CHAPTER EIGHT

Viper tightened his grip on her hair. The feel of her body flush against his, her hands grabbing at his shoulders, her tongue tangling with his own … It was everything he needed.

The moment he'd brought his mouth down on hers, there'd been a soul-deep click inside him. A feeling of absolute rightness. Of finally reconnecting with what he'd lost.

He herded her backwards and pinned her against the wall, growling when her body arched into his. A possessive greed stretched out inside him, making him kiss her harder.

Their teeth gnashed, and his incisor accidentally nicked her lip. The rich taste of her blood settled on his tongue, dragging a groan from him.

Roughly peeling up her dress, he kissed her brutally . Lapped up every bead of blood as the chemicals in his saliva kept it flowing.

He yanked aside her panties. Heard cloth tear. Did not give a shit.

Viper slid a finger between her folds. Slick. He drove two fingers inside her, grunting as her inner walls clutched them tight.

A whimper slipped from her, and the sound squeezed his balls. Fuck. He pumped his fingers, wanting her wetter, needier. All the while, he explored every crevice of her mouth; made her moan, arch into him, dig in her nails, chase his lips for more.

She scratched at his nape as she tore her lips free. "Viper—"

"If we were alone right now, I would strip you bare. Make your body my personal playground. Do whatever the fuck I want to you."

Those rough, need-edged words whispered their way up Ella's spine like teasing fingertips. He abruptly withdrew his fingers, and then he was unzipping his fly.

Exquisite excitement humming through her system, she didn't question if this was a good idea. She shoved down her underwear with trembling hands, watching as—holy shit, he was thick—he rolled on a condom.

No sooner had she stepped one foot out of her panties than he caught the underside of her thighs and hiked her up. He caged her against the wall, and she gasped at the insistent press of his hard shaft against her clit.

Ella dove one hand into his hair and clutched at his nape with the other. "In me."

"This is gonna be rough."

"Good."

Viper jammed every inch of his cock deep, groaning at the slick, scorching hot clasp of her pussy. He let his dick settle there, wishing he could lock it inside her.

She looped her legs around him. "Move, move, move."

He jacked his hips upward over and over. He didn't hold back. Couldn't.

Years he'd waited for this. For her. Fucking years.

He could live out his entire existence right there. Her taste in his mouth, her scent in his lungs, her skin under his hands, his cock in her body … It was home. She was home.

His hunger for her was bottomless. Wild. Primitive. And it all poured out of him, speeding up his already frenzied pace.

"Harder," Ella demanded, knowing she'd come soon. He gave her what she asked for, burying his face in her throat. The rasp of his stubble on her neck made her gasp. She dug her fingers into the solid muscles of his shoulders, feeling the contained power there.

Honey-slick flames began to spread through her veins—slow, roasting, maddening. Her release was almost on her, and she knew it.

A strange tension gathered in his shoulders as he scraped his teeth over her pulse. His warm breath washed over her ear. "Come for me, Ella." He angled his hips, sawing his long shaft over her clit.

Like that, the flames inside her turned into a full-on roaring fire as the tightness in her belly snapped. An avalanche of pleasure tumbled through her, sweeping her away.

He growled against her skin as he pounded into her even harder, his pace all but feral. Then he came, every blast of his release hot and harsh as he thrusted, grinded, and groaned.

They both stayed there for long moments, neither moving; both struggling to catch their breath.

Once his orgasm had finally subsided, Viper lifted his head to find himself staring into fuck-drunk eyes. Damn, that look tightened his gut.

His entity pushed against his skin, wanting to surface—feed from her, talk to her, touch her, play with her.

Not this time, Viper told it. You'll scare her off.

It growled its annoyance but subsided, knowing he was right. They needed to ease her into certain things or they'd risk losing her—neither of them were prepared to allow that.

Viper dipped his gaze to her lip. The spot where he'd nicked it was already healing just fine. An accelerated healing rate generally came with the demon package.

