Saturday Snippets – Her Warrior Angel – angel romance novella excerpt

It’s time for this week’s Saturday Snippet from one of my paranormal romance books. While I’m away, my snippets are going to be full chapters as it’s far easier to just post a whole chapter than try to hunt down a teasing snippet. So, here’s another full length Saturday Snippet from a very sexy paranormal angel romance book.

Taylor shivered against Einar’s broad breastplate as he carried her into the brightly lit cream foyer of a grand hotel. She peered through the dark curtain of her hair, keeping her face obscured to hide the blood on it. No one stared at them, which meant two things. This was the sort of upmarket hotel where staff didn’t ask questions, not even when a guest walked in at gone midnight carrying a woman as though she was a damsel in distress, and they couldn’t see his wings.

He had paused outside and she knew that he had been changing his appearance. When he’d looked at her, she’d feigned surprise, afraid that he would realise that she could see through his glamour, and could still see his armour and his tawny wings. She needed to get the poison out of her system, and this angel wasn’t lying when he said that he could do such a thing for her. It was quicker and easier to let him tend to her than trying to find the local demon medic to get rid it for her. She had been foolish. Trying to run from him had quickened the spread of the poison through her body and it was on the verge of entering the final phase and killing her.

Einar looked impatient as they stood in the lift, heading upwards. Did he know how deep the poison was in her body now? Would it be too late to save her? He glanced down when she took hold of his chest armour and gripped it. Her breathing turned shaky when panic sparked through her. She focused on him to drive it away again.

“Just a few moments longer,” he whispered and the soft deep sound of his voice soothed her. “Hold on.”

His rich brown eyes met hers, the flecks of gold in them shifting in a way that an angel’s irises did. When she had met her first angel, that had scared her more than the wings. Nothing about them felt real. It never had. They weren’t of this world. They were something else.

Taylor looked deep into Einar’s eyes.

He seemed real though, and looked handsome with his eyes brimming with concern and his grip on her tight and reassuring. He smiled when the lift pinged and the doors opened.

“Keep holding on,” he said and she nodded, lost in his gaze.

He walked down a warmly lit corridor with her and then she held on to his neck when he struggled to open the door while holding her. Her fingers brushed the back of his neck, grazing the strands of his mousy ponytail, and she cursed herself for the way it affected her. Teasing him earlier had fired her up, and she had been surprised when she had pulled back and seen in his eyes that it had affected him too.

She knew angels weren’t saints, and that they were as frivolous and passionate as the next man when given the chance, but she hadn’t expected him to be affected by her attention and touch.

Unable to resist seeing if it had just been a momentary slip on his part, Taylor pushed her fingers into his hair, loosening it from the band that kept it tied back at the nape of his neck. The waves of golden brown fell down and he stilled. She felt his gaze on her and shyly met it, partly afraid of what she would see. His eyes were brighter, golden like a raptor’s, and fixed intently on her. His pupils widened when she curled his hair around her fingers and his lips parted. Desire filled his eyes and she couldn’t deny that she was affecting him.

Why?

It wasn’t possible that he didn’t know the secret she held in her heart and in her blood. It just wasn’t possible.

But if he did, he wouldn’t look at her that way, with such fire and hunger. He wouldn’t look at her at all.

The door swung open. Taylor got the better of herself and removed her hands from his neck, settling them in her lap. She stared at her knees. Einar didn’t move. He remained on the threshold of the hotel room, staring at her, his breathing heavy enough that she shifted with it in his arms.

Pain speared her chest. She flinched and pressed her hand to it. It spurred Einar into moving and before she could blink, she was in a bedroom with him. She clutched her chest, burning inside, and breathed deep and steadily. She wasn’t afraid. The angel would help her. Her hands trembled and her limbs shook. She wasn’t afraid.

She wasn’t.

Einar settled her down on the white double bed and she curled up into a ball on her left side, clutching her right arm. She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw. Pain rippled through her, blazing like an inferno, stealing her strength and leaving her shaking. She wasn’t afraid.

Panic twisted her stomach.

Okay. She was afraid.

“Shh,” Einar said and took hold of her hand. She stared at it a moment, and then rolled onto her back, covered it with her other one and clung to him. He was her only hope now. The poison was too deep in her body. If he couldn’t save her, she wouldn’t have time to find someone who could. Einar moved her and she was too weak to fight him. He stretched her out on the bed so she lay with her head on the soft downy pillows and her body in a straight line. “Try to keep still.”

Taylor’s eyes widened when he held his hands out a foot above her, palms facing her, and, like a magician performing a trick, moved them back and forth along the length of her body. And just like magic, a white light appeared, beaming down from his hands, blinding her. She couldn’t take her eyes off it though. They tracked it, unable to believe what she was seeing and feeling. Wherever the light touched, she felt warm, weightless, and better.

He moved his hands down to feet and then back up her legs, over her arms and stomach, and then finally settled with one over her chest and one over her head.

“Look at me.”

