Snow roared down the Hindu Kush mountainside. It gathered rocks and tumbled the deadly avalanche straight for the huddle of wooden buildings clustered at the pass.
Andrew cursed and flung himself at the cold violence, caught, held it and directed it away from the sleeping humans. It was his fault, his anger, that had triggered the lethal force. He hadn’t known how to release the fury in him. It still rode him even in this remote place.
Cali had rejected him.
He stood thigh deep in the snow and shuddered under the force of his grief. He’d wanted Cali and her passion because she brought his emotions alive. With her, there was no passive acceptance of fate. He respected her, trusted her. She’d survived centuries of enslavement by virtue of her strong spirit. She fought for what was important to her.
But she wasn’t willing to fight for him.
“We could be together.” He hated the curse that bound Cali, but whatever it took to work around it, to steal precious time together, he’d have done. Anything to be with Cali.
He glared up at the stars. Heaven wasn’t home, not with Cali trapped here refusing him. His muscles flexed. What he needed was a visit to hell and a fight with a few dozen demons.
“Damn it all.”
He’d wanted to feel alive again. Well, the joke was on him. He’d challenged Cali to hope. He’d teased and provoked her, pleasured her, and it hadn’t been enough.
He
wasn’t enough for her to risk a relationship.
His fists knotted as awareness of his own impotence drained his rage into endless desolation. He’d shown Cali who he was, but she wouldn’t trust herself to him.
She had left him alone.
The night on the castle ramparts was cold and miserable. Loneliness froze Cali’s muscles. The stars mocked her with their distant light and the knowledge that poets and lovers had hung their dreams on them.
She was all out of dreams. Hope was too dangerous.
When she looked at David’s house, she thought of him and Miriam and nearly choked on her pain. She envied them. God how she envied them.
Her eyes stung. Without the protection of vengeance, her emotions were everywhere. She even felt a rusty impulse to prayer.
“God, I don’t know why Miriam loves him, but she does. Keep them safe.”
She didn’t dare pray for herself.
Do angels need prayers?
She swallowed. Her throat felt constricted. Andrew wouldn’t want her prayers. She’d hurt him.
It hurt to breathe.
The sky lightened to dawn.
A door of David’s house opened and Miriam came out, barefoot and with a jacket slung over her shoulder. She walked across the chill of dew-wet grass and cold stone to her favorite thinking place high on the hill.
Cali leaned forward with her chin on her huddled knees. Why wasn’t Miriam with David? Did everyone who fell in love need time alone to think and accept the changes in their life?
Was that what she’d been doing this night? Thinking of Andrew and of her own imprisoned heart, sifting through her emotions and wishing she could act on what she felt?
She did want him. It wouldn’t hurt so much if she didn’t.
She closed her eyes and thought of how she’d seen him the first time, down at the beach. He’d shown her his true form, an ancient warrior with white gilded wings. A being of power and honor, but also a man. Someone who’d been hurt by life but who still dared to reach out to her.
“If I care about him, I have to match his courage.” She couldn’t heal the hurts she’d inflicted last night with a mere apology. Her own cowardice shamed her. She had to trust him with her whole self. Despite her fear, she had to surrender herself to hope. Her lungs ached as she drew a deep breath. “I will. For Andrew.”
With Andrew, she didn’t have to rely on her own strength to sustain hope. He was a soldier, he would fight for them—if she gave him a chance.
“And I’ll fight.” The Bringer of Death no longer, she would fill her life with a new vow: to be fully herself, a woman strong enough to admit her vulnerability and open herself to needing someone else. Andrew.
Power stronger than any vengeance-fuelled fury fountained from her heart and spread through her body. She tipped her face up and smiled at the dawn, daring it to shine brighter.
“I trust him.” She toppled backwards, arms outstretched on the ground, vulnerable but embraced by sky and land and her own unbelieving sense of wonder. “I’m not afraid. I can feel it, what he asked for. Hope!”
She jumped up, because she had to tell him.
“Hell.” She gripped a rampart, unwilling to believe what she saw. Down below, Miriam was being shoved into a van by two men in hooded sweats and army boots. The house was closed, no one else in sight at this early hour.
The bastards were kidnapping Miriam.
Cali’s euphoria froze and chilled into lethal intensity.
God, can’t love and happiness last twenty-four hours?
The kidnappers would use Miriam to destroy David. They would tear apart their love.
