never been kissed like this. We can’t stop now, so said the body.
As I considered my eventual defeat, it occurred to me that my enhanced senses, meant to make me a more effective angel, were useless in situations such as this.
Take the sheets, for example. The 2000-thread-count cotton sheets, imported from Italy were really, really soft and very smooth, and so I slid a lot. There was a lot of accidental sliding going on. And the whole zipper thing. Why are zippers so noisy anyway? The entire act of unzipping something, pants for example, or the pop, or rather the unpopping, of buttons. Why does it all have to be so noisy? It was an unfair assault on my previously lazy senses.
Seriously, I did the best I could at the time, for a mere human. Yes. I played the “human” card.
“Wait.” I fought for breath. “Gavin, please. Wait.” Think of something before he kisses you again. This was an opportunity to reposition things and put other things back inside of my clothing where they belonged. Think. He’s about to kiss you so deeply that … “And how is it that you are able to be all … up and around during the day … you know … being a vampire and all?” That was the best I could do.
I quickly adjusted myself underneath him. He shifted his weight, then sighed.
“Grace, I am not a vampire.” He dismissed my notion as if it were the silliest thing he’d heard in ages. He may have even been a bit angry as evidenced by his brows all stuck together. Any human would have assumed the same thing. If it walks like a duck …
I sat straight up in the bed, inadvertently pushing him off me. “What?” I could have used expletives, but I was raised better than that.
“I’m not a vampire. I thought I explained that to you earlier. And I’m not one of the original Fallen who were cursed by Praefatio, in case that was your next question. They Fell because they chose humans above The Divine One; ironic, since I ended up Falling for a human girl.” Gavin spoke with bitterness and disgust. He ran a hand through his hair and looked as if he’d swallowed a fish or something.
“I’m sorry.” My voice was quiet. Mistaking a boy with fangs for a vampire was such an amateur mistake.
“I was a High Angel, just like you. I Fell because of you,” he continued in a soft voice, like velvet, smooth, almost hypnotic, not obnoxious like the actual words that were coming out of his mouth. “A vampire is a human made immortal by an angel or another vampire. But, Grace, a vampire can be killed, if you know how. It is not possible for an angel to die unless The Divine One himself takes the life he gave.” He flipped his hair and blinked slowly, inviting me in. He could not have been sexier.
Gavin Fell … to be with me. I kept turning his words over in my head. Regardless of their order, they made no sense. It reminded me of what my mom had told me about my birth mother, Rosa. Water spilled out onto my cheeks and down my neck in complete disregard for my desire not to appear weak in front of him. “Why … would you do that?” My voice faltered under the weight of the question.
“It was the only way I could be with you. Of course, neither my father nor brother saw it that way, but that doesn’t matter now. All that matters is that you and I are together.” Gavin cradled me.
As if I was going to let him get away with that. Brother?
“Gavin, I don’t understand. Is there something you’re not telling me? What are you not telling me?” I tried to read between the lines. I hadn’t heard anyone mention Gavin’s brother until now. I got the feeling I wasn’t going to like whatever it was he wasn’t going to tell me.
Gavin looked up at the ceiling as if there were answers there, like a script he could read from. “I never understood the fascination with humans. Quite frankly, I found them annoying. ‘Why can’t we eat from the Tree? Why must we keep our hands to ourselves? Are we really expected not to eat pork?’” he added with even more disgust than before that unleashed a massive wave of tears from me again. But this time, Gavin let me cry. No comforting