He lowered his mouth dangerously close to mine. “I thought not.” His breath melted against my lips.

“Yes, I want you. But that doesn’t mean we should—”

His mouth came down hard and heavy on mine, drowning my protest. His tongue slipped past my lips, ravaging the inside of my mouth with a hunger that was as delicious as it was deadly. The taste of him shot a sudden, merciless wave of pleasure through me that made my knees collapse out from under me. His hands lowered to my hips, catching my fall.

“Wait,” I said, stopping his hand before it wandered lower.

He pulled back, but only far enough to tease me with the absence of his lips. All I wanted was to pull him against me and lose myself in this moment.

“Nero,” I said slowly. If I moved my lips too much, they would touch his. If that happened, I wouldn’t be able to resist kissing him again—and once that happened, I wouldn’t be able to stop. “Yes, I want you. But I don’t want to be just another of your thousands of lovers.”

“What are you talking about?” He didn’t bother to keep his lips still. Every brush of them against mine was pure agony.

“Captain Somerset told me of your history,” I said.

“She exaggerated.”

“About you breaking their hearts?”

“About how many there were. It certainly wasn’t thousands.”

The perfectly casual way that he said it made my heart sink to my stomach. “Nero, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not like you. I can’t just be intimate with someone and not feel something. And I can’t afford to feel for you, to have my heart broken. I have to save my brother. I have to worry about gaining the magic I need to find him. And if we do this, you will break my heart. Not today perhaps, but it will happen. You are an angel. And I am… I don’t even know what I am anymore. But I feel mortal. I feel human. You would grow bored of me and my pesky humanity. And then that would be it. So I have to end this before that happens, before this is tearing me up even more than it already is.”

I kissed him once softly on his lips, then I slid off his desk and hurried toward the door. And this time, he didn’t try to stop me.

17

Breaking Boundaries

They were serving pizza at Demeter tonight, but I skipped straight to dessert. There was nothing like a triple brownie sundae to get your mind off of witches, mass poisonings, and angels. I couldn’t do anything about any of those things, but I could conquer this mountain of chocolate. Licking the syrup off my spoon, I stole a quick glance at the head table. Yeah, I was a sucker for punishment.

Nero had vacated his seat for Nyx. Nearly everyone in the canteen was staring at her—while trying to pretend that they weren’t staring at her. I couldn’t really blame them. Not only was Nyx a drop-dead gorgeous supernatural version of Snow White, she was the First Angel, and it wasn’t every day that the First Angel came to dinner.

Nero sat to her right. When my eyes slid to him, he turned his head to look back at me. I hastily returned my gaze to my dessert. Chocolate was always safer than angels.

“Hey, Colonel Sexy Pants is looking at you,” Ivy whispered to me.

“Does he look upset?”

“No, more like perplexed. He has this cute little crinkle between his eyes, so adorably confused. That’s a new look for him.”

“I guess I defy his understanding of the world.”

She chuckled and took a bite out of her pizza. Ivy ate even more than I did, and she still looked like a supermodel. She must have burned a lot of calories being awesome.

“Leda, you excel at defying boundaries,” Drake said. His arm was wrapped around our former roommate Lucy. Those two sure were getting cozy.

I shrugged. “Why merely defy boundaries when you can break them down with a wrecking ball?”

“Who’s the wrecking ball?” Lucy asked.

“Leda is the wrecking ball,” Ivy told her, then glanced back at me. “Are you going out with us to Bloodfire tonight?”

“I don’t know, Ivy. After how spectacularly last night ended, I’m not sure I want to go out again.”

“Are you referring to Three Wishes or to your little field trip to the witch university?”

“Both. I think I’ll stay in tonight and try to make a dent in that mountain of books beside my bed.”

“How studious of you.”

I grinned at her. “I know, isn’t it? Wow, I think I’m cured. I’m a good girl now. I always behave myself and never, ever talk back.”

“There will be a parade of fifty dancing angels the day that happens,” Soren said as he walked up to our table. He dipped his head to kiss Ivy on the lips.

“I’m not that bad,” I protested.

He gave me a hard look. I smirked back at him.

“You’re cool, Leda,” he said with a chuckle, then returned his attention to Ivy. “Ready to go?”

“Absolutely.” Ivy stood and took his hand. “Are you sure you won’t come with us?” she asked me as Drake and Lucy rose too.

“I’m sure. Have fun.”

“Ok, if you change your mind, you know where to find us,” Ivy said.

Then she and Soren walked away, hand-in-hand, followed by Drake and Lucy, also hand-in-hand. I looked around the room. There sure were an awful lot of couples here. I supposed it was only natural. We lived and worked together at the Legion. It was inevitable that couples formed. People needed companionship.