An Angel's Song Read online

  “I promised I’d help you, and I will.” It was the least he could do for the man who’d been his friend and mentor, right? And, yeah, for Tessa, too. “You don’t have to do this alone, you know.”

  “I know, and I appreciate it.” Tessa cleared her throat and reached out to slide the carton toward him. “Until I can get to the rest of it, this box is for you.”

  “What is it?”

  Tessa shook her head and nudged the box in his direction. “I don’t know. He only told me he’d planted a memory on the box itself so I could detect it by touch. Something he was working on and didn’t have time to finish? Said you’d figure it out and know what to do.”

  “No hint as to what it is?”

  “No, but considering he involved Michael in all this, maybe he found something related to your work?”

  “He knew I worked for Michael?” Alec reached for the box, slid it closer, and picked at the layers of packing tape sealing the top flaps. His pulse quickened as it always did at the prospect of a new challenge.

  “Duh. Of course, he knew, Alec,” Tessa sighed, pulling out a chair and sinking into it. Then she reached out to work at the tape on the other side. “When I arrived on his doorstep ten years ago, I wasn’t feeling especially charitable toward you or your secrets.”

  “You went to Barachiel? But, I thought—” He’d thought she’d run to her lover. But, in the last twenty-four hours, he’d begun to re-evaluate not only that thought, but a whole lot of others.

  “I know what you thought. Being a fool, I encouraged you to think it. I told myself once you calmed down and thought it through, you’d come find me, we’d talk it out, and maybe even laugh about it one day. Never happened. For two relatively smart people with an impressive number of advanced academic degrees, at the end of the day, we both suffer from Book-Smart-Common-Sense-Stupid Syndrome.”

  “Common sense probably isn’t as common as most people think. I’ll agree I wasn’t exactly open to conversation at the time,” Alec said, yanking the tape free, flipping open the box, and peering inside. “I’m listening now.”

  “Maybe with the ten percent of your brain not currently fixated on what lies hidden at the bottom of that box.”

  Hands tangled in layers of bubble wrap, Alec glanced up as the chair legs screeched against the tile floor. Tessa rose slowly to her feet and pinned him with an over-bright gaze. His hands stilled, and he withdrew them from the box, swiping his damp palms down the front of his shirt.

  “Haven’t you ever heard of multi-tasking?” He ignored the part of him longing to rip the box open, and remained focused on his wife.

  “You know what I think?” Tessa raised a brow. “I think my father waited until the bitter end intending to extract deathbed promises from each of us, knowing neither of us could refuse.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Because he loved us.” A sad, fleeting smile briefly crossed her face. “He hated that we were apart, but he never took sides. Of course, it doesn’t mean he didn’t also believe we were two idiots nursing our grievances and hiding behind our wounded pride. Maybe he thought forcing us together would prompt a conversation he believed we should have had a long time ago.”

  Alec sucked in a long breath. Didn’t Michael say almost the same thing? Ten years, a tiny blip in the long life of an Earthbound, but maybe time enough to put aside recriminations and actually communicate?

  “You mean like two mature, reasonable adults instead of two offended, angry children?”

  Her lips quirked. “Something like that.”

  “Assuming we were going to have this conversation, how do you think it would go?” Alec asked slowly, pushing the box away, removing temptation from his reach.

  Tessa watched him shove the box aside, then gazed up at him with a hopeful expression, and something shifted in his heart.

  “Hypothetically.” Alec crossed his arms over his chest and swallowed hard.

  “Well, hypothetically, I’d start by reminding you how you were consumed by work. Every day you buried yourself in your research, and every day I died a little inside as you descended deeper into your world and spent less and less time in mine. I tried to be philosophical about it. I mean, we live for centuries, right? The obsession was bound to wane eventually, and I’d have you back. I’m not making excuses for my actions, just trying to help you understand the motivation behind them.”

  “Fair enough. But, hypothetically, weren’t you equally consumed?” Alec countered. “It’s not like you were sitting around twiddling your thumbs. You composed an entire symphony during that time, for God’s sake.”

