Heavenly Lover (4 page)

Daniel turned to follow Josh’s gaze.

“What do you keep looking at over there?”

Josh shrugged, rolled his neck. “This whole evening has been rather interesting to me,” he said. “I’m just taking it all in.”

The toast popped up. They all jumped.

“You call that toasted?” Josh complained, holding up one of the pieces like a piece of stinky laundry. The bread drooped as he turned it horizontal.

“It was frozen. Put ‘em in again.”

At last the toast popped up a second time, smoking. Josh waved the grey cloud aside with his outstretched palm and arm. He carefully picked up the dark brown pieces with his fingertips.

“Ah, finally.” He slathered butter over them.

“You’ve ruined them, man,” Daniel said frowning at the charred remains.

“Better for you this way. Eat up, now.” Josh threw two slices on Daniel’s dish while he chomped down on his own. “So I gotta ask you, what happened with the alarm?” he asked, then licked his fingers.

“Fireplace smoke, I guess.” Daniel made designs with the tip of his fork in the leftover eggs. “Halfway expected to find you standing there. Something must be wrong with it.”

Josh coughed, stuffing down a laugh as he ambled across the kitchen to the front door. Holding up the dial pad with his index finger, he bent over like he was carefully pointing out a clue in a crime scene, and said the obvious, “There
definitely
is something wrong with it.” He released his finger and let the pad flap as it hit the wall.

Daniel paused. “Happened just as I placed the knife at my arm. I was going to cut.” He shook his head, and shivered. Claire could see he was trying to purge the image from his mind.

“I find the timing very interesting.”

The two men were silent for a moment. Josh inspected the smoldering fireplace, the splash of colors on the wall. He sniffed the air, then the wall.

He is still looking for something.

“I guess my time was not up tonight,” Daniel said softly as he turned around on his stool to face Josh. “Just lucky, I guess.”

Josh gathered himself, inhaled deeply, and walked tall into the kitchen. He leaned over the countertop and placed one elbow next to Daniel’s seated form and said, “No, man. Nobody’s that lucky. I’d say you have a Guardian angel.” He stood up. “She’s probably standing right over there.”

He pointed directly at Claire.

Chapter 4

Claire stood frozen in place, looking at the two men. One could sense her, the other could not. She was grateful neither could see her.

She willed calmness over her like a warm fuzzy bathrobe, making her breathing slow and deliberate. If she could keep her fear from surfacing, she might not be detectable to Josh. She knew Josh was trying to draw her out into human form so Daniel would see her.

“I don’t see a thing.”

“Well, Daniel, neither do I, but I feel her there.” Josh pointed to Claire’s corner.

“Apparently I’m not the only one who’s had too much wine tonight.” Daniel said.

Good. He doesn’t believe him.
Claire was relieved.

“No, you can laugh. Make fun of me all you want, but I believe in such things.” Josh turned, facing Daniel head on. “I think there are spirits, even angels.”

Daniel looked at his feet, shaking his head. “I’d have thought you’d go more towards the dark side, you know, demons of the flesh and all, considering your appetites…”

“Guilty.” Josh smiled at Daniel then whispered, “You have no idea how I love the dark side. Who’d want a perfect world? Now, you and Audray were…”

“Fuck off, Josh.” Daniel punched his friend’s shoulder and frowned. “I’m beat. Gotta crash.” His voice was hoarse and cracked.

The two friends shuffled to the door and hugged, slapping each other on the back. “Seriously, thanks, man,” Daniel murmured. “I live to paint another day.”

“Be careful, Daniel. Don’t go letting fantasies in your head, making up stuff. Stick to reality, the here and now.”

“But you saved me.”

Josh winced. “Nah, I was in the neighborhood anyway. Glad I could help.” As he walked through the open doorway he turned. “You going to be okay for now?”

Daniel nodded and closed the door. He turned off the lights but left the mess in the living room. He stared at the scene one last time, then shook his head as he climbed the stairs. Claire followed several steps behind, yellow bag over her shoulder. Daniel sighed heavily. He unbuttoned his top while climbing and was bare-chested by the time he approached the last step.

She was startled by a noise downstairs and turned around to see Josh emerging through the front door without opening it. Claire froze. Josh looked first in the corner where she’d been hiding, then around the room, landing his gaze at the bottom of the stairs, ensuring Daniel was out of sight. Josh bowed to the room, looking around afterwards. It was obvious he could not see her.

“Round One goes to the challenger.” He delivered the statement with a smile and disappeared back through the door the way he had come. The thin trail of grey smoke left in his wake smelled faintly of cloves.

Her heart pounded. Everything else was eerily silent.