She obeyed the command in his deep voice and stared up into his eyes. They were golden now, bright and sharp, holding hers in a way that was impossible to break free from.

“Keep looking at me.”

Taylor nodded. A bright burst of light dulled her vision. Excruciating pain stabbed her heart and head. She gritted her teeth and arched off the bed, clutching the covers and bunching them into her fists. It didn’t hurt like this when demons took the poison out.

But then, she had never been this close to dying before.

She tried to keep conscious and keep her eyes on Einar, just as he had said, but dark waves crashed over her, pulling her under. She fought with all of her might but couldn’t hold on. They swept her away and she sank into the bed and into the blackness.

When the world finally drifted back and the nightmares receded, she slowly opened her eyes. Her mouth was dry, tacky, and her head felt as though someone was bashing it with a sledgehammer. It throbbed and ached along with the rest of her body. She shuddered and moaned when the ache went deeper, pulsing through her bones. A heavy hand settled against her left shoulder, keeping her on her back as she tried to roll onto her side. She remembered what had happened.

Her blurred vision came into focus and she looked at her right arm. Her jacket was gone, and so was the wound. Not even a scar remained. She swallowed and the pain began to recede, drifting away. A second strong hand came into view. His fingers brushed over her the area where the wound had been and she tracked the length of his arm up to his face. He looked worried again. He wouldn’t look that way if he knew about her. He couldn’t know, and she didn’t want to tell him.

Einar smiled at her, not bright or cheerful, but full of warmth. Taylor told herself that he was an angel. That was the only reason he smiled at her that way. It was his duty to be concerned about damsels in distress. It had nothing to do with her being the one in danger.

But then, he had looked at her with such forceful hunger and passion too.

Had that been real?

Taylor stared up into his eyes for a few seconds. When they met hers, she glanced away, her gaze lighting on his shoulder and then taking in his brown armour. It didn’t hide much of his body. All he wore was a breastplate detailed with dull gold, vambraces to protect his forearms, greaves to protect his shins, along with his boots, and a dark loincloth.

He looked like a gladiator, with wings. They were large and furled against his back, as tawny as the rest of him, the long feathers brown but flecked with paler hues of tan and grey. Like an eagle. He had eyes to match that image.

And he was handsome.

There was no denying that.

He was more than handsome. Gorgeous perhaps. Otherworldly. And with muscles to die for. Angels shouldn’t have such godly bodies. They only led women into temptation, and she was sure that sort of thing was a sin.

“How long was I out?” she croaked and he sat back on the bed beside her, releasing her shoulder.

“Fourteen hours.”

Taylor rubbed her throat. Fourteen hours and she still felt as though she needed to sleep it off. Einar shifted and offered her a tall glass of water. She took it and he moved towards her, leaning over her. He smelt good.

“Here, let me help you.”

Taylor didn’t fight him as he took hold of her arm with one hand and placed the other against her shoulder blade, helping her sit up. It took a lot out of her just to shuffle into a comfortable position. When she moved backwards to rest against the pillows, his hand slid down to the small of her back, touching the bare skin above the waist of her jeans. A shiver raced through her, bringing warmth in its wake. She stared at him, her thirst forgotten, replaced with something altogether more alarming.

Hunger.

Desire.

Two things she definitely shouldn’t be feeling towards an angel.

“Thanks.” Taylor shooed him away and sipped the water.

Einar sat beside her again.

The silence was too comfortable.

Taylor looked at her socks. He had taken her boots off. She ran her gaze up her jeans and over her waist. She frowned, glanced around the room, and found what she was looking for on the small wooden table beside the bed.

In a neat row, as though on display, every knife she’d had on her person gleamed under the table lamp.

“I did not want you to hurt yourself. I hope you do not mind that I removed them?”

Taylor frowned at the knives. They were in descending order by size. Either he had been bored while she had been sleeping, or he suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

“Not at all,” she said, distant as she stared at the knives.

Some of them had been in her jacket, which now lay on a chair across the pale room along with her sword. Others had been sheathed in her boots. And then there were those she’d had strapped against her hips and ribs. The thought of Einar’s hands so close to her breasts brought a blush onto her cheeks.

“You do not look well.”

Her blush deepened and her gaze shot to Einar. She touched her blazing cheeks. “I’m fine. Tired, and groggy, and in need of some painkillers, but other than that, I’m good, Romeo.”

“I wish you would stop calling me that.” His eyes narrowed with his frown and his lips compressed. “I have a name, and I have told it to you.”

“Oh.” Taylor toyed with the glass of water, feeling unsure of herself. She didn’t want to get on first name terms with him. Danger lay that way. It was better that they remained barely involved in each other’s lives, and not calling him by his name was a good method for achieving that. “Sure.”

“Taylor?” he husked and she cringed. He had to go and say it, didn’t he?

“Yes?” Her gaze remained glued on the glass. She sipped the water, ran her finger around the base, did everything she could to avoid looking at him.

“Do you know much about the breed of demon you encountered last night?”

That seemed like a safe enough question to answer.

