Fallen (9 page)

She stared up into his eyes, searching for any doubt or uncertainty. Within the smooth brown depths there was none. She raised her arms around his neck and allowed him to lift her into his arms again. Within seconds they were streaking across the sky again. He left her on the rooftop of her apartment with his promise to return soon. As a man. Shayla stood, hugging herself against the cold, and watched him streak across the dark night sky like a shooting star. She was still there, long after he had disappeared.

Chapter 14: Transformation

When Amir landed on the steps of the throne room, at the heart of heaven, Sarah was there waiting for him. In her angelic form, she stood as tall as he did, her pearlescent wings stretched high. Her skin shone like iridescent gems and silvery curls tumbled down her back.

“
I know why you’re here,” she said in place of a greeting. She crossed her arms across her chest. “Do you have any idea what you’re about to do
?
”

Amir smiled. “Yes. I’m making a choice. I choose to be with the woman I love.”

Sarah shook her head. “I don’t understand you, Amir. I don’t understand any angel who would give up what we do for a human lover. There is no justification for it.”

“
I don’t expect you to understand,” he replied. “You can’t understand it until you’ve felt what I feel right now, Sarah. If you did, you would be surprise what you’d be willing to sacrifice.”

Sarah unfolded her arms and stepped closer to him, her distress clear on her face. “You’re being irrational! You’re an angel, Amir. One of the most gifted I’ve ever known!”

“
Goodbye Sarah,” Amir said, knowing that he could never make her understand. Most angels wouldn’t unless they opened themselves up to emotional love. Angels were aloof creatures, mainly out of necessity, especially the ones who chose to go to earth. It took a lot of will and dedication to stay the course when surrounded by the distractions the world had to offer.

“
So that’s it?” she asked dubiously. “This is goodbye? You’re really going through with this.”

Amir, who had turned to walk away, stopped to gaze back over his shoulder. “I hope that someday you could come to feel happy for me.”

The gateway was open, and all Amir needed to do now was walk through it. Father stood at his shoulder, waiting patiently for him to proceed. Yet for a moment, he was hesitant. He wasn’t sure why, when all he had been able to think about since leaving Shayla standing on the rooftop was returning to her. Something in him was saddened at the thought of what he was about to sacrifice.

“
It’s all right to feel that sadness,” said Father softly from behind him. “It only means that you aren’t taking this decision lightly.”

“
I want you to know that I have loved every moment I’ve gotten to spend in heaven and on earth healing people. I’ll be happy with Shayla, but I will miss it.”

“
You’ll return someday. Until then, enjoy your new life.”

This was it, the moment he had been anticipating ever since he’d made his decision. He tentatively stepped forward toward the gateway, knowing that once he walked through it, he would be changed forever. He took a deep breath and took the final step through the gateway.

A blinding flash of light met him as he began to fall. Faster than he’d ever moved through space, he hurtled toward earth uncontrolled, unable to use his wings. Heat, searing hot and intense burned his entire body and he cried out in pain. On his back, his wings were shriveling and curling back toward his body before disappearing completely. The journey seemed endless, the pain inside as his body transformed for the final time almost unbearable. The tiny blue speck of earth grew larger and larger until he was moving through its atmosphere and back toward New York, his new permanent home.

Just when he thought the pain would kill him, he began to slow until he was floating gently to the rooftop of Shayla’s apartment building. The extreme heat subsided slowly, and the intensity of his pain faded into nothingness. Breathless and dizzy, he lay there for several minutes staring up at the black, star dotted sky.

And then the laughter came. It began as a chuckle, but before long spread through him in a chest-vibrating roar that warmed his entire body. He was a man now. He was a man whose woman was waiting for him. Slowly, he rose to his feet and when he was sure he would retain his equilibrium, he headed for the fire escape.

Shayla was waiting, dozing in a chair by the open window, her grandmother’s old record player spinning away in the corner. Amir stood in the window for a moment and watched her. Her hair was scraped back into a messy ponytail, and stray curls fell into her face, though it didn’t seem to be disturbing her sleep. Curled lashes rested on her cheekbones and her lips were slightly parted. Her chest moved gently and evenly as she slept, a book clutched in her hand.

He entered the apartment and closed the window. He took the needle off of the spinning record and shut of the record player.
He
t
hen found a blanket tossed over another chair and put it over Shayla
,
after the grabbing the book from her hand. The movement startled her out of her sleep and her eyes flew open. She sat up with a jolt when she saw him, blinking her eyes a few times to clear her vision.

They sat that way for a moment, him kneeling with the book in his hand, her looking down at him from her chair. “Is it done?” she asked finally.

He smiled. “Yes. It’s done.”

She stared at him for a moment, pressing one hand to his cheek and then stroking his hair. “You don’t look different. How do you feel?”

“
Well for one thing
,
the only person whose emotions I’m feeling right now are my own.”

“
So now you’ll have to guess what others are thinking and feeling just like the rest of us mortals.”

“
A penny for your thoughts,” he said with a laugh.

She came down from the chair onto the floor with him, taking his face in her hands. “It’s a bit hard to put into words, really. Maybe I should just show you.”

She pulled him in toward her for a kiss, moving her hands up to tangle in the silky strands of his hair. Groaning against her lips, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her flush against his body, shuddering at the feel of her against him. He placed his thumb on her chin and pressed down gently until her mouth opened and met his tongue with hers. He clung to her as the world seemed to tip off of its very axis. Time seemed suspended and still, until all that mattered was the taste of Shayla on his tongue, the sound of her soft moans as he caressed her mouth with his, and the feel of her body pressed up against his.

