Good Side of Sin (27 page)

She relaxed in his arms, letting him kiss her passionately, deeply and possessively.

He sealed the kiss and pressed his forehead against hers, breathing heavily with desire and some other emotion he wasn’t used to feeling: love. The emotion was different, but so amazing.

“I love you,” she said, as if she had picked the thought right out of his mind, and his heart began to beat rapidly in his chest cavity at the mere thought of this precious angel in love with him. Oh, why couldn’t he have found her before he died? He was almost certain he would have changed his ways if only they’d met as mortals. He never would have ended up where he had, and they would already be living their happily ever after in Heaven. All of this was his fault.

He hugged her even tighter, to the point that he knew she had to be uncomfortable, but he couldn’t help it and she wasn’t complaining. “Where did I go right? I never even dreamed you ever could love someone like me. You shouldn’t.” He shook his head. “If you knew half the things I’ve done in my—”

Josselyn looked up at him with a worried expression on her face and his words got choked up in his throat. Would she leave him if she knew everything—anything about the things he had done before she fell heart-first into his life? Oh, God, the thought made him taste bile and hate his past even more. He felt completely wretched and disgusted with himself.

“I told you that I love you. That doesn’t mean I only love the good things about you. I can imagine what you’ve done, and it just doesn’t matter to me. I know that you are a different person now, and you would take it all back if you could. You’ve proven yourself to me, so stop doubting my love for you. It’s not limited.”

He kissed her hard on the mouth, muffling a squeal of delight that tried to escape her throat. His hand slid over her abdomen and down over her hip. As he deepened the kiss, her giggles changed to soft moans of passion and desire and want for only him.

He rolled to his back, pulling her with him until she was astride him and his hardness. The feel of her, warm, slick and ready, as she moved up and down the length of him almost sent him over the edge. A groan of pleasure erupted from deep within his chest and he arched into her, aching to feel more of her sweet heat that had him so mesmerized.

A soft knock sounded at the door and Josselyn stiffened in his arms as if she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Thoros growled and brought her mouth back down to his in an attempt to ignore the person that would soon be dead. Immortal or not, he would find a way to murder the asshole that dared to take this moment away from him and Josselyn.

He felt her lips curl into a smile on his, and he framed her beautiful face with his hands, deepening the kiss to try and keep her from moving.

The knock sounded again, this time a bit louder. Josselyn giggled and pushed away, then rose up to a sitting position, naked and gloriously beautiful before him. She was an angel, his angel. Thoros struggled to get a hold on her again before she got away completely. Josselyn lifted an eyebrow and the left side of her mouth turned up in a playful smirk. He wanted to bite that lip, just give it enough teasing pleasure so she would forget all about the audience outside the bedroom door. Eyeing him, she pulled her wrists and arms out of his grasp. Thoros huffed and stared at her with his bottom lip poked out.

“Deal with that. I can’t make love to you with someone standing outside your bedroom door listening to you moan.”

His eyes grew wide with amused shock. “Me? Moan? How about your screams? I’m sure everyone in the house has already heard how powerful your lungs are, my sweet angel.” He smirked as her hand came up to cover her gaping mouth.

“Isaiah sent me to tell you both that the exorcist is here. He didn’t want to barge in your minds for fear of what he would interrupt,” Baddon said.

“Shit!” Thoros groaned and covered his face with his hands. “But he didn’t mind sending you to interrupt?”

“I’m standing on the other side of your door interrupting you, aren’t I?” Baddon replied, and Josselyn laughed, then covered her mouth when Thoros cut his eyes over at her. His lips pressed together into a thin line of disapproval.

He shook his head and huffed, knowing time was of the essence and that they really needed to get going. But he didn’t want to. He wanted to stay in bed for the rest of the day and night with Josselyn, making love. Why couldn’t they stay just one more day? The others could track the demon and tie her up with Lameria. That was a brilliant plan! Let the bitches go at one another to see just how immortal they were. Surely even immortality had a breaking point. He wondered idly which one would win. He knew personally how ruthless and conniving Lameria could be.

