Fallen Angel

Fallen Angel by Elizabeth Thornton

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Authors: Elizabeth Thornton
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stumbling after him.
    "Malcolm!" The wind tore the cry from her throat. She clutched her cloak more closely to her and ran after him. "Malcolm!" she called again, this time more desperately.
    Deveryn heard the muffled sound and turned on his heel. The lantern over the wrought iron gate which gave onto the church yard was behind him, but its light did wonderful things to the face of the young woman who stood trying to catch her breath only an arm's length away.
    It was only a trick of the light, only a trick of the light, his brain told him dispassionately, that gave her such an otherworldly appearance; only a trick of the light that turned her dark eyes to pools of mystery with the look of desperation he had sometimes seen in a deer just before the hunters closed in- for the kill. Her cheeks were wet with tears, or snow, he could not say which, and her lips, so soft and vulnerable, trembled with the effort to regulate her breathing. It was only a trick of the light, his brain told him, but his heart constricted uncomfortably in his chest.
    She straightened and made a pathetic attempt at a smile, then she walked straight into his arms as if she belonged there.
    "Malcolm, oh Malcolm, I have needed you so," she said softly into his throat, and Deveryn thought that Malcolm, whoever he was, must be the luckiest man in Christendom.
    Her head lay against his chest, the snood of her cloak just brushing his chin. Her arms went round his waist. For a moment, he did not know what to do with his hands. He rested them lightly on her shoulders. To hold her thus seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
    With something close to reverence he moved his hands, sliding them slowly from her shoulders, testing every small bone in her straight spine, leisurely stroking the hollows of her waist, moulding the soft flare of her hips.
    She tipped her head back and the snood of her warm, woollen cloak fell to her shoulders, uncovering her hair. In the dim light of the lantern, it had the rich tones of copper; in the light of day, he thought, it would brighten to warm sherry. He itched to bury his fingers in the fiery depths of those silken tresses.
    "Kiss me, Malcolm, and make everything better. Just like when we were children."
    He wondered how Malcolm would kiss her, but it never occurred to him to enlighten her about his identity. He brought his lips to within an inch of hers and he could feel her breath, sweet and warm, mingling with his own. He held back, forcing her to take the initiative.
    Her lips were cool and dry, and quite without passion, their touch as light as the snowflakes which melted against the heat of his skin. From a woman who was no relation to him, it was the most chaste kiss Deveryn had ever received in his life. At the first touch of her lips, his senses came fully alive. As that cool, dispassionate kiss lingered, he felt the heat of it, scorching, racing like liquid fire from his lips to his loins.
    In the space of a single heartbeat, Deveryn lost his bearings. He was no longer aware that he was in the middle of the high street of some obscure hamlet with a turbulent breeze whipping at his coat and" forcing wet snow down his collar. Cynthia was forgotten, as was his purpose in being abroad on such a wild night, and if such things had occurred to him, he would have consigned them all to perdition. In that moment, the only reality he was conscious of, wanted to be conscious of, was the Tightness of the small warm body which was pressed so closely to his own. It was as if every fibre of his being, every solitude in his soul, instantly recognized the woman and responded to her in welcome. The cynical turn of his mind, which was almost second nature to him, might never have existed, so little impact did it make on the wave of wonder that swept through him.
    "Open your mouth," he whispered, and she obeyed him without question.
    The tip of his tongue, slow and persuasive, traced the outline of those inviting lips, then he

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