She nervously chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Uh, thanks?"

Humor plucked at one corner of his mouth. "No thanks necessary." Easing his cock out of her pussy, he lowered Ella to her feet and released her—all of which proved to be seriously fucking hard when all he wanted to do was keep her close. "I'll want more of that. Of you."

Pulling her panties back on, she cast him a look he couldn't quite read. "This was just a one-off."

Yeah, he'd figured that was all she'd intended. He peeled off the condom and tied it. "Oh, so you mean to use and discard me? I'm hurt."

"You're ridiculous," she said with an eye roll, righting her dress.

"Seriously," he said, zipping up his fly as he pinned her with a sober look. "I want more of you."

"I hate to point out the obvious, but you're an angel; I'm a demon. Common sense says it's better for us to stay on our own sides of the fence."

He shrugged. "I don't see why there has to be a fence. Forget about what others would say you should do, Ella. Let yourself have what you want."

She nervously swiped her tongue over her bottom lip. "I have to go. My sister's probably looking for me."

It was a good sign that she'd prefer to escape the conversation than tell him outright that there'd be no repeat. It meant she was at least a little conflicted. They'd done this dance before in her previous life, and he'd managed to sway her back then. He'd do it again.

Viper caught her chin between his thumb and finger. "Come back to me sometime soon. You don't, I'll come for you. One way or another, Ella, I'll have you again." He let his hand fall away and stepped back.

She gave him an uncertain look and then walked away, her knees looking a little rubbery. He watched as she disappeared into the crowd and, fuck, it was hard not to follow her. But he knew from prior experience that moving too fast would make her dig in her heels.

Straightening his jacket, he exited the alcove to find Omen and Jester waiting nearby.

Jester flicked a look in the direction that Ella had walked off. "All good?"

Viper adjusted the collar of his jacket. "You could say that." He shrugged his way through the crowds as he made his way back to his office, conscious of his brothers trailing after him.

Inside, Omen closed the door behind them. "You fucked her, didn't you?" he guessed, his tone non-accusatory.

"Of course I did." Viper walked to stand behind his desk. "There wasn't a chance she was going to leave this club without me putting my cock in her." He didn't have the kind of restraint needed to hold back.

This was his woman. One he'd claimed long ago. One who'd marked him just as deeply. Plus … "She hadn't admitted it to herself, but she came here looking to hook up. I wasn't going to let anyone else oblige her."

Omen stalked further into the room. "Made any plans for it to happen again?"

"No." Viper sank onto his chair. "But I made it clear that it would."

"And what did she think about that?" asked Jester.

"She's hesitant."

"That won't last," Omen upheld. "You two have major … what do humans call it? Zing."

Jester folded his arms. "What now? Because it looks to me like your plan to take things slow just shot out of the window. We both know you ain't gonna hang back until the strix are gone. Not now that you've touched her."

Viper rubbed at his temple. "You're right, I can't hang back anymore." Nor did he want to. He was fucking tired of battling the incessant daily urge to see her, talk to her, touch her. It was agonizing to be so very near to what he most wanted; to what he'd spent years attempting to find.

His entity grinned, stretching; both relaxed and eager to start officially hunting their woman.

"Not only because it would be impossible," Viper added, "but because she'd either mistake if for a withdrawal of interest, or think I was playing games."

"And then she might find herself a different bed-buddy," said Omen. "Let's face it, you wouldn't let him live."

"Did you feed from her?" asked Jester.

"No," replied Viper. Droplets of her blood didn't count. "I won't drink from her without her consent."

Omen's brow furrowed. "You do it to others."

"But she's not some random human. She's mine. That makes it different." Viper let his head fall back to hit his chair's headrest. "I don't look forward to explaining I can't survive without feeding on the life-force of others."

Jester frowned. "She was prepared to accept it when you knew her as Everleigh and warned her about the curse."

