Jack got to his feet and held out his hand, but she ignored him and got up on her own. His outfit was predictable as well: leather jacket and jeans with a skull and crossbones belt. He closed one eye and thought for a moment. Soon enough he had “Emma” written across his chest in a very real-looking temporary tattoo.
When she started laughing, he wanted to find the pause button, smash it into a million bits, and just keep her forever. That would be his choice, if he truly had one to make. Not Heaven, not Hell, just a small place to be with her, to spend eternity making her gasp and laugh.
Emma eyed him, waiting to see what he’d do here in a pause. She loved that there was no urgency between them. She wanted to hang her guilt and morality at the door and just have a date like a real girl.
Her human life had been short and full of Everett’s tinkering. Her seraph lifetime was absolutely paramount in its importance. And her brief vampire life had been focused on making those around her happy and safe. Even with Jason, sweet Jason, she had to be cautious. Responsible. To live just for a few moments in complete hedonism appealed to her — but it was wrong, of course.
Jack began pouring his rum into a glass, then shrugged and drank his fill straight from the bottle.
“Yes!” He exclaimed after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Can I get you a glass?”
No. No drinking here. It’s hard enough to walk the straight and narrow with him around.
“I’ll take wine.” She shook her head at her own disobedience.
“Light and sweet or spicy and deep?” He motioned to the shiny wood bar like a magician.
“I like sweet. I’m not even sure what kind of wine that would be.” She shrugged and waited.
“I’ve got the perfect thing.” He snapped and pointed. A bottle and glass appeared, and he poured the liquid like it was gold. The rose-colored drink swirled, and he stared intently at the motion. Then he sniffed the contents and nodded before taking a small, hissing sip.
“That’s my drink! Quit sucking on it.” Emma stomped her foot and finally noticed her outfit.
Jack had chosen a colorful sundress with skinny straps and a pair of cute sandals for her attire. He watched as she discovered her clothes.
“This is actually pretty. Thanks.” She held out a hand for her glass, and he pressed his chest against hers as he handed it to her.
He watched her drink as if watching a porno, and Emma blushed when she finished.
“Did you like it?” He was smiling again. She could tell he knew she loved it.
“It was all right,” she said coyly. “I’ve had better out of a box.” She’d never had boxed wine.
“Liar. You would drink a vat of it.” He ran the tip of his tongue over his teeth, delighted that she was so playful.
“Can I have more then?” She pouted at her empty glass.
He laughed and snapped his fingers, and the wine bottle hopped back into his hand. He poured more and stood so close she had to turn her head to raise her glass.
When she moved the glass away from her face, he was waiting. “Goddamn it. Angel cake dipped in wine. Girl, you will kill me.”
He leaned in for a kiss.
“You’re rum painted with sin. Goddamn it. Boy, you will kill me.” She mimicked his sentiments in the hopes of a thorough sexing within the next manufactured heartbeat.
But he nodded and stepped away. “Do you know how to play pool, angel?”
There was a well-used pool table set up in the empty bar. The balls were already racked up. The overhead light illuminated Jack eerily as he walked over and chalked his stick.
“No, Jack, I don’t know how to play.” Emma dropped her glass on a table as she passed.
She walked by him, trailing her hand over his shoulders and plucked a pink stick from the wall. After she chalked and lined up on the cue ball, she broke with such force that he laughed and slowly began to applaud. Two stripes went in.
“I only know how to win,” she trashed-talked.
“Oh, is that right? Well now that sounds like a challenge. Are you willing to bet?” He put his stick behind her back and used it to pull her against him.
She wanted to be snarky and funny, but he was close again, and there was such heat radiating from his chest. She nodded instead.
“Okay, if you win, I’ll let you imagine the scene.” He motioned grandly to the surrounding dingy bar. “If I win?” He nuzzled her neck for a moment. “I get to see the panties I put on you.”
He whispered the word panties in her ear, and it tickled her brain.
“That’s impossible,” she said.
She looked in his eyes and found them crestfallen. She’d wanted to be fun, and he’d taken her words as a rejection. His deep, brown eyes reflected a knowing. The knowledge that an angel would never choose the Devil. It just wasn’t done. She touched his chest and outlined her name.
“It’s impossible because I already imagined they weren’t there anymore.”
Emma watched the victory and hope bloom on his face as a huge smile. She couldn’t lie to herself anymore. It felt amazing to make him happy.
“Game on, pretty child. Now get out of my way so I can concentrate.” He did a wonderful job of disrobing her with his eyes while he sunk one solid ball after another.
“You know, you should at least give me a shot.” Emma twirled her pink stick.
“Absolutely not. You stole the break. Take your spanking like a big girl.” He winked at her as he sunk the eight ball last.
She stuck her tongue out. He set down his stick and sauntered over. A sexy song suddenly blared through the speakers. She held her stick out in front of her to keep him at bay. He pulled it from her hands and snapped it in half over his knee, tossing it aside.
“Are you ready for me, Emma?” He stood close, but he wouldn’t touch her. Yet.
