“...his lips were pure temptation, soft, bitable, sensual in a way only a man's mouth could be.”

“Oh, this is a special blend for you." Taking one of the fingers she hadn't licked, he rubbed it along her lips. "What we usually shed is apparently comparable to the most delicious of chocolates or the finest of wines. Decadent, rich, and very expensive."She told herself she wasn't going to lick the glitter off her lips. "And this blend?" The taste was inside her mouth without her having any knowledge of taking it in. And Raphael was incredibly close, his wings creating a white gold wall all around them his hands strong and warm on her hips. "What's so special about it?""This blend," he murmured, bending his head, "is about sex."She put her hands on his chest but it wasn't a protest. After the blood, the fear, she needed to touch him, to know this glorious creature existed. "Another form of mind control?"He shook his head, his mouth a hairbreadth from hers. "It's only fair.""Fair?" She flicked her tongue along his lower lip. It made his hands clench on her hips."If I licked you between your thighs, your taste would have the same aphrodisiac effect on me.”

“He leaned down until his lips brushed her ear. “I told you to stop flinching.” And then he bit her. A slow, painless nip but there were definitely teeth involved.”

“While Dmitri, as the leader of Raphael’s Seven, could not accept such a weakness, the mortal he’d once been, the one who had loved a woman with a wide mouth and eyes of slanted brown . . . that man understood what it was to love so deeply it was a kind of beautiful madness.”

“Why is it”—she shivered as he kissed the top of her spine, went lower—“that I always end up naked while you remain dressed?”A husky masculine chuckle, his lips moving over her shoulder, his hands on her hips. “Because I'm a smart man.”

“Sometimes I remember that I can't always protect those I love." Under his fingers, her hair was soft and silky.She didn't try to tell him that he wasn't God, that he couldn't protect everyone. He knew that. But knowing and believing were two different things. What she did say succeeded in stopping his heart. "I wish you'd love me.""Why?""Because then maybe you could protect me, too." Haunting sorrow whispered through her tone.”

“llium snorted. “I look like a damned duck.” His words weren’t far off the mark. The feathers that had grown over the injured section were soft, white, and delicately … fluffy. “I hope to hell these baby feathers fall off and get replaced by real ones. They will, won’t they?” He sounded worried.”