Nalini Singh - Archangel's Enigma

Hauling her lower body closer to his mouth with a powerful grip under her thighs, he licked her between those thighs and straight into a wrenching orgasm, then kept going. The graze of fangs made her moan and grow even wetter, but he was only playing. Playing with her like she was his favorite and most delicious toy.

“Naasir.”

A rumbling growl against her, a wet suck of her clitoris. Her stomach tensed, her spine snapped into a hard curve and she came all over again. Boneless, she moaned as he scraped his fangs lightly at her inner thigh, then went back to his licking and tasting and sucking. Her breathing was so harsh it almost hurt, and the pleasure, it was the blood in her veins.

When he scraped his fangs over her inner thigh a second time, she shivered.

And he bit.

Crying out, she clenched her hand in his hair and surrendered to the blood kiss of her mate.

Naasir drank his fill; there was no battle to fight this night and he’d brought in a pack of food for his mate. Afterward, he’d feed her, and pet her and talk with her. Now he drank from her and she was intoxication. Her warm, musky, sated scent surrounded him, her blood hot on his tongue and her free leg hooking around his back as he tugged strongly on her.

Shivering, she whispered his name again and it made his cock throb. He stroked her thigh as he fed, enjoying the silken feel of her. She was so soft and yet there was such strength in her. He wanted to spar with her, wanted to cross blades with her, wanted to lie naked in bed with her and tease her.

Licking the tiny wounds closed after he was finally full, he rose up over her. She was heavy lidded, her lips plump and her breasts flushed. Raising her hand, she pulled him down to her as he lifted up her thigh and pushed his cock into her tight, slick channel. He kissed her as they rocked together and she held him throughout.

It wasn’t how he’d imagined this act when he’d thought about being with his mate. He’d always thought it’d be hard and raw. This was hot and tender and he liked it. Stroking her thigh again as he moved, he kept on kissing her. Their tongues played with each other and when she pretended to bite his, he growled and she laughed.

Nipping at her nose, he squeezed her thigh.

Her smile deepened and she held him even more tightly, her legs locked around him. “I love you.”

“I know.”

Laughing again, her sparkly eyes full of sunshine, she claimed another kiss. And they kept on playing their sexy little game that made him happy deep inside. When she clamped down on him in a startled orgasm, he rode her through it before leaning down to suck and lick at her breasts until she moaned and tugged up his head.

He loved kissing her, so he cooperated with her silent demand. And when he orgasmed, he made her all sticky, until no part of her didn’t smell of him. Rubbing his cheek against her at the end, he lay on her for a long time, making sure to keep his weight on one arm so as not to crush her. When he turned over onto his back at last, she made a sleepy, complaining sound.

He cuddled her onto his chest, her wings spreading out over the bed and across his chest. Yawning, he stroked her wing and said, “I negotiated for you to return to the Refuge.”

“Hmm.” She put her hand over his heart, her touch possessive—as a mate’s should be. “Is Alexander setting up a stronghold there?”

“Yes. Technically, you’ll be attached to that, but you’re free to do your work in the Archives with Jessamy.”

Rising up on her elbow, her hair all tumbled, she blinked several times as if to clear her head. “I can’t believe you just asked Alexander for this and he gave it to you.” A sudden, deep worry creased her brow. “Did you lose something in the bargain?”

Naasir used his thumb to rub away her frown. “We saved his life.” Now that the Ancient had been in the world, he understood just how bad things had become with Lijuan and the Cascade. “He’s grateful he’s not locked in Sleep while his people need him. What I asked was little enough.”

He played with Andromeda’s hair. “Alexander offered to free you from his court altogether, but that could cause problems with the other archangels. So you’ll remain an official part of his court, but you don’t have to take up any duties within unless you want to.”

“My grandfather won’t be pleased that I’m not feeding him information.”

“Do you care?”

“No. He repudiated the blood vow in front of Alexander—it doesn’t matter what he wants.” Her smile was gleeful. “It just matters what we want. Are you going to take me to your secret aerie?”

“We leave tomorrow for home.”

“Home.” Tears rolled down Andromeda’s face. “Home.” For the first time in her life, home would be a safe place where she was loved and cherished, and where she could be herself without any secrets or fears. “Home,” she whispered again.

Turning them over so that he was braced over her, Naasir kissed away her tears, then began to playfully kiss her “spots” one by one. “Home,” he rumbled when she started to smile and count along with him. “For me and my mate and our cubs.”

“Yes,” she whispered, her mind filling with tiny, wild children who’d drive her crazy and who she would love as fiercely as she loved their wonderful, beautiful chimera father. “Yes.”

Raphael ended his conversation with Alexander and turned off the communications screen. The Ancient had done one of Raphael’s Seven a great favor, and though Alexander had said there was no debt, Raphael had reached out to thank him regardless.

“Why make the call?” Elena asked. “Wouldn’t it have been better to just let things lie?” she added as they walked out onto the cliffs behind their home. In front and below them, the Hudson was sluggish and dull under the cloud-laden sky, Manhattan shadowed enough by the ponderous weather that a number of the high-rises had switched on their lights, though it was only early afternoon.

“You must remember that though Alexander appears little older than me, he is hundreds of thousands of years older.”

“He’s like your mother—he expects certain courteous behavior?”

“You are becoming an ever-more-elegant and knowledgeable consort.” His tone might have been a tease, but the words were truth; Elena had been forced to absorb an incredible depth of knowledge in a highly condensed span of time. “Soon you’ll be hosting angelic balls with regularity.”

“Hey, watch the insults.” She pointed a knife at him before sliding it away. “It’s a delicate thing though, isn’t it? When you talk to Alexander, it’s not like when you talk to Elijah or even Titus.”

Raphael watched the distinctive figures of Legion fighters fly in and out of their home in the distance. “Come. We’ll talk as we fly. You have to be at the Guild soon.”

Spreading her wings, Elena took off in a low sweep over the Hudson before using the air currents to rise up. Raphael didn’t need to do the same, but he did so they could fly wing to wing toward the city. Titus helped train me when I was a stripling, he said after they were both in position, but once I ascended, he accepted that I was an archangel and his equal on the Cadre.

Alexander, on the other hand, has always had trouble with the fact that I became an archangel at only a thousand years of age. It made Raphael the youngest angel to have ever become an archangel. As a result, I can never allow him to treat me as a youth. He could laugh with Titus and call him “old man” while the other archangel called him “pup,” but such games would never happen with Alexander.