Cali didn’t even think that just yesterday she too had wanted him dead. The wild attack call of desert bandits ripped from her throat.
“Ai-ai-ee!”
A flash of energy locked the wheels of the car. The engine roared and the tires squealed, sending up a cloud of black rubber smoke. She dived through it.
It was the men in the back of the van on either side of Miriam who were the immediate threat. Unshaven, hard-eyed and armed, although their rifles would be hard to angle within the confines of the van. The rifles were for outside risks, insurance in case David caught up with them. They probably had knives for the close work. Knives allowed sadists to enjoy pain close at hand.
Not this time.
She chopped the throat of the first. She pulled the hit so the thwack of flesh hitting flesh didn’t crush his windpipe. Her anger wasn’t a killing rage. Yet.
The man on the far side of Miriam screamed.
Cali glanced across and grinned. Miriam had used her knowledge of anatomy and struck the second man’s balls, possibly squeezed. In the moment of painful distraction, Cali leaned over and knocked him unconscious. In almost the same movement she lunged forward, between the front seats.
The elderly man in the passenger’s seat had a pistol and a feral snarl. He twisted to line up a shot. She recognized him as the man who’d bought and given away her bottle. He had gifted David with her, the Bringer of Death, hoping she’d destroy him—and she nearly had.
Cali slugged him.
The driver, already demoralized by the car that refused to go, raised his hands from the steering wheel in surrender.
Cali grabbed his throat, found the pressure point, and he slumped unconscious.
“Ugh.” The crowded van stank of sweat. “Too much garlic.” The men had been excited and frightened at their own daring in stealing Miriam. Someone must have watched and learned Miriam’s morning routine.
“Toad eaters.” The epithet dismissed the slumped bodies of the men. If there had been more space, Cali would have kicked them. They were vermin, attacking the innocent, victimizing the weak.
Not that Miriam, with her dirty tactics, qualified as weak. Cali looked at her in approval and saw her wide-eyed and worried.
“They’re not dead, Miriam.”
Damn. Who but a doctor would care? Who but Miriam?
“Get moving. Pressure points aren’t as effective as a blow. They’ll wake up in a couple of minutes. You’d better hurry. Hurry,” she repeated as Miriam hesitated. She gave her a push and the woman slid out the back door.
Cali jumped out behind her and choked on the cloud of burning rubber. She waved a hand, unlocking the wheels. When the driver woke, he could remove himself. She just hoped he had the sense to do so fast. David would be looking for revenge.
She grabbed Miriam’s hand and set the pace, a run, back to the safety of the house.
“Why?” Miriam had breath enough for the question. “Why did you rescue me? You hate David. Letting him live isn’t the same as saving his heart.”
Cali shrugged a shoulder, unwilling to admit she’d let go of her hate. That knowledge was her gift to Andrew. “You’re an innocent. I don’t hurt innocents.”
In front of them, David wrenched the side door of the house open. He glared at Cali. “What are you doing with Miriam?”
Behind them, the van roared away.
“She rescued me.”
“From Agrib.”
“Agrib?” David’s eyes darkened. His expression grew thunderous.
“I’m safe, David.” Miriam stroked the arm that clamped her against his chest. “Cali saved me.”
“Agrib threatened you.” He was staring at some nightmare only he saw. Abruptly he dragged Miriam up the stairs to his room. He swung open his personal safe and picked up Cali’s bottle.
She sighed and sagged against the doorframe.
Miriam’s gaze flew from the bottle to Cali. She tugged free of David’s hold. “Cali, is that your bottle?”
“Three wishes and all the traditional trappings,” Cali said wearily. Andrew appeared behind her in the doorway. She looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”
“Cali.” David’s hands were tight on the bottle. “I want you to—”
“No!” Miriam’s shout froze the room. “No. David, don’t do this. Don’t use Cali. You can’t make her your revenge.”
“To protect you.” Emotion burned in his eyes. His mouth was harsh and thin-lipped. His body shook with the strain of what he was admitting. That he wasn’t complete in himself. He needed her. “You’re mine.”
She shook her head and looked at Cali. “You were right to try to kill him.”
“Miri?” David cried.
“You’re treating her as a slave. You, who saw your parents destroyed serving others. How can you? To command someone to kill—I’d rather be dead than be an excuse for that.” Her desperate expression softened. “I love you, David. Just love me back. Let the revenge go. Let my love be enough. You’ll protect me.”
