The Sinner

His dirty, greedy words lit new fires in me. I stroked myself brazenly. “Is that so?” I managed, still catching my breath. Somehow, still wanting more. “Then take it.”

His eyes flared, black and ferocious. I shut my eyes tight and gasped as he moved my hand away and bent his huge, powerful body to the V of my legs. My tentative cry became a scream as he voraciously drew another orgasm from me with his tongue. He soothed the raw, throbbing ache his cock had left and drove me to another crescendo, until I was arched off the bed, hands grasping at the sheets.

When the last wave of ecstasy had shuddered through me, I fell back, limp and utterly drained. Now I couldn’t keep my eyes open if I wanted to. Casziel’s weight settled beside me on the bed, and he hauled me to him. His arms went around me, my head pillowed on his warm skin.

“Sleep, Li’ili. My fierce woman.”

I was sinking into him, my body wrung out and perfectly heavy. Beneath that, the pain of losing him was like a fresh, ragged wound opening wider and deeper with every passing second.

“I can’t…” I murmured. “I won’t…”

“Ssh,” he whispered into my hair. “Sleep, my beloved. We’ll have the dawn.”

But I took my vow down with me. I had Casziel back and I wasn’t going to let him go without a fight.

Twenty-Two

I woke to watery, gray light streaming in from the window. My body felt as if I were anchored to the bed, every part of me utterly drained but satiated.

Cas lay on his back, his amber eyes staring at the ceiling. His hair was rumpled and messy. Human. I didn’t move but just watched him, soaked up his presence because now that I had him back, it was all ending. The clock read a little after ten a.m.

Seven hours. Seven hours and he’s gone.

He’d told me that he’d go back to Ashtaroth’s servitude and there would be no returning to This Side. But there was more he wasn’t telling me. Something worse. A finality that scared me to my bones.

The daylight was like an insult, throwing our limited time together in my face. I remembered Romeo and Juliet, where the morning’s arrival means Romeo has to flee Verona for killing Tybalt. Juliet holds him tight, unwilling to let him go, and pretends the day hasn’t come. It was a playful moment, but Romeo’s response sent a chill over my skin.

Let me be taken. Let me be put to death.

Cas turned his head on the pillow, misreading my expression. “Last night…it was too much. I suspected it would be. Forgive me. I was desperate to have you and—”

“No, last night was perfect,” I said, moving into the crook of his arm, his bare skin warm under my cheek. “I don’t want you to go.”

He pulled me close and pressed his lips to my hair.

“Can you really not come back? Or maybe die and have a new lifetime as a human? Maybe we can find each other next time…”

“I wish that were so.”

“I can’t believe there is no forgiveness for you,” I said angrily, tears pricking my eyes. “I refuse to believe it.”

Cas said nothing but held me tighter. I ran my fingers over his skin, tracing the lines of his scars to the killing stroke over his heart.

“Tell me more about us,” I said. “At the Irish pub—which feels like a million years ago—you told me that our marriage was arranged.”

“It was,” he said. “Marriage in Sumer was more of a business transaction between fathers than anything else. But you and I were different. Our fathers were friends, and our families were close. From the moment we met, there was love.”

“I wish I could remember.”

“I was eighteen. You were fourteen and—”

“Fourteen?”

Like Juliet…

Cas’s chuckle rumbled under my cheek. “It was a different era. I’d already risen in the ranks of King Rim-Sin’s army when our fathers arranged our engagement. Before we could be married, Hammurabi attacked, and I was called away to war for four years.”

“And then you came back,” I said, snuggling tighter to him. “I remember that. But I want the rest of our story.”