  “What did you expect me to do? Sit around and do nothing? I had to do something while I waited you out.” Tessa lifted a shoulder and lowered her eyes.

  “It was more than a little something to kill time. It was damned brilliant, Tessa. The London Philharmonic doesn’t perform just anything.”

  “No, they don’t, do they?” She blinked up at him with a faint smile. “It was…overwhelming. And nerve wracking. Every music critic on the continent was there to weigh in with an opinion.”

  “And you dazzled them all, just as I knew you would.” He always recognized her singular gift, her incredible talent. He always had faith in her ability, even when she doubted it herself.

  “Yes, I did. The critics, the audience, our families, pretty much everyone that mattered.” Her lips compressed into a tight, thin line and her hands curled into fists. “Everyone, that is, except the person I composed it for. The person who mattered most. Even when I realized you weren’t coming, I swallowed the tears and waited some more. But, you couldn’t tear yourself away, not for five minutes, not even on one of the most important nights of my life. How do you think it looked, Alec? How do you think it felt?”

  “I lost track of time,” Alec muttered, suddenly unable to meet her eyes, and realizing how lame his excuse sounded. Running late, he promised to meet her at the Royal Festival Hall, so Tessa went on ahead with her father and the others. He showered and donned his tux, then stopped in his office, intending only to better organize the stack of letters to make them easier to sort through later. But, then he stopped to read one. And then he resolved to read just one more, and before he realized it, he’d scanned over half the pile and looked up at the clock with a stone settling in his gut. He missed the entire performance. “I know it’s no excuse. I screwed up. But, you couldn’t really have believed anyone or anything was more important to me than—”

  “Couldn’t I? Be honest with yourself and look at it from my perspective, Alec. What would you think in my shoes? Did you ever find it?”

  “What?”

  “The Ring of Aandalena. Did you find it?”

  “No. I mean, yes it’s been found. But, no, none of my research led to the recovery. Long story.” And a waste of time that drove a wedge between them.

  “I see. So, I guess there’s no point in asking whether it was worth it. We both know the answer. Hypothetically. Of course, hindsight is always twenty-twenty, isn’t it? After the concert ended, I made excuses for your absence, plastered on a smile, and danced my way through one party after another. I put on a hell of a performance, determined to see it through to the bitter end, with or without you. Finally, the last glass of champagne was consumed, the music fell silent, and there was nothing left to do except come home.”

  “You had every right to be hurt and angry. I was fully prepared to grovel.”

  “Funny, you didn’t appear to be groveling at all. You appeared to be a selfish jerk who accused rather than apologized.”

  “I waited. But, when the hours passed, and you didn’t answer your phone, didn’t come home, I realized you were right. I had shut you out, though not deliberately. I did take you for granted. It felt like a blinding, painful light snapped on in a dark room and illuminated every word you’d been trying to pound into my thick skull for months. I finally got it. I planned to tell you and find a way to make it up to you. And then I heard a c
ar, looked out the window, and saw you in another man’s arms—” His voice cracked, as the picture replayed in his memory like a bad movie on a continuous loop. “It broke me, Tessa, and I’ve never figured out how to put the pieces back together. The thought of you in someone else’s bed, the knowledge I’d pushed you there. Something snapped. I couldn’t think straight. I hoped—prayed—I was wrong. But, then you sauntered in all smeared and disheveled, and you didn’t deny it. How do you think that felt?”

  “You witnessed comfort that night, not passion. Someone who showed up, who was there for me when I needed him. You want to talk about my alleged infidelity? Let’s discuss yours, shall we?”

  “Mine? I was never unfaithful to you.”

  “Weren’t you? Your work was an ever changing, always fascinating, all consuming mistress with whom I couldn’t compete.” She drew in a shaky breath and blew it out again. “Well, that night I had your undivided attention at last, didn’t I? Yes, I chose the wrong weapon to obtain it—a stupid, spiteful weapon—one I knew would hurt you. But, when you jumped to conclusions and made it so easy…I ran with it. I couldn’t seem to stop, even when I saw the pain on your face. God forgive me, Alec, I wanted to hurt you. Because you hurt me, too.”