“Yes.” She risked it and looked at him. She didn’t mean to make eye contact, but hers leapt to his and she stared into them. They mesmerised her as the colours in them shifted and swirled. Not unsettling or scary at all. When his eyes did that, she wanted to look into them forever.

His dark pupils widened, filling his eyes with unmistakable desire, and erotic images of them together on this bed flickered through her mind like old silent movies. Taylor tried to shun them but they wouldn’t go, not while he was looking at her with such hunger and need. The message in his eyes was clear, written in ten-foot high neon letters that blazed so brightly they blinded her. Men had given her that ‘come get me’ look plenty of times before, and she had fallen for it a few of those, wanting the passion their eyes had promised. Some of them had even come good on it. But there was one difference this time. When she had been promised the ride of her life in the past, it had been by men.

Not angels.

That shocked some sense into her.

She cleared her throat. It wasn’t going to happen and her body had better get the message soon. It didn’t matter just how good Einar looked, and how easily she could fall into his arms and this bed with him. It was wrong and it would turn out badly for her. This was going to be strictly business.

He knew something about the godforsaken scum she had encountered last night. She would bleed him for information on the demons and why they were in her city, deal with them and then dump him. It was the only reason she was going to propose something that would otherwise be the most stupid idea she’d ever had.

“I’ll tell you about them on one condition.” She raised a single finger, held his gaze, and gave him her best seductive smile. “We work together.”

He shook his head.

“There is no reason for you to become involved.” His deep voice held a note of warning and his face darkened. “I cannot risk you.”

Taylor put the glass of water down and glared at him. “I don’t need protecting. I can handle myself. I know this city, and the demons that run it, and if you want that information, you’re going to have to work with me to get rid of that pain in the arse breed.”

Einar’s frown increased. “Like you handled yourself last night?”

She’d been waiting for that one. “You got in the way. I was doing fine until you showed up.”

“I was watching you the whole time. You fought well, but he bested you, and you would have been dead had I not intervened.”

Taylor sat forward, fury blazing through her and pushing her fatigue to the back of her mind. Who the hell did he think he was? She protected this city with her life, and had done for years before he had shown up to play white knight. She would have been fine if he hadn’t got in the way. It was his fault the damned demon had managed to get a claw on her.

“Listen.” She took hold of his breastplate at the edges near his shoulders and yanked him towards her. His eyes widened as he jerked forwards and then narrowed again. “Either we work together, or I show you up by killing all of that breed before you. I’m pretty sure that’ll look bad on your record. A woman beating you to the kill.”

Einar calmly removed her hands from his armour and her anger faltered when he didn’t let go of them. He held them, gently cradling her fingers in his, and warmth eased up her arms. She snatched her hands back, rattled by how easily he could calm the darkness inside of her.

“I am already in the lead,” he said and sighed. “I am only after another two. Without your information, it may take time for me to find them. People are in danger while those creatures roam the streets. They have killed many over the past four years. Please. Give me the information I need, Taylor.”

Why did he have to keep saying her name? Whenever he said it, rolling it off his tongue in a sensual way, she wanted to melt and give him whatever he was asking for. Taking a deep breath, she bolstered her resolve and shook her head.

“This is my city. I protect it. You want to get those demons, then you’re gonna have to partner with me.”

His dark gaze drifted down over her body, a wicked smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. She could read that look too. It was more ‘coming to get you’ than ‘come get me’ this time but unnerved her just as much. She wouldn’t relent. If he didn’t know about her by now, he would certainly know if he got intimate with her. She didn’t want that to happen. She didn’t want him to hurt her. Never get involved. Her mother had taught her that and she had obeyed like a good girl, afraid of the consequences if she didn’t. She couldn’t get involved.

Maybe she should just tell him everything and then leave before things got complicated. She didn’t think she could bear someone turning on her, not in the way she was picturing him doing in her head. It would tear her apart inside.

Just as she was resolved to give him the information and leave, he touched her hand and her eyes found his again.

He smiled.

“Deal.”

Taylor’s stomach dropped two inches.

What had she done?

Her Warrior Angel
Felicity Heaton
Einar is one of Heaven’s best hunters and he’s on a mission to uncover why an angel was working with demons. When he finds the first demon fighting a beautiful woman named Taylor, he intervenes and saves her life. Taylor has spent her whole life protecting London from the lowest demons and she’s not about to let an angel waltz into her city and take over her job, and she’s certainly not about to fall in love with him, even if he is gorgeous. The reason why she can’t is simple—she’s half demon.

There is no love in this world more forbidden than that between an angel and a demon.

Sense tells Taylor to get out before she gets her heart broken, but she winds up convincing Einar to partner with her instead. Einar is certain that working with Taylor is a bad idea, and not only because he can’t focus when he’s around her, but he can’t let her go. The mission leads them deep into the city’s underworld, where old flames burn Taylor while new flames of passion and fear of the consequences consume them, and the threat of Einar’s demons hangs over them both.

Can a love so forbidden ever have a happy ending or are they destined to break each other’s hearts?

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