Fallen

Hot, unbridled lust coursed through him, but he was forbidden to do anything about it; forbidden the release that he so desperately needed. The woman in the next room was all he thought about, all he cared for. All he craved. And he couldn’t have her.

~@~

She tossed and thrashed in the bed, trying to get comfortable and ignore the pitiful moans and whimpers that came from the room next door. They didn’t stop, if anything, they got even louder. She grabbed the heaviest pillow she owned and wrapped it around her head, trying to muffle the noise. It didn’t help.

When she could stand it no longer, she flung back the blankets and stormed down the hallway, not caring that she wasn’t wearing a bra, and her hair resembled something that rats had nested in.

“What in the name of bloody hell are you doing?!” She screeched when she saw the remnants of her guest room.

He whipped his head around and stared at her with a fierceness that scared her. She stumbled back a step and rested her back against the door frame. The hunger and pain in his eyes made her want to hold him like a child. But he was much too worked up for that.

As she slumped against the doorframe, he threw back the remains of the sheets and vaulted out of bed. He just stood there, stark naked and breathing hard. She tried not to stare as she realized why he’d been whimpering. She’d whimper too, if she was that much in need of release.

He was so beautiful in his nakedness. So glorious in his maleness, and he had nothing to hide. Every line of his gorgeous body suggested that it was created to please, and wanted to do so. She wanted it to also, but couldn’t bring herself to suggest such a personal thing when she had met this man only a few hours earlier.

He reached for her, stretching his arms out to their full length, but he didn’t-or couldn’t- touch her. He took a step towards her and let his hands fall back to his sides. Let out a frustrated sigh, and took another step.

It was clear that he was fighting some internal battle, one he wanted desperately to win, but she wasn’t sure that she would like the result. But then again, he was gorgeous, and so obviously in need of something that she wanted only to help him.

He let out another sigh and stood dejectedly for a moment. Then in one swift motion, closed the distance between them and kissed her.

She swayed against him, letting her eyes blissfully close, and wrapped her arms around his neck. He rested against her, lips gently caressing her own, hands teasing her body. Suddenly, he stopped, pushed her away and turned around.

“Get out.” His voice was rough, almost inhuman, and the two of three words he knew sounded like a lovely caress, even if they were said in anger.

Dazed, and a little giddy, she licked her lips and said, “Why? What did I do?”

“Get out.”

“No. Not until you tell me why.”

He turned around to face her, lifted his hands as if they would help him speak better, and let them fall to his sides again.

“Out.” He pointed to the door. She shook her head.

“Out!”

“No!”

Since there was no way he could make her understand him with the three words of English that he knew, he just shoved her out of the door and slammed it shut. He slammed his fists against the doorframe, slumped to a ball on the floor and whispered one word.

“Rachel.”

~@~

She stood there, staring at the closed door and wondered what she had done to make him stop so suddenly. Was she too forward? Could he sense her intentions? Or worse yet, was she unattractive to him? She let out a sigh of her own and let her naturally straight shoulders slump. She had never felt so unwanted in her entire life. All day she had been watching him wander around her apartment, marveling at his beautifully sculpted body and wondering what kind of lover he’d be. The first, and only, two sexual encounters she’d had had only been moderately satisfying and she had given up entirely. But he made her want more; so much more. If you had asked, she wouldn’t have been able to tell you what it was about him that made her feel this way, but all she knew was that she would give up everything she had, if only he would kiss her again.

She shuffled down the hallway, back to her room, flung herself on the bed and cried.

~@~

He could hear her muffled sobs through the walls. A rush of self loathing washed over him and he started to get up to go to her, but sat back down again. How could he even begin to explain why he had done what he had done? He knew three words of English: “get out” and “Rachel.” Granted, Rachel was her name, but it counted, right? All he knew was that he loved her, but was forbidden to touch her. Forbidden to love her. Forbidden… everything he so desperately craved.

Even if she understood his native language, he doubted that he could have explained it to her. But the language was lost, long forgotten, even by the greatest scholars. He doubted that the ones that spoke it could understand him. They had only the writings of their ancestors to go on, but he, he had spoken it his entire life, it was his first language, and would always be the one he was most comfortable with. But his job required that he speak many languages, English not included.

He still could not understand why they had banished him. What had he done wrong? Was loving a woman such a crime? If it was, then he would rather die a criminal, than a celibate, shriveled old man. And if it was a crime to love a woman so, why had she not been exiled too? What was so different from what the two of them did, that he deserved this punishment and she did not? It was not fair! But, as the wisest of the old men say, nothing in life is fair. Deal with it.

The humans loved every single day of their lives. They lived, laughed, played, and loved each other, but it made no difference. He was not human, he never would be.

No, he was Gabriel, the right hand of God. He was the man that the human stories never spoke about. He was the man behind the scenes, running things while God sat and played with his little Earth, his little ant farm. Gabriel was the glue that kept the world from falling apart, and they had exiled him.

~@~

She awoke to the sound of running water. It scared her for a moment, until she remembered the man she had taken into her home the night before. The man she wanted so desperately; the man that had pushed her away with no explanation.

