Sin Eater (29 page)

“No, I’m serious about having you all to myself.” She kissed him before he was ready for it, and his surprise gave her enough time to lean in to him, pushing him back into her couch slightly.

After a surprised pause, his hands came to her upper arms, then worked across her back, pushing back against her to sit her up. He pulled away for a moment. “Iola, you don’t have to do this.”

She put a hand along his neck, slowly working it up to the back of his head, playing with his hair. “I don’t
have
to … but I really
want
to. If you do, that is.”

Something changed in his face as he closed his eyes, her fingers pulling at the hair on the back of his head then winding deeper. Without opening his eyes to find his way he pulled her
to him forcefully, his mouth finding hers easily, his hand pressing her back towards him, one of them going to her hip to turn her more sideways so he could ease her on to her back on the sofa.

She quickly scooted down to accommodate him, biting his lips and sucking on his mouth enthusiastically, so glad his phone was off. She’d made him turn it off in front of her.

Vinnie’s hand left her hip to search for bare skin, finding some just above the waist of her jeans, his thumb running back and forth in a frustratingly concentrated area. It tickled her somewhere other than where he was touching. When his hand then ventured to the front of her jeans, she jacked her hips downward to give him room.

He used both hands to get the fly undone, and then suddenly he was off her, pulling his shirt off with one quick motion. A few buttons might have been ripped open, she wasn’t sure.

Iola bit her lip to contain herself. His skin was perfectly smooth, tight across his slight musculature. Under her hands it was soft and smooth, but then he got up off the couch and she was worried he’d changed his mind. Or decided he respected her too much for this.

Vinnie moved to the opposite wall, pulling down the roller blinds she had on the two picture windows. As he walked back to her, she pulled off her T-shirt, and he stopped in the middle of the floor, hand on chest. “Iola, you look … you’re just too much.”

She held out an arm and he rushed back at her, pressing her upper body into his warm chest, running his hands over her. Iola straddled his lap, leaving herself open to his strong hands caressing her back, her hips, her arms, her stomach …

And lower. Iola reared her head back and gasped as he stroked at her through her panties. She’d thought he’d take so much longer to get to the point than this … but she was ready for it completely.

When he moaned low against her skin, Iola pulled back and forced him to look up at her. She wanted to see his face, and the sight of it was so beautiful she shuddered. Although, that might have been due to his hand, which wasn’t still in the least.

“Vinnie,” she breathed, then had to stop before saying what she wanted to. All she saw was white light, and she closed her eyes as the orgasm hit her, making her give the oddest squeak before breaking through
her every nerve that had the ability to feel pleasure: basically all of them.

“What were you going to say?” He asked after a moment, running his lips along her collarbone while she caught her breath.

She shook her head. “I can’t remember.”

He smiled up at her, his eyelids low in a very alluring manner. “I want you in a bed. Immediately.”

She just nodded and said something incredibly stupid like, “I have one of those.”

Voro and Raphael left Charlie in Portia’s house, neither of them having any hope that he’d actually be caught by the cops and held for longer than two hours. Truth was Charlie was just a sad sack that was going to be used until it killed him.

Pity: another feeling Voro was going to have to start getting rid of if he was going to kick Essum’s ass.

“Let’s get something to eat,” Raphael said as he opened the driver’s door of the Focus. “I really want McDonald’s. I haven’t had a Big Mac in … oh man,
too
long.”

Fast food was another weakness for angels. It was as close to sin as they ever got.

Voro just shrugged. “You’re the driver.”

“So let’s go over this again. The
decipio
is absorbing the sins that Charlie acquires. I didn’t even think it was possible.”

“I don’t get it, because it’s likely making the
decipio
stronger. And for Essum’s plan to work, Iola has to be able to kill him. Making him stronger is
not
going to help that. But if Essum can get in the
decipio’s
body, he’d be almost as powerful as I am. Could that be, like, Plan B?” Voro’s head was spinning. How had Essum even thought of all this shit? But then again, he had nothing but time on the other side.

Raphael was nodding as though he was following the train of thought. “That could be it. But it’ll still make it a lot harder to kill the
decipio
, and Iola
has
to be the one to do it.”

“She won’t,” Voro added quietly. “She doesn’t have it in her.”

Raphael shrugged. “You never know. If she feels
she’s
in danger or someone she cares about … she might surprise you. You never know what a
frustro
is capable of.”

Voro knew his belief that dear, fragile Iola could never harm anyone was coming from some crazy, medieval
conviction that someone so lovely was weak and delicate, completely incapable of violence. He should know from the last, oh, six
hundred
years that he was most likely wrong, but his heart was telling him he wasn’t.