"Back then, it wasn't the same. She accepted that I was an archangel, yes, and she showed no fear of what would happen to me if I fell—only compassion. But now I have fallen, and we're not dealing with things that would happen; we're dealing with shit that's already occurred.

"Asking her to accept my new reality is a hell of a lot different from my sharing what could become of me. Plus, I hadn't gotten round to telling her what happens to members of the Seven who fall. I don't know how she would have reacted to that."

"She'll accept you," Omen maintained. "She loved you in her previous lifetime. I don't see why it would be different in this one. And with love comes acceptance."

Viper sure as fuck hoped so. If she didn't accept him, he deeply suspected that his entity would take the situation into its own hands and tie her to them anyway. There wasn't anything it wouldn't do to ensure it got to keep her this time. Much as it made Viper a huge fucking bastard, he couldn't even judge the entity for that.

"When are you planning on telling her that this ain't the first lifetime you've known her in?" asked Omen.

"When I'm sure she cares for me. She'll more easily digest it that way." Viper sat up straighter in his chair. "Besides, if she hears it from a relative stranger, she might struggle to believe it. Once she knows me, once she knows I'd never mess with her that way, she'll be more open to the idea."

Considering that, Omen gave a slow nod.

"Much as I'm done keeping my distance from Ella, I'll still have to be careful not to be seen with her in public until the strix are dead and we can be certain there are no celestial spies keeping watch."

"I haven't found signs of any spies," said Jester.

His other brothers had given Viper that same assurance, but … "The Uppers told Ophaniel about the local human disappearances. They could only have known about it if someone reported it to them."

"Maybe they're no longer watching us. Whatever the case, we won't let our guard down. And if any spies do turn up and somehow notice you're spending time with Ella, they won't live long enough to share any suspicions they might have with the Uppers."

No, no, they wouldn't.

"Just so you're aware, your private time with Ella was almost interrupted."

Viper felt his brow furrow. "By who?"

"The blonde. Neta. She tried marching into the alcove, but Omen blocked her path. I convinced her to leave."

Viper felt his mouth tighten. The woman in question was a member of Maddox Quentin's lair. A descendant just like her Prime, Neta was a regular at the club … and at the dive bar … and even turned up at the pool hall on occasion.

A few of his brothers had fucked her, but the others had turned her down. Why? They'd come to learn that her goal was to bed every one of them—and then eventually be claimed by Viper.

Even if there'd been no Ella, he wouldn't have been interested. "That she'd dare charge into the alcove was fucking ballsy. What could she possibly have thought would come from it?" All he would have done was send her away.

Omen shrugged. "Maybe she wanted to break the moment. Or scare Ella away. Or just plain piss you off. I don't really know what's going on with Neta. I don't quite get why, when her plan was to seduce you last, she suddenly switched shit around."

"She might have seen how you look at Ella, V," Jester mused. "Maybe when at the pool hall or dive bar."

It was possible. "I don't much care so long as she stays away from my woman. It's not gonna be easy to coax Ella into pushing past all her reservations about demons getting involved with angels. The last thing I need is someone making it harder."

"Yeah, you don't want Ella realizing until it's too late that you're more trouble than you're worth," said Omen.

Viper shot him a hard look. "Thanks," he said, his voice dry. "Do you know if Neta's still here?"

"She stormed out of the club after we blocked her path to the alcove and told her to leave," replied Omen. "What are you gonna do if she reappears and again makes a move on you?"

Viper rubbed at his jaw. "I'll talk to her one last time. I'll get it firmly across that she's chasing after something she's never gonna have."

He would rather not piss off Maddox by threatening his lair members, since it would be a fast way to lose an alliance. Making an enemy of demons wouldn't endear him to Ella. But … "If she persists after that, I'll contact Maddox and communicate that either he deals with her or I will." Because Viper also couldn't allow any woman to make attempts to chase off Ella. No one would get in the way of him making her his this time. Absolutely fucking no one.