Chapter 13 : On the Beach

Water cascaded over us. The moon was high in the sky, even if I could barely see it around the storm. With how close he was, I could see the dark circles under his eyes. How his cheekbones caved in, his normally handsome face gaunt and exhausted. His eyes blazed, fighting to stay furious with me. Relief settled into my essence. Sagging my shoulders. I'm sure he could feel it too. With the way his face softened ever so slightly. "You put eyes on yourself. More than mine, pet." Pet…my body roared to life. Desire coiling within my bones. One of his hands slid along my face, slick with the rain. "You're in my head, Asmoday," I whispered, barely audible above the crashing of rainfall. "I…I can't get you out." His jaw clenched, audibly grinding his teeth together. "Don't call me that." He paused, looking deep into my eyes. "I'm not your angel, Adira." "Were you ever?" Something different crossed over his expression. I couldn't identify it. This was something different. Something old and buried. "No." He drew away from me and for a moment I thought he was going to leave again. But he didn't. "Why did you invoke me?" he asked, his voice hard. But I didn't miss how his shoulder stiffened, the muscles in his neck flexing. My chest heaved, and I fought my own exhaustion. Days of not sleeping. Imprisoned in my own head. What a dark place to be. So dark I didn't regret killing someone. "I did something. Something bad," I muttered. "And what do you want me to do about it?" He shot back. "I left you back in the bookstore for a reason." I ground my teeth together. Rage flushing through my system again, painting my face pink. "You're the reason this is even happening to me!" I shouted. "I would have never shoved Nova out that window if you never showed me that knife." "Good," he replied, those honeyed eyes darkening the longer he stared at me. His pupils ate up the irises. "Good?" I snarled. "How is any of this good?" "You finally stood up for yourself," he said. Calm despite the eerie blackness filling his eyes. "I was never violent before you." He tilted his head to the side, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. A dimple formed where his lips curved, weakening my knees. "Tell me this, pet…would you rather still be a pathetic, little girl who lets everyone walk over her?" Pausing, I thought about it for a moment. If I hadn't spoken up, remained quiet and in the background, I'd still have an apartment. I'd still have my stuff. My pitiful excuses for friends. I wouldn't be expected to have sex with my manager to keep him away from Sarah. And I'd be tortured. Tormented by my lack of a voice. What was worse? Silent or alone? Either way I'd be alone. It just wouldn't be as obvious. I'd still be as alone as the first time I saw him. Dancing in the club without a care as to what happened to me. I was drenched to the bone, so wet I didn't feel the rain anymore. "That first night…why me? Why did you pick me?" The knowing smirk fell off his face, and he seemed to think about his words before he said, "I could feel your suffering, Adira. So raw. It screamed from beneath your skin. So much pain I thought choosing you would be a mercy. Killing you would have ended it." Tears streamed down my face, lost in the storm. "Why didn't you kill me afterwards? If you could feel how much pain I was in, why keep me around?" He reached forward, pinching my chin between two of his fingers. His touch confirmed this wasn't a delusion. And even the droplets gathering along his hair didn't drown out how good he smelled. "Morbid curiosity." "Is that why you left me? Was I not interesting enough?" I asked. "I-I need to understand. You tore me apart inside, made me rely on you like a drug…and then took it all away." He didn't answer. Suddenly his hand trembled, like he had been trying to put forth a strong facade, but he was weaker. His essence was enveloping me, enticing me, but it wasn't as strong as it used to be. "You haven't been feeding," I murmured, realization widening my eyes. His upper lip curled in frustration, but this time he answered. "Not the way I need to be." "What does that mean?" "I'm a demon. I'm not faithful by definition. The night in the bookstore, I had an epiphany. If you had survived, maybe my curse had been lifted. Maybe Raphael finally took pity on me after all these centuries," he replied, his thumb stroking my lower lip. My lips parted under his touch. "Curse?" "Feeding off of sex. Killing my partners. A cruel joke…a lesson," he answered bitterly. My heart fluttered as he explained it to me gently. I maintained eye contact with him, tasting the rain as it clung to the pad of his thumb. "One thing you mortals can't seem to understand is that angels don't care about you. They only care about disruptions to the balance." "You and your brothers?" At the mention of his brothers, his shoulders stiffened slightly. I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't feel so tapped into him. "Yes." He paused. "We like a little chaos." I stared up at him, lost in his presence. "Are you still cursed?" He pulled me closer by my chin, seemingly as lost in me as I was in him. I couldn't feel the rain. Couldn't see anything aside from him. "Yes." His eyes flickered down to my mouth. "I don't understand why I want to kiss you." "Then stop trying to understand it and just do it," I replied, reaching one of my hands up to thread my fingers through the hair on the back of his head. I pulled his head down to me, getting up on my toes to press my lips into his. He cupped my face with both hands, inhaling my breath and mashing our mouths together in a hungry dance. Parting my lips, I let him dominate my mouth. He groaned like he was starved. One of his arms curled around my waist, bringing my flush against him like he wanted to merge us together. I gave back as much as I received. Mimicking movements and it felt like I was learning how to kiss all over again. My entire body erupted, pleasure coursing through me like a livewire. I drew back from him, panting against his mouth. I wanted to kiss his real form. Familiarize myself with how he really felt under his mask. But now wasn't the time. As badly as I wanted it, on the beach during a thunderstorm wasn't the right place. His pupils were blown to