Andrew put his hands on Cali’s waist, stepping close enough that his warmth strengthened her. “Love can be, must be, fiercely truthful.”
“Like Miriam.” Cali leaned back.
He hugged her close.
David looked from Miriam to them. She pleaded. They simply waited.
He threw the bottle at Cali. “I wish you free.”
In midair the bottle exploded, the glass shards becoming light and vanishing till only the scent of lemon and rose remained.
Cali turned in Andrew’s arms.
Over her shoulder, Andrew held David’s gaze. “Thank you.”
David nodded. More than one prison had broken this morning. He looked down at Miriam as she leaned against him and smiled at Cali and Andrew. He caressed her hip, aware of the love in him and its exhilarating terror. He was no longer in control of his life.
He grinned. How would the Bringer of Death deal with the same realization that her freedom came with new ties? Andrew didn’t seem likely to let her loose any time this side of eternity. Andrew had the right idea.
David tightened his arms and gave himself to the joy of loving Miriam.
Andrew picked Cali up and took the kind of long step only an angel could, straight through the walls of David’s house and into the restored castle. The master suite overlooked the Mediterranean Sea and was decorated in harem fashion with silk wall hangings and an intricate carpet, cushions scattered everywhere, ornate inlaid wooden furniture and a massive bed.
It was a room for lovers. It was also private.
He and Cali had to talk.
“Andrew?” She blinked up at him when he laid her on the bed and turned away to the arched window.
Far below, the surf crashed against the rocks. The sound and the faint salt spray carried up. He breathed in, trying to find emotional stability. Cali had hurt him last night, even if he understood her fear of the future, of intimacy, of trusting him.
“Andrew, come here.” Her face showed marks of strain—shadowed eyes and drawn muscles.
Perhaps it had been a long night for her too.
He stayed by the window.
“I’m free.” She slid off the bed and walked to him, stopping an arm’s reach away. “Why aren’t you happy for me? For us? I’m sorry I sent you away last night. If it’s any help, I spent the night regretting it.” She tried a smile. “It was the right thing to do, though. I had to find my courage. I had to be sure.”
“Sure of what?” He caressed her face.
She turned her face into his hand, kissing the palm, before capturing his hand and carrying it to her breast. “I had to be sure of who I am.”
His fingers curved around her fullness.
“When we first met, you showed me who you are, Andrew. I need to show you who I am.” Her hands went to her shirt buttons, gently knocking his hand aside. She watched him as she stripped, until she stood naked and glowing. White light edged in gold luminesced from her skin. The dark shadows in her life were gone. She’d vanquished them. “I’ll be your lover. I’ll heal your hurts and share your life. I’ll bring you joy and borrow your strength. I’ll give you all that I am and I’ll demand all that you are. Everything.”
“Yes,” he said thickly.
“Yes.” She smiled and the white light vanished. Now she was all woman, eager for her lover. One arm curved behind his neck as she rose on tiptoe and curled her right leg around his waist. Her mouth opened over his.
He trembled as he recognized the gesture, both a claiming and an acceptance of her vulnerability. She was open to him. His desire surged. He lifted her and both legs clamped around him.
Teeth grated as passion made them clumsy. He tore his mouth away and lifted her higher so he could take her breast into his mouth. He sucked strongly, beyond gentle teasing of the taut nipple. Everything she could give, he would take.
She arched against him and he almost overbalanced. Three steps brought them to the bed and he let her fall, following her down. It was heaven to know himself welcomed.
She pushed him over, rolling on top of him and pressing against his arousal. Her hips rocked once, twice.
“Tease.”
“Only because you have too many clothes—” her eyes widened, “—on.”
He slid a second finger after the first, then withdrew both.
“Tease.” She returned his complaint.
He liked her pouting parted lips and her full breasts. The contrast of her nakedness to his clothes was erotic, and he liked how slick and ready for him she was. He slid down beneath her and licked a nipple, tugging with his lips, while his fingers found her again. It was dancing on the edge of disaster. His arousal pulsed, hard and explosive. He needed to be inside her.
She climaxed, tightening around his fingers, and his whole body jerked.
“Cali,” he said in agony.
“Still…too many…clothes.”
“I know.” He groaned. Her warm, wet mouth against his throat wasn’t helping. He could imagine the lingering touch elsewhere.
“I’ll help.”
But he couldn’t wait as her fingers fumbled the buttons of his shirt and she slid down his body.