It was only yesterday that she had been walking the streets of Manhattan that she had first seen him. He was just standing at the intersection of Broadway and 21st, looking lost and confused. The first thing she noticed about him was that he was gorgeous. Not just handsome, but physically stunning in a way that she had never seen before. He seemed to radiate light on everything around him. And he made other men pale in comparison. It was lust at first sight, but underneath her body’s reaction was the thought that she might be able to hold on to this one.

And now he was in her shower, all naked with the hot water running over those sculpted muscles. No! She would not think of him like that. He had pushed her away. If he didn’t want her, then she didn’t want him.

But she knew this was a lie.

~@~

There was someone in the room. Just outside the curtain to the shower, but definitely someone there. He could see her moving, hear her shifting things around. Turning off the water, he opened the curtain and groped for a towel to dry off with. She handed him one, and turned around again, blushing.

What was it about her that intrigued him so? And why was she blushing? She had seen him naked only the night before. Ah… maybe she was hurt by what he had done then?

He cursed his own stupidity. She was obviously interested, but obviously inexperienced. And he wanted her, like he had wanted for no woman. He sighed. If only he knew more of her language! Well, he could damn well learn!

~@~

She was casually brushing her hair, as if there was nothing better that she would have liked to do. And the clothes that she was wearing weren’t exactly sexy, but they weren’t exactly appropriate either. She stopped when she noticed that he was watching her with a look in his eye that she had only seen once. Maybe he would kiss her again? Maybe she should kiss him, just to see what he did.

She set the hairbrush down and smoothed out the wrinkles in her clothes, running her hands over her breasts and belly, knowing he was watching. Risking a glance, she peeked at him through her eyelashes. He was watching, lips slightly parted, still wearing the towel around his waist. It didn’t quite hide all that it should have, but she didn’t mind. He was frozen in place, not daring to move, not daring to breathe.

She stopped “smoothing out the wrinkles” and took a step towards him. Then another, then she closed the distance between them with a final step and stood there. He was breathing hard now, trying not to move, but his eyes were wide and she could see the lust in them. Her hands reached out and undid the towel wrapped around his waist. It dropped to the floor, and she stared as hard as she had wanted to the night before.

Her heart pounded. Maybe this time would be different. The last two were as unsatisfactory as you could get, but he promised something. Simply by standing there passively, he promised pleasure.

~@~

His mouth watered at the sight of her in her silky under clothes. They hid as much as they revealed, but it was tantalizing. He reached out a hand, caressing her belly and back before sliding it down to her lower back and pulling her towards him. He wrapped the other hand around the back of her neck and pulled her in to kiss her. She swayed against him, pressing her breasts against his chest. They rose and fell in time with her breathing, rubbing against him and exciting him even more.

Her arms, which had been lightly resting on his waist, rose to wrap around his neck and pull him even closer. He shifted, pushing her up against the counter, leaning with her as she tried to pull away.

“No.” He’d learned a new word.

“No?” She was confused. What did he mean?

“No… get… out?” He smiled at her and questioned her at the same time.

“You… don’t want me to leave?” She thought she understood what he wanted, but it was hard when he only knew three words.

He nodded. She leaned forward until their noses were touching and said, “Never.”

His smile was as radiant as ever. She kissed him again, wanting him to touch her. Wanting him to caress her. Wanting to feel him inside her as no other man had ever been. The first two weren’t men. They were boys compared to him.

He slid the hand on her lower back around to the top of her panties, and pulled them down, revealing a dark triangle of hair. He pulled the panties all the way off and tossed them to the floor. Then he released her head and ran his hands up her sides, taking the silky undershirt with them. It landed next to the panties, in a heap on the floor.

He lifted her up until she was sitting on the bathroom counter, and kissed her passionately again. She moaned as his hands wandered across her body, caressing, teasing, always in motion. Her teeth sank into his bottom lip when one hand slid between her legs and caressed her there too. His gentle touch was such sweet torture, such ecstasy, that she never wanted it to stop. His kissed became more passionate, traveling down her jaw, over her collar bone, and back up her neck. When his tongue traced the outline of her ear, she shivered. He trailed his tongue over the placed he had kissed, moving lower, until he came to her right nipple. He took that into his mouth too, and she gasped at the increase in pleasure. Nothing she had ever experienced before could have prepared her for this.

His teeth gently bit her nipple, and she felt a warm tingling sensation between her legs. This man she barely knew, this man that she wanted so much, was doing things to her that she never thought possible. He was making her fall in love.

~@~

He could feel her arousal. He knew she was almost ravenous with need for him, but he wanted to play with her body just a little longer. She was everything to him, this strange, kind, caring woman. She represented everything in the world that was worth preserving, and he wanted to know her inside and out.

~@~

She gasped and moaned as he took a nipple into his mouth as he pushed a finger inside her, arching her back and reaching for him at the same time. Her hands gripped the edge of the counter in an effort not to shake him and make him take her. This was torture. She wanted him now!

She reached out her hands to him, and wrapped her lags around his waist as she pulled him closer. She guided him with one hand and steadied herself with the other.

He paused and looked at her as if to say “Are you sure?” She merely nodded and bit her bottom lip.

~@~

He entered her in one smooth stroke. She cried out and breathed, “Stop.” He didn’t understand the word, but he knew what she needed. Timing was everything, and she was inexperienced and insecure. He didn’t want to wait. He wanted to take her, and take her hard. But he understood that she needed a second to adjust, so he gave that to her.