg, she began to explore the ridges and valleys of his body, so hard, so very masculine. He shuddered under her touch, his breath hot against her jaw as he grazed her with his teeth, his cock pressing in blatant demand against her abdomen.
     
    No civilized lover, this.
     
    “You are a beautiful man,” she whispered as she closed her fingers over the rigid evidence of his need.
     
    Color darkened his cheekbones. “Uh, whatever you say.”
     
    “Such compliance, Noel?” She squeezed him, luxuriating in the velvet- soft skin covering such powerful steel. “I am not sure I believe you.”
     
    A groan. “You have your hand on my cock. If you called me an ugly git, I’d agree with you. Just.
Don’t. Stop.
”
     
    His unashamed pleasure made her entire body melt. Not only did she continue in her intimate caresses; she began to suck and kiss at his neck until he slammed his mouth down on her own, tender control transforming into untamed sexuality. Demanding and aggressive, he thrust his cock into her grip in time with the thrust of his tongue into her mouth.
     
    His hand fisted in her gown at the same instant, pulling up the material until it bunched at her waist. His fingers were underneath the lace that protected her an instant later, making