About the book

Hailey knew the consequences of her actions. Heaven would cry for what she was about to do, but her charge was to be kept safe at all cost. Her glory, her immortality, was no question. She was an angel, and the boy she protected was to be a leader of men, a peacemaker like no other. While heaven would protect him, hell wanted him dead. They sent their best, Pennemuel, a demon enforcer, and what he wanted more than anything was her. Hailey gave herself to him, willing to stop a war between heaven and hell, to protect the boy she now loved more than anything. She carried a secret, one that only few knew. In the taking of her body, Penn would become hers as well, tethered by love. He would be her strongest ally in the fight that was to come.

She looked like she was made of bronze, and her glow actually made his eyes hurt. Pennemuel thought he would be the toast of all his peers by taking an angel and could see himself climbing to the highest level in the demon realm. He didn't know by sleeping with her, love would be the punishment. When the fist affects of it punched his heart like a fist, he regretted his actions. He was not meant for love or redemption, yet when Hailey looked at him, he was lost and would do anything to protect her. With hell nipping at their heels, they fought side by side to protect the boy she loved. All the while, he tried to decipher his new feelings and actually try his hand at romance.

Together they were united in a common good, yet for the first time in his existence, he couldn't see his future. She kissed him, and in her arms he felt alive, almost whole. Could a demon in love find his place in the world, in the embrace of an angel, or would his sins damn them both?

An excerpt from the book

They sat and ate in silence as they all contemplated the implications of the new information they had. He’d never heard of a nephilim not going crazy, or even worse, having to live away from humans. This boy had power; it was in his lineage from the archangels. The boys below would love to get their hands on him and twist him to their uses. Before he would have taken him to the higher-ups in hell and just let the good times roll. Now, he looked at Hailey and knew it would break her heart, and something inside him shifted. Crap. He hated this feeling and wished he could rip it out of his chest.

Later that night, after dinner, he had Hailey mark the building with protection runes. Now he looked at the boy sleeping on the thin mattress of the old pull-out couch. He opened the bedroom door expecting to see Hailey. She had made up the bed with the bright yellow comforter that he bought and piled the blue pillows on top. He wanted to bring her a little of the sky and the sun in his small way. He closed his eyes and homed in on her and dematerialized to where she was on the roof. Hailey was looking upward, and her face was forlorn as she stared into the night sky.

“Why are you up here?” he asked as he stepped behind her.

“No reason,” she replied but her eyes never left the sky.

“You’re missing up there,” Penn said.

“I’ve never been cut off from them before.” Hailey shook her head. “I only hear silence, and then sometimes I feel the pull, the call to grace, and I cannot answer. Other times I hear those who I care for. They whisper to me even though its forbidden. I know this is for the better good, for Sam. But my heart aches for it sometimes, the peace and the balance.”

“You had no choices up there, just following always doing what you’re told.” Penn grabbed her shoulders. “Tonight you ate Chinese food, and you like chocolate; you love that boy even with his attitude. Why miss it when there is more for you to see and experience?”

“Don’t you miss your version of home, the hell and heat of it?” Hailey glared at him.

“No, I don’t,” Penn said automatically.

“Why don’t you? Is it because you care for nothing, that being in the underworld is worse than death?”

He pulled her hard against him and caressed the chocolate brown skin of her face. “No, because I have you. There’s nothing down there worth more than being with you.”

“Why are you saying this now?” Hailey asked.

“I long for you to touch me, to feel your hands on my skin,” Penn said. He could hear the ache in his own voice. “I long to taste your lips again and see you look at me like how you look at the boy. You shut down when I’m around, and I miss your light.” He slipped his hand into the hair at her nape. “Kiss me, Hailey, just kiss me so I can feel somewhat normal. Even if you have to pretend kiss me like you care. I hate having to feel like this, to beg for just a kiss. But I need it. I need to feel you more than anything.”

“Oh, Penn. I don’t have to pretend,” Hailey whispered.

She cupped his cheeks and pulled his lips down to hers for a kiss. The feel of her, the taste of her was almost too much to take, and he groaned in delight, in pleasure and the ache of it all. She opened her mouth under the probing of his tongue. He molded her to him as he burrowed into her mouth. It was like drinking nectar, and if he could taste sunshine, she would be it. She took his onslaught with moans and whimpers that took him higher and made his cock so hard it throbbed between his legs. This time he pulled away, thinking about not only taking her body but keeping her in his heart. To do that, he had to pull away and take it slow. She was not just an object for release to him. Hailey was everything.

“Why did you stop? Why didn’t you take me?” she whispered when he stepped away.

“I’m giving you the choices you earned in more ways than one,” Penn replied. “When you want me to love you, you’ll come to me. I won’t take you otherwise. Your body is your own.” He pulled her close and kissed her gently. “Come downstairs soon. I don’t want the boy to wake up and not see you.”

It was the hardest thing he ever did, but Penn walked away from the pleasure that he knew he could find in her body and with her kiss. For the first time he understood what humans experienced when they felt love, what they were willing to give up just to keep it. Why the sacrifices were so unimaginable, yet they paid the price hand over fist to keep what they’d found.