He looked startled that she’d ask. “Why do you want to know?”
“Weren’t you just on the ‘we’re mates’ trip a few minutes ago?” she reminded him. “Maybe we should, I don’t know, talk?”
He swept some papers off his desk and into the trash can, covering up the broken chess piece. “Maybe I’ll talk when you’re ready to do the same.”
“I’ve answered every question you’ve asked.”
“Really?” Crossing his arms over his broad chest, he pegged her with a hard stare. “Then why don’t you tell me why you’re really here? Because something isn’t adding up, Lilliana.”
“I told you,” she ground out. Was he never going to let this go? “I was given a choice between two evils. I picked this one.”
“How sweet. But I know that. I want to know what made coming here more appealing than remaining in Heaven, even in the diminished capacity they offered you.”
Oh, I figured it would be easy to steal your property, get out of here, and be restored to grace.
She probably shouldn’t say that. She’d try another truth.
“Maybe I’m not ready to discuss my private humiliation with someone I just met.”
A slow, bitter smile spread over his face. “Exactly.”
“So your son is your private humiliation?” She probably shouldn’t be pushing him on this when he’d made it clear he didn’t want to talk, but dammit, she wanted to know what it took to make a father reject his own offspring.
“Private?” he laughed. “No, he’s a very public humiliation.” He gestured to the chronoglass. “Enough talk. I’m anxious to see where we’re going. Somewhere warm, I hope.”
“Sure,” she said sweetly. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Nine
They stepped out onto a frozen wasteland with nothing but ice and snow as far as the eye could see. Not even the sky could offer color or texture. Gray, featureless clouds had turned it into a blanket of blah.
Lilliana watched Azagoth carefully for signs of annoyance that she’d brought him to someplace so cold and barren, but just like when she’d dropped them into the Egyptian desert, his expression conveyed awe and excitement. He wasn’t at all pissed off. If anything, he lit up like the Christmas tree in Times Square.
“This isn’t someplace warm, but I forgive you.” Grinning like a loon, he extended his hands and let a flurry of snowflakes sift between his fingers. “I hate the snow,” he said, but she never would have guessed that with the way he was acting. He even stuck out his tongue and caught a flake on the very tip. She hated that there was something very appealing...and sensual...about that.
“For someone who doesn’t like the snow, you seem pretty taken with it.”
“Because I haven’t seen it in eons.” He scooped up a handful, and with a sly grin, he beaned her with it. Right in the forehead. “Gotcha.”
Sputtering, she wiped snow out of her eyes. “Really? How old are you?”
Bam! Another one hit her in the chest, and then he was running away from her, his boots slipping on the ice, but he never fell. She wanted to be annoyed, but his blatant joy was infectious. Smiling in spite of herself, she hurled her own snowball at him, using just a touch of angel flair to control its trajectory. Damn, it was nice being away from his realm and being able to use her powers again.
It nailed him in the back of his head.
“Payback’s a bitch, Azagoth!”
His laughter rang out in the still Arctic air as he skidded and whirled. And then, and as far as she could tell, he went down intentionally to roll in the snow.
“This is amazing!” he called out.
Yes, it really was. How many people could say that they’d witnessed the infamously grumpy ruler of the dead romping like a child on a school snow day? All he needed was an inner tube and a hill.
Abruptly, he leaped to his feet and lifted his face to the gray sky. “Clouds,” he said. “What a strange thing to miss.” He swung around to face her, his big body as relaxed and loose as she’d seen it. “Before I fell, I used to make clouds in Heaven sometimes, mainly for a change from the blue sky. I made them orange, just for fun.”
How could this male be the same as the one renowned for his ruthlessness as an angel? The history books she’d read had left out a lot.
“I made rainbow clouds,” she said, encouraged to have finally found something in common besides a father-child hate relationship. “It was back when I was young and we were learning how to control our ability to think things into existence.” Channeling a trickle of power, she painted a swath of primary colors across the sky before letting the gray drab take over again. “My instructor got all pissy and changed them to white, like everyone else’s.”
“So your rebel nature extends beyond taking me to the crappiest places you can think of?”
Busted. “I suppose.”
“Rebels aren’t exactly tolerated in Heaven.” He grinned, a heart-stopping, breathtaking grin that made her go hot right here in the middle of a deep freeze. “I like it.”
Suddenly, another snowball came at her and popped her in the chest. She hadn’t even seen him throw it.
“Oh, yeah?” With nothing more than a thought, she sent a huge wall of snow at him. His eyes flared, and for a moment she thought he’d flash himself out of the way, but instead he stood there, his expression almost blissful as it crashed over him like a giant wave.
As he shook snow out of his clothes and hair, he chuckled. And then, in a motion so fast she didn’t see it, he was on top of her.
They went down in a tumble of limbs and snow, his body coming to a rest on top of hers as she sprawled on her back. She didn’t feel the cold—not like most beings did, anyway. But she couldn’t miss the stark contrast of the ice beneath her and the warmth of Azagoth’s big frame above her.
“Did you really think you could get away with that?” He tweaked her nose, and she was momentarily speechless at the playfulness. This male with wild, windblown hair frosted with snow couldn’t be the same guy who possessed the power to destroy souls. The same guy who had so coldly thrown his son out of his realm.
The same guy who had given her an assistant, free access to his realm, and pretty much the freedom to do whatever she wanted.
Maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t all that bad.
Smiling up at him, she said, “Maybe I let you catch me.”
One corner of his mouth twitched in an evil smile, and she knew she’d stepped into a trap of her own making. “Then you wanted to end up like this, did you?” Shifting, he settled more fully on top of her. His thigh slipped between hers, and she felt the blatant stab of an erection against her belly. “You wanted to feel my body against yours?”
No. Yes. Oh, dear Lord, she didn’t know what she wanted. Not when he rocked his hips, driving that big bulge against her core. She sucked in a breath, and unbidden, her body arched upward to meet him. Her breasts pressed into his chest, and she wondered how they’d feel in his palms.
“I thought so,” he purred. So arrogant. And really, so right. The bastard.
She bucked, but even she had to admit it was a half-hearted effort. Same as when she said, “Get off of me.”
“I’ll consider it.” He dipped his head and nuzzled her throat.
The shock of his cold nose on her skin made her hiss, but a heartbeat later, his lips sliding along the curve of her neck made her moan. One of his hands tangled in her hair to hold her steady for his kisses, and the other came down lightly on her waist. His palm rubbed slow circles as it moved upward until his fingers brushed the underside of her breast, and a shock of desire shot straight to her groin.