Prelude to a Dream (4 page)

“I need your word here, Malachi,” Gerard
practically growled at him. “Ye will never again put your wants in
front of your duty. Ye will protect the people that can’t protect
themselves, and most importantly, ye will never forget this day and
what ye learned.” Throwing his beefy arm out to gesture at the
small body, Gerard snapped, “This is what happens when ye’re not
careful.”

Malachi nodded quickly. This was one promise
he had no problem making. If he could prevent something like this
from happening to even one person, it would be worth it. From now
on, there would be no more village trips, no more taking his
training for granted. He would become the warrior he was born to
be, and nothing or no one would deter his determination to do so.
“I give you my word.”

Present
Day

Struggling not to drop the books she held,
Trinity had almost made it outside the store before someone tapped
her arm to get her attention. When she glanced over her shoulder,
an elderly woman pointed in the direction of the register. Craning
her neck further, she looked back and noticed the cashier had been
waving her over.

Grudgingly, she turned around and pushed
through the crowd of people to return to the register. When she was
close enough, the cashier spoke up. “Ms. Bradshaw,” she said in an
irritated tone, “you forgot your receipt, along with another
book.”

Gritting her teeth so as not to snap back,
she smiled tightly, and said, “Thank you.”

Placing the book on her already full stack,
she once again thought about how she could kick herself for not
remembering to bring her bags from home. She was all for
eco-friendly stores that only used reusable sacks, but she refused
to purchase anymore since she already had a stack of them at home.
When she got home, she would try to remember to put one in her car,
she thought. That way, she wouldn’t have this problem again on her
next impromptu trip to the bookstore.

As she balanced the books in her arms, she
mentally crossed her fingers that she would be able to make it the
block to her car without spilling them all over the sidewalk.

Originally, she came into the city to do a
little shopping. A new school year was starting tomorrow, and she
thought to treat herself. Of course, the shop she decided to visit
was right around the corner from the cute little bookstore she
liked to go to. The endless rainfall hadn’t let up, but not wanting
to try to find a new parking space, she decided to quickly walk
over and take a look inside.

The moment she stepped in, she knew she was
in trouble. The smell of the crisp pages just waiting for her touch
was like a drug, one she had become addicted to ages ago.

Now, here she was. She weaved back through
the crowd, towards the doors, and contemplated how she was going to
keep all her new books dry.

When she finally got to the glass doors, she
looked out and glared at the rain as if the inconvenience was
purposefully meant for her alone. She would just have to run, she
thought. On the count of three…

One

She adjusted the books in her arms so that
none would come loose on the hasty jaunt to her car.

Two

Taking a deep breath in, she placed a hand on
the door and bowed her head.

Three

Quickly, she pushed the door open and stepped
out. Without another thought, she took off running in the direction
of her car. She didn’t even make it two steps before she ran into a
very solid wall. It felt like a wall anyways, when in fact, it was
a very tall and very muscular body.

The impact made her gasp and lurch backwards.
In the process, she ended up dropping all her books onto the
drenched sidewalk, and if it wasn’t for the quick reflexes of the
man she had ran into, she would have fallen backwards and joined
them on the ground.

He had somehow made it behind her, and
prevented her backwards descent by grabbing onto her shoulders. “I
am so sorry. Are you okay?”

His voice was heavenly. The deep sound,
combined with his strong hold on her arms, caused a shiver to run
over her spine. It finally penetrated what he had said. He was
apologizing to her?

“No, I ran into you. I wasn’t watching where
I was going, just trying to get to my car before my books got
ruined by the rain.” She had started to ramble on, but what she
said had somehow sunk in. Books? Oh no! She had forgotten all about
them.

Immediately, she crouched down and quickly
started to swipe them off the ground. “Damaged… damaged… this one
too. Ugh!”

Suddenly, there was another set of hands down
there, helping her, but her concentration didn’t waver. She was too
focused on her purchases getting ruined by the second.

The man handed her what he had picked up, and
quickly stood. “Listen. Once again, I’m sorry for running into you,
but I really have to go.”

She saw that he was almost dancing from foot
to foot; a telltale sign that he was indeed in a hurry. “That’s
okay. I und―” That was as far as she got in her planned apology
before he took off.

Finally getting the last book in her arms,
she stood and looked in the direction the man had taken off in. The
sidewalk was semi crowded, but there was only one man, a very tall
one at that, that was running away. She knew immediately that that
was the man she had collided with.

She was in no way ready for a man in her
life, but there was no rule against looking, and he was one to look
at―even if it was briefly―and only from the back. She got a partial
smile on her face and remembered his smooth voice, firm touch, and
an overall essence of authority. Definitely a man that dreams could
form around.

Shaking her head, she brought her attention
back to the present, and started jogging to her car once again.
This time, her head was up and she was facing the world head
on.

Celestial
Beginnings

by

Rebekah Daniels

Being a descendant of a fallen angel,
nephilim Malachi Starkman, is all about his duty in protecting
mankind and preventing Satan’s army from growing any further. He
leads a squad of talented warriors on this quest to preserve
humanity, but as leader, he feels every aspect is his
responsibility. After centuries of fighting, he is starting to feel
burned out, and wondering if this is his sole purpose on Earth.