What the hell … his
heart
?

Raphael pulled
into the parking lot of a McDonald’s, and as they pushed through the doors the young woman that was walking to the doors made a face of frustration.

They were about to close
, Voro realized, but Raphael was smiling at the woman brightly, and she stopped in her sneakers to study him. Appreciatively.

“I know you’re probably about to lock up, but I’ve been out of the country for a long time and I really
really
would appreciate a Big Mac and fries. We won’t stay, we’ll get it to go, but … it’s been such a long time since I’ve had anything
so good
.”

The woman’s nostrils flared. Not in an angry way. She was sizing Raphael up like she was measuring her leg length against the width of his waist.

Voro rolled his eyes. That was a terrible waste of effort on her part, but she was shrugging and motioning them back to the counter.

Raphael smiled at him happily, smacking him across the stomach. “Big Mac!” He bellowed with excitement.

Yeah, angels were like great big children, really.

She gave the order to the kitchen and there was much moaning and complaining, but this woman had “manager” on her name tag so they still did as they were told.

Voro leaned over to Raphael. “You owe me, because the guy in the back was totally going to spit in your burger. I just convinced him not to.”

Raphael jogged him on the shoulder with a fist. “You’re a good guy, Voro.”

The woman leaned across the counter to them, and Voro backed up to cross his arms across his chest. This was a no-go zone for him suddenly. The woman was ready to take them both to a private office in the back, he was lifting that from her mind directly, but he was just … too exhausted at the moment. And getting an angel a burger and fries wasn’t a reason to get naked.

Raphael returned her coy lean, looking at her nametag. “Thank you so much for helping me out, Christine.”

She was enthralled by him, and her face was a mask of rapture as she just basked in his gaze. Surely she had to know he wasn’t all human … but the effect their kind had was unavoidable. “No problem. It’s my pleasure.”

“How much do I owe?”

“This one’s on me. Twyla’s already cashing out the tills.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Yeah, you can. I really don’t mind.”

Voro wanted to tell Raphael he’d go wait in the car. But this wasn’t going anywhere anyway. It was just a question of how long before Twyla realized Raphael wasn’t interested in working her out good and hard on a press-board desk, but he was actually falling in love with her.

“Christine, do you wear perfume?”

“No.”

“Do you have any idea how good you smell?”

Voro had to admit she did smell nice, even over the odor of greasy food. Like lilacs, almost.

“I smell good?” Christine was tickled pink.

“Like lilacs. A field of lilac
trees on a sunny spring day.” Raphael closed his eyes and inhaled silently. “It’s amazing.”

She was over the fucking moon, and when Raphael took a lock of her hair, pulled it towards him and smelled it she actually stopped breathing.

Voro remembered doing that to Iola. He knew he couldn’t touch her skin, but her hair had not burned him. Not technically. It was the closeness of her, the smell of her deep in his head that had him ready to collapse at that point.

“Ummm … I am off work in about half an hour, if you … you know, want to hang out later.” McCandy Pants was saying, totally lost in the blue eyes of the angel.

Voro started to pace, and a few people in the kitchen started bellowing “Order!” because the burger and fries had been sitting a minute, and the counter on the computer by the staging area was counting how long it was taking them to fill each request.

Christine shook herself and bagged Raphael’s heart attack
order. Raphael was gazing at her in wonder. Voro had to lean over and mumble, “Human women do not fall in love with you, remember?”

Raphael just shook his head. “This one could be different.”

Christine came back stuffing napkins in the bag marked with golden arches, and she smiled brightly at Raphael, letting her eyes crawling all over him as he smiled down at her.

“Thank you so much, Christine. Hey, can I ask you something?” Raphael asked, capturing her hand.

“Sure. The answer is yes, but they come off easily.”

Raphael frowned. “What?”

She smiled a secretive light smile, leaning towards him, pretending to be shy. “I thought you were going to ask me if I was wearing underwear.”

Voro started for the door to hide his laughter, and after a moment Raphael followed, blushing bright pink and not meeting Voro’s gaze.

“Is she going to marry you?” Voro asked, following Raphael to the Focus.

“Shut up.”

“Did she like the ring? Did she let you have it back?”

He
did
feel bad about how incredibly embarrassed Raphael was by a sexed-up fry pusher. But man, this was going to be a source of entertainment for a few more months at least.

Providing he had that long, he reminded himself.

