Page 45 of Ramiel

Waiting until he was out of earshot, Caterina finally snickered out loud.“That poor guy needs to get laid real bad,” she murmured.

Rising, she tossed her trash in the bin in the kitchen, then ambled over to the knight’s belongings.Her curiosity was too strong to ignore, so she knelt down and opened the duffle bags.“Oh, my God!”she exclaimed quietly in delight.“He’s into paranormal romance books!”Laughing hard, she muffled the noise with one hand, while checking out the blurb on the back cover.“This is priceless!”the cambion said in mirth, then put the book back.“He’s got all twenty books in the series stashed in here,” Caterina said, breath beginning to hitch with the need to howl in laughter.

Zipping the bag shut again, she retrieved her gear, then climbed the stairs.Stripping the pillowcase off a pillow in the main bedroom, she pressed her face into the bare pillow and succumbed to hysterical laughter.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

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RAMIEL COULD HEAR CATERINAsobbing in a bedroom upstairs when he returned from his brief perimeter check.He’d just used it as an excuse to wait for his shaft to calm down.“She was just eating an energy bar,” he berated himself quietly as he approached the house.“How can that possibly make you hard?”Picturing her taking something far longer and wider between her lips had been to blame.

The poor female was distraught after her harrowing day.Respecting her privacy, he relocked the front door and retrieved the book he was reading from his duffle bag.He read until he was tired enough to sleep, then put the book away again.The couch wasn’t long enough for him, so he curled up on his side and sank into slumber.Waking at dawn, he read until he heard Caterina stirring.

The knight’s dreams had been filled with the beautiful female who descended the stairs.“Morning,” she said with a smile that made his pulse quicken.Even dressed in a plain black t-shirt and shorts, she was a vision.

“Did you sleep well, female?”he asked.

“Not really,” his cambion replied.“I kept having nightmares about being chopped up and eaten while I was still alive.”

His dreams had been erotic in nature, but he didn’t mention that to her.“There’s something I’d like to do before we drive to Manhattan,” he said.He’d never met a cambion with a gray soul before and he had questions that needed to be answered.

“What’s that?”she asked, then opened a can of fruit and forked some into her mouth.

Ramiel looked away before he could become aroused again.“I’d like to speak to your great-grandmother,” he said.

Caterina swallowed her food the wrong way and coughed, pounding her fist against her chest.“Why?”she asked in a hoarse tone.His request had done more than just startle her, it had upset her badly.

“She has the sight and she may have seen where my commander’s base is,” Ramiel said.His female’s olive skin had paled a bit and she clearly wasn’t happy about his plan.

“They’ve probably moved from the camping site by now,” she said, looking at the can and frowning.

“It can’t hurt to see if they’re still there,” Ramiel reasoned.“You came from the south and we’re already heading in that direction.”

Caterina’s frown deepened, then she glanced up at him.Her dark eyes were roiling with emotion.“I can’t go back there,” she said in a low, pained tone.

“Why not?”he asked, knowing she was hiding something from him.It was obviously something she didn’t want him to know about.