Angel Unaware (29 page)

Dora tightened her hold on Tony’s neck and molded her body to his. She allowed him to pry open her lips and delve into the moist interior of her mouth. Prickles of pleasure washed over her. Her limbs suddenly seemed incapable of supporting her limp body. She wilted against him.

Never before had she felt so alive, so full of an energizing need to— To what? She had no idea, but deep inside her the need was growing by leaps and bounds. The longer Tony kissed her, the stronger it became.

Then he ran his hand down her side and his thumb brushed her breast. Fire shot through her. Pleasurable fire. Fire that fed the nebulous need. Fire that planted a wanting in her so vibrant, so all-consuming, that she couldn’t ignore it, couldn’t deny it. Her body began to tremble uncontrollably. He circled her waist with his big hands and pulled her against him. Something hard pressed into her stomach.

Tony pulled his lips away and looked down at her. His dark eyes were smoky with desire. “Now, tell me you don’t love me,” he whispered, his lips a mere inch away from hers.

Dora opened her mouth, despite being certain she’d long ago lost the ability to speak. “I can’t. I do love you. I love you more than you will ever know.” Her voice was raspy and sounded strange to her ears.

What was happening to her? But Tony gave her no time to think, just feel.

“That’s all I need to know,” he said, and reclaimed her lips with his.

This time the kiss was hungry, demanding, and all-consuming.  Emotion after emotion swamped Dora. Disconnected, scrambled thoughts raced through her foggy mind. The need, the hunger for that something without a name grew inside her. She curved her fingers into the flesh of his shoulders, straining for something solid to cling to, something to keep her head above the emotional waters threatening to drown her.

Desperately, she fought to clear her mind of the tangle of meaningless thoughts racing through it. She needed to get control. She needed to stop him and do what they’d come up here for.

“I’m afraid,” she mumbled against his lips, “that—”

“Don’t be afraid. There’s nothing for you to fear,” he whispered. “Just feel. Just let me love you.”

And that’s exactly what Dora did, until her mind closed down to anything except the feel of his hands on her, the caress of his lips, and those unnamed sensations crying out for fulfillment.

Tony’s legs were threatening to fold under him. Before they could do so, he scooped Dora into his arms and carried her to the wide, canopied bed. Gently, he laid her down, then lay next to her. Gathering her close, he stared into her face.

She was so mind-stoppingly beautiful. Unlike some women, her beauty went far beneath the outer shell right down to her soul and, as a result, her inner glow radiated from her eyes. Gratitude for having her come into his life welled up in him.

He leaned forward and kissed her gently. To his surprise, her arms snaked around his neck and turned what he’d intended to be a butterfly kiss into a heat-seeking, sexual innuendo.

She looped a leg over his. The heat coming from the juncture of her thighs burned through the material of his jeans and into his flesh. He filled his lungs to bursting and then gritted his teeth in an effort to control his need as it teetered precariously on the edge of completion.

“You’re playing with fire,” he murmured into the luscious and tempting curve of her neck.

Suddenly, Dora stopped moving. She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “I don’t understand.”

At first Tony thought she was kidding, but the sincerity in her eyes told him differently. This was crazy. She couldn’t possibly not understand what was happening between them, could she? Then it occurred to him that, as unbelievable as it was in this day and age, something he’d taken for granted might not be the case at all.

He propped himself onto one elbow and gazed down at her. “Dora, I have to ask you something.” She stared up at him, waiting, wide-eyed, and tellingly innocent. “Are you a virgin?”

She blinked.

“Have you ever made love with a man before?” She frowned as though she had no idea what the words meant. Could she be that naïve? It was incomprehensible that she hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. “Have you ever been intimate” — he searched frantically for the words that, without being downright crude, would clearly tell her what he was asking—” have you ever had sex with a man before?”

“I … I … I don’t think so.”

Tony laughed. “Honey, making love with someone is not something you’re likely to forget.”

“Well, then, I guess the answer is yes, I’m a virgin.” Tony groaned, released her, and turned away. He sat on the edge of the mattress with his feet on the floor. He couldn’t believe he had a virgin in his bed. Well, technically,
her
bed, but no matter whose bed it was, Dora was still a virgin. What the hell did he do now?

He had had women before who had little experience, but never one who didn’t even know what making love was. A virgin. Never in his wildest imaginings had he dreamed he’d one day have a virgin in his bed. Nor had he ever wanted to.

However, the idea that he’d be the first to make love to Dora sent a wave of pleasure over him. Not sexual pleasure, but a pleasure that made him feel honored, privileged.

Still, the nagging doubt that he didn’t have the right to take this from her kept nudging him. Dora seemed to be more than just a virgin. She had an innocence about her that could be thought of as unusual. Even rare.

CHAPTER 23

Dora was confused. She stared at the broad expanse of Tony’s back, trying to figure out what had happened. Had she done something wrong? Was being a virgin bad? Repulsive to him?

“Tony? What is it? What’s wrong? Was it something I did?”

He turned back to her. For a moment he simply stared, then his mouth broke into a half smile. “No, something I almost did.”

Dora was under the impression everything had been going very well for the past few moments. What could he have possibly done wrong? “What?”

He shook his head. “You’re a virgin. That means I’d be your first lover. I very nearly steamrolled you into something you might regret tomorrow.”

Regret
? How could she possibly regret the feelings Tony had given birth to in her? Never, ever before had she felt like that. Hot and cold all over, as if tiny pins pricked her skin. As if at any moment she would explode into a shower of rainbow colors. The sensations Tony had made her feel were glorious, unbelievable, mind-blowing, wonderful.