  “Comfort, passion…call it what you like. In my book, sex is sex, Tess.”

  “Well, maybe you should take a closer look at that book of yours. Stop reading between the lines and concentrate on the black and white right in front of your eyes. Are you being deliberately obtuse or are you really incapable of seeing the truth?”

  “You were my wife, dammit!”

  “I’m still your wife, you jackass. I always have been. And you still can’t see anything beyond the end of your nose. This conversation is over.” She turned on her heel and moved in the direction of the door. Alec’s hand shot out and grabbed her arm, spinning her back toward him and hauling her hard against him. She struggled to free herself, and his arms locked around her like steels bands, pinning the length of her body against his.

  “It’s over when I say it’s over.”

  Alec crushed his mouth to hers with a growl, bending her back over his arm, and plunged his tongue between her lips like a weapon. He ground his hips into her, making clear the effect she still had on him. She tasted of honey, and mint, and everything he’d been missing in his life for ten long years. For better or for worse, together or apart, she was his. And it was damn well time she realized it. He felt the moment she softened. With a pained whimper, she gripped the front of his shirt, pressed her breasts against him, and wrapped her tongue around his. He tore his mouth away, breathing heavily.

  “Did he make you feel the way I do, Tessa? Did his kisses melt your bones?” Alec buried his face in the side of her neck and nipped his way from her collarbone to her ear, brushing back the heavy fall of her hair to trace the shell-like curve with the tip of his tongue. He tightened his arms around her as a shudder ran through her. Her pulse raced against his lips like the frantic heart of a captive bird. He’d intended to tease the hell out of her, torture her, remind her of what she so easily abandoned, and then walk away and leave her wanting. Judging by his own churning gut, rock hard erection, and aching balls, his plan backfired miserably.

  Damn, he still wanted her. She’d run to her father, moved to the States. Alone. Not with a lover. Maybe it was nothing more than a one night stand. That’s what she’d been trying to tell him. If she’d been unfaithful, it wasn’t habitual, and he knew at least part of the culpability belonged to him. Yes, he still wanted her. Wanted her like air to breathe, with a heart-stopping desperation he forgot he could feel, something he never felt with anyone else in all the long centuries of his life. Forgive her? His heart already had. But, the inability of his pride to forget kept his gut twisted in knots.

  “Did his lips taste every sweet, honey-flavored inch of you? Did he make you crave the feel of him buried so deep inside your body you couldn’t tell where you left off and he began? Is that what he did?”

  “No,” she choked. “No one ever—”

  “Will complete you the way I do?” He finished for her, lifting his head and tracing a finger along the smooth line of her jaw. Then he rubbed his thumb along her full lower lip. “Bound mates, two halves of the same soul. My only consolation these last ten years has been the certainty that no matter who shared your bed, deep inside you suffered the same emptiness I did.”

  With his gaze locked to hers, Alec pried her fingers free from his shirt. Bringing her hand to his lips, he turned it over, and pressed a warm, moist kiss into her palm. She curled her fingers into a fist and pressed it to her chest as though she could hold it there. A warm spark of desire burned in her eyes and sent a heated flush into her cheeks. God, how he’d missed her. Without her, he’d only been half alive.

  Alec buried his fingers in her hair and cupped her face, tilting it up to his. Tessa offered no resistance, leaning into him and sliding her hands up the hard planes of his chest to wrap around his neck, tangling her fingers in the curls at his nape.

  “Mine.” The thought escaped of its own accord, slipping through the locked barriers he’d erected around his thoughts since she slammed into his chest in the hospital corridor.

  “Mine.” Her voice echoed in his head.

  With a low groan, he captured her lips again, pressing her against him with a hand splayed across her buttocks, while using the other to sweep everything, including the open box, from the top of the table. He stretched her back against the unforgiving wood and lowered his body over hers. Many things changed in the past ten years, he thought. But, some things never would.

