This vignette stands alone, so you can read even if you've never read the Guild Hunter series.
For series readers, A Walk on the Cliffs fits into chapter 6 of Archangel's Shadows. It shows a hidden moment between two characters who help run the household of the Archangel Raphael: Sivya, the angelic chef who runs the kitchen, and Montgomery, the vampire who is Raphael's butler and who ensures the rest of the staff work together as a seamless unit.
I hope you enjoy!
A Walk On The Cliffs
By Nalini Singh
Sivya was filling the last of the eclairs with cream when Montgomery walked back into the otherwise empty kitchen. Her heart skipped a beat even though she told herself she was far too old for such foolishness. At a thousand years of age, she was no green girl to lose herself over a man. She was a chef of exquisite skill who had the running of an archangel's kitchen... and she still had to fight the butterflies in her stomach when a certain butler walked into the room.
"The sire and the Guild Hunter will not be needing their dinner till later," Montgomery said now, his black hair neatly combed and his suit--the same shade--as pristine as when he'd started the day. The white shirt he wore underneath was also as crisp, his black tie precisely in place.
Sivya looked down at the flour-dusted and chocolate drizzled shirt sleeves she'd pushed back to her elbows, thought of the fact her pale blonde hair was falling out of the haphazard bun into which she'd knotted it, and flushed.
Then she remembered how a junior member of her staff had accidentally sprayed cocoa powder across most of the room. They'd all laughed and the sheepish young vampire had cleaned up the mess but for the cocoa dust that had gotten on the light, light gold of Sivya's wings--she'd intended to wipe it off after she finished with the eclairs, now realized she must look like a child who'd been rolling around in the dirt.
Her blush intensified, wings rustling as she tightened them.
Dark eyes lingered on her face, Montgomery no doubt wondering why she was turning red though she was far from the oven. "You made extra of the sweets."
"Oh, it's just as easy to make a big batch as a small one," she said, looking down at the chocolate glazed tops of the eclairs because it was difficult to hold his gaze when she couldn't know what hers might reveal. "And they'll go in a heartbeat once I fly them over to the Tower." There were a number of young angels stationed there and they not only had stomachs that didn't end, they were far from home and could do with a little spoiling now and then.
A certain more senior angel also had a weakness for her eclairs. She always boxed up three or four for Aodhan, made sure they got to his quarters.
"You're planning to fly to the Tower?" Montgomery asked in that English-accented voice that always made her breath catch.
"Yes, now that these are done." Glad that he didn't seem to have noticed anything odd in her behavior, she added the final drop of cream, then began to wash out her tools. She wasn't one of those chefs who was pedantic about making sure everything was put away as soon as it was used, but she liked to straighten up after finishing a task. "It won't take me long, and most of the dinner preparation is done." The sire and his hunter mate were never difficult to please.
When Raphael had first taken a mate, Sivya had worried that the new mistress of the house would want to make changes in the staff, but the Guild Hunter was a warrior akin to her archangel. She appreciated the experience and skill of the men and women who worked in this home, and left them to see to their duties without interference--though she never forgot to thank them. And as the Guild Hunter was honest to the core, her compliments meant a great deal to the staff.
"Perhaps Mayim can fly them across after she returns from her break."
Surprised at the suggestion that her assistant take the eclairs to Manhattan--Montgomery knew she enjoyed stretching her wings with such small tasks--Sivya glanced up. And found herself looking directly into the rich brown of Montgomery's eyes. "W-was..." She cleared her throat. "Was there something else you needed me to do?"
His expression didn't change as he said, "I would ask for your company for a walk in the evening air."
Sivya's brain stopped functioning for a minute. Lifting a hand to her unraveling hair, she went to say something about freshening up when Montgomery took a single step forward. "You look lovely."
Flustered into a smile at the unhidden admiration in his tone, she reached back to undo her apron, then pulled it off. Her hands shook as she placed it on the counter. "I'm sure Mayim won't mind delivering these." Covering the eclairs with a fine mesh cloth, she faced the vampire who made her feel as much a hopeful fledgling as the young angels at the Tower.
He held out an arm bent at the elbow.
