Shattering Halos (20 page)

My vocal cords didn’t respond to his regret, my limbs couldn’t reciprocate his touch. All I could do was exhale—and strain to inhale.

Before I fell into a dreamless haze, he covered my heart. I knew his palm read the leaden beats one at a time when he whispered, “Why didn’t I think?”

****

Monday night, I woke up with him still curled around me. His nose nestled at the nape of my neck. My limbs creaked with sleep as I stretched in delicious afterglow.

“Sweet, sweet baby of mine, sun of my existence.” His voice was so worried it made me giggle.

Gabriel heaved himself up on an elbow and scrutinized me from over my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

I turned and shoved his stunning, naked self onto his back.

“Nope, I’m freaking aching all over, and it’s your fault, angel boy.”

Man, that precious wide-eyed gleam…

Exaggerating my pain, I climbed on top of him and let him pull me down. Gabriel squeezed me so tight I thought he’d never release me. The embrace caused my body to stir in remembrance.

“I’m so sorry.”

“What? That was the single most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced in my entire life! You are—”

“—an angel. I told you how this would be.”

“I know…just, I had no idea. Again? Please?”

Reassured by my spirited wiggling, he smiled against my mouth and stilled my moves with a determined grip around my waist.

“No. You, missy, are in desperate need of recovery. Your body can’t take anymore. Look at you. You’re just now coming to.”

My eyes widened at his next words. “That was an eighteen-hour nap, and you’ve lost a whole day of classes. Not to mention the dinner date we have.”

“No freaking way? Eighteen hours?” Time passed quickly for me at Shimmer’s Edge, it seemed.

The warm waterfall provided us with a much-needed shower. I hadn’t brought fresh clothes, so I wore my old ones. With the exception of what a certain badass angel had shredded.

Chapter 20 — Run-In

Gaia

Marina leaped down the steps from Johnny O’s and blocked us from entering.

“Hey, Gabriel,” she nodded—“Gimme a second with Gaia, will you?”

My boyfriend gave a thumbs-up and strolled around the car. His sudden bodyguard-off-duty pose made me snicker. Folding his arms over his chest, he slumped against the metal, face tipped to the sky.

Marina lowered her voice. “So I guess I don’t have to wonder anymore.”

“About what?”

“Whether or not you can still surprise the hell out of me now that I’ve come to terms with you dating Mr. Feathers.” She jerked her head in Gabriel’s direction.

“Okay—” I began, but a loud clap of her hands cut me off midsentence. “Geez, Marina, you’re making me nervous here.”

“No, listen, I’m serious: Gabriel’s car’s ridiculously fancy, and you freaking skid-parked just now. If that’s hiding in plain sight, why doesn’t he whip out some angel wings for added camouflage?”

“Well, I—”

Apparently, the question was rhetorical, because Marina barged on. “Anyways, dude bounced from the car looking way too gracious.” She cocked an eyebrow for me to agree but continued without waiting, “Then, he lifted you out with no effort and kissed you smack on the mouth.”

“Oh, please.” I might have pulled off ‘affronted’ if I hadn’t left my senses behind at Shimmer’s Edge.

“My cousin’s here already, Gaia. Don’t rub it in.”

Shoot. Lucio.

My elation dimmed some, and I glanced toward Johnny O’s. “Yeah…we weren’t thinking.”

“No duh!” Marina’s glare softened. “Lucio’s a strange one. He’s quiet and all, but he picks up on more than you think. Not that you need to be a genius to pick up on
this.”

“Ah, damn. Did you talk with him?”

“Yeah, and as I’d expected, breaking the news about you two was easy. Lucio wasn’t surprised at all that you’d been crushing on someone else for a year. Guess what he did?”

“No idea.”

Marina chuckled. “He literally just nodded at my revelation! Can you imagine?”

“Sort of; Lucio is—”

She wasn’t listening today. “My cousin asked, ‘So last December, her being sick and all?’ And I told him the truth—that it had to do with Gabriel.’”

Aw, crap.

She stifled some random trace of amusement and continued. “Then, I said, ‘Gabriel’s different. You’re better off not worrying about it when you meet him.’”

I scrunched my eyes shut. “Okay, enough already, Marina.”

Unfazed, she hurtled more info at me. “Lucio turned away, I betcha to hide how much it bothered him, but he still went, ‘I hope he can make her happy. Christ, it’d be good to see her carefree for once.’” Marina widened her eyes for effect, “Craziness?”

