Our bodies didn’t slide as they would during a regular round of aggressive cuddling, but our energy did. Hot. Fast. Frantic.

Then he shifted, just barely, onto the mortal plane, bringing me with him. And the solidness of his cock inside me rocketed through to my core. The pressure building in my abdomen with every thrust, the sheer weight of it, clawed at the delicate balance between the sweet pleasure of a slow, sensual fuck and the wild, passionate greed of a come-induced seizure.

And then the scales tipped and I seized, throwing back my head and bucking against him. Something deep inside me, something unnamable, exploded. I gritted my teeth as spasm after violent spasm slammed into me. Crashed against my bones. Trembled over my nerve endings, spilling the darkest pleasure known to man throughout my consciousness.

An orgasm in this state was a thousand times brighter and hotter and more intense. I’d never felt my atoms splitting. I’d never felt them collide and create a reaction as hot as the center of the sun.

As Reyes strained against me, his own orgasm shuddering through him, I wondered if this was how two gods merged to make one. And why did they do that, anyway? Why did all the gods from my dimension come together to make one god? What was in it for them?

Reyes collapsed against me as I floated in the aftermath of mind-blowing sex. And then I realized something pivotal. Cores. Centers. We had centers even in our most dematerialized state. Whether we had shape or not, we had centers.

And they fit together really well. Like pieces of a puzzle. Or a lock and key. Or a penis and vagina. Mostly a penis and vagina.

When Reyes stepped to the side, leaned against a storefront, and continued to stare, I realized I was humming. Like my body was literally humming, its current state utter perfection.

“Sorry,” I said to him, worried he could hear it, too.

At first, he continued to gaze at me, but not just at me. All around me. Then he whispered, “Magnificent.”

“What?” I floated back to the ground to join him and turned around to see what was behind me. “What do you see?”

Reyes shifted and stepped to me. “You, Dutch. I see you.”

“Really? I’m trying to be invisible. How can you see me?”

“I don’t know that you can be. Not to a supernatural being, anyway. Remember, you’re still the light the departed are drawn to. It’s just, it’s different now. When you’re like this.”

“What’s so different about it? Is it even more annoying? Pari can hardly look at me without wearing sunglasses.”

“It’s a shimmering white all around you. You literally glow.”

“Like a glowworm?”

He grinned. “Why not?”

“You look different when I shift, too.”

He lowered his head.

“Reyes,” I said, readying to tease him, “give it up already. I know all about the darkness. Being created in hell —”

“You don’t remember, do you?”

I ran my fingers over his sensual mouth even as he spoke. “Remember?”

“Before you convinced Jehovah to send me to your hell dimension instead of locking me up in the one He created, you knew me.”

We turned and walked down the street hand in hand. Only we were both incorporeal, so people kept walking through us. Mostly college students cramming for finals. Poor kids. That, I remembered.

“I was dark even then. I was dark before Satan got ahold of me.”

I stopped and faced him. “I don’t remember that.”

“I think my Brother, for some reason, has altered your memories. Taken some away.”

“Do you know why?”

“No, I don’t. I’m sorry.” He reached down and slid his fingers along my abdomen.

“Oh, just so you know,” I said, my muscles tensing with his touch, “I’m paying you back for that little stunt you pulled today.”

His expression softened. “Are you?”

“Yes. I’ve been doing research. You are so screwed.”

“I can hardly wait.”

I snorted. “I suggest you adopt a more concerned attitude than that, Mister Man. Payback is a bitch, and her name is Charley Davidson.”

He pressed his mouth together in an attempt to hide his reaction. Apparently I was funny.

“Good to know I can bring humor to any situation. I’m not even going to feel sorry for you while I torture you.”

He raised a brow. “Torture? You sure you got it in you?”

“Oh, I got it and then some.”

He turned his most sensual gaze toward me. “Be still my beating heart.”

Part of me believed he wanted me to torture him.

16

Some days, the supply of available curse words is insufficient to meet my needs.

— T-SHIRT

I dreamed of starless nights and planets colliding. Of nebulae drifting too close to black holes and galaxies spinning out of control. And I dreamed of angel wings. Of their feathers brushing against my skin, sending shivers down my spine.

Then I awoke to the hushed sound of Angel. He’d shaken me gently, but there had been an urgency in his whispered voice. Either that or…

My eyes flew open. Reyes had Angel pinned to the floor, choking him out. If a departed could be choked out. I had no idea.

I scrambled out of bed and tapped Reyes on the shoulder. “Hon, what are you doing?”

He looked up at me, his face the picture of joy. “Wrestling.”

Angel made strange gagging sounds and shook his head.

“Sweetheart, I don’t think Angel wants to wrestle.”