Saving Grace (38 page)

My knees started to shake and it felt so damn
good
I thought I would cry.
Okay, so like two tears fell, but they were beautiful happy breathless tears.

"Please, Shane," I whimpered and hauled him
up by his hair. His face leveled to
mine, he was panting.

He stood up and gazed
down at me, bright heavenly blue eyes locked on mine
.
Gently, he cupped my face in his hands, "You have had my heart with you for thousands of years,
and I
have been so
empty
until now."

"
I'm completely
your
s,
Shane, forever
," I whispered. W
e stilled
,
savoring the last moment of our innocence, and the beginning of our
forever.

He looked at me with eyes that worshipped me...

His breath caught
.

My heart pounded fast
.

The feel of his smooth skin beneath my fingertips
.

Heat radiated
from his body
in waves
.

Never taking his eyes from mine...

He
lifted and wrapped my legs around him and
slowly eased
into me
, burying
himself
deep inside me, making me forever his
. He groaned and pressed
his forehead to mine.
"Ah
,
Grace," he cried out.
He slid
back with the most delicious slowness
.
"I love you so much," he growled
with intense burning eyes that took my breath away
.
An indescribable pleasure tore
deep
through
me
and then he slipped all the way out
.
His arms trembled from holding me up against the door.

Still holding me up
,
he turned and walke
d us to the bed throwing us down. Like two frenzied
teenagers,
we climbed up the bed on top of each other.
He held himself over me, braced up on his strong thick arms, looking deep into my eyes. I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him in.

"
Fuck, Grace. You feel so good,
"
he whimpered
thrusting into me
.
That's right
, I made that man
whimper
.

I cried out his name, body trembling.
Shudders rocked through him, muscles tense, twisting and dancing over me, through me, deep inside me.

He ravished my body with abandon and I clawed my fingers down his back and screamed his name. Just like he promised I would.

I never knew it could be like this. I never knew. All night he loved me. All night he filled me will pleasure I never knew
existed
.
All night
.

"
OhmyGod
, Shane. I can't effing move; I think you broke me," I yelped.

Laughing that deep raspy sound I love so much, he wrapped me in his arms and covered us with my comforter.
I snuggled my behind into him and our bodies fit perfectly together, like we were each other's missing pieces. His lips pressed against my shoulder and skimmed over the back of my neck.
Resting his head against
me,
I could feel the s
mile that he had on his face. Gently stroking
my hair back
he whispered in my ear, "You're mine forever now."

I flipped over to face him. And yeah, the smile on his face was the biggest I'd ever seen, and my heart leapt thinking I had put it there.
"How in the world are you here with me? You left, I watched you leave," I blurted.

His eyes darkened but his smile remained,
"What's the point on living in the past? This is w
here I am right now. Right here i
n front of you
." He nipped tiny butterfly kisses across my face.

I started to freak out. Panic. Attack. "Why won't you tell me? What did
you do? What happened?" I lifted my head and leaned on my elbow. "Please tell me, Shane. Please. You had Michael do something, he asked you to make your decision. What did you do?" My heart pounded hard and I seriously started feeling sick.

"I gave it all up," he whispered. "I'm completely human. Mortal. Both of us are."

"What? Why?"

"
You were the best part of me, and when they took you away...
"
He glanced i
nto my eyes and his eyes welled
as if tears
were threatening. "Truth is, a soul of an angel is
only ever
capable of one pure true love, and you are mine. It didn't make a difference that you were human.
The kiss, the first time my lips were on yours...the hell...I wouldn't take one moment of it back
..."

I sucked in my breath hard.

"When I saw you, and you looked so much like you did as Selah, I couldn't
think
of anything but being with you again. Don't push me away
no
w,
Grace. I can't live without you. I want to spend every moment for the rest of my life showing you how much I have loved you.
I learned long ago to savor every moment, not to waste a second of it. I once found the other half of my soul and I've spent the last 2000 years in hell, or here just wasting my time until I could be with her again. Did you think that I wouldn't give up everything I could, anything I could to be with you again?"

Tears poured down my cheeks
.

"Don't cry, babe.
Every damn tear
I have seen
that fell from those silver eyes broke my heart
.
This, right here with you is the close
st that I'll ever come to heaven.
That's all right by
me, because you are my
heave
n,
Grace
."

I wiped at my tears, "I was going to leave tonight...Gabriel."

"
Shh
...Grace.
Gabriel works on fear and lies."

"He's shown me so many things," I whispered. "I trusted him for so long."

Shane's body tensed, muscles twisting to stone under his skin. He jaw locked tight and spoke through clench teeth
, "
He shows you things? You mean he...h
e touches you?"

