Golden Angel: (Broken Angel #5) by L.G. Castillo Page B

the phrase ‘hang gliding’ sound so sexy.
    “I, uh, yeah, I do.”
    “So take me. Tomorrow.” He leaned, inching closer to her.
    Lord, help me. He was putting on the charm full blast now.
    “Please.”
    Hold your ground, woman. Ignore the heat coming from that rock-hard body of his.
    “I don’t know.”
    He was so close now that she could feel his sweet breath against her cheek. She was not going to cancel her training session—no matter what he said.
    “I’ll pick you up.”
    Tell me he did not just flex his biceps. Damn it!
    “Fine. But come early. That’s when the view is best. And you’re buying breakfast.”

14
    J eremy gawked at the flimsy triangle that lay on the grass. Squinting, he stepped closer to the glider to get a better look. His vision had become so bad lately, he’d thought about getting glasses. His hearing wasn’t any better, either. What had he been thinking when he’d asked Leilani to take him hang gliding?
    And the crazy girl was going to do it. She was actually going to jump off the cliff.
    In an oversized polyester kite!
    “Here, take these and put them on.” She tossed a helmet and harness to him.
    Great. He was sending Leilani to her death with him , a helmet-wearing, near-sighted, wingless archangel, attached to her.
    “Leilani, I think—”
    His voice caught when she drew closer to him and she came into focus. She gathered her hair off her face, exposing high cheekbones as she pulled it into a ponytail. She was all lit up with excitement. She was beautiful.
    “You think what?”
    “I, uh . . .” He inched away until her face blurred.
    There. That’s better.
    “Are you sure about this? It doesn’t look very sturdy.”
    Laughing, she slapped on a helmet and adjusted the strap under her chin as she shortened the distance between them until she was in his face.
    “Chickening out, Golden Boy? It was your idea, remember?”
    Why did her dark eyes have to twinkle like that whenever she looked at him? And why did it make his heart sing when she did?
    “Yeah, I remember,” he grumbled. It had been the only thing he could think of to keep her from freediving. There was no way he was going to let her do it when he didn’t have the strength to help her. And he didn’t trust that man-child to watch over her.
    He shoved his feet through the bottom loops of the harness. There was nothing he could do if they got into trouble. And it was his fault for being an idiot.
    The moment he’d woken up on the bar floor with Leilani’s worried face looking down at him, he’d known what had happened. Gabrielle hadn’t been there for Joab and Jether. She’d been there for him.
    He couldn’t believe it. He’d known the archangels would punish him. He expected to be banished, not stripped of all his powers. He’d never expected that. Not even Lash had been punished so severely. Lash was allowed to keep some of his powers. He’d been able to fly, even if it had been for limited distances.
    They had taken away everything that made him an angel. After Leilani had left him off at the cottage, he’d tried to get his angel wings to emerge. He could live with wearing glasses and hearing aids if he had to, but not without flying. After days of trying, he’d finally collapsed on the floor.
    If their punishment was to make him weak, mission accomplished. He was as weak as a human. But the worst of it was the pain. When he was in his human form, he’d felt pain, but nothing this intense or that lasted so long.
    Yesterday, he’d accidently scraped a paper over his finger. Paper! It was a small paper cut, but the damn thing had made his finger throbbed for hours. And when Sammy had shown him how to make fresh lemonade and the juice had entered the tiny cut, he had run around the cottage rotating between sucking on his finger and cursing. It didn’t help that Leilani had laughed and told him to stop crying like a bitch-baby.
    “You done grumbling yet? Come over here and I’ll connect your