“I know.” Her nails dug into his palms. “You don’t have to say anything more.”
“I do,” he insisted. “I do and you know it.” He blew out a breath, ready to spill the rest, even if it cost him the female he loved. “I hated you. I hated you more than I hated Lilith.”
But even though he’d been out of his mind with rage, the thought of killing her hadn’t occurred to him. On some level, he’d still wanted her, even if he’d also wanted to hurt her the way she’d hurt him.
“So I told you I’d forgiven you, and I seduced you.” Crushing pain compressed his chest, the weight of a lifetime of shame.
Heavenly sunlight shone down into Verrine’s frilly, open-air bedroom, warming Yenrieth’s back as he panted through an orgasm he’d tried to hold back. Verrine had screamed or moaned through at least three, which had been the plan. His climax had not been in the plan, and his anger scorched his throat with every breath.
The instant it was over, he rolled off her, leaving her in a messy sprawl on her bed. He dressed while she watched him with drowsy eyes. When she sat up and discovered the blood on the sheets, she scrambled to hide it, and her embarrassment.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Ashamed?”
“No.” She wrapped a blanket around her naked body. “Of course not.”
Ice filled the hole she’d drilled in his heart with her lies. “You should be.”
She blinked, her emerald eyes shifting from drowsy to confused. “W-what?”
“Virginity isn’t something to be given over lightly.”
“You think I did this lightly?” She tugged the blanket more securely around her, as if the cold in his body was radiating outward. Maybe it was. “I’ve wanted you for decades. I saved myself for you.”
“You shouldn’t have.” He leaned in close, taking pleasure in how quickly she paled. “I despise you.” Snarling, he ripped the blanket away and left her exposed and vulnerable, the way she’d left him when she’d admitted to knowing about his children. “You took my sons and daughter away from me, so I took something from you.”
Her mouth worked silently. “I—I… Yenrieth, we’ve been over this. I thought you understood. I did it for you.”
“You did it for me? You kept my children away from me for decades to what? To help me?” His voice was at a low roar now, and all around him, the building trembled. “They grew up without me! Limos was raised in hell, Reseph was raised by a wench who is undeserving of raising a puppy, let alone a child, and Ares was beaten until he lost all compassion. Because of you.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she grabbed for him, but he stepped aside, unable to bear her touch. Just looking at her was hard enough. “Please… you have to understand—”
“Understand?” he bellowed. “Understand this, Verrine. I’ve fucked demons who were less disgusting than you.”
The memory knocked Reaver back a step, made him wobble, and Harvester caught him. She’d always caught him. He’d just been too much of an asshole to realize it.
“I’m sorry, Verrine,” he whispered. He knew it was Harvester in front of him and not the innocent young angel she used to be. But he’d never apologized to that trusting angel. And after what he’d just remembered, he knew no apology would be enough. “I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that. Yenrieth was a dick. I was a dick. I don’t deserve you, and if you can’t accept my apology, I understand. But I’ll never stop trying to make it up to you.”
“I forgive you.” Harvester’s voice cracked. “And I should have told you about your children.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No, you were right not to. We can play the what-if game for a century, but what it comes down to is that we can’t know what would have happened if you had. But I can almost guarantee that it wouldn’t have been anything good. You did what you thought was right, and that’s all that matters. You were right. I was wrong. So very wrong.”
“So,” she said, in a voice that was as shaky as his emotions, “you’re saying you remember everything, and you’re still sorry, and you still want to have a mating ceremony?”
With all his heart. “If you’ll have me. Someday when you’re ready. If you’re ready. I’ll always be here for you. I’ll wait as long as it takes.” He locked his eyes with hers. “You were always the one.”
For several agonizing moments, Harvester said nothing, and Reaver began to sweat. He might be one of the most powerful beings in existence, but all the power in the universe wouldn’t make Harvester budge if she didn’t want to do something. Like mate him.
Finally, Harvester lifted her chin in that muley way that drove him mad. “I’m not getting mated in any absurd formal angel ceremony.”
He suppressed a smile. “I’m fine with that.”
She sniffed. “And I won’t wear a ridiculous gown.”
“Agreed.” She’d be about as comfortable in a gown as a nun would be in a brothel.
Harvester, who had always loved torturing him, wound her long hair around her finger and made a long production out of studying the seashell paintings on the walls.
“Harvester…” At his growl she smiled, and then she was on him, throwing her arms around his neck and hanging on for dear life.
“I hope you know what you’re getting into,” she murmured in his ear. “I love you, Reaver, but if you piss me off, remember that I can chain you with your own bones.”
Damn, that was sexy. Oh, at the time when she’d actually done that to him, it had hurt like hell. But he loved that her shiny new halo hadn’t crushed her horns.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “But you should keep in mind that with my new powers I can fuck you until you pass out, and I don’t even have to be in the same room.”
To prove his point, he sent a stroke of sensation between her legs. All he had to do was think about what he wanted to do, and she’d feel it as if he were there with his hands, his tongue, his cock. He imagined licking her from her clit to her core before thrusting his tongue deep, and she had to bite into his shoulder to keep from crying out.
“That,” she breathed, “was evil. Do it again.”
He laughed. “Later. I promise.”
They pulled apart, their secret smiles and her passion-glazed eyes sure to give them away, but Limos and Arik were too busy texting—presumably their brothers, sisters, and in-laws.
“Yay!” Limos tossed aside her phone and called for one of her servants to bring Champagne. “You know, Harvester, I kind of hated you before. You were such a bitch.” Limos wasn’t exactly known for her tact. She looked down at her belly, her expression steeped in contemplation. “But I know what it’s like to live in Sheoul. I know what it does to you. And I know that if it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have been able to get out of my betrothal with Satan.” She looked up, her eyes glistening with happy tears. “So even if you hadn’t given me my baby, I’d still welcome you to the family.”