  Chapter Eight

  “While I’m thrilled to see the two of you getting along so well, at last count there were four bedrooms in this villa. You couldn’t control the wild monkey sex long enough to spare my kitchen table? Oh, well, I suppose that’s why God invented bleach.”

  “My mother, the queen of impeccable timing,” Alec grumbled against Tessa’s lips. Shielded from Madge’s sight by his body, Tessa fumbled beneath him, forcing her hands between them and frantically yanking the edges of her blouse together while scrabbling to fasten the buttons. Alec glanced down, confirmed she’d managed to cover herself, and levered away from her, and straightened, tugging his T-shirt down. Then he reached for her hand and pulled her up beside him.

  “What do you know about wild monkey sex? Never mind, you’re my mother. I don’t want to know. I thought you had dinner plans.”

  “Probably a wise decision on your part. But, just for the record, I’m mature, not dead. And change of plans. Clearly.” Madge’s lips twitched as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared pointedly at Tessa’s. Alec followed her gaze and smirked as the heat crawled up Tessa’s neck and blazed into her cheeks. She hadn’t even come close to doing up the buttons correctly, and her blouse gaped open in some areas and hung at a cock-eyed angle in others.

  “Might I suggest pullovers, dear? So much more convenient in a pinch.”

  “Duly noted,” Tessa muttered under her breath, tugging ineffectually at the hem, and then showing them both her back to undo the buttons and repair the damage.

  “I thought you were going to the flat this afternoon,” Madge observed as Tessa turned back to face them, decently covered at last. “Knowing your father and his love of beautiful things, I imagine there’s quite a lot to sort through.”

  “We did and there is, but we didn’t get much accomplished,” Alec replied, stepping forward to help his mother who’d bent to retrieve the items he’d pushed to the floor. He shoved the trailing bubble wrap into the box and plunked it on the table. “We were interrupted.”

  Madge chuckled. “So you have a theme going?”

  “By animorti,” Tessa interjected quickly. “We left in a bit of a hurry.”

  “Animorti?” A frown pleated Madge’s smooth forehead. “What on Earth were they doing there?”

  “No idea, but at least they provided Enrico with a little entertainme
nt. Turns out the flat Barachiel rented is in Gia’s building.”

  “Enrico? How is the dear man? I really must stop by and see him one of these days. It’s been far too long.”

  “We didn’t stick around to chat, Mother,” Alec returned dryly. “I wasn’t armed and my priority was Tessa’s safety. Enrico had things well in hand.”

  “No doubt. He does love a good fight. So, what’s this?” She gestured to the box.

  “Don’t know. We were just about to find out,” Alec tugged at the plastic while Madge straightened the quilted placemats on the table.

  “Oh, is that what you were doing?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what we were doing.” Face flaming, a self-conscious grin tugged at the corner of Tessa’s lips. They had been just about to find out, but for the first time in ages, Alec’s attention focused on his wife instead of his insatiable curiosity. Something like that could give a girl hope. At least he made it clear he still wanted her, even if he hadn’t yet found a way to forgive her. It was a start. Tessa stepped forward and batted Alec’s hands away, plunging her own into the box to retrieve whatever lay hidden in the layers of protective wrapping. “Let’s see what we’ve got, shall we?”

  Preoccupied by Alec’s expression as he watched her, she curled her fingers around the rectangular object at the bottom of the box and drew it free. A tsunami of memories crashed into her, buckling her knees and stealing her breath. Acting quickly, Madge wrenched the item from her unresisting fingers.

  “Tess…” Alec’s face paled as he caught her limp body around the waist and dragged her against him before she hit the hard ceramic floor.

  “I’m okay,” she breathed, gripping his shirt tightly and leaning against him for support. “I’m okay. So stupid…I wasn’t thinking. It doesn’t happen every time.”

  “Hence the reason it’s called a gift and not a superpower,” Madge offered, placing the ornately decorated wooden casket on the table.