Bob Dylan was playing softly in the corner, there were a few pillar candles lit on the dresser and night stand. But Iola was not aware of any of it, she was riding the crest of pleasure that was radiating between her legs, up her back and through her neck, exploding at the back of her skull as she gave a quiet groan. Vinnie didn’t stop the tongue action there, though, he made sure she was all the way through it before kissing a trail up her stomach, keeping his body pressed between her legs. His touch was still electric on her skin even though she was limp by this point. His hands ran all along her sides as though he was memorizing her lines and edges.

Vinnie sucked on one nipple through the lace of her bra, and she couldn’t believe she was still partially dressed, not to mention the fact that he still hadn’t taken off his jeans.

“Oh my God,” she whispered just as he was kissing her lips again, his own swollen from all the hard work they’d just done. “That was … amazing.”

Vinnie smiled as he kissed her again. “
You
are amazing.”

She had to laugh. “I don’t know if I’m
as
amazing.”

Iola was totally shocked by her doctor, stunned beyond belief. For all his good-boy, going for sainthood appearance, he turned out to be a complete rock-star bad-ass when it came to sex. He hadn’t wasted any time once they were in her room, assuring her he wanted to please her as much as he was able. And then he’d gone down on her … and that had been
twenty-four minutes ago.

Now, without so much as a breather, Vinnie’s deft and dedicated hands undid her bra clasp smoothly, and he pulled the straps down off her arms. When his mouth parted to breathe harder and his eyes got wider she felt incredibly beautiful. His hands touched her skin so carefully she arched against him, hoping he would be just the slightest bit rougher. She’d never been well endowed in the chest department, but he seemed to really like what he was seeing.
Really
like it.

“If you don’t want me to keep going, just say so,” he mumbled, closing his lips around one nipple, his tongue doing very bad good things.
Like that was going to happen
.

“I would let you know,” she whispered, losing her hands in his hair to keep him there.

Vinnie eventually got up off the mattress, sweeping his jeans down off his legs and turning to sit on the edge of the bed as he reached for the condom package she’d already set out on the night stand. He eased his boxers down, and as Iola caught an eyeful of
that
she had to squeeze her eyelids shut and take a steadying inhale.

Oh Jesus …
was her only thought.
That won’t fit him. Should have got the Magnum condoms.
But what woman would buy those? Someone looking to embarrass and humiliate a guy, that’s who. But Vinnie …
Jesus Christ. Will
I
fit
him
?
Iola was suddenly as nervous as she was before her first time.

She felt the mattress shift as he lay next to her, pulling the sheets up to cover them. “Hey … are you all right?”

“I’m fine …" she opened her eyes, smiling at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing
.” That was a bit too eager. “No, nothing. Believe me. I’m just … weak in the knees right now.”

His hand slid across her stomach, making circles around her bellybutton. “Well, that’s a good thing.” His lips on her collarbone were utterly divine, too.

“I agree.”

“We’ll go slow,” he whispered, biting playfully at her neck.

Slow was good. “Okay,” she answered, and his hand left her stomach to touch her in a spot that was already swollen from wanting more contact with him. He circled across her sweet spot, which was incredibly tender by this point, then widened his palm between her legs to ease them open as he rolled on top of her.

Vinnie kissed her with painstaking gentleness, tasting her with his tongue while his hand worked one nipple. She forgot her nerves with the way his kisses was making other parts of her body tingle, all the other places that tongue had already been. Of their own volition her legs came up to his hips, positioning herself for utter Veneratio Invasion. This was likely going to hurt.

She should have known better. While Vinnie had her on a simmer, he eased in so slowly she wasn’t sure he was moving. That was until she became aware that she was stretched completely to oblige him. She was fluid and slick around him, he was hot and hard by contrast, and as her body accommodated his size she was stunned at how completely full it all felt. And how very
right
it felt.

Once he’d pushed all the way in, his
withdrawal was so slight she couldn’t be sure she was really feeling it. Then he pushed back in again.

Iola actually
hissed
at how good it felt. Every part of him had contact with every part of her,
every
part. With a slight upward shift of her hips on his next small thrust, he made proper contact where she needed it and she was beyond anything even remotely resembling pain. She made a small noise, but she was fighting anything that might distract herself from the feeling.

His movements were so small and careful, and executed so
slowly
she felt like screaming in frustration, but after a few more presses she was ready for climax and it was just a matter of which movement was going to make it happen. She was aware that there was a bloom of sweat on her skin, and his as well, so she let her fingers bite into his shoulders so that nothing changed; not her position, not his. It was just too perfect.