“You have twenty minutes. I expect you to use that time showering,”
Isaiah said, disturbing Thoros’ plan, and by the way Josselyn’s eyes widened, she had heard the message in her head, too.

Crap!

“Tell him we’ll be down in thirty and that arguing with me is only going to waste his time,” Thoros shouted at the door, ignoring the archangel if he happened to still be listening to his inner monologue. Though he thought Isaiah had done a pop-in-pop-out trick so he wouldn’t have to listen to Thoros whine about the timeframe he’d set.

There was silence for a moment, and then, “I’ll tell him. Take care of your girl. He may not understand, but I’ve been living with you for the last three miserable months. Sure you don’t want me to tell him an hour?”

Thoros looked at Josselyn, hopeful, but frowned when she shook her head.
Damn it!
“No, we really do need to get going. We’ll be down and ready for the exorcist in thirty.”

“Will do,” Baddon replied, and then the sound of his boots walking away had Thoros smirking mischievously as he stared up at his naked angel.

Josselyn shook her head and laughed as his eyes traveled down then slowly back up to her eyes. “Thoros, we can’t. There’s no time!” she exclaimed, and squealed loudly when he threw back the cover and stood from the bed with her legs still wrapped tightly around his hips.

“Well, then we’d better hurry or you won’t have time to dry your hair.”

On a giggle, she found his lips with hers as he shut the bathroom door behind them.

Even though I knew everybody in the house was already aware whose bed I had slept in, and what I had done with the owner of that bed before actually going to sleep, and then again in the owner’s shower only twenty minutes ago, I refused to walk down the stairs and into the living area on the arm of Thoros. It wasn’t because I was ashamed of him. It was because I already felt like I had a sign plastered to my forehead that read, ‘No Longer A Virgin!’.

I just needed a little more time to get used to the idea myself. And it didn’t help that angels could blush now, thanks to the little fact that Heaven was deteriorating at a rapid pace.

At any rate, Thoros seemed to have understood and didn’t press the matter. He’d given me a long, heart-melting kiss and then smiled as if he knew exactly how he affected me. He was so mean!

I fanned my face and then walked down the stairs a full two minutes after he walked under the large archway that separated the foyer from the great room.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Smile.

Everyone seemed to be talking and mingling when I walked into the room. Without making eye contact with anyone or looking for Thoros—even though I could feel his eyes hot on me with every step I made—I spotted Isaiah talking with the exorcist. Isaiah had summoned the same one that had attempted to extract the five souls from me the other day, but had failed to do his job because Isaiah had stormed into the room and disagreed with the way I was handling Thoros.

If I had only known then what I knew now, I wouldn’t have been so hard on Thoros, but Isaiah had withheld valuable need-to-know information from me, so it was, in part, the archangel’s fault that we had the set back.

Plus, if things hadn’t happened the way they had, I would probably never have known the punishment the head guardians had sentenced Isaiah with. I shuddered to think what would have happened if I had learned of that important bit of information too late to help. Isaiah didn’t deserve to be thrown in Hell. He was not evil. He had just made a mistake; we all had, but I was somehow being rewarded for it. I think they knew I would have gone over their heads if they denied me the chance to at least try. But I couldn’t prove that, and it was of no consequence to me now that they had consented, so I shrugged and let it slip from my mind. I had more important things to worry about.

I stepped up beside Isaiah, but didn’t interrupt his conversation with the exorcist. They were talking about the cigar-shaped gold box the exorcist was holding in both his frail-looking hands.

“The souls will be safe in here until their return,” the exorcist said, and Isaiah gave a curt nod, and then turned to look at me with a blank expression.

He gave me a small smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Something was troubling him. “Good morning, Josselyn. I trust you slept well?”

My face flushed and my eyes fell from his to look at the gold box. Struggling through my embarrassment, I attempted to change the subject of my sleeping arrangements and exactly just how
good
they had been. With the mornings’ activities in the shower, I was lucky I could concentrate on anything but the arrangements. “Are you ready for me to explain that box to the people going with us?”

“If you like. I can do it, otherwise. I’m aware some of them may not understand. I am prepared for questions.”

“No,” I met his stare, “I can do it.”