Local teacher, Trinity Bradshaw, has been
trying to move on from her turbulent past but it doesn’t seem to
want to let her go. Therefore, when a deliciously handsome man with
alluring eyes says he wants to help her, she cannot say no. So many
obstacles stand between the two, but neither of them seem to be
able to walk away from the other. Will they find common ground or
will she just be a liability in his quest to destroy the one that
has plagued him for years?

Keep reading for a preview of Celestial
Beginnings

Chapter 1

His kisses were so soft, especially when he
kissed her leg… right there. She couldn’t help the small noise that
slipped from between her lips, “Ahh.”

Trinity Bradshaw couldn’t remember the last
time she felt so thoroughly cherished. She moved her hands around
his body, loving the feel of the solid muscle underneath his warm
skin, the way everything shifted as he moved his hands down the
backs of her legs.

“You like?” He asked before he ran his tongue
down her inner thigh. His husky voice sending chills through her
body.

It took a moment before she could formulate a
clear thought. She knew what she wanted to say, but the only thing
that came out was, “Mmm.”

His laughter sent vibrations all the way from
her nether regions to her toes, and she almost came on the spot. He
was taking his sweet time, tormenting her with his tongue and
teeth.

Soon she could feel his hot breath right in
front of where she wanted him the most. He leaned forward and she
heard him inhale deeply before letting out an audible groan.

“Then you are really going to love this,” he
stated, right before her world turned upside down. Leaning forward,
he used his tongue in one long stroke from the bottom of her
opening all the way up to her over sensitized nub.

She tried to control her reaction, she really
did, but she was lost. Her hips flew up off the bed, so far that
his mouth was momentarily disengaged. In a split second his hands
were on her stomach pushing her back down to the bed. Moving them
to her hips, he securely pinned her down.

His mouth was back on her before her hips hit
the bed. He was doing figure eights with his tongue that felt so
good but were just as frustrating, because he was missing the
places she wanted―no needed―his tongue to be.

She felt herself splintering and needed to
grab onto something to stay grounded. Reaching out, her hand came
into contact with his head and she ran her fingers through his
hair, tugging a little harder to show her frustration.

He must have gotten the hint because in the
next instance his tongue was on her clitoris lightly sweeping
across and over. She needed even more but didn’t know how to tell
him. “Please,” she begged.

He paused in what he was doing to look up at
her. “I know, Baby, I know. You’re just the best thing I’ve tasted
in a long time.” Looking back down at him, she admitted to herself
how utterly handsome he was. The tussled look of his hair and
slight smirk gave him a boyish charm, but it was the hunger in his
piercing green eyes that made her insides clench. “Sugar and
Spice…” As he spoke, he inserted two fingers into her opening, “…
but you’re not very nice, are you?”

Wow that felt good. She reached down and
grabbed the comforter on either side of her, and threw her head
back when she arched into his touch. He was moving his fingers
slowly in and out of her. His hand, his magical hand, was driving
her insane. When she looked back down at him, she noticed that he
was still staring at her. Finally, she realized he was still
waiting for an answer to his question. It took a couple tries to
get anything coherent out, but she sucked in a breath and finally
spoke. “Not tonight, I’m not.”

He obviously liked this answer because he
bent his head back down to her and continued where he had left off.
He was more vigorous this time, using his teeth, tongue… even the
scruff of his slight facial hair was doing wonders to her. All the
while, his hand never stopped what it was doing. She watched him
while trying to control herself, thinking that if this was an
Olympic sport, he could win the gold.

She couldn’t take it any longer, it was too
good, and she was too close. Trinity reached down to grab both of
his upper arms and gave a gentle tug. “Please… now… I need you
now!” Her words were broken as she tried to catch her breath.

When he looked up at her, he must have seen
something in her face that convinced him because he relented and
began to kiss his way up her body. After finally making it all the
way up, he settled himself fully on top of her and kissed her
deeply, passionately.

Eventually, she felt her body relaxing and
she wrapped her arms around him. It felt so good to have this man,
so strong and gloriously naked, lying on top of her. At this
moment, she felt so safe. She started to run her hands over his
body, where she could reach. When she stopped at his shoulders, she
dragged her nails down his back as far as she could reach. It was
not hard enough to break the skin, but there was enough pressure to
make his whole body shudder and a deep groan be pushed from his
throat.

There was now a new sense of urgency in him,
because the next thing Trinity new, he pushed up from the bed by
his elbows. While staring down at her, he ran his large, strong
hand quickly down her leg, stopped and gripped her knee, then
pulled up to place it at his hip.

When she felt the tip of his manhood at her
opening, she knew that this was it. She closed her eyes and leaned
her head back.

“Open your eyes.”

The commanding tone to his voice made it so
she couldn’t deny him. When she opened them, his face was directly
above hers.

“I want you to keep your eyes open so you can
see exactly what you do to me.” His voice was strangled and it was
the last thing he said before he thrus―

Trinity gasped as she sat bolt upright in bed
and looked around disoriented. It took her a minute to figure out
where she was… in her own bed and no man in sight. Ugh, her body
was still humming, but at the same time, a sense of loss fell over
her. Frustrated, she groaned and collapsed back down onto her bed,
throwing her hands over her enflamed face. “It was just a dream! I
can’t believe it―a freaking dream!”