Bittersweet Seraphim (39 page)

He uncovered her head and looked at her luminous eyes, sparkling with tears. “And I’ll kill as many assholes as I have to to make sure that happens.”

They were serious now, and hearing her speak like an angel made everything better.

“Let’s go shower.” She smacked his ass hard.

Jack widened his eyes with surprise. “You little tart.”

He tickled her until she begged him to stop, and finally Jack let her off his bed, determined to make more of an impression between her legs. He tried not to mourn the loss of all his fancy Devil tricks. The vibrating fist…his extra-long tongue…

She stood stark naked with no shame, like a woman already married to him, as she set the temperature of the shower. She slipped behind the curtain, and he realized he still wore his socks and motorcycle boots, his jeans around his ankles.
So fucking suave.
She was wetting down her hair when he finally got in the shower with her.

“How can I miss you when there’s just a curtain between us?” She wiped the water from her eyes.

Jack looked at her skin, slick with water. She was all he’d ever need. He didn’t answer her question, just pulled her against him and twirled them both under the spray. He’d promised to take his time, but his hands were greedy. He touched every part of her that made her gasp or shiver, and as he watched the reactions play across her face, he tried to memorize them. She began exploring him as well, and he tried batting her away. She was about to unman him, again. He grasped her wrists and held them behind her back. “You need to just take for a few fucking seconds. I’ve a reputation to uphold.”

She laughed at him, and he bit her lip gently to punish her. She moaned. With his other hand he felt the weight of her breasts, her body so very much his. When he found her nipples, she bit his lip in return.

He slid his hand between her legs and found the heat there. Now, with her held still, he could prove he knew exactly what to do. She was already tensed and forgetting herself, saying his name again and again. As she spread her legs wider, he dropped to his knees and let go of her wrists. She grabbed handfuls of his hair and urged him on. With both hands, he could be everywhere she needed. He wasn’t delicate with her, yet she begged for more.

That, he could do. Jack pushed her out of the shower, never stopping his hands until he had her, sopping wet, on his bed. He grabbed a chair. He was going to be between her legs so long he’d need it. Jack pushed her legs apart and leaned down to taste her. His tongue may have been longer as the Devil, but nothing was trying to kill them at the moment, so he made up for it. When she came she thrashed, yanking his bedspread so hard it ripped. But he didn’t stop. He insisted on more. Her muscles relaxed, and he could tell she thought she was done. He knew better. He wound her up in a frenzy again, his hands more insistent and adding fingers and teeth to take her where she could explode again for him.

“In me. Get in me!”

Emma spoke her first coherent words in quite some time, and Jack complied. He slipped her knees over his shoulders and kept pressure on the spot he knew would give her the most release. He pounded into her like the Devil he’d been and the man he wanted to be. Having her convulse against him was better than any power he’d ever possessed.

She scratched his back and slapped at his ass with her feet, laughing and gasping at the same time. At her ultimate joy, Jack gave in to his own need. She clenched just for him, and he saw stars. He landed next to her, barely trusting himself, his muscles twitching.

“Well.” She turned his face to look at hers.

“Well,” he replied, a huge smile on his face while he panted with her.

“Sex that good should be illegal.”

Her smile was so satisfied. Jack felt the most masculine pride of a job well done.
Thank God.

“I love you, Emma the human angel.” He put a possessive arm across her chest.

“I love you, Jack the sweetest Devil.” She patted his arm and sighed.

Chapter 44

This time Emma was driving. She’d complained that the throbbing between her legs made it impossible for her to ride Jack’s bike.

He’d simply blown on his fist and winked. “By the time I’m done with you, you’ll have calluses like a runner down there.”

“That’s gross.” She tried to listen to the GPS over the music.

“You love me anyway.” Jack slipped a hand under her shirt.

She let him grope for a while before pushing him away. “Let me concentrate.”

“This is a shitty idea. Just putting that out there. Again.” He lit up a cigarette.