She focused on the temporary save, pushing away any lingering fear.
I told Mother he wouldn’t die tonight.

Anticipation coiled in her stomach and tingled down her spine. She was alone with him now. Time to start her job.

Daniel changed into navy silk pajama bottoms he wore low on his hips, but remained shirtless. He got into bed.

Claire loved the smell of a man’s bedroom when he lived alone—soap, cologne—the personal stuff of a man’s life.
This is just the best job in the whole universe.

He lay on his back at first, right arm bent over his head. His long fingers were curled in the palm of his outstretched hand as if he were holding something delicate. A raised blue vein extended from mid forearm all the way to his elbow, snaking across the muscles underneath. He closed his eyes and drifted off to light sleep.

Claire likened these first dream encounters to how an inexperienced young human bride would feel on her wedding night. It was private, this intimate look inside a man’s thoughts to see the secrets of his soul. She never got over the miracle of being inside a dream, exploring the parts of his life. “Rest well, Daniel. I’m here now to help you,” she whispered. “Show yourself to me.”

Startled, she saw a smile on his lips. It soon faded.

He was a delicate balance of beauty and strength, she thought. The moonlight made the well-developed muscles of his shoulders and forearms look like marble. He took good care of his body. She lay down to watch him from the side in the quiet of the night.

No one would ever know about the chaos that occurred this evening, or how close he came to spending eternity in the underworld, his soul lost forever. It made her cold to think of the many files on Mother’s desk. Daniel’s file could have been one of them.

He must be saved. He touches me with magic.

The moon had a crazy effect on humans. It was good they were asleep during its reign. Perhaps it was for protection. Like most Guardians, she preferred the purity and warmth of the sun.

Why not level with these people, tell them Father didn’t run things alone? He was the creator and organizer, but angels were the technicians.

Guardians fix things that are broken.

So the job before her was to inspire Daniel. Her specialty was landscapes screaming with color. She’d done some large purple buildings, turquoise sand and pink snow that looked liked cotton candy. What a delight that he was a painter.

She gently stroked the length of his injured arm, tracing the shallow cuts that crossed a deep blue vein down into the palm of his hand, which suddenly squeezed shut as if to capture her fingers.

Claire sat up at full attention, noticing Daniel stirring. She checked her invisibility. He became fully awake, staring at the ceiling. She cocked her head to the side and watched his sparkling eyes in the moonlight, waiting.

Daniel still felt sick to his stomach. How close he’d come to killing himself, to ending the pain. How stupid he’d been. Yeah, Audray had done a number on him, and his career had crashed, but had that been reason enough to give up on life? He mentally thanked the messed-up alarm system, Josh, and the cops who’d stopped him from self-destructing completely.

Yeah, his life was still messed up, but he’d been given a second chance to fix things. He could let that chance go and finish the job he'd started, or he could continue wallowing in self-pity. Or he could pull himself up by the bootstraps and figure out how to get himself out of this nasty mess. Easier said than done. But maybe the only choice. He thought about how far he'd fallen and how fast the ride had been.

He couldn’t get the picture out of his head: Audray being pumped and pleasured on his green couch by some guy with a really hairy ass. After he’d caught them, he’d been left alone with the painting she loved to look at while being fucked silly. His painting. Her favorite.

He’d had to kill that painting.

As his eyes got heavy, he felt his life unravel before him. It all began the day he met her. He used to call it his lucky day. But now he saw there had always been an edge to her. Something otherworldly. Something dangerous. She was different than all the other women he’d ever loved. He was addicted to her presence. His cock was in a continual state of arousal, harder and fatter than it ever had been. That woman pulled him into doing things way outside his comfort zone. Not that he was afraid of life and its sensual side
,
but Audray demanded he push past his limits. She was always more than he could afford, emotionally, causing some element of pain along with the pleasure. He was powerless to do anything about it until it was too late. She had him in her claws with every ministration, every sensual pleasure she extracted from him.

Daniel allowed the sleep to overtake him and closed his eyes.

Claire hovered above his sleeping form and spread her arms out to the sides, lengthening her legs and arching her back. She could delve into Daniel’s dream without this, could catch his REM waves by focusing on his resting brain, but she wanted the full on sensual experience of possessing his physical form first. She had learned this method in the past, with no ill effects.

The pull of his skin sucked at her breasts, thighs, and shoulders, as she laid her head at the top of his heaving bare chest, then turned to expose her cheek to the warm spicy underside of his jaw and down the right of his neck. She inhaled his moist man scent there, allowing her lips to wander up, cross his chin, and linger in the airspace between them. Feeling the pull, she allowed herself to be drawn into him. She breeched his body, warming herself inside his soul, which burned hot, flickering with red flames of torment.