Heart thundering, she slipped her arm through his, conscious of the muscled strength beneath the fabric of his suit. Montgomery might choose to serve his liege as a butler, but she knew full well he was more than capable with a blade; she'd seen him practicing many times in the quiet hour before true dawn.
And yes, she always watched for far longer than she should.
Blood rushing through her ears, she walked with him through the folding glass doors she kept open when she was in the kitchen. Her wings brushed his back since they were walking so closely together. "Oh, I'm so sorry. The cocoa dust will get over your suit."
"It will brush off." He placed his free hand over hers to keep her close when she would've put distance between them, the warmth of his skin surging into her.
She flushed again, but at least they were outside now, the soft night darkness a forgiving cloak. "I've been thinking of a new menu for the next time the Guild Hunter invites the Seven for dinner, or at least those of the Seven within reach at present." Food was the one thing she knew and the one thing about which she could always talk--even when her nerves were twisted into a hundred small knots.
"What have you decided?" Montgomery's voice was deep and resonant, a calm confidence to him that was innate.
Sivya told him, knew she was talking too much. She couldn't stop. Montgomery was younger than her but he was the most centered and together person she knew. Nothing shook him. Even when the sire's mother had flown unexpectedly into the city, he'd kept his head, ensured Lady Caliane was treated with all the courtesy due to her as an Ancient and as Raphael's mother.
He was the reason the sire's home ran like clockwork.
Sivya knew her value, knew her skill as a chef was of the highest caliber. She also knew she ran an efficient and joyous kitchen. But she couldn't do what he did, which was to make certain all the pieces of the household ran together to create a seamless unit. Sometimes, as she watched him take care of multiple urgent issues without once losing his cool, she wondered if he'd been born with that calm, steadying center on which the entire staff relied.
"It's a wonderful menu," he said when she finally stopped for breath.
Sivya bit down on her lower lip to still another deluge of words as they turned to face the glittering lights of Manhattan in the distance, the Hudson River a rippling dark mirror in between.
She had been with Raphael since the day he set up his first true home here and the energy and beauty of his city still sometimes caught her by surprise. Montgomery had joined the household later, ten years after he became a vampire.
At the time, he'd technically been working off the century of service required of all mortals who became vampires. However, from the first, the sire had given him the respect due a man of his skill, and in return, Montgomery had given Raphael his absolute loyalty.
Sivya was deeply happy he'd chosen to remain in Raphael's employ even after his mandated term of service was over. She had always enjoyed working with him but over the past year... well, she'd begun to realize that Montg
omery wasn't only a distinguished butler, but a handsome man who made her feel things she'd never before felt.
"You're quiet," he said, his thumb stroking gently over the back of her hand. "Is something the matter?"
Tiny prickles of sensation spread from his touch, across her skin, through her nerves, into her veins. "I don't want to talk your ear off." Montgomery never said anything that didn't need to be said. Not like Sivya. She could chatter all day long about a hundred small things.
"It gives me great pleasure to hear the things you say. You're filled with so much joy it spills over to everyone in your vicinity."
Her thundering heart, it just melted at the sincerity of his response. Daring to turn, she looked at the clean line of his profile. She lived in the home of an archangel but it was Montgomery who drew her eye and tonight, she could look at him without fear that he'd catch her staring.
Then he turned to her and her breath, it froze in her chest all over again.
Holding her gaze, he moved his arm so that her hand slipped out. He caught it as it fell, lifted it to his mouth and pressed his lips to the back of it, his eyes never breaking contact with her own. The caress made her shiver. "Will you walk with me tomorrow, too, Sivya?"
Chest rising and falling in a jagged rhythm, she nodded. "Yes," she whispered aloud, to make certain there would be no misunderstanding. "Yes, Montgomery. I'll walk with you again tomorrow."
His lips tilted up, his eyes warming from within, and all at once, he was as young as she felt tonight.
Her own smile bursting out of her, she said, "Will you eat a bite of my eclairs?" Vampires couldn't process much solid food, but a bite wasn't out of the question.
"I always do," he said to her surprise. "Why do you think your count is always off by one?"
Startled into laughter, she leaned into him as they walked back to the kitchen arm in arm.
(c) Copyright 2015 by Nalini Singh
Nalini Singh, A Walk on the Cliffs
(Series: Guild Hunter # 7.10)
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