"for this whole night." for making me crazy about him when i knew it was wrong. he was the worst kind of wrong. he was so wrong it felt right, and that made me feel completely out of control.

i might have been tempted to hit him square in the jaw had he not taken me by the shoulders and pinned me against the wall. there was hardly any space left between us, just a thin boundary of air, but patch managed to eliminate it.

"let's be honest, nora. you've got it bad for me." his eyes held a lot of depth. "and i've got it bad for you." he leaned into me and put his mouth on mine. a lot of him was on me, actually. we touched base at several strategic locations down our bodies, and it took all my willpower to break away.

i pulled back. "i'm not finished. what happened to dabria?"

"all taken care of."

"what exactly does that mean?"

"she wasn't going to keep her wings after plotting to kill you. the moment she tried to get back into heaven, the avenging angels would have stripped them. she had it coming sooner or later. i just sped things up."

"so you just-tore them off?"

"they were deteriorating; the feathers were broken and thin. if she stayed on earth much longer, it was a signal to every other fallen angel who saw her that she'd fallen. if i didn't do it, one of them would have."

i dodged another one of his advances. "is she going to make another unwanted appearance in my life?"

"hard to say."

lightning quick, patch caught hold of the hem of my sweater. he reeled me into him. his knuckles brushed the skin of my navel. heat and ice shot through me simultaneously. "you could take her, angel," he said. "i've seen both of you in action, and my bet's on you. you don't need me for that."

"what do i need you for?"

he laughed. not abruptly, but with a certain low desire. his eyes had lost their edge and were focused wholly on me. his smile was all fox ... but softer. something just behind my navel danced, then coiled lower.

"door's locked," he said. "and we have unfinished business."

my body seemed to have swept aside the logical part of my brain. smothered it, in fact. i slid my hands up his chest and looped my arms around his neck. patch lifted me at the hips, and i wrapped my legs around his waist. my pulse pounded, but i didn't mind one little bit. i crushed my mouth to his, soaking up the ecstasy of his mouth on mine, his hands on me, feeling on the verge of bursting out of my skin-

the cell phone in my pocket rang to life. i pulled away from patch, breathing heavily, and the phone rang a second time.

"voice mail," patch said.

deep in the recesses of my consciousness, i knew answering my phone was important. i couldn't remember why; kissing patch had made every last harbored worry evaporate. i untangled myself from him, turning away so he wouldn't see how worked up ten seconds of kissing him had made me.

internally i was screaming with joy.

"hello?" i answered, resisting the urge to wipe my mouth for smeared lip gloss.

"babe!" vee said. we had a bad connection, the crackle of static cutting across her voice. "where are you?"

"where are you? are you still with elliot and jules?" i flattened a hand against my free ear to hear better.

"i'm at school. we broke in," she said in a voice that was naughty to perfection. "we want to play hideand