Like brushing across a delicate flower with her fingertips she calmed the fires and immediately felt his body relax and remain open to her. She repeated the motion and was rewarded with a moan traveling up his neck and a stirring in his groin. The flame inside him flared golden, without sputtering.

Claire smiled. She was closer to him now than anyone had ever been in his life. If she wanted to cause him harm, he was vulnerable to anything she could do. She held his soul in the palm of her hand.

Daniel, you are mine now.

“Yes,” he whispered as his flame turned bright yellow.

Claire gasped for air. She withdrew and scooted over to the edge of the bed, resting against the wall of the room.

He feels me.
Was this a good thing or not?

She put a thought out to her Guardian friend, Angela. Going higher in the angelic chain of command would be acting smart, like she’d been trained. She hovered in the doorway of indecision, and recalled the admonition Mother Guardian gave her just before departing Heaven. She could not make herself known to her charge.

It had been clear every other time she took over a charge. But something was different about Daniel.

She decided against getting a second opinion and came back to his body.

What can it hurt? Just a little taste of what humans feel.

Once again she descended on him and, as she floated closer, she felt the heat of his body and the movement of the muscles and sinews underneath his flesh. She rubbed her first two fingers against her thumbs, sending a sparkling trail of dust down onto his closed eyes. The magnetic pull began. His breathing developed a catch and his abdomen flattened lower as his chest expanded, full of air. He bit his lower lip, a crease forming at the right side of his mouth. Those full lips curled in a smile and his hips undulated upward.

She wondered what would happen if she remained there awhile. Was this wise? The magnetic attraction pulled her nipples until they hurt.

Can this develop into something else?

The torch inside his soul began to spark, became erratic. She continued the breech until she was able to settle him down again.

He appeared in the white room. She remained invisible, stood just behind so she could whisper suggestions in his ear.

“Show me, Daniel,” she coaxed. She stood one breath away from his back, leaning her head into his shoulders and wrapping her arms around his chest. “Show me where it hurts.”

Daniel stood alone in the room, the light blinding him at first. Looking down, he saw there was no floor. He extended his arms to the sides, palms up, and felt warmth swirling out from his outstretched fingers all the way to his chest. A warm blanket of air covered his back. He was naked.

He thought he heard a sound. He quickly whipped around, but no one was there.

“Show me where it hurts,” came a voice in his ear.

Tiny fingers of flames descended down his chest. His cock came to life. There was a female presence here, something he desperately wanted to touch, to taste and feel. He turned slowly but again, was alone in the white space. He walked forward, then stopped.

“Show me,” the whisper caressed his ear.

The voice was definitely coming from this room. She was close, but where?

“Here I am. This is what I am,” Daniel said to the white air. His cock lurched, eager with expectation. He chuckled as he looked down, hard and ready. He fisted himself, and his balls ached and began to pulse. It was going to get uncomfortable soon.

“Paint your life,” the female voice whispered. Her voice sent an electric chill down his spine and images began to form in the distance.

He saw Audray for the first time at one of Beau’s gallery parties. She was tall, like a model, but with curves. Her shoulder-length blond hair was tossed under in thick graceful curls, which accentuated her pale, sultry face and big green eyes. A few glistening strands caught in her thick lashes. She pulled those strands aside as she laughed at someone from across the room. Her red-tipped fingernails were painted to match the color of her full red lips.

At the first sight of Daniel, her green eyes widened. A crease toyed with her smile, just to the left of her mouth. It had distracted him.

Daniel stirred, almost waking up. This dream usually caused a cold sweat, accompanied by a hard-on he’d quickly have to take care of, or sleep was out of the question. And sometimes, on the bad nights, it came back. The engagement had been off nearly a month, and he still missed her body.

But tonight he felt stronger, as if some invisible armor protected his tender heart, along with the alcohol that deadened his senses. He released himself to the visions floating in the white space, and didn’t fight it this time. Deep REM sleep engulfed him.

“Daniel, I’d like you to meet the very lovely Audray Steele,” Josh said with coolness. Daniel’s heart skipped a couple of beats when he came to stand so close to her that he could make out every eyelash. Her green orbs hit their target, and she pierced him with her lidded gaze. He felt like an insect on a pin. Still, his body warmed to her immediately, and he felt like he was coming alive for the first time.

Her greeting, hushed in an intimate whisper was, “Welcome.” He felt the need to lean into her to catch the secret. She sighed, looking relaxed, aloof, like she was considering something, maybe hatching a plan in her mind that pleased her. He smelled an ancient musky fragrance rising from her dark cleavage. He was having difficulty keeping his eyes off the fully exposed mounds that rose as if in an attempt to escape her tight, fuzzy sweater.