“Next time.” He pushed her onto her back and stripped off his clothes.
She lay on the bed in an abandoned sprawl, watching him. She smiled at his desperation and lightly touched her own nipple.
“I’ll kiss you there,” he said.
“And here?” She circled the other nipple. Her quickened breathing revealed her excitement.
“Where else?” He braced himself over her. So much for good intentions. His arms trembled and he lowered his weight, his erection nudging her folds.
“Yes. There.” She dug her fingers into his shoulders as she arched up.
His thrust was unstoppable, inevitable.
She shifted, cradling his weight while they adjusted to the intimacy. Her hands stroked firmly down his back.
He smiled at the rightness, then bent hungrily to take her mouth as well. He wanted everything, and it had to be now. She was too tight and hot, and he too desperate, for his control to last.
“Everything,” he said against her mouth.
Cali wrapped her legs around him. “I want you.”
He thrust, losing himself in the driving rhythm that gathered them both up. They strained against each other, fingers digging into perspiration-slick skin, bodies shifting, angling for deeper penetration, total annihilation. Their scents fused in the musk of sex.
“Andrew.” Her throat curved in taut need. Her whole body arched, demanding release.
She’d never been so beautiful, so desirable. Her need powered his final thrust, and her climax stormed through her body. It caught him in its power and triggered his own release. He shouted, wordless, as he pumped within her.
The little death, that moment outside time.
He rolled onto his back, bringing her with him so she lay half across his chest with their legs tangled. Total happiness and her limp, pleasured body satisfied his ego. No need to ask if she’d enjoyed it. But he did.
A husky laugh answered him.
He looked so pleased with himself. Well, she was pleased too. Her body vibrated with bliss. And he took such care of her. “As if you stole a piece of heaven for us.”
“Just for you.”
“Thank you.” She raised up to kiss his lips, then collapsed back onto his chest. “It feels so good. Skin to skin, free to hold you.” She rubbed her face against his skin. “I want to rub myself all over you.”
His chest lifted as he inhaled sharply. “I’d like that.” He raised his arms and laced his fingers above his head.
Excitement tingled in the pit of her stomach.
His big body was challenge and incitement. His eyes were the blue of sunlit seas as he watched her. Whatever happened to recovery time?
“I’ve ridden horses.” She hooked her leg over him and settled astride.
“Have you, love?”
“Hmm.” She leaned forward, sliding her hands from his ridged stomach up to circle his nipples and on to frame his face. Her body followed. Stomach to stomach, chest to chest, mouth to mouth. She drew back so her nipples teased along his body. “Horses are powerful.”
“So am I.”
“I know.” She slid off him.
His hands came down instinctively, wanting to hold her in place.
She bent and licked a flat nipple, teasing as he’d teased her. Pleasuring as she’d been pleased.
His hands settled lightly, one cupping her breast and the other threading through her hair, keeping her mouth at its task.
“You’re addictive.” She looked up at him and found him watching her, his eyes dark with passion, intent despite the lazy, open sprawl of his body. She licked her lips, finding the flavor of his skin.
Abruptly, she wanted to skip the foreplay. But a djinni has self-control. She settled for trapping one of his thighs between hers and sliding fractionally. Her head dipped back to his other nipple and she sucked the tight bead.
His arousal nudged her.
She slid a hand down his stomach, caressing and claiming, enjoying his increasing tension. His breath hissed as she wrapped her hand around him. She rested her cheek on his chest and studied her captive.
He was hard and full. Potently male. So stunningly large and she knew how he felt inside her. The knowledge fed her hunger. She glided her fingers along the length of him, then rose up, settled over him and guided him home. Triumphant desire flared in his eyes as she took him in by degrees.
“Feeling smug?” He flexed his hips beneath her.
“Well, you promised me a ride.”
“So I did.”
Their first loving had held an edge of desperation. They hadn’t been sure of each other. This time they knew the connection was there. They had all the time and all the world to explore its power.
Except that his strokes were growing more urgent, his gaze holding hers as she rode him recklessly, surrendering them both to passion and herself to his care. She was flying, aware only of Andrew as he filled her, incited her and, finally, followed her into a rippling climax.
“What do you do for an encore?” he asked, drawing lazy patterns over her skin.
She panted quietly. Yes, her angel would always challenge her. Fortunately, she was a djinni. She could handle him.
She smiled. “I’ll give you three wishes.”