Мишель Роуэн - Angel with Attitude

“I don’t know how far that power goes. Or how long it will last. I couldn’t take the risk that you’d try to take the key for yourself.”

He nodded, jaw clenched. “And now you are willing to throw yourself shamelessly at that self-obsessed asshole in order to get what you’re after.”

“If I have to. Yes.”

“You’re a fool.”

Val crossed her arms and felt her face begin to flush again. Only this time it wasn’t from embrassment, it was from anger. “I don’t need to explain myself to you. I’m doing what I have to do for Barlow, okay? A good friend of mine who is also a fallen angel. He’s dying, just like Julian said. I need to use the key to send him back to Heaven before it’s too late. And even aside from that, I need the key back so Julian doesn’t have a chance to use it. The damage he’d do by gaining access to Heaven will destroy everything. Like, we’re talking major high-budget universal damage.”

He looked away, toward the sparkling swimming pool surrounded by the Mayor’s beautiful guests. “Finished?”

“Not even slightly. But on this subject I am.” She leaned against the palm tree, feeling slightly exhausted from her speech.

“And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Will you use the key for yourself? Send yourself back to Heaven?”

She paused. “Probably.”

Nathaniel scoffed at her. “‘Probably’, she says. You know you will.”

“That’s really none of your business.”

“You are my business, remember? If you succeed at going back to Heaven . . . I fail.”

She felt a chill at the thought. “I can’t help you there. That’s just the way it is.”

“So you’re going to all of this trouble to save the world like some comic book heroine. Save your friend. And then maybe, just maybe—if there’s time—save yourself.”

“That’s right.”

“That’s so selfless of you.”

She stared at him for a moment, not liking his sarcastic tone. “I guess it is.”

He laughed and shook his head. “You’re fooling yourself. None of the other stuff matters to you. You’re getting the key for yourself and only yourself. So you can go back. Just like the so-called good deeds you tried to do in Niagara Falls these last couple of months. You think you were doing them because you were trying to help the greater good? No. You were doing it to earn your heavenly Brownie points so they’d forgive you and take you back. Face it, angel, you’re just as selfish as the rest of us. And just as big a liar.”

She narrowed her eyes. “How dare you say that to me!”

“Because it’s all true. You’ve been selfish in this whole thing just so you come out the winner. Even if your idea of winning is to go back up to your safe little predictable cloud and get back to your easy, perfect existence, doing whatever it is you did up there. No risk, no excitement, no rush. Just same old, same old. You have been given the chance to do something different for a while as a human, but you’re too damned scared to embrace it.” He turned away from her.

She grabbed his arm to make him look at her. “I’m too scared to embrace being a human?

You’re . . .” She glared at him. “You’re too scared to embrace a human.”

He shook his head incredulously. “What are you babbling about now?”

“Earlier, remember? You pushed me away? I get that it’s against the rules. That you can’t get too close to one of your assignments. I figured that out all by myself, even without Lloyd’s help. So don’t talk to me about being scared when you’re obviously the one who’s petrified.”

He glared back at her, his eyes stormy gray. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Val felt so frustrated, she couldn’t help what came out of her mouth next. “What is this?”

“What?”

She bit her bottom lip before continuing. “Are you just playing games with me—is all of this just to make me feel something for you so you can use it against me to save yourself and your job? Or does this mean something to you?”

He sighed but his harsh expression didn’t change. “You are driving me insane. I just called you selfish to your face and now you’re getting all psychoanalytical on me?”

“Why can’t you just answer a question without making me force you to?”

He glared at her.

She crossed her arms. Her face had become incredibly hot and it wasn’t just because of the bright Miami-like sun in the sky. “Fine. Be that way. I want to know what this means to you.

Why you haven’t tried harder to get away from me. Why you’ve sort of stopped trying to tempt me at every given opportunity. Why you’re helping me to get the key back. And what you meant when you said you burn for me. I command you to tell—”

Nathaniel pushed her up against the palm tree and covered her mouth with his hand. His eyes were full of flames, but he didn’t look angry anymore. He looked scared. “Don’t say anything else, Valerie. Just don’t. Trust me when I tell you that this is not the time or the place to get into this discussion. There’s too much at stake for both of us. He shook her a little harder than necessary and frowned. “Do you understand?”

His expression began to soften as he stared into her eyes. She nodded and he removed his hand.

He held her in his deep, bottomless gaze and the rest of the world fell away. There were only the two of them. She felt things for him that she shouldn’t have been feeling. He was a demon assigned to tempt her. She couldn’t let herself forget that. It was wrong for her to be near him, close to him, feeling this way. Big-time wrong.

But she sensed his loneliness, his pain, his desperation. Was everything Lloyd told her true?

Was Nathaniel tortured daily by his horrible duties as a demon, without even the hope of freedom, without ever being with someone he burned for?

Her heart swelled, which, considering the size of her glamourized breasts, was no small feat.

“Just try to trust me if you can, my angel,” he murmured and leaned closer to her, until their lips were nearly touching.

“Val!”

She heard the shriek and turned to look over by the pool.

Reggie had wedged himself under a lounge chair and there was a large leopard-spotted cat crouched next to him reaching out a paw in an attempt to grab him.

Val pushed Nathaniel away and ran over to the pool. The cat hissed and swiped at her as she moved between it and Reggie. She knelt down and offered a hand to her bespelled friend. He climbed up, quivering with fear.

“My life flashed before my eyes again,” he said with chattering teeth. “It was the extended, unrated DVD version this time. Not good. Not good at all.”

“Sorry to hear that. But it’s okay now. You’re safe. Well, as safe as we’re going to get around here.”

Val glared at the cat and followed the thin gold-chained leash up a pair of long, long . . . looonnnggg tanned legs.

“Your familiar talks,” the legs said in a low, sexy, accented voice. Val looked up even higher.

The speaker was actually the gorgeous woman attached to them.

She had waist-length black hair, golden skin, and amber-colored eyes. She wore a leopard print bikini to match her cat that could have fit in a small, overnight delivery envelope. The bikini, not the cat.

“Yes, he can,” Val replied. “He’s like that singing and dancing frog in the Bugs Bunny cartoons.” She placed Reggie on her left shoulder where he found a chunk of red hair to hide behind. “I don’t appreciate your cat almost having him for lunch.”

She smiled. “Perhaps you should keep a better eye on the things you cherish.” Then she all but dismissed Val as Nathaniel approached. “Nathaniel. I was told you were here. I’m so pleased.”