Oh hell
. "Yes."

"He put his fucking lips on you?"

Oh no
. "Yes."

"I'm going to fucking kill him."

I let out a long deep breath. "Good. May I help?"

Electronic beeps and sirens reverberated through the room, piercing the silence of the morning.
Ugh...what is that noise?
My body was comfortably wrapped in a heap of
blankets
,
burrito style
. I had never felt more relaxed, alive and completely sated before in my entire existence. I groaned loudly as I reached out across the empty bed
to find the source of the harsh sounds,
my cell phone
. Without
looking,
I switched it off.

Why was I alone in bed?
Holy CRAP! HE LEFT?

I
ripped my eyes open; the room was empty. Looking down at the phone in my
hands,
I flipped it on to see why it alerted me.
A text message.

Shane: 10:18 am Breakfast?

That's when the smell of cinnamon and coffee reached my nose.
Good morning butterflies in my belly, ready for breakfast with Shane?

I messaged him back.
Grace: 10:18 am
Can
u b anymore perfect?

Throwing on a
Mad World
tee shirt
and a pair of old jeans
,
I opened the door to my bedroom. Taped to the front of my door was a sign written in bold black letters:
Devirgination
in Progress Do NOT Fucking disturb
!
Oh Lea
. I laughed loudly all the way to the bathroom, laughed through freshening up and
laughed
walking into the kitchen.

Then all the air wrenched out of my lungs and my world, my heart, everything just stopped.

Gabriel was standing in front of the stove, spatula in hand, making me French toast.

Panic.
I hyper
-
fucking
-
ventilat
ed
immediately.

Was last night a dream? No. No, no, no, no.
Too real.

Was last night Gabriel? NO! NO! NO! NO!
No, Gabriel would have never known the answer to my question.
Right?

I opened the nearest draw and grabbed the first thing that looked like I could use it as a weapon.
A fucking back scratcher?
Really?
I
sputtered out a hysterical
frantic
laugh and Gabriel
turned to face
me.

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHANE?" I l
unge
d
at him shoving my hands har
d against his solid chest.
The
back scratcher instantly cracked in half and fell
to the floor
.
"What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Gabriel's dead eyes glance
d
slowly to the baseme
nt door where our laundry room wa
s and a small sick smile played
on his face.

Charging past
hi
m,
I almost reached the door.
But
, before I could get to the first step
,
Gabriel's arms grabbed me like
steel
vice grip. Screaming, I fought him like a wild animal. All I could think about was Shane down in the basement hurt, all I could feel was a building sickness in my stomach that everything was about to end.

I punched and clawed at his face. I kicked and struggled against him.
He
counterattacked everything I gave him right back to me, breaking my spirit.

Then, laughing, Gabriel opened the basement door wider and threw me down the stairs. My body slammed violently against the stairway wall and immediately I felt a warm wetness seep down my scalp where my head made contact with cement. My knees buckled automatically and my body tumbled down the hard edges of the stairs as I grasped wildly for the banister
. I managed to grip it halfway down, but by that time it was too late, my body felt broken. Blood ran down my face and hands and every muscle
under my skin
ached and burned like I was on fire. My arms gave up their hold on the railing and
I
slumped along the wall and slid down the rest of the stairs.

On the cold gritty concrete floor, amongst the tiny pebbles and moisture of the earth below, I lost consciousness. Somewhere deep in the dark recesses of my
mind I heard low murmuring voices that frantically increased in volume and frenzy. They muddled together, so that there was no coherence to them, but the emotion radiating from them was clear; fear.

When I could feel the pain of my body again and the voices dimmed, the only sounds that touched m
y ears was raspy, shallow breathing
.
My head hammered with pain.
I smelled vomit and felt it
s disgusting stickiness along my chin, down my chest and against my face. I swallowed back more vomit and tasted blood.

Then I opened my eyes.

And I wished I never had. I wished I never came back to Manhattan after my brother died. Never went to the bar that
night
. And never met him.
Shane
.
Shan
e,
who was l
ying limp and broken in a pool of blood on the cement next to me.
His dark hair glistened
with deep red streaks
and his once brilliant blue eyes stared at me in terror.

Adrenaline surge
d
through my body and I reached for him with shattered arms.

"NO! SHANE!" I flung my
self
at him and cradled his head. I gripped at his chest, his arms
;
his neck trying to find a pulse, anything. I could feel myself screaming. I felt the gush of wind rise fiercely through my lungs, but I
heard nothing.
Nothing
,
but Gabriel'
s laugh
behind me.