He nodded in understanding. “Very well.
You know I am only a thought away if you need guidance.”

I nodded back, and then walked to the front of the room. After clearing my throat, I waited for everyone to find a seat and give me their undivided attention. This was extremely important and I didn’t want anybody that was going with us or staying here to misunderstand anything I had to say.

“May I have everyone’s attention, please? Thank you,” I said, and the room instantly fell silent. It appeared they were just as anxious as I was about the mission.

As if my attention had been drawn to him, my eyes looked to the back of the room and met Thoros’ stare. He was seated beside Baddon, with his boot casually rested on his knee. His face was expressionless, but I could still sense that he was undressing me with his eyes. A single eyebrow rose and he smiled as if my thoughts were displayed for all to see. I couldn’t hide my feelings. The night had been too real for me, and I wasn’t ready to think about what had to be done. The cruel reality was that I had to save Heaven and Earth now for there to be more passionate nights and showers that lasted until the water turned chilly—

Isaiah cleared his throat, bringing me back to the here and now, letting me know that all eyes were on me, and that I was as red as a beet. Christ, what was Thoros doing to me?

After clearing my own throat, I pulled my attention from him and addressed the other people in the room again. “I’m not sure what to expect from Limbo. I’ve heard of only three spirits that were pulled from Heaven to go to Limbo, but my only source of information is now in Limbo himself. My plan is to bring him back with us. That’s part of what I’m worrying about: I’ve never heard of anyone leaving. I am not certain that even we will be able to leave once we enter into the Limbo Realm. Lameria is tied to silver chains and will need to be… looked after,” I said after giving Isaiah a brief glance. “And the corpses will need to be watched and protected, as will the one who lives. I hope to be back before he wakes, but if I’m not, those staying behind will have to keep him comfortable and keep him from leaving until he’s had a complete memory wipe of the last few days—”

“Boggs…” Emma said, and then let her shocked face explain the rest. It was obvious the girl knew the three males that had been in Thoros’ last incident of soul taking.

“That’s what his I.D. said his name was,” Marcus stated.

Emma’s mind seemed to be racing. “You were the people that took them,” she muttered, obviously piecing the puzzle together. “Where are the other two marshals that were with Boggs in the accident?” she asked, her voice rising. “Where are the agents that were taken from the hotel room the other night?”

When Marcus only dropped his head, Thoros spoke from the back of the room. “The agents and marshals are dead. I’m sorry. But that is why a few of us are going to Limbo. We have their souls, but the spirits have traveled on to Limbo. We have six spirits, including Malcolm’s, that we have to find before returning back here. I’m not foolish enough to think it will be an easy mission, but, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that nothing worth fighting for is ever easy to get.” I gave a quick glance at Thoros and flushed crimson as he nodded in agreement. I knew he was thinking of me and the battle he’d been struggling with to win my heart. I was extremely happy he had been strong enough to stay as I constantly pushed him away. I wanted to go to him, hug him and promise a thousand times that I would always be by his side.

“Who’s going with you?” Baddon asked.

“I think we should keep the group as small as possible. Like I said before, there is no guarantee we will be able to leave once we get there, and I honestly don’t see how taking several of you with us will help anything. Most of you will be safer here—”

“What if we want to come with you? Will you refuse to let us? I, for one, would be honored to go and protect you, as well as make sure everyone returns home safely.”

I smiled. “I appreciate the offer, Baddon, but I think your skills will be needed here a bit more. I believe the demon will stay close until it gets what it wants. And with Lucifer’s impatience, I doubt he’ll wait much longer before sending reinforcements to make sure the job gets done in a timely manner. It’s already been two weeks now. I’m sure his patience is wearing thin. Isaiah, Ethan, Aries and Thoros will accompany me to Limbo—”

“Me?” Ethan shouted, leaning forward in his seat and almost falling to the floor in the process. “I know you all think I’m some all-powerful superhero, but I can assure you that I’m not! I need to stay here. I have to get my dad back. We need to go find him instead of wandering into some other dimension looking for a bunch of dead people! My dad is not dead yet!” he screamed, his voice cracking with emotion at the end.