His awareness of her sharpened, his mind and body becoming a war zone. Bullets of desire flew in every direction. Blades of need sliced his calm to ribbons. Bombs of urgency exploded, shrapnel embedded in his every organ.
Want her again. Want her now. Not yanking her against him was the toughest thing he’d ever done. But now wasn’t the right time. Must resist. Will resist.
But he inched closer, saying, “You want me more than you’ve ever wanted anything. Admit it.”
She inched closer as well, as if trapped in the same war zone. “Maybe, maybe not. Definitely not as much as you want me.”
Another inch, his heart beginning to pound. “You feel like you’ll die without my kiss.” What are you doing? Stop! He needed emotional distance right now. Not this, whatever this was.
With her next inhalation, their chests brushed. Friction sparked heat. Heat produced fire, the flames burning through his control at an alarming speed.
Screw emotional distance.
Voice as wanton as their last kiss, she whispered, “You would do anything to be with me.”
“I wouldn’t.” I might. A fog of arousal enshrined William. If he didn’t get this woman naked and in bed immediately, he would—
“Am I interrupting something?” Axel asked.
Sunny reared back, startled, as William slowly craned his head to address the intruder. Had the Sent One been anyone else, he would have paid dearly for such an interruption. The fact that William had lost track of his surroundings only deepened his irritation.
He arched a brow. “The intrusion couldn’t wait?”
“And miss this killer glare?” Axel tsk-tsked. He wore a pure white robe, his golden wings shimmering in the light. “It’s like you don’t know me at all. Oh, wait...”
William pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, guilt seeping from an old heart wound. Clearly, Axel still harbored resentment. Forging a relationship with him wouldn’t be easy.
His brother focused on Sunny, inclining his head in greeting. “We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Axel, your newest fantasy.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Sunny, your new obsession. I’m this guy’s ex-girlfriend.” She hiked a thumb in William’s direction.
“We are together, and we’re exclusive,” William barked before the grinning Sent One had a chance to respond. My unicorn. Mine! Where was her paranoia with Axel? With Rathbone? “I’ll give you the relationship you want,” he told her, “and you’ll give me space until the book is decoded.”
“William. Babe,” she began, as if she had the patience of a saint. She didn’t. “You can’t just decide—”
“I can, and I did. And why not?” he interjected, spreading his arms. “You did it first.”
“Yes, and then I decided we were broken up.” She turned to Axel, telling him, “I’m single, and I’m on the prowl for an honorable male interested in roughly two weeks of constant sex.”
A cauldron of fury bubbled up, frothing inside William. My unicorn. My codebreaker. My woman. She would not be enjoying the company of another man, ever. I am a prince of Hell, and I do not share!
As the words echoed inside his head, he flinched. I think I’m man-pouting?
“We were broken up, yes,” he managed to say calmly but fiercely, “but we just got back together.”
Her features softened, his adamancy seeming to break through her resistance.
“I want to be back together,” he told her. He’d find another way to resist her appeal.
She looked down. Heartbeat. Heartbeat. Heartbeat. Then she gazed at him with such admiration, such adoration, he could only reel. Must see that expression every day for the rest of eternity.
Had other women looked at him like that? Yes. A time or twenty. But he’d always remained unaffected, because they hadn’t known him. He hadn’t let them. With Sunny, he wanted to puff out his chest caveman-style. She knew him better, and she liked him, anyway.
Axel leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms, settling in. He winked at Sunny and said, “If ever you decide to ditch Little Willy, feel free to try and save me from my lecherous ways.”
She winked right back.
Temper pricked again, William roared, “Enough!” Why could he not predict this woman’s reactions? Why did he like her unpredictability? It put him in a vulnerable position. “Axel, this is Sunny. Sunny, Axel. My brother... I think.” He slung an arm around his woman in a light, claim-staking hold, anchoring her against him. Then he arched a brow at Axel again. “What are we?”
Sunny reached up to sink her nails into his forearm, no doubt intending to push him away. She surprised him by melting against him, cradling his erection in the crack of her ass.
Need hammered at him, as if he’d never known a moment of satisfaction. Unbearable pressure...an unstoppable need for release only she could elicit.
Breathe. In, out. Good, good. He began to calm.
Oozing sympathy she’d never shown William, Sunny softly asked Axel, “Were your childhood memories buried like William’s?”
He paused, eager to learn the answer.
The winged warrior offered a clipped nod, his good humor obliterated.
“Poor baby. When we fix William’s head, we’ll fix yours, too.” She shrugged off William’s hold to pat Axel’s arm. “How about we take this conversation inside, neighbor? You can join me for a nice game of Clue. I’m trying to figure out who murdered Fun in the stable with a bad mood. Hint, I think his name starts with W and ends with I-L-L-I-A-M.”
Grinning once more, Axel allowed her to maneuver him around William and Dawn, entering the stable. Heading for the kitchen, they bent their heads together, whispering and laughing.
William bit his cheek, tasting blood. My woman and my brother should be whispering and laughing with me.
He hung back as Sunny and Axel sat across from each other at the table. Sunny, for all her faults—too stubborn, too emotional, too suspicious and too damn beautiful for her own good—had a core of honor. She wouldn’t start something with William, only to seduce his brother. Her flirting must have a different purpose.
Another way to torment me?
Damn it, why do I enjoy even that?
“Come on, girl,” he said to Dawn, kicking the door shut. “Let’s go speak with my brother before I murder him for hitting on my girlfriend.” He used the word more easily now.
Halfway to the table, he heard Sunny tell Axel, “I’d be interested in hearing what you do remember about your childhood.”
Again, William paused, his ears twitching as he awaited the answer.
“Perhaps I’ll tell you,” the Sent One responded, “once we’ve gotten to know each other better. Why don’t you tell me all about your childhood instead?”
“Oh. Talk about me? Uh...” She shifted in her seat, suddenly agitated.
Well, well. Her trust issues had just flared, and William wanted to grin. She trusts me, and me alone.
On the move again, he told Axel, “I retained a single memory from childhood,” taking over the conversation, saving Sunny from thinking up a better response. “The day a beautiful winged blonde got stabbed in front of us.”
Axel gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles whitening. “That’s my only memory, as well. We were babies. I mean, I know we were young boys, but we seemed so...innocent. I’ve always thought of us as newborns.”
The comparison made sense to him. They had seemed innocent. So new. So unsure and confused. “You don’t know who she is?” William asked.
“I have questioned my brethren repeatedly, but only Clerici remembered her.”
“Clerici?” Sunny asked, her brows furrowed.
“My leader, second to the Most High.” Axel’s tone evinced great respect. “He told me she isn’t my birth mother, that she was part of a violent faction known as Wrathlings.”
Wrathlings. William tensed. Long ago, a group of ten powerful immortals came together with a single goal: recruit an army of supernatural beings. They then used those beings to crossbreed predatory species, creating a supernatural army of creatures able to execute gods.
For years, William had hunted those ten, as well as their army of soldiers, all on Hades’s behalf. He was one of the gods they’d targeted. William had done his job, and done it well. He’d slaughtered them, one by one, wiping Wrathlings from existence.