Fallen Angel 1: Ashes of Eden Excerpt

“You are sad. Why do you cry?”

Lucifer’s warm hand touched Gabriel’s cheek, sending a wave of heat through her as she turned to face him. Instead of moving away as he had above, he let his hand fall against her neck below her thick hair. His breath was faster as he stared at her, speeding up as her own did. Sensation flooded her like God’s rains one day soon would, and she struggled to speak past the knot wedged in her throat. “I feel so…deeply. I weep for all that will die, for being the one to beg Him to deliver the world from sin.”

Lucifer stepped closer, his hand on her neck curling further around her nape. “His machinations are his own. Nothing you ever say or did say has changed His plan. You know we do not have that power. We never have and we never will. What we want is not part of His plan.”

“Lucifer…”As Gabriel stared into the deep pools of his silvery eyes, she knew there was so much he was holding back, that he was holding deep down inside. His grip on her neck had tightened too, and his body had started to quiver. The sharpness of his voice scared her, but it was also a clue. Despite the flutter of fearful anticipation that swirled through her belly, she needed to know… “What is it that you want?”

Lucifer’s gaze fell to her lips, and she gasped at the warmth that suddenly swelled inside of her. He was beautiful, stunning in every way inside and out. He could not possibly want what Michael had claimed, what Lucifer had all but confessed to. Not after all this time. Not from her. But Gabriel was lying to herself. The truth was as clear as the strengthening moon as he kept staring, licking his lips as if starved.

Gabriel knew she should pull away or take a step back from him. She had seen that look on Lucifer’s face before when she had not known the cause—the wanting, the heated yearning. The time they had stared through that tranquil pool to the Garden of Eden and witnessed the mortal love between a man and a woman. Lucifer wanted her. He craved her. Michael had claimed as much. And now she saw the proof in his eyes and the way they drank her in. In the way his breath quickened as she bit her bottom lip, pumping his chest beneath his robe. In the tensing of his sculpted arms and the way his free hand curled then uncurled over and over.

Did she want him too?

Without thinking, without giving herself permission, Gabriel leaned closer. Now she felt his warm breath across her face and tasted the masculine scent of him on her tongue.

At her hitched breath, Lucifer hissed, gnashing his teeth together as if trying to distract himself. As he went to pull away, a pang of unexpected loss cut through her. “Gabriel, we should…leave.”

As Lucifer’s possessive grip on her neck relinquished, one rough finger wiping her drying tears as he turned away, she could not stop the words. “Lucifer, stay—”

A flare of light brightened the darkening sky, and Lucifer spun back, reclaiming the back of her neck. The look in his eyes was so intense she could almost imagine they were on fire. Lips a hair’s breadth away, she didn’t pull back as he froze before her. He seemed to be waiting for her to move, to push him away, to tell him to stop. But she didn’t. She couldn’t speak. And more than that? She didn’t want to. Instead, she tilted her head gently to one side, letting her lips part with a shaky inhale.

Another flash of light streaked overhead, drowning out the pale stars.

Lucifer’s hand on her neck pulled her closer, and then there was no more separation. Their bodies pressed into one another, and Lucifer’s hot lips connected with Gabriel’s, taking the breath right out of her. Flames ignited inside her body and her mouth parted in shock and need, scrambling her thoughts and any understanding of right and wrong. Tasting his sweeping tongue in her mouth, the entire world around them disappeared as if it had never even existed.

Gabriel reached for Lucifer, desperation growing in her at having him so close and needing so much more—