They’d hadsex—fantastic, mind-blowing sex—but now he chose to ignore herbecause he wasn’t mature enough to talk it over and move on.
She’d looked upto him as her teacher, the person who had always been patient andunderstanding during her training. He’d even promised she would gether gold wingtips soon, but where was his promise now?
Her phonetinged.
A flicker ofhope made Evie’s stomach tingle. More than anything, she missed herbest friend.
She checked themessage. It was from Love Bites; someone wanted a date withher.
The flicker ofhope snuffed out.
Evie cursed.She’d meant to cancel her subscription to the dating agency—shecouldn’t afford it anyway. Out of mild interest, she clicked on theprofile of the guy who’d asked for a date.
A demon calledMalcolm.
Malcolm,really? She laughed. Hardly a demonic-sounding name.
The guy wasreasonably good looking, she supposed.
She shrugged.Maybe she shouldn’t write him off based on his name. A demon; couldbe interesting, if nothing else. What harm would it do?
It was time tomove on.
Before shechanged her mind, she messaged him.
Caleb accusedher of wanting excitement and danger, and maybe she did. Or maybeshe’d messaged the demon out of spite.
Either way, shewas beyond caring what Caleb bloody Pearce thought of her now.
He would knownothing of her date with the demon, so at least she wouldn’treceive another gift from him before her date.
ChapterNine
Exhausted fromwalking the city streets, going nowhere in particular, Caleb sat,propped against a shop wall. His phone tinged for the nineteenthtime, not that he was counting.
He ignoredit.
It rang thistime.
Caleb cursedout loud, prompting a few glances his way from people passing by.Someone threw him some loose change, and he watched a copper coinroll in a circle until it landed by his foot.
His phone wasstill ringing.
He rummaged inhis pocket, brought out his phone and, without looking at thenumber, he switched it to mute.
The day becamenight, and he wandered the streets again. He yearned to fly intothe night, feel the wind in his feathers, block out the guilt atwhat he’d done, but he couldn’t. Not since he’d crept out of Evie’sflat like a cowardly weasel.
His wings hadcarried him for all of a hundred yards in the pouring rain, andthen for some reason, they’d grown weak, and he’d dropped severalfeet. He’d tried, again and again, thrusting his wings downwards,using the air currents to carry him along, but he still kept losingaltitude.
Defeated anddistraught, he gave up and landed in a quiet back alley amongststinking dustbins and flattened cardboard boxes.
Two dayspassed, maybe three. He hadn’t eaten or drunk anything. His wingshung useless behind him.
His head spunevery time he stood, so he slumped by the roadside.
Caleb’sthoughts returned to Evie yet again.
I’m surelygoing to Hell for what I did to her.
He didn’tregret making love to her. How could he when she was the mostbeautiful woman on Earth and in Heaven? But it was the wayit happened that burned inside his soul.
Evie had lookedso lost and dejected when he’d climbed in through her window, butshe’d infuriated him with her mission of self-destruction, whichwas totally unjustified as far as he was concerned. Then she keptpushing all the wrong buttons, and he’d lost control. She’d beendrunk and vulnerable, and he’d forced himself on her, succumbed tohis desires when he should have listened to his head.
Evie hadcracked open something inside him that night, something he refusedto acknowledge. She’d chipped away at a wall he’d built aroundhimself, and somehow, he’d confessed to a part of his past he’dnever shared with anyone, not even Ophelia and Raphael.
He was herteacher. He should never have let it go that far.
They were bestfriends too.
Were.
He doubted theywould be now, not after what he did.
Evie was thekindest soul he’d ever met, but she must hate him now, and it wasnothing he didn’t deserve. He would have to learn to live with thispain forever, his punishment for treating her like the losers fromher past because it was better than giving her false hope thatthere could ever be anything special between them.
Caleb breathedin, recalling the way she’d gazed at him, how she’d stroked theunderside of his wings, driving him wild with desire. The muskyscent of her sex…
Yes, he’dchosen the coward’s way out, but how could he face the look in hereyes when he told her it couldn’t happen again?
She’d lainthere on her bed, naked and resplendent, her breathing soft andeven as he’d gathered his clothes.
It tookeverything he had not to lie back next to her, but he’d covered herwith the duvet instead and climbed out of her window with theproverbial tail between his legs.
Self-hatredcoursed through his veins.
A car horntooted, bringing him out of his reveries. He looked up, only nowrecognising his surroundings.
Raphael pokedhis head out of the car window. “Caleb. Thank goodness.”
Caleb frowned.“What are you doing here?”
“I could askyou the same thing. I’ve been trawling the streets for you. Hop in;you look in no fit state to fly anywhere.”
He hadn’t thestrength to argue as he climbed into the passenger seat.
“You lookdreadful, my dear fellow, and I have to say you don’t smell toogood either.”
Caleb lookeddown at his creased, dirty clothes. The wine stain on his shirt wasnow crusty and reddish-brown around the edges, and Raphael wasright. He did need a shower. “I don’t know what happened, but mywings aren’t working. I can’t fly.”
Raphael noddedas he drove along the road towards his house. “Do they feel heavyand tender?”
“Yeah.” Hecircled his aching shoulders. “Have you heard of this before?”
“Yes, I’veheard of it. Have you seen Evie by any chance?”
Caleb staredout of the window, his heart as heavy as his wings. “Not for days.What’s she got to do with anything?”
His friendpulled into the driveway. “Come inside, Caleb.”
Ophelia came tothe front door. She took one look at him and offered a soft smile.“Oh, Caleb, you poor thing. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Mywings aren’t working, that’s all.”
“You’re notfine.” She looped her arm in his and led him inside. “Tell yourAuntie Ophelia what happened.”
“There’snothing to tell,” he insisted. “Is there any chance you could putthe kettle on? I’m sure it’s nothing a strong coffee won’tcure.”
Yeah, tellyourself that, and you might believe it, Caleb. As if coffeehad the power to erase his
