Tied With a Bow

him, she dragged herself back, panting. They were on the floor, and she didn’t remember lying down.
    He resisted her attempt to pull away and breathlessly asked, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing. It’s all very right, and that’s how I want it to stay.”
    “I don’t understand,” he said, sliding his hand along her arm, not allowing her to escape his grasp.
    “On Judgment Day, I’m not going to be accused of corrupting an angel.” She pushed his hand away from her half-unzipped dress. “Handfasting? What is that? And how do we do it?”
    “Oh. Right,” he mumbled, putting a palm to his head. “I—I can’t think.”
    She laughed.
    “Give me a minute.” His unbuttoned shirt gaped open, showing smooth strong muscles and the small scar below his collarbone.
    “Oh damn,” she said, rising.
    He caught her ankle. “Where are you going?” he asked.
    “Nowhere,” she said, but his grip stayed firm. “Really, Nathaniel, nowhere. Just to the fireplace. If you don’t need that ring as a reminder anymore, I want it destroyed.”
    “Destroyed? Why?”
    She explained about meeting the angel on the Clarity roof and paraphrased what she’d been told. “He said the ring ties you to your enemy, and the only person I want you tied to anymore is me.”
    Nathaniel let go of her ankle. “That’s my wish as well. Go ahead and destroy it.”
    She walked to the mantel and stared at the ring. “I can’t believe you’re not even curious. We are so different.”
    “I’m actually very curious about a great many things. For instance, is all of your skin as soft as your cheek? And what places that I touch will make your breath catch the way it does when I—”
    “Got it,” she said, holding out her hand with a grin. “You’re a lover, not a fighter now, and with sex in your immediate future, you couldn’t care less about anything else.”
    “More proof that you’re as perceptive as you always claim.”
    She laughed. “You know a good way to not end up in bed with your wife? Tell her she brags too much.”
    “Sorry,” he said, glancing at the ceiling. “Well . . .” And then he lapsed into a language she couldn’t identify.
    “What was that?”
    “That was me following advice that will hopefully help me end up in bed with my wife.” His hand lay on his washboard abs, the ones she was tempted to explore with her teeth, and she silently reflected that there was absolutely no risk of him not getting her into bed.
    “For a handfasting ceremony we exchange vows. And we need a length of ribbon,” he said.
    She picked up the ring, pinching it between thumb and forefinger and cast it into the fireplace. “Good riddance, Gadreel. May all your good-byes end in flames.”
    Fire roared outward, singeing her dress. She leaped back and watched to be sure that none of the embers caught the carpet on fire. Then she leaned forward and pulled the screen closed.
    “Does it have to be a ribbon?” she asked, turning.
    Nathaniel stood with a palm over his left collarbone, pressing the scar. Pleasure and flirtation had fled his features. Now he only looked furious.
    “You remember,” she whispered.
    Staring into the flames, he said grimly, “I remember.”
     
     
    “We would’ve put some holes in him, so he’d be weakened for your fight, but things didn’t go as planned,” Tamberi said, scowling.
    Gadreel bit the knuckles on her left hand in a makeshift punishment, but he was grinning and gleeful. “Beri, the angel took the girl to a hotel room . This is monumental. You don’t know how single-minded these pricks can be when a demon rises. Especially him when the demon is me.” Gadreel jabbed a wire into the block of C-4 explosive. “I knew this crush would be his downfall. He’s part human and all that watching the girl and denying himself a taste? All that pining? It’s how I always play people. Show them something, make them want it, and then deny them. They will sell you their soul to get it.”
    Gadreel took a puff off his hand-rolled cigarette and blew a smoke ring. “Now he’s totally lost his focus. He should have just fucked her and gotten it over with. Instead, he’s the one who’s fucked.” He took another deep drag, then bent to snort a line of cocaine.
    “I can get you a rock. You know that smoking crack is a more intense high, right?” Tamberi asked.
    Gadreel’s withering look turned her blood to ice. She clenched her jaw.
    “Sorry. Of course, you know. You