“I wouldn’t have regretted anything that we did together,” she said in a soft voice.

“You say that now, but …” Again, he stared at her. “You do realize what we were about to do, don’t you?”

“Kiss some more? I hope so, because I love kissing with you.”

He laughed. “Well, I love kissing with you, too, but there’s a lot more to making love than kissing, sweetheart.”

“Like what?” This was so confusing.

She’d heard the word before, but the angels never actually talked about sex. Mostly because they weren’t privy to that part of their charges’ lives. In fact, whenever their charges moved into the bedroom, the Earth Pool always turned opaque. Evidently, her lack of knowledge upset Tony.

Tony sprang to his feet and began pacing the limited confines of the room. Several times he raked his fingers through his hair and looked at the ceiling. Dora felt helpless. She wanted to help him, to say something, to bring him back beside her, but how could she when she had no idea what the problem was or how to fix it? “Tony—”

He swung to face her, his hands extended palms out. “No. Don’t say anything.” He glanced around the room as though looking for an escape route. “Listen, why don’t you show me whatever it is you brought me up here to see?”

Dora froze. If she took the sheet off the mirror and showed him her true image, it would be the end of everything. There would be no going back.

But did she have a choice? Come what may, at midnight she would be called back up there. Disappear without a trace or explanation. Whether or not she revealed her angel image to Tony, whatever could have been between them would be over, done, irrevocably ended. However, if she did show him, at least he’d know why.

Slowly, she got to her feet. Without a word, she slipped the sheet from the mirror. Instantly, her angel image appeared, complete with white robe, golden curls, sky blue eyes, lopsided halo, and large, white, feathered wings.

Tony’s pacing had stopped. He stood to the side watching her. “What are you doing?”

The sheet slipped from her fingers and landed in a white puddle at her feet, reminding her of the snowbanks that lined the front walk and the street outside. She smiled sadly at him. Summoning all her courage, she spoke the words that would effectively end her world. “Come stand beside me.”

Puzzled, Tony came to her side, then looked at her directly in expectation. What was this all about?

“Look,” she said, motioning at her reflection in the mirror.

He turned and gaped at the image standing beside him. “What the hell …?” He turned to her to verify she was the woman he remembered. The reflection didn’t match. Where Dora should have been was a strange woman, a woman with wings, an angel. Then he looked back into the mirror. “Is this a trick mirror?” He looked behind the mirror, then inspected it, running his hands over the frame and the backing. But he found nothing to account for the strange difference in her image.

As he moved back to Dora’s side, he tried to sort through the jumble of questions filling his mind. Being a man of logic who had been trained to rely on facts and figures, he found this beyond his comprehension. There was no possible explanation.

“Okay, I give up. What’s the trick?”

“There’s no trick, Tony. The person you see in the mirror is who I really am. I’m an angel. I was sent here to help you and Penny.” Appearing surprisingly calm, she waited for him to say something. But he just kept looking at her, then back at her reflection. “They only allowed me to stay until tonight at midnight. Then I have to go back …” She looked at the ceiling.

Though he heard what Dora was saying, he didn’t understand it. Inside his chest Tony’s heart twisted and writhed in agony.

“I never meant to fall in love with you. In fact, they warned me not to form any emotional attachments to my charges. It … it just happened, and I didn’t know how to stop it. In the end, it doesn’t matter how much you love me or I love you. I
have
to go back. They gave me no choice. At midnight, I’ll vanish from your life forever.” Everything inside Tony rebelled at the idea of Dora’s leaving for good. “I don’t know who the hell
they
are, but they can’t do that.” Tony snatched Dora from in front of the mirror, twisted logic making him believe that if
they
couldn’t see her,
they
couldn’t take her away.

“But, I’m an—”

He slammed his fist on the dresser top making the bottles jump, topple, and roll to the floor. “I don’t give a damn what you are. I won’t let them take you.”

She sank to the edge of the bed. “Can’t you see? You can’t stop them. Whether or not I want to go back or you want me to stay doesn’t matter. In the first second after midnight, I will be gone, Tony. Gone.” He could hear the tears choking her voice.

If what she said was true, and he had to believe the proof he’d seen with his own eyes, then he could do nothing but stand by and watch her go. It would have hurt less if they’d torn his heart from his chest. Damn it, it wasn’t fair!

Anger boiled to the surface. Anger at Dora for deceiving him, for allowing him and Penny to fall in love with her. Anger at whomever the hell
they
were for playing with their happiness. Anger at himself for feeling so helpless.

If circumstances had been different, he would have done battle with Satan himself to keep Dora at his side. But how could he argue his case before someone he couldn’t see, someone with whom he had no idea how to communicate? He could do nothing but wait for midnight.

He glanced at the crumpled, defeated figure sitting on the edge of the bed. Everything in him wanted to go to her, to hold her, to tell her everything would be all right. But he couldn’t, because nothing would be all right again. It seemed he was destined to spend a lifetime losing everyone he loved.

He shifted his gaze from Dora to the alarm clock on her bedside table. Eleven forty-six. In less than fifteen minutes Dora would be no more. Suddenly, he knew that staying here and watching her leave would be more then he could stand. Living without the woman he loved, the woman who had become his best friend and companion, would be hard enough.

He went to her, knelt down, and took her hand. “I have to go. I can’t be here when … when it happens.” She raised her tear-streaked face to his and nodded. With the pad of his thumb, he gently wiped the tears from her cheeks, and wished he could just as easily wipe the tears from his heart. “I love you, Dora. I always will. No matter where we are.” He leaned forward and softly kissed her lips for the last time, then rose and left the room.