That sound was huge, enveloping.
Suddenly they were elsewhere—on the sere, barren landscapeof the other plane as a burst of sound and dust erupted around them.
Asmodeus looked first at Gabriel in his arms, held close,her eyes closed. Then she took a breath and his heart started beating again.Her eyes opened, met his in wonder as he touched her cheek and she lookedaround them in astonishment.
He did much the same, but instead counting heads beforemeeting Ashtoreth’s eyes with relief.
They were safe. Alive. Free.
All of them.
Chapter Nine
Gabriel’s silver hair fell over her sparkling blue eyesfetchingly. Against the stark gray stone of his chambers on the ethereal plane,her skin and hair were so light she was like a flash of moonlight in a landthat had no moon, as she had been in that moment he had first seen her.
She darted around the other end of his bed, laughing at himas he stalked her.
It was an effort for Asmodeus not to smile.
She was beautiful, her eyes sparkling. Her firm, lushbreasts beneath the thin, diaphanous gown shifted tantalizingly as she moved.Even from here he could smell his true mate’s scent, her arousal ripe in theair. He was still angry at her in a way, but it was fading in the face of hisneed for her.
He had come far too close to losing her. She had very nearlydied for him and his brothers, nearly given her life for them, and savedthem—for the moment—from the Damocles’ sword of the Book of Demons.
That brief moment, watching bullets fly around her asAshtoreth and Ba’al shifted him to the other plane, had nearly destroyed him.He thought he had lost her. His grief had almost torn him apart. It had takenAshtoreth and several of their brothers to keep him from trying to go backafter her, as impossible as that would have been with the iron still on him.
If it had not been for the iron and his weakness fromcenturies without true sustenance, Templeton would not have taken him.
Those few minutes while they cut it off him had been thelongest in his long life. The thought of losing her when he had just found herseemed too cruel, nearly too much to bear, the act of an unkind god or gods.
So, she had to be “punished” for not warning him sooner, forfrightening him so badly.
And he was going to enjoy every moment of it.
Gabriel’s breath caught as Asmodeus stalked across the room,his beautifully sculpted face intent, wings spread to prevent her getting pasthim, and rampant, his cock rigid, twitching in anticipation. He was absolutelybeautiful, simply gorgeous. She licked her lips and then bit her lower one.Just the sight of him had her body tightening in anticipation. Her breastsseemed to swell. They ached and her nipples hardened in anticipation of hismouth on them. Her pussy wanted his cock inside her in the worst way.
Her distraction was her undoing.
In a swift lunge across the bed, Asmodeus caught her by thearm and then shifted direction to roll back on his shoulders, wings tucked, totug her across the bed and then into his lap so her belly was across his knees.
“Asmodeus,” she said reasonably, wriggling, and foughtlaughter as his strong hands held her firmly in place. “You can’t spank me fordoing my job, for getting you out of there.”
“Can,” he said, amused, “and will. You could have told mewhat you planned, warned me a little sooner.”
With a gasp, she felt his tail flutter at her pussy.
“Asmodeus,” she breathed, her belly tightening as heatpooled in her core, anticipation making her wet. “If you’ll remember, I was alittle distracted.”
“Next time,” he said, with a sharp crack of his palm acrossher smooth, white ass, “you will find a way to tell me.”
She gasped as the sharp pain of it burst through her and yetit was also somehow erotic to be spanked like this.
His tail fluttered at the entrance to her pussy even as itflooded.
“Asmodeus,” she protested, torn between desire, pain andpleasure.
His hand came down crisply, across the other cheek. “Promiseme.”
“Asmodeus,” she said, as his tail wriggled its way insideher.
She moaned lightly with the pleasure of it.
His hand caressed her burning ass, slid to touch herdampness where his tail thrust.
The scent of her arousal was maddening. Asmodeus’ cock washard as a rock, aching for her tightness. He wanted to fuck her all night,again and again, until she couldn’t talk, until she couldn’t walk, until shecouldn’t stand.
Until she couldn’t leave him. As she must.
“Tell me,” he demanded, deliberately pressing his dampenedfinger against the tight rosette of her ass.
She groaned, softly, but pressed her lips togetherstubbornly.
With another crack, he brought his hand down on her again,hard, as his tail fluttered inside her. His rigid cock twitched against hermound with each smack.
Asmodeus slid a finger inside the closed rosebud of her ass,worked it gently but firmly past the taut muscles there. There were so manythings he wanted to do to her, so many ways he wanted to take her.
Sprawled across his lap, Gabriel quivered lightly at theinvasion and a small moan escaped her.
“I promise,” she said, her voice husky with arousal.
He wanted her desperately.
Then he did the math in his head and went still.
He had to tell her, it was only right, but he needed her andhis hunger for her burned, ravaged through him.
It did not matter to him—he was bound to her already, heartand soul. He was hers.
She had saved him in more than one way, and his brothers aswell. Not only had she rid of them Book of Demons, she had given themhope. That debt could never be repaid or erased.
For Gabriel though…
He knew her mind, knew her heart and soul as well as his ownand still a part of him feared. She could still choose another if she sodesired. She was free. If the bond wasn’t forged finally and completely betweenthem, she would be free to love another. One of her own kind. However much itpained him to think it.
He drew her up on her knees to straddle
