“Laila,” I breathed, her name a plea and a prayer.
“What happened?” Her fingers slid from my cheeks down to my chest, trailing over the fingernail marks the demon had left there.
I didn’t answer her. I couldn’t. I’d come to thoughts of her while a demon… Just the thought made me shudder in disgust.
Anger flashed in Laila’s eyes. It shouldn’t have been a turn-on, but seeing that fire simmering under her skin made my blood heat and my cock harden.
Her forehead pressed against mine. “I hate this.”
“You’re going to have to be a little more specific,” I murmured.
“You deserve so much better than this.”
I let out a dark chuckle. I didn’t believe that for a second. I had blood on my hands, a past full of mistakes I couldn’t take back. I was exactly where I belonged. “You forget that I agreed to this.”
“Why did you do it? What did you get in exchange for your soul?”
“A chance for my brother to protect his family.” I hadn’t hesitated when Lucifer had asked for my soul. If that was the price I had to pay to keep Nathaniel’s family safe, I’d pay it. With any luck, Lucifer didn’t know about Nathaniel and Sierra’s Nephilim daughter. In the whole scheme of things, her soul was worth more than mine.
“That doesn’t sound fair.”
“Very little in this world is truly fair.”
She smiled—it was just a tiny lift of her lips, but it was there.
“What are you smiling about?”
“You’re proving me right.”
“About what?”
“That you still have a heart.”
I closed my eyes as that heart pounded against my rib cage. It would be so much easier to do the right thing if she didn’t believe in me so damn much. With her sitting on my lap, her skin on mine, her heat seeping into my body, I wasn’t strong enough to resist her.
My lips crashed against hers. I’d never be able to take it back, but I couldn’t find the will to stop.
Her lips were warm and soft and everything good in the universe.
She didn’t fight me when I deepened the kiss, stroking my tongue over hers, and a groan rumbled in my chest. She tasted like honey and fine wine. It was intoxicating and addictive all at once.
I tightened the hand gripping her hair as I dove into the kiss, my last bit of restraint dissolving as I kissed her hard and desperate. Laila was the air I needed to breathe. Or maybe she was the ocean and I was desperate to drown. I didn’t care one way or another as long as she was taking over all my senses until there was nothing else. She was my whole world, and for the first time in years, my world was Heaven.
ELEVEN
Laila
Joriel’s kisswas brutal and raw, and I welcomed every second of it. I liked seeing this side of him, possessive and out of control.
I hadn’t been prepared for the ugly feelings that swarmed me when I saw the fresh scratches on his chest. They weren’t like the cuts and bruises that made my heart hurt. Someone had marked him with their nails. Claimed him, and left behind their marks on his skin.
I kissed him back with everything I had, all my pain and jealousy and passion. When he was taking my mouth like he wanted to devour me, it was easy to believe I was the center of his world. That he would choose me even if he had his pick of every soul in Heaven.
“Laila,” he murmured against my lips.
I shifted, attempting to press closer, and he groaned into my mouth.
“Please stop wiggling,” he said, his voice strained.