“Did you
memorize
all this?” I blurted. Her stare cut to me, scrutinizing my reaction, and I did my best to smooth it over. “He’s a good guy,” I said.

Yeah, it hurt to remember how nice Lucio was.

She studied me for a second. Then, she shrugged. “Correctemundo. That’s my cousin for you. Some lucky girl will find a wonderful boyfriend in him. Just not you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Marina sighed. “Yeah, it’s okay. You can’t choose your feelings.” She squeezed my shoulder, and I marveled at the sudden compassion.

By now, every guy at Johnny O’s had flocked to the windows for a glimpse of the GT2.

“How do you deal with the pizzazz, though? I love you, Gaia, but geez. At least make your boyfriend swap to a more inconspicuous vehicle, like a Toyota Corolla, for instance.”

What’s the obsession with his car?

“Look at all the people, Gaia!”

I didn’t. Instead my gaze drifted to Gabriel. He had regained some of his glow. Now he was back to being absurdly beautiful
and
shimmering. Marina followed my stare, shaking her head a little.

“I’d straighten him out so quick he wouldn’t know what hit him if he were
my
man. I’m talking long-sleeved hoodies, hats, and sunglasses, Gaia—dude’s freaking shiny again!”

I couldn’t help laughing.

The word traveled fast in the bar. By the time we walked in the door, the entire female population was devouring Gabriel. Chest, arms, butt, face, hair—you name it and they were ogling it. The attention he received rivaled that of Cassiel at the dining hall.

A flash of confused recognition passed over Lucio’s features as he watched Gabriel cross the floor with us. Polite as always, he shook hands with him before we sat down. The far less observant and atheist twins saved us from uncomfortable silence by firing off questions about the Porsche. Funny how Marina had nothing to say, all of a sudden. She must be running low on opinions.

Thanks to my boyfriend’s convertible, the conversation kept a steady flow among the boys. Tucked in under Gabriel’s arm, I was content with listening in from my perch on the barstool. Every so often, he leaned down to press a kiss at the top of my head. Marina watched us keenly.

Suddenly, her eyes widened. Her stare flowed over my body, and I knew she’d finally caught on to my big mistake; I hadn’t changed clothes. Gravity took hold of her jaw, all but anchoring it to her chest, and I pinched her arm before she could launch into some mortifying outburst.

Marina snapped her fingers. “Bathroom. Now.” Then, she yanked me off the stool and dragged me with her.

“You totally had sex!” She accused, slamming the bathroom door closed after us.

“What…how did you know?”

“Are you kidding? Both of you look like canary-eating cats. Oh, and the way you blush? Flipping ridiculous. Here I’d thought the ragtop ride with the top down was to blame. Oops, stand still. You’ve got feathers sticking out of your mouth. Which makes sense, I guess.”

I giggled.

“Okay—what happened? How? Not to mention where, Gaia? If you’d stayed at the dorm, you would’ve changed clothes! Oh, I’m on to you.”

“I—well…” I was still laughing.

“So. Is he any good?”

I took a deep breath. “Oh-My-God, Marina, I can’t even begin to explain to you. Absolute madness. You have no idea.”

Marina was the chatterbox in our relationship. I usually held my cards close, but now I flooded her with details. What I unleashed on her must be more than she’d bargained for, because her eyes arched in shock.

“All right, I’m dying to stock your purse with panties right now,” she quipped. “Guess what, chicky? Thanks to your serious TMI, I’ll never again be able to meet Gabriel’s eyes without blushing. Like ever. Again.”

Despite “the exercise,” I hadn’t eaten in over twenty-four hours. I shouldn’t have told Marina, though. She instantly threw her arms in the air.

“You guys are out of control, Gaia! Hey, I’m no rocket scientist, but everybody knows you can’t live off, um,
that
alone.”

We headed back up the stairs, and the steaming burgers on our table made my mouth water.

Before we reached the guys, the saga of my crazy life took a new turn. An apparition of a man strode toward us with a purpose, cutting us off. I recognized him in three seconds flat.

The difference between Cassiel and Gabriel was his longish black hair, olive skin and yellow cat glare. He shimmered the way Gabriel used to, and Marina’s breath caught when his edible lips slid apart. She had a hard time peeling her gaze off of him, but he didn’t spare a single glance for anyone besides me. Great.

“Damn, Gaia—you’re a freaking dude magnet lately!” she hissed.

