ForsakingEternity by Voirey Linger Read Free Book Online Page B

idea their breakfast menu
was so good. I usually just get a coffee to go in the mornings,” Adam said,
taking another bite.
    “I bought coffee as well.” An eagerness he couldn’t hide or
will away colored his words. Guilt reminded him of the Laws he couldn’t escape.
He was a seraph. He shouldn’t be so anxious to please. Adam was human and a
male. Double the sin, double the damnation.
    And yet, Renatus was helpless to resist his lure. Worse
still, he had no desire to resist.
    He wanted Adam.
    If I am to succumb to this temptation, I must do it
before the Law is revealed. One time, and never again, or I’ll be banished to
Hell.
    “You wanted to go shopping today?”
    “Shopping? More like treasure hunting,” Adam said, wiping
the sugar from his face with a napkin. “Man, this stuff goes everywhere,
doesn’t it?”
    “So it appears.” Ren couldn’t contain his laugh. “You’ve
missed some.”
    “Where?” Adam brushed at his cheeks and chin.
    “No, it is higher.” Ren pointed uselessly while Adam dabbed
around his mouth, completely missing the lingering powder. “No, not there.”
    The twinkle in Adam’s eyes gave him away. He was flirting.
    Ren stopped in wonder. There wasn’t a seraph or cherub in
all the Heavens who would think to play with him. Not even his best friend. Ren
was known for being stoic and serious, dedicated to legal and scholarly
matters. He simply wasn’t the type one would think to tease in such a manner.
    And yet this human was doing just that. Flirting.
    “Why don’t you help me?” Adam held out the napkin.
    For a long moment, Ren just stared at it. An offer,
disguised as a simple paper napkin. He might be a bit obtuse when it came to
human interaction, but he couldn’t mistake Adam’s invitation.
    The napkin bobbed, dipped, and Adam started to withdraw.
    Ren reached out to take it.
    The playful light in Adam’s eyes shifted into something
hotter, more intense. He put his elbows on the table and leaned close to Ren,
waiting. His face dared Ren to go ahead, his eyes begged him not to run away.
    No. There would be no running today. Last night Ren had been
overwhelmed. Nothing in his existence had prepared him for the feel of male
against male, hardness met by hardness. He’d fled. The shock of reality had
barely registered through the pleasure and he’d removed himself to the
sanctuary of the Heavens.
    He’d returned to Adam almost as quickly, shamed by the way
he’d abandoned his almost-lover. The manner in which Adam had simply accepted
his fears with no anger or frustration, simply a desire to be near, had humbled
Ren.
    Ren brought the napkin up to Adam’s face. With a tenderness
he hadn’t used in thousands of years, he brushed the confectioner’s sugar from
Adam’s cheek. He stroked again, this time over Adam’s chin, ridding it of the
last vestiges of sugar before moving to the other cheek. There was no sugar
here, only warm skin, roughened by a night’s growth of whiskers. The napkin
rasped against them as he traced the contours of Adam’s face.
    A quiet sigh escaped Adam. His eyes drifted closed and his
body relaxed, jaw dropping open.
    Ren paused and his breath caught, caged tight in his chest.
Had he done that? Had he turned this man into the very picture of sensual
abandonment? If Adam were to brush his face, would he look the same?
    He pushed the thought away and flicked the napkin over the
dusting of white which tipped Adam’s nose.
    “Hey!” Adam protested, pulling back with a tight laugh. He
took the napkin back from Ren and finished brushing his nose clean.
    The moment was broken and Ren could breathe once more.
    * * * * *
    Ren’s shoulders knotted with tension as he stepped into the
store. Stopping just inside the doorway, he looked around, confused. There was
no tingle of awareness signaling that something of divine nature might be
within these walls. Had something divine been in this building, its power would
have called to his and he would