Archangel's Resurrection (Guild Hunter #15)(82)

Unable to wait to feel her touch on his skin, he stripped his own upper body. She sighed, removed her top to reveal the round firmness of her breasts . . . then pressed herself against him, the contact a kiss of affection, of love, of two people who’d always been meant to be together.

Running his hand up her spine, he kissed her throat as she touched the hypersensitive arch of his wings. It made his cock ache, his heart thump, such deep pleasure that it was edged with pain. And his heart, it beat only with her name. His Zani.

They sat that way, kissing and touching, for a long time, Alexander healing under the raw wave of her affection so fierce and tender. When she rose to strip herself bare, he simply undid his pants to reveal his rampant cock. And then she took him, coming down to straddle him with an ease that had been eons in the making.

Eye to eye, lips to lips, his Zani rocked them into a release that tore up his spine and made his wings glow as he buried his face in the crook of her neck. He felt her quiver on him, around him, her body going taut before she went limp in his arms.



* * *



*

They lay entwined on the sand, Alexander having used his power to move away the shells. Even so, he made Zani lie on his wing rather than directly on the sand, then curled that wing over her naked body. He still wore his pants and boots, and her whirlwinds yet created a warmth that made comfort possible on this remote and chill island.

“I love you, too,” she said when he thought she’d fallen asleep tucked against his side. “Until you’re a madness I can’t shake.”

He was glad she’d stepped away from the grief; Alexander felt raw, could bear no more for today. “Charming,” he muttered. “You make me sound a cursed affliction.”

Zanaya shrugged, her hand on his heart. “It is what it is; I’ve driven you a little mad over the millennia, too.”

Forced to admit she was right, he grimaced and shifted so that he could look down on her while she yet remained on his wing. “What are you saying? That we’re not meant to be?” His gut became as hard as steel. Because that? He’d never, not once considered it. Theirs might not have been a smooth road, but so long as Zanaya existed, she’d one day be his and he’d be hers. That was their destiny.

“No, my love.” Zanaya’s lips curved in a smile that ached with sadness. “I’m saying that you were the last thought in my head when I went into Sleep, and the final flicker in my mind as that evil bitch of an archangel—” She bared her teeth. “As Lijuan sucked the life out of me, all I could think of was apologizing to you.”

He scowled. “Apologizing? For what?” He knew damn well it wouldn’t be for her decision to Sleep.

Fingers brushing his lips. “?‘I’m so sorry, Xander,’ I wanted to say, ‘but I can’t come back this time. There’s no more time to fix us’.”

His anger, his fear, his frustration, it all vanished under a crashing wave of love and need. “Zani.” But she held him back when he went to lean down, kiss her with a passion that erased the darkness.

“No, this is what we always do.” Blazing eyes. “We fall into the emotion, into the passion, without ever fixing the fractures. Our foundation is rotten, has always been rotten. We never bothered to fix it because it was holding well enough . . . but I don’t want that life now, Alexander.”

His entire world threatened to burn to ash.

When she pushed at him, he shifted away, releasing her to get up and pull on her clothing and boots. He put himself to rights, too, taking the time to find his footing, ready himself for the battle to come.

Because he was not ready to just let her walk away.

The whirlwinds vanished as she took a seat beside him, their wings overlapping once more as they stared out at the ocean of darkest blue-gray. “I see that ridiculously young pup, Raphael,” she said, “and I see what he has with his consort, and I’m a bitter and jealous old woman.” A scowl. “If you ever repeat that, I’ll scalp you.”

She spoke on before he could respond. “I don’t begrudge them their joy. Rather, I wonder why we could never have that when we had so much love.”

Alexander took a breath again because at least she was willing to talk about it. The air was blades stabbing into him. “Too proud, both of us. Callie said that to me. Neither one willing to bow to the other.”

“Pride mattered naught when I was dying.” Zanaya’s voice was a strain, her arms wrapped around her knees and the opals in Firelight dull.

“No,” Alexander said, his chest so tight he could barely breathe. “I carried you to your place of Sleep and all I could think was that it was over, that I didn’t have any more chances. The terror and pain with which I’ve lived since . . . I would’ve gone into Sleep forever if I didn’t have a grandson to guide on in his path in life.”

Zanaya took his hand, twining their fingers together in the way they’d done forever. “I’m glad for your grandson.” Her voice was husky. “To have woken without you in the world—” She squeezed his hand. “I’ll never apologize for going to Sleep. I needed to Sleep to recover from my eons of life, to ensure I didn’t go mad like so many of our brethren . . . but I’m sorry I left you alone, Alexander.”

Neither one of you ready to bow to the other.