hell, revealing just how hungry he was. His body shook, arm quaking around my waist. His slacks clung to his legs, his thick cock hot and hard against my stomach. Desire coiled in my belly. An ache forming between my legs. Fuck, I wanted him. It felt like it had been so long. Our mouths clashed again, clinking teeth from how violently we kissed. But it didn't matter how hard his kisses wore, my body responded all the same. Goosebumps pricked my flesh, but it wasn't from the cold. "Feed from me," I whispered breathily against his lips. "Have me." We weren't thinking clearly. The beach was empty, the road half a mile from where we were. But even if it wasn't. Even if there was an audience, it wouldn't have cooled the fire. The pure lust buzzing in every corner of my body. Darkness settled over us. Only the light of the moon illuminating us. I threw one leg up, curling around his hip. He breathed in deeply, already seeming to gain strength from my obvious pleasure. I felt him groan, pulling back and pushing me back onto the sand. The grit clung to my hair, but I didn't care. All I cared about was having him. It felt like we were nothing but animals, acting on the most primal desire I had. My legs fell open and he slid between them, using his hands to tease the heated flesh. My skirt flared around my legs. He glided his hands up the leg of my modesty shorts under the skirt to the lacy edge of my panties. I didn't even have time to process it before he plunged two fingers inside of me. I cried out, in tune with the thunder. I reached down, cupping him through his slacks. As soon as he reacted, groaning against my mouth and increasing the rhythm of his strokes, my spine arched. He drew back from my mouth, unzipping his pants and freeing himself. His cock sprung forward and for the first time, I could admire how it looked. His gaze was hot between my legs, hungrily devouring how I was splayed in front of him. He wiggled my little spandex shorts off my hips, but kept my panties on, only moving the edge to the side so he could get a good look at me. On display for him to use and enjoy. But I wasn't in the mood to lay there and stare at him. I had a hunger inside demanding to be fed. Wrapping a leg around his waist, I pulled him back down on top of me. He grunted, hands shooting out on either side of my head to steady himself. He growled a swear, at least it sounded like a swear as he slid inside of me. No condom. Nothing between us but his mask. He fisted a hand in my matted hair, tilting my head back to attack my throat with hot wet kisses. We were fully dressed, in the dirt, rutting against each other desperately. It felt filthy. Unbelievably filthy. Moans spilled past my lips as he kept moving. It destroyed me. Any idea I could have normalcy after this. I didn't want to be fucked any other way. The desperation in how he moved. He needed to have me. He needed me to give him every piece of my soul. And I would. A beading pleasure roused through me, clenching hard around him. He plunged even deeper as if punishing me for his own desperation. I cried out his name. His real name and he shuddered, clearly loving how it sounded on my lips. I could feel him swell inside of me as we rocked together. The sharp tug on my scalp caused my eyes to roll back ever so slightly. Everything felt hot. Like nothing I had ever experienced before. I gave myself over to him, gripping his drenched suit coat in my hands, trying to pull him closer. Feel him closer. "Let go, Adira," he growled, eliciting shivers of pleasure enrapturing my core. "You first," I whimpered, meeting him thrust for thrust, a blazing desire to feel him find his pleasure with me so powerful it scared me. "I want to feel you. Give it to me." He pulled his hand from my hair to grip my hips. "Then take it." With one smooth motion, he rolled onto his back, hitting me even deeper as I straddled his hips. It was a whole new angle. My eyelids fluttered. "I thought," I paused, gasping as my basic instincts took over, rising up and down harder and faster. "I thought you told me I'd never be on top." "I changed my mind," he groaned, cupping my hips to help me ride him. A moan broke from his chest, spurring me on as he let me take over, his hands finding a place behind his head so he could watch the show. Breathing in my energy. Coming back to life underneath me. I worked him over and over. Never giving him a moment to catch his breath. I threw my head back, sprinkling sand across our bodies. I don't know how long we were like that, devouring each other. Brutally claiming the other. It could have been hours. Or the longest minutes of my life. The sun could have risen and fallen and I wouldn't have noticed. He held onto his orgasm as stubbornly as I did. Determined not to break before the other. I pressed both of my hands on his chest, rocking back and forth to find a new angle. At that moment, I despised we were still in clothing. There was nothing I wanted more than to glide my fingers over his bare skin. Explore the scars beneath the mask. Be filled to the brim with him. Finally, neither of us could take it any longer. A shudder of pleasure traveled down my back as this new angle struck a bundle of nerves deep inside of me over and over again. I could feel my walls fist around his cock, demanding to give me what I wanted. He grunted, hands flying up to grip my hips again, slamming me down repeatedly over him. I clenched tighter as waves of an orgasm hit me. Pulling me under a riptide and thrashing me from side to side. I cried out, arching my back and pumping up and down as it took over. I could feel him swell even bigger as I milked him for everything he was worth, forcing a powerful climax out of him. He made a noise I had never heard him make before as we started to come back down from it. Somewhere between a growl and a helpless whimper. Fire blazed again like a flashover in a burning inferno. But I didn't have the energy to continue. The exhaustion finally hit me, blackness dotting my vision as I fell off him, into the sand. Everything felt like too much. Power coupling through my system simultaneously after days of pure tortuous exhaustion. Too much. Everything was too much. My heart pounded, skipping a beat and finally I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.