She looked from his beat-up boots to his sexy eyes. God, he was here in front of her, and with all this playfulness she felt right. Human. Like a lady who could do whatever she wanted.
Emma wrinkled her nose and started to lift the hem of her dress. He shook his head.
Confused, she arched an eyebrow. “I don’t welsh on bets.”
“I don’t deserve you. If you belong to another man — I mean you do belong to another man. You’re sweet to humor me, to try to make me feel like more. But after a while? A man can’t stop thinking about you, and I have to ask you to have mercy on me.”
He stepped back a bit and bent at the waist, almost a bow. “Do you think I didn’t want to bed you the minute I knew we were in a pause? I care too much to compromise you. And I know he’s better for you. I’m a regret. I’m always a regret.”
He held his own hands with this declaration. He was revealing all his weaknesses and begging Emma to protect his heart. From her.
She could only be honest. Soon the beeping would start and reality would collapse this bubble that was just theirs. She wanted more time that she knew she didn’t have.
Stepping closer, she held his hands. He looked at them like they were poison. A poison he desperately wanted to take.
“I should choose him. Jason. The right thing to do should be obvious. He said he would wait forever for me. Who can turn her back on that kind of devotion? But you have already been a regret for me. Always I feel you tugging on me. I can’t stop berating myself for what happened. I mourn you every day. I should have done more. That’s my regret when it comes to you.” She squeezed his hands more tightly, trying to figure out how to put into words what she was feeling.
He searched her eyes and spoke. “Stop. Let’s just go. What you say now will play on a loop in my head always, and his name is already among your words.” He tried to let go of her hands.
A faint beeping began to sound.
She tried to ignore it and dropped his hands to hold his face. He looked at her lips and wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Damn it. Hear me. Look at me. Now.” The beeping was getting louder, and her eyes filled wit
h tears.
He did, but he looked like a condemned man waiting for the execution.
“I’m not humoring you. I just want to breathe you, all the time. When you look at me, I feel like my skin has words written all over it just for you.” She put her lips on his and spoke right into his mouth, louder to compete with the noise that now overpowered their music.
“You’re in my heart. I want you between my legs. I want you to just be with me. Laughing with me. And it’s all wrong, but I can’t stop wanting you.” Her tears fell, and she kissed him knowing they’d open their eyes back in Purgatory again.
As if her words had released something in him, he grabbed her roughly. He lifted her to straddle him. She could tell they were moving, but she needed to get closer to his skin.
When he set her down and pushed her away, she felt a jolt of surprise. He seemed frantic, and they were right next to the source of the loud alarm. Emma was completely confused as he began kicking the wall. Then he picked up the pool stick and slammed it with all his might into the spot where he’d been kicking. One final punch and the sound was silenced. He turned, smiling.
“Where were we?” He grabbed her waist and put her on the pool table, scattering the leftover balls as he climbed on top of her, leaving her no choice but to lie back.
“Wait! What the hell did you do to that thing?” She had to hold his face to keep him from kissing her neck.
“I jammed the fuck out of it. Shh… The sex? It’s gonna happen. Now.” He started on her neck again and she began to squirm.
The music played without interruption now, and he was talented and determined. When her dress skimmed the top of her thighs, she had to bite her lip to convince herself to make him stop.
“Okay, one more thing?” she said.
He growled and lifted himself away from her with a push up. “Yes, pretty child?”
“I didn’t even know it could be stopped.” She looked past him to the busted wall.
He sighed and eased himself to her side. He twirled her hair around his finger. “That’s because you follow the rules, princess. I never do.”
He was looking at her again in that way he had. Like she was a drink of water and he was dying of thirst. It made her feel adventurous and sexy.
“Can I take you somewhere now?” she asked. She wanted to see him in the sunlight, see him free from smoke.
“You lost the bet. But because you have spectacular breasts, I’ll let you do whatever you want.” He reached out and felt one lovingly. She lost her train of thought until he clicked his tongue, frustrated by waiting.
She curled into his arms and felt him kiss her hair as she began picturing her gift to him. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see just what she’d imagined. They were in a sunlit forest. The trees wore their most glorious fall colors. They were lying on a big, fluffy bed in the middle of a patch of sun. The music he’d imagined for the bar continued to play, but softly now so they could hear the birds chirping and the wind rustling the leaves.
She looked up at his face. “This. You in the sun. That’s my dream come true.”
He reached down, found her hand, and kissed it in appreciation. She touched his chest, and he rolled onto his back, the white linen shirt he now wore falling open. His skin absorbed the sun gluttonously and felt warm under her fingers. Emma traced her name on his chest again and added more ink with her fingers and imagination.
He lifted his head and saw that he was now a sexy billboard emblazoned with the words Emma was here!
“You little sneak.”
The tickling began immediately, but just when Emma laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe or fight back, he stopped.
He straddled her and spread her hair out around her. Emma smiled and rolled her eyes as he touched her face and bit his knuckle.
“If I get nothing else for the rest of my days, this sight is enough. More than I deserve.”
It took her a second to talk around the lump in her throat. “Kiss me, Jack. All these promises you’ve made? Threats to please me? Make them come true.”