They fell back onto the floor together, his arms coming around her when she landed on top of him. Their kiss grew more frantic by the second, the heat of it searing him with every touch of her velvety tongue against his. Their bodies moved together rhythmically, creating a friction that sent tremors coursing through him.

And suddenly it wasn’t enough. She was close, but he wanted her closer. The layers of clothing between them felt stifling, and the sweetness of a kiss was no longer enough. He was rigid, his entire body tense from his shoulders down to his toes, and he knew he had to have her in order to ease the ache.

He tore his mouth away from hers and looked down into her eyes, reading desire there. Her lips parted, her breath was coming fast and ragged, the same as his. He traced the full upper lip with his fingertip before circling around to trace the bottom. Her tongue crept out to taste the tip; the sheer pleasure of it shot through him like a lightning bolt. “Shayla,” he whispered with a shudder as her body moved against his. “I want you. Now.”

She nodded wordlessly, her hands already coming up to the hem of his shirt. He lifted his body away from hers just long enough for her to whip his shirt over his head and bring his own hands to the front of her blouse. With one firm tug, the buttons at the front of her shirt popped out of their holes, and the material fell away from her easily. He reached around to reach the clasp of her bra, pulling it away just as easily. Cool air whispered between them for a moment before he pulled her back down and her chest settled against his.

His fingertips slid gently up and down her back as his open mouth found her neck. She gripped his shoulders tightly and arched her back, offering up more of the curve of her neck and aching breasts to his delight. He took one offered orb into his mouth, thrilled at the friction between his tongue and her hardening nipple. Grasping his hair with one hand, she held him there, gasping for breath as he tasted the honey of her skin. Never had he tasted anything more satisfying.

As she lowered her head to kiss him again, his hands moved down to cup the delicious curve of her bottom, pressing her tightly against him. He throbbed with need against her, desperate for release, aching for the sweet ecstasy that he knew awaited him within her most sacred and womanly of places.

Before he could reach between their bodies to unsnap the button on her jeans, she was doing it. Amir busied himself with cradling her breasts in his hands, testing the weight of them, marveling at how his touch caused the tips to pucker and harden. When she was unbuttoned, he helped her slide the jeans over her hips and down her legs. His hands gripped her legs in a slow caress on the way back up from her ankles. Within seconds she had divested him of his jeans as well.

Amir’s eyes roamed over Shayla’s body with undisguised want and admiration. The beauty of what she was offering him, her womanly body, both stunned and pleased him. He had never been with a woman before, yet he felt as if he already knew how to love Shayla, just as he knew everything else about her.

“
Shayla,” he murmured her name again, running one hand down from the tip of one breast to the curve of her waist and hip. She shivered. “I’ve never…that is…I know what to do but I’ve never been with a woman before.”

“
Shhh,” she pressed her finger to his lips, effectively silencing him before drawing close for another kiss. “I love you, and I know I’ll love being with you.”

His anxiety put to rest, he went down easily when she put one hand against his chest and pushed gently. When he was lying on his back she came over him until she was straddling his lap. Her heated core pressed up against the thick root of his yearning, forcing a moan from his lips. As she rose up enough to press the head of him to her entrance, Amir paused and held his breath, the anticipation nearly driving him over the brink.

She paused for a moment, savoring the tingling feeling of expectation. In the same instant he thrust upward and she surged downward, and in one firm stroke he was buried within her. The breath he had been holding came out on a hoarse cry that rose up to mingle with her impassioned moan. They stayed that way for a moment, simply reveling in the feel of their joined flesh. And then, she began to move.

Pleasure; pure, exquisite and torturous, it thrummed through him as he moved his hips upward to meet hers. He allowed her to set the pace, too overcome with the ecstasy of the moment to snatch the reigns back from her firm grasp. He watched her as she moved over him, her hair now completely unbound and cascading around her shoulders, her lips parted as moans of delight spilled from between her sweet lips, the rise and fall of her breasts as he reached out his palm to touch her. He delighted in the feel of her skin, hot against his hand, and the contrast of his light skin against her dark.

When her pace grew wilder and her breath quickened, her eyes widened and her lower lip disappeared between her teeth, Amir knew that heaven was near. When she collapsed against him, her moans wild against his ear and her body quivering against his, he knew that she had found her release. Not far behind her, Amir drove up into her once, twice, and a third time before exploding with his own exquisite ending.

His arms came up to cradle her against him, holding her close as he rolled until they were both lying on their sides facing each other. They were quiet for almost half an hour, content to lie in each other’s arms and calm their racing hearts.

“
Marry me,” he whispered suddenly, when the silence had stretched on long enough. “Be mine forever.”

She smiled, pressed her forehead against his. “When?”

“
Today,” he said with a laugh, “tomorrow, next week. I want you to be mine.”

“
Yes,” she said. “Whenever you want, wherever you want.”

Content with her answer, Amir grabbed the blanket he had wrapped Shayla in earlier and covered their bodies with it. By the time he had settled the cover over them, she was asleep. Amir laid his head down next to hers and closed his eyes.

They were married two days later in Central Park, with only three witnesses in attendance. Shayla’s parents, shocked at their daughter’s hasty decision, could hardly believe it when she called them to invite them. They quickly jumped into action, calling on a reverend who was an old family friend to perform the ceremony. The third guest was Sarah. Amir had introduced her as an ‘old friend’, but Shayla knew what she was.

They gathered beneath the shade of a large tree, Amir in jacket and tie, Shayla in a simple white dress. The reverend led them in their vows, they exchanged rings, and with a kiss they were bound together for life. Ronald Gaines welcomed Amir to the family with tears in his eyes; Sharice Gaines shook his hand cordially and did the same. As a wedding gift, the Gaines’ treated the newly-wed couple to a weekend stay at the Four Seasons Hotel.