Duncan's Descent by Marie Harte Page A

understand him. Not with the life she’d lead.
    â€œSapphira, can I ask you something?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAre you happy up there?” He pointed above him. “Honestly?”
    She stared at him, her gaze measuring. And, with a huff of sweet breath, answered with a succinct, “No.”
    â€œThen what are you going to do about it?”
    She frowned. “What do you mean?”
    â€œWell, when my time with you is over, what are you going to do?” Surely she wasn’t going to try to fit back in with the assholes above?
    â€œI’m going to go back to Uriel, take my punishment, and carry on. Do my duty.”
    â€œAnd what duty is that?” Anger simmered. What the hell was she playing at? Did she really think she could walk away from him and not feel anything?
    â€œTo sway souls for…heaven,” she said in a low voice.
    â€œOh? Like you’ve been doing this past week?” he scoffed.
    â€œBut like you said, Uriel’s testing me. He probably wants to see if I’ll do the right thing, not what’s best for heaven.” She nodded, as if trying to convince herself, and Duncan wanted to shake her to make her see reason.
    â€œSapphira,” he ground out. “Open your fucking eyes. Uriel is using you to get to me. He wants you to sway me, but more, he wants you to fail. He gets off on showing up lesser angels. Trust me. I’ve been around enough of you to know when you’re being played.”
    Perhaps that hadn’t come out right, because her temper flared in a heartbeat. “Lesser angels? As in, not on par with you mighty demons? The great big, bad Decision makers?”
    â€œHoney, that’s not what I—”
    â€œYou know, Duncan, you weren’t complaining about my ineptitude a few hours ago when you were deep inside me.”
    He felt a rush of heat, wanting to be there again. And Sapphira in a mad, well, there was only so much a demon could take.
    â€œBaby, I—”
    She turned and closed the space between them as she poked him hard in the chest. “Don’t ‘baby’ me. I may be younger than you, less experienced and physically weaker, but I’m as capable as any demon.” She sneered, and Duncan’s heart faltered on the verge of everlasting love. “So you can go fuck yourself if you think I’ll stand for being treated as some inferior—”
    â€œI love you.”
    â€œâ€”Decision making…. what ?”
    He sighed, long and loud. “You’re too opinionated. You’ve got the potential to be a terrific liar if you’d apply yourself. And you need work on toughening up that image.”
    She stared at him, her mouth agape, her eyes so wide she looked cartoonish.
    â€œNow hear me out when I say you’re not going back to the upper realm. You’re not going to let those assholes make you feel less than whole because you clearly don’t belong up there. You belong in the lower realm with me.”
    Hell, the longer he talked, the more nervous he felt. And Duncan Sinclair, demon at large, only felt nervous when confronting his father or The Pit. The Pit… Shit. He had totally forgotten about his own task to find out who continued to spy for the angels in the lower realm. But as he absorbed Sapphira’s shock, he realized she couldn’t possibly know. And even if she did, taking advantage of her now would just be wrong… Oh fuck. Had he really just experienced a twinge of conscience? It had to be love. That or he was truly losing his mind.
    â€œYou love me?” she squeaked.
    â€œDid I stutter?” he muttered, annoyed that his tough image would take a beating after this. Falling in love with an angel? He might as well have “pussy-whipped” tattooed to his forehead. Yet the joy pulsing from Sapphira only made him happier, and he knew he’d lost it.
    Sapphira hugged him tight, and then her lips were on his and reason