Page 21 of Lost to Thievery
After some time, I wandered down the beach with the angel, letting the moon pull me to her. “What do you see when you look at the moon?” I asked the angel. He smiled brightly, like my question intrigued him. To Grayson, the moon was nothing more than a rock, hurtling through space.
“Beauty. And mystery. Like you, pretty stranger.” His dark, curly hair shined in the moonlight, like she was giving him her blessing.
Yes, he might just be the one to pull me from the iron grip of the shadows. Even if it’s for just a few hours.Tonight’s the night, Gray. Tonight, you will be purged from my mind and my body.Even if it doesn’t last. At least I could breathe for a while.
The angel stopped and turned to me. He let a finger trail down my cheek, down my neck and over my shoulder in wonder. “You really are pretty. How come no one snatched you up yet?”
I swallowed. The man whohadsnatched me had liked using the wordexquisitewhen referring to how I looked.
I shook the thought off and smiled up at the angel. “Because I’m fucked up. A witch with no soul.” I pulled my fingers through his curls. “Will you help me get my soul back from the devil, angel?”
“How do I do that?” His eyes were fixed to my lips.
I pushed up onto my toes, closer to his mouth. “A ritual. Under the full moon,” I whispered on a smile. It was fitting.
“Will I be sacrificed?”
I chuckled softly. “No. I will be the one sacrificing my body to an angel.”
“I like the sound of that,” he rasped, pulling me tightly against him, knowing where this was leading. He pulled his fingers through my hair, swallowing hard. “Can I kiss you now, pretty stranger?”
“Only if you make it good enough to exorcize the demons in my head.”
He crashed his lips onto mine, his arms pulling me even tighter.
Yes, maybe this would work. Maybe his touch could banish the devil.
I kissed him back, feverishly, desperately. Like he was my salvation.
I only broke the kiss long enough to pull him behind some rocks. I pushed him against it, struggling to get his jeans off while he moaned in pleasure against my lips. He pulled the straps of my dress down my arms, then lowered his mouth to my breasts, lifting me off my feet to get a better angle. He turned and pressed me against the rock, his tongue swirling around mynipple as his hands pushed my dress up, out of the way. I felt his erection then and desperately bucked against him. With a groan into my neck, he pushed himself inside me.
He moved slow, kissing my neck as he slid back into me. He was being gentle, too gentle. This was not what I wanted.
“No. Harder. Fuck me harder,” I panted, grinding my hips into him.
“Hell, sweetheart. You’re a dream come true,” he moaned, before letting loose, slamming hard and fast into me. He pressed his face into my neck, grunting in effort and pleasure as he fucked me. He grabbed hold of my hip to keep me in place. And I stopped breathing. My heart stopped beating. The angel’s thumb pressed into the scars on my hip.
The devil’s mark.
“Open your eyes, Ava. And don’t you take them off me.”
I clamped my eyes shut even tighter, rebelling against the memory and his order.
“When you’re ready, count to three.”
The knife sliced through my skin, and the dark hunger in Grayson’s eyes made my stomach flip. He enjoyed the act of marking me. Maybe a little too much. Maybe I should be scared.
“Again.”
His knife sliced through me a second time. He sucked my blood from his thumb, a gesture I never knew could be so erotic. I noticed how my blood had stained his bottom lip red as he mouthed, “Mine.”
“Fuck, I’m already there,” the stranger moaned in my ear, pulling me from the memory.
I pulled him closer with trembling arms as numbness washed over me. I felt my body jostle as he continued to thrust into me, but I couldn’t feel him anymore. I couldn’t feel anything.
I kept my eyes on the moon. It was silly of me to think a mere angel could rid me of the devil himself.
I wandered the rest of the night on the beach, alone, until Rachel found me.