Cassiel narrowed the distance. Lifting a hand to touch my shoulder, he murmured my name. In the blink of an eye, Gabriel flew off his chair and blocked Cassiel’s access. He leaned on the balls of his feet, ready to pounce.

“Hey, Cassiel,” I said casually, peering out behind Gabriel’s back. I curved my palm around his hip, and Gabriel’s arms crossed over his chest. From the side, I still had a perfect view of his face closing in a scowl.

“What do you want, Cassiel? Haven’t you caused enough trouble?” Gabriel growled.

“Aha, the clumsy angel who let you slip off a terrace the other night. And judging by the attitude, a certain someone hasn’t forgiven him yet,” Marina mused in my ear.

The noise around us dimmed to an absolute zero.

Cassiel relaxed, at ease with Gabriel’s menacing tone. “Hey man, what’s up? Just checking in on our girl here, how she’s doing, you know, after everything.”

“Wow,” Marina murmured. “Me thinks you’ve got more stuff to explain, girl.”

Gabriel paid no attention to my friend’s running commentary. “The hell you are, Cassiel. You’re leaving right now—unless you rather I splatter you over the dance floor. And for the record, she’s not
our
girl. She’s mine.”

“Oh yeah, I heard the happy news, as did everybody else. The move of the century right there—no wait, millennium.” Cassiel’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

Some chick behind us gasped before taking a noisy sip through a straw. Where was the popcorn, right?

“Look who’s talking,” Gabriel mocked.

“Really? You’re comparing us?” Cassiel scoffed. “We wouldn’t have been in this muddle if she’d hung with
me
now, would we? What you did was not dating. That was straight to base—oh, I don’t know—fifty million? Jesus!”

F. My. Life. Now the entire bar’s up to date on my sex life.

“Zip it, Cassiel. I’m never leaving her alone with you again.”

Cassiel’s cold laughter cast him as the villain of the scene. I could see Marina pegging him a demon in a heartbeat. Then again, maybe she remembered being wrong before?

Cassiel faked a contrite sigh. “Okay, so not to rip open old wounds, but there’s a reason why you destroyed my apartment instead of swooping off with her the other day.”

Gabriel snarled and leaped at him so fast he blurred. By the time I reacted, he had Cassiel dangling inches above the floor in a death grip.

“Please, it wasn’t his fault.” I wrapped my arms around Gabriel from behind and tried to pull him off his brother.

The gleeful cackling coming from Cassiel sounded a tad choked. Gabriel wavered before releasing his grip, allowing me to wedge myself between them, and I faced my boyfriend, talking to him in a low, soothing tone.

“It’s okay. Hush. Let’s enjoy our food.” Hesitantly, his arms slinked around me, his forehead touching mine. He let me guide him back to the table, but he never broke eye contact with Cassiel.

Behind us, Cassiel chortled under his breath, “So touchy.”

I scanned the locale with a sudden sensation of having woken up in an alternate reality; beyond-drunk girls had been dropping like flies all night, and straw chick had moved on to crunching ice. Cassiel stopped at the door.

“Hey, Gabriel,” he said.

Gabriel spun, the controlled anger on his face making me bite back an anxious laugh.

“We need to talk. Not sure why I keep trying to help, but this is for your own good. I’ll be in the car when you’re ready.”

Realization hit me.

Duh, these girls aren’t drunk.

“Cassiel?” My voice was paper-thin, but he instantly fixed me with a luminous stare.

“Aren’t you going to do something about…?” I swept the room with the palm of my hand. He got the message. Cassiel shrugged while he observed a “buzzed” girl thump to the floor.

“Meh, I’m good.”

More chicks went down as he sauntered out the door. His grand exit would have made Giorgio Armani chant eulogies to the gods. Cassiel strolled over to the GT2 where he laid down the driver’s seat. Then, he sprawled out like a jungle cat, stretching luxuriously and falling asleep.

At this time, the less intoxicated girls in the bar goggled the magnificent,
single
male lounging in plain view, shifting the attention away from our little group.

“Unbelievable,” Marina muffled out. “Do we get to eat
in peace
now?”

Neither of us mentioned the disagreement. Marina seemed to catch every glance Gabriel and I exchanged, but we kept our conversation light as if nothing had happened. Luckily, no one felt comfortable asking for details.

“Gaia, I’ve made a mental note to find a less public place to meet with Gabriel and you the next time,” Marina whispered.

“Yeah? Why’s that?” Not that I didn’t see it coming.