Emma hit her window so it would open a crack. He knew what was coming and tried to take evasive action. She’d thrown quite a few of his smokes out the window.

“You don’t quit that soon and I’m withholding sex.”

Jack took one long drag and tossed it out the passenger window.

“Great! That’s horrible too. Now you’ve probably lit up some squirrel’s tail,” she protested. “The whole forest will burn down Bambi-style thanks to you.”

“You’re too addicted to give up the sex.”

Even on four wheels, Jack preferred to drive, and she saw him tense up as she approached the stoplight.

“I prefer you alive to anything else,” she said. The interior of the car went from playful to serious. Mortality sobered them both. They’d talked about it every day since they remembered who they were. Emma wasn’t scared to die, but she definitely wasn’t ready.

She’d moved in with Jack because she didn’t have a choice. Her brain almost convulsed with the loss when he wasn’t in the room. Her family had taken to him despite his sudden appearance, which was good because they were now inseparable. Jack stopped by on the weekends to help her dad with the lawn or sit and talk with her mother.

She smiled at him. He was amazing. And he also thought going to check in with the half-breeds was a poor choice. She wasn’t sure if his concerns were about jealousy or being afraid they might become a snack, but he’d been very vocal about his dislike of this trip. But when she’d remembered the location of the Parishes’ house, she’d told him she was going with or without him. She wanted to go, needed to go. Jason’s soul was still her job, in her mind.

When she pulled into the driveway, the place looked the same. Only the cars out front were different. A ridiculous Ferrari glistened in front of the modest house. She prayed as she opened her door.
Please, God, let them have found peace.

“Last time I saw a car like that, it was Violent’s ride,” Jack commented as he got out of the car. “This may be more of a reunion than you’ve anticipated.”

Emma took his hand, for once ignoring the fact that he’d lit a cigarette. The door opened before they knocked.

“Emma? Jack? How? What?” Seriana threw her arms around Emma, who squeezed her back, hard.

Looking past Seriana, Emma saw Jason round the corner of the hallway. He stopped and his mouth dropped open.

“You’re alive? You’re alive?” Jason pulled Emma into a hug as Seriana hugged a fairly angry-looking Jack.

She patted Jason and kissed his cheek.

“I don’t understand. You’re human?” Jason held her an arm’s length away.

“Yeah, Jack and I found each other, and then we remembered who we are. I’m so glad you guys are still here. Your mom? Kate? Dean? How’s everyone?”

Seriana and Jason pulled Emma into the living room. She smiled at all the familiar furnishings and Dean’s countless books.

Dean appeared next, and after he was thoroughly hugged, Emma was reacquainted with Nero and Violent, as well as an intense man named Mine who couldn’t take his eyes off Seriana.

It was a nice, if slightly confusing, reunion. The half-breeds and minions all looked exactly the same, young and beautiful as ever, but Emma knew the time must have worn on them. These past decades, she’d been a human in her head, unaware of all that had come before. But they’d had to pick up the pieces and move on.

Rebecca fussed over everyone, insisting on sending Dean and Seriana out for the makings of an impromptu grill party, despite Emma’s protests. “Really, Rebecca. Don’t go to all this trouble. Jack and I are the only humans here.”

Jack did his best to be surly, but he was clearly happy to see Nero and Violent. The minions and former Devil immediately began to talk shop. Emma smiled at them over a glass of wine, and Jason came closer, pulling Kate behind him.

“So, you’re alive,” he began. “With…him. I guess if that’s the price you have to pay to be with us again, it’ll do.”

Kate touched her stomach and looked worried. Rebecca called for Jason to help her prepare the chips and dip. Emma patted his arm as he excused himself.

“How long have you known you’re pregnant?” Emma asked gently once he’d gone. She just knew—the way the woman held her body, the fear in her eyes.

“I’ve only just told Jason. Did he tell you?” Kate assessed Emma again.