He set to work immediately, obviously battling an internal clock and a plan to touch every inch of her skin. She pulled off his shirt, and he had to back up a bit so he wasn’t kneeling on her dress.
With a sassy smile, she stood up on the bed to take her dress off, bouncing slightly for good measure. She tossed the dress high, and it caught on a low-hanging tree branch, where it swayed gently as testament to Emma’s decision to please this bad man with a good heart.
He knelt before her as if deep in prayer. “You skipped the panties, I see,” he breathed. He nuzzled her stomach and gave a gentle nipping bite to her thigh. She shivered and put her hands in his long hair. He ran his palms from her ankles to her breasts. He watched her carefully as he explored inside her with his fingers.
His fingers were long and knew exactly when to curve or rub harder. She knew instantly she would come like this: with him watching her, supporting her as she stood and he knelt.
When she thought she could come no harder, he pulled her back down to the bed and added his mouth to the blissful mix. She could die here, with the trees swirling in a blur above her, and that would be okay.
She was unmotivated to do anything other than breathe, content with her ridiculous pleasure, when Jack stood. The sound of his belt unbuckling made her pay attention and remember there was more. Of course, there was more.
She watched him get naked in front of her and gave a low whistle of appreciation. She wasn’t even sure she could fit him. He was everything he’d promised in his dirty voice.
“Don’t be afraid, pretty child. I won’t let it bite you.” He stood for a second more before taking his place between her knees.
“I think I would be all right with that.” She was languid and a little slow. He’d overwhelmed her, and now he wanted to do it again. “Wait, you. I should get to you first.”
He shook his head. “Sweetheart, you’re not in any shape to get on your knees.”
Then his hands were everywhere again and she had to almost fight him to get to his manhood. When she held him he stilled.
“Seeing you like this? It was worth a thousand years in Hell.”
She looked into his eyes. “Seeing you like this? It’s like finally seeing the truth.”
With that he pulled out of her hands and entered her. She arched her back as he hit a place she didn’t know existed. But he clearly knew exactly where it was because he twisted and turned her legs and hips so he could hit it again and harder.
She went feral with him inside her, biting his shoulder and scratching his chest. His eyes rolled, and he went faster still, slipping a hand between them to rub her so quickly and perfectly all she had left to do was scream.
So she did. And soon after she felt his warm release as well.
Chapter 17
He cuddled this woman, this angel, to his chest. She was purring and moaning, so he knew he’d done a masterful job. That she would imagine him in the sun, that she would give herself to him — it was everything. If only she knew that, and maybe she did. His heart hurt in his chest.
It suddenly occurred to him that he’d never before been with the one he loved. Maybe that’s why he’d never really fit in in Heaven. He hadn’t known where in his body love flowed from. Turned out it wasn’t his dick. This whole situation was doomed, though. He did know that. But he listened to her contentment and felt the sun on his skin and thought maybe, just maybe, things wouldn’t change.
He reached down and pulled the fluffy blanket up from where it had landed on the forest floor to cover them both. She had her head on his chest, and he could feel her deep breaths blowing across his skin.
He knew he should get her dressed. The last time he’d busted a pause button there had been a legal hearing in Heavenly Court. Those righteous types were such sticklers for the rules. That was shortly before he’d been condemned to Hell a thousand years ago. His only defense had been that he had a really
great hand of poker and wanted to play it through, which didn’t go over so well with the other angels.
Emma’s skin pressed against his was more addicting than any of his other vices.
Finally she peeked out from under the blanket. “Will we stay here forever?”
“I don’t think so, princess. I should let you get dressed. But first…” He slipped his clever hand under the blanket and brought her even more pleasure. When she was done again, he sighed. He refused to let her be embarrassed in front of the impending angel crowd and closed his eyes. He imagined her in a crisp white business suit, complete with inappropriately high heels. He twisted her hair into a fall of curls on top of her head and secured it with a diamond clip.
“Am I going somewhere special?” She tossed off the blanket to reveal his choice for her attire.
Without answering, he began dressing himself. He got as far as the leather pants when a very different alarm sounded. It was more of a fire alarm and he pulled her to his chest, hoping they’d end up in the same place.
“Deny me. When they ask, I forced you to come with me. Your presence was against your will. Promise me.”
She looked confused as they both began to disintegrate. When the anger reached her face they were gone — separate.
Jack landed with a hard thud in his Purgatory room. It was empty. He could still smell her scent on his hands, and he hugged his middle. He’d never been a fearful man, but he got it now. Fear came when you had something to lose.
Or someone.
Emma tumbled, dressed to the nines, and landed in front of two very official-looking chairs. She recognized the elaborate clawed feet immediately and picked herself up from the cloudy ground.
It was Heaven, and it was good. She was still human, which confused her. But at least the view was one she’d seen many times before. The angels milled about, mindful that their wings didn’t touch one another. There were little clear spots on the ground where portholes looked to Earth below. This was Heavenly Court, and Emma was disappointed to see Seraph Gabriel occupying a throne.