the apartment door out into the hallway for a break.
Zara told herself they didn’t need her breathing down their backs anyway, that they didn’t need her help. But the truth was, she had never felt so embarrassed and shy around two guys making out before, and she had seen the spectacle enough and been around enough gay guys—especially when she had hung out with Quincy in college and at clubs—to be comfortable in her voyeur-dom.
She’d initially felt this bashfulness in the shower with Patryk, had been as tongue-tied as a girl confronted with her lifetime crush when Patryk alluded to his masturbating.
It’s not like he had anything she hadn’t seen or used to her pleasure before, and she’d been about to tell him this before something stopped her.
Had her angels taken something from her, something like her boldness?
Worse, had they taken her libido?
It is called maturing, child .
That’s it? Nothing else? I’m not losing, my, uh…mojo.
You are still you, Zara. And no, you are not losing your mojo.
Zara heard the laugher in Jamaereh’s voice and wondered if this maturation was the natural progression from human to angel-in-training to full-fledged angel.
58
Gracie C. McKeever
She certainly hoped so. She didn’t know how long she could go on hanging around with all the love in the air and not be affected by it all.
Would she love again? Were angels allowed to fall in love, or was she now doomed to a sexless, loveless life of altruism and hooking up other people?
Remember what we said, human. You are not there for your pleasure. You are there to do a job. Stop whining about what you have lost and concentrate on your assignment.
I beg your pardon, I’m not whining!
Not exactly anyway.
Leave it to that grouchy, infernal Micah to intrude on her woolgathering with an insult. Sheesh, he was like her parents! She could do no right in their eyes either.
I will acknowledge your accomplishments once you accomplish something.
Like she hadn’t just busted her ass getting those two opposites together!
Just make sure Keir and Patryk get together. Yeah sure, like it was so easy. She’d like to see Micah try it when those two had more baggage between them than she’d ever taken on a two-week Caribbean cruise, and that was saying something.
It is not supposed to be easy or fun. That is why it is called earning your wings. It is a job, human.
All right, already. I get the message.
Come, Micah. Leave her alone to work. You have interfered enough.
Thank God for Jamaereh.
I heard that.
Zara laughed as she floated through the door back into Keir’s loft apartment to see how things were progressing.
* * * *
Ingenue’s Choice
59
Patryk stood in the cool, airy bathroom looking around and admiring the mint-green and blue color scheme and décor before stripping out of his clothes.
He neatly folded and placed each item on the hamper opposite the large marble sink, imagined what Keir would say about his finicky behavior, and almost dumped the clothes on the floor in a “manly” heap.
Naked, he looked at the navy bathrobe hanging on the peg behind the door but hesitated putting it on despite shivering. He was more anxious than chilled and wondered how and why he had so easily fallen into taking orders from an almost complete stranger. He wondered why he looked forward to Keir’s domination like a school kid anticipating summer vacation.
Maybe Derek was right and Patryk liked taking orders and submitting.
Okay, fine. That wasn’t a problem as he saw it, especially if he was submitting to the right person.
Was Keir the right person? Everything within Patryk said that he was, that he wasn’t making a mistake in trusting Keir, but he had been wrong before.
Patryk closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and reached for the robe, immediately drawn by the downy softness of the terrycloth as he brought it around his body. He slid his arms into the wide sleeves and pulled the sides together, moaning as he
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