“No. I can just tell. Some sort of holdover from angelhood maybe? For a while I was a labor and delivery angel before I was promoted to seraph.” Emma took a sip of her wine. Behind Kate, she could make out the silhouette of Jason whispering the good news to Rebecca. There was a certain look to a woman when she found out she was going to be a grandmother. It was beautiful, and Rebecca had it. She refocused on Kate.

“Not sure how many angels will be at this birth.” Kate rubbed her arms with obvious alarm.

“First, congratulations,” Emma told her. “Second, there will be an angel. There always is. It’s such a moment, the meeting of parent and child. It must be witnessed.” Emma wanted to drag the nervous mother-to-be to a room and comfort her until she smiled with her blessed news. She left out the part about how God himself comes down to Earth for any child who doesn’t live through labor. Now wasn’t the time for that information. Kate was scared enough.

“Okay, Emma, not to be rude? But none of this is your business. I really don’t want advice from my man’s ex-girlfriend.” She looked around for an out.

Shocked, Emma shut her mouth and in the same instant felt Jack’s hand on her lower back. He never missed a trick.

“Kate? What’s up?” he said by way of greeting.

Rebecca burst out of the kitchen, crying and sighing. She looked longingly at Kate’s belly.

“You told her? Jason!” Kate was ticked, but Rebecca immediately wrapped her arms around her.

Emma stepped back so the family could have a moment, and Seriana, Mine, and Dean came through the front door holding grocery bags, clearly puzzled at the emotion in the room.

Jack and Emma watched as the family expanded. He spoke close to her ear. “What was that about? She was angry with you?”

Emma nodded and stupidly wanted to cry. It had been a crazy assumption. She was human now. She had no right to try to be an angel. “I left him for you. I forget that, I guess.”

“Something’s up. Kate’s a sweet girl. She’d never hold that against you.” Jack left Emma to sidle up to Kate.

Trying to find something to do, Emma gathered the grocery bags from the floor where the uncle- and aunt-to-be had dropped them. Seriana broke away to help.

“I can’t believe we’re going to have a little one running around. So cool.” Seriana kept hugging Emma and leaned over to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear.

“I’m so happy you’re okay,” Emma said. “All these years I didn’t know to be worried, and now it’s crashed in on me all at once.” Emma stilled Seriana’s busy hands and held them. “Tell me about Mine.”

“Oh, I don’t even know where to start with that one.” She shook her head and smiled.

“Well, then tell me how it ends. Are you happy?” Emma wrinkled her nose.

“So, so happy. He gets me and loves me. I’m crazy about him.” Seriana did a little wiggly dance.

“And Jason? How has he done?”

“He had a time for a while. Kate and he had, you know, pure Lucifer running through them, and they had to…I guess…detoxify? They’re better, though. I bet the baby will settle things for them. Maybe a wedding? Wouldn’t that be amazing?”

Emma’s mouth dropped open. She knew damn well what Kate was afraid of now. Rebecca and Dean came into the kitchen to pour some drinks to toast with.

Emma scurried into the living room. “Jack? I need you outside.”

“Done.” He stopped mid-conversation with Nero and followed as she left the house in a hurry.

She turned toward him on the front lawn. “Jason and Kate both got juiced from Lucifer. Can this affect their baby? I bet that’s why Kate’s off her rocker. I would be too.”

His face flooded with regret. “I don’t know. Honestly? Lucy rarely made appearances, and the whole kissy face thing was a new one to me. I mean,
I’m
fine.”

“You kissed Lucifer?” Despite her worry, Emma couldn’t help but smile a little.

“Don’t even. No. You will
not
taunt me with this.” Jack looked murderous.

“Oh, yes I will. A lot. Often.” Emma leaned in close and kissed him. “Seriously. Let’s think about this. I’m coming up with a vague reference about Lucifer being unable to procreate. Am I making that up?”