Into Temptation (A More Than Men Novella) by Kira Sinclair Page B

pleasure of it, while she reveled in the fact that he trusted her enough to leave them out in the open. Although she supposed there weren’t many secrets left between them.
    His cheek was pillowed on his hand as his gaze roamed across her face. He’d said something to her and at the time she’d been distracted by other things, but the memory of his words now echoed through her head.
    “Why were you exiled?”
    His eyebrow quirked up in surprise. “From Heaven or Hell?”
    “Hell. I can guess how you got kicked out of Heaven.”
    His beautifully sculpted lips twitched, and his eyes sparkled.
    “A slick-tongued devil convinced me God had chosen his humans over his faithful guards and servants. That got me banished from Heaven.”
    Evie’s fingers brushed across the bloodred tips of his wings.
    “Do you regret it?”
    “Every day of my existence.”
    He shifted, rolling to his back and staring up at the ceiling, although Evie thought his vision was focused a little higher, to something she couldn’t see. Would never see.
    “I understand exactly what you’ve given up, Evie. Eternal damnation isn’t something I’d want for my worst enemy, let alone someone I care about.”
    “You care about me?”
    Slowly his head swiveled, and his gaze snagged on hers. “Yes.” It was one simple word, but it punched her straight to the gut.
    This powerful being cared about her. She’d fallen for him, but then that had been inevitable. She couldn’t imagine a single person who wouldn’t have taken one look at him and willingly tumbled.
    But the fact that he actually cared about her… That changed nothing. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest. It changed nothing.
    After tonight she would never see him again. The deal would be done, and he would leave. She’d live her life, watching Megan grow, and a small part of her would be forever miserable without him.
    Apparently her torture would start long before she entered Hell.
    But she refused to dwell on the inevitable or waste a single moment of the time they had left.
    “And Hell? How does a powerful being get kicked out of Hell?”
    “I challenged Lucifer.”
    “You tried to overthrow the overthrower?”
    “Not quite. I tried to convince him to let a soul go.”
    Of course he had. What else would prompt the Prince of Darkness to banish one of the fallen? Brone had rediscovered his conscience.
    He grimaced.
    “And do you regret that?”
    His eyes closed for a moment before opening again. They glittered, not with passion or humor or promise, but with resolve.
    “I should. I walked the Earth for over eight hundred years, unable to speak to a single soul, unable to drink or eat. Unable to touch.” As if to reassure himself that he no longer suffered, his fingers brushed down the side of her naked thigh. A shiver rocked Evie’s body, but the quake that overtook him was stronger.
    “Until that night at the club.”
    Evie was concentrating on his words and was blindsided when Brone’s impressive body uncoiled beside her. He struck with a speed that left her breathless as her back collided with the mattress.
    He stretched over her, the length of his naked body overwhelming all of her. She stared up at him, mute, disoriented and completely turned on. Her body hummed, and her brain spun, trying to catch up.
    “You could see me. You talked to me. You touched me. You set me free, and in return I consigned you to a life of torture.”
    Even as he confessed his deepest sin, his hips pulsed against her, tempting her to commit a few more. Neither of them could stop the inevitable, tonight or tomorrow.
    Evie opened her thighs wide, a silent invitation to take whatever he wanted. She was his, and they both knew it. If he asked her for anything, she would have given it to him.
    Almost anything. She couldn’t walk away from the contract.
    Without preamble he slipped deep inside her body. They rocked together, neither of them in a hurry for this moment to end. The hard muscles of