Earthbound Angels Part 1: The Heartthrob Fallen Celestial Stories Collection (4 page)

They both laughed at that last comment.

"One more thing, Ms. Talbot," Erick added as she
stepped into the elevator car. "Now that we're going to be working
together so closely, I insist that you call me Erick."

She smiled at him. "Anything you say, Erick, but
only if you call me Hollianne." She could not believe herself. Here
she was smiling warmly as if she had known him for months, without
affectation or mannerism. She knew all too well how that might come
across to a man less respectful of propriety than he clearly
was.

"Wonderful, Hollianne. I'll see you
tomorrow."

Smiling at him as the doors closed, she waited
until the car started moving down.

Suddenly, she pumped her fist into the air.
"Yes! Yes!
Yes!"
She
stage-whispered with each fist pump.

Oh-my-God-thank-you-so-much-it-really-happened!

And he was so
nice!
How happy she was that she did not need to use her pepper
spray; In fact, she had completely forgotten about it. She could
not believe she would have an employer like that for the next few
weeks. But it was going to happen. It was all
true!
Somebody must be watching over her from up above.
Her guardian angel, of course, she thought.

It did not matter that she was grown up now, and
that she had stopped believing in such things when she was twelve.
How could she not believe in a guardian angel after an experience
like this?

By the time she arrived in the lobby, she had
composed herself enough to walk without skipping all over the place
like a lunatic, and she exited the elevator. As she crossed the
lobby towards the doors leading out onto the sidewalk, a porter
stopped her.

"Ms. Talbot?" he asked.

"Yes?" Hollianne replied.

Her heart had stopped. Had the other shoe now
dropped?

But the porter was smiling. "I have a cab
waiting for you, Ma'am." He escorted her through the doors and
opened the door of the waiting vehicle. "Have a good night."

Once she was inside, he closed the door, and
waved.

Erick poured himself another glass of wine once
Hollianne had departed. He needed it. Meeting the woman up close
and personal had left him feeling very unsettled. She was so
beautiful, her gorgeous emerald-green eyes fringed in long lashes
holding him captive from the time she appeared before him on that
elevator. How could she not be aware of their effect?

Her body was small but not frail. She had pert
little breasts, a cinched-in waist, and slightly-flared hips. He
couldn't tell a lot about her legs because they had been encased in
a pair of navy blue dress slacks, but she moved them as gracefully
as she had the rest of her body. The lime-green lightweight sweater
she wore complemented her body nicely and had a V-neck that
revealed just enough cleavage that made him want to see more.

He was definitely uncomfortable right now and
had no idea why.

His thoughts turned to his self-imposed
isolation and the reasons for being cast out of Heaven. He had
never cared much for humans and continued challenging the Father on
why He allowed the human race to make mistakes and drastically
unbalance the universe while angels weren't given any room for
error at all.

Clearly, Erick had argued one time too many and
suddenly found himself on earth as a human. It could not be denied
that the Father had a perverse sense of humor.

His only instruction:
Be human, and find the answers to
your questions.

But he only had one question:
Why are they worth
saving?

Why did he have to become human to get the
answer to that one question?

Granted, he lived in a palatial mansion
surrounded by acres of manicured land, forests, and gardens.

But that's not what he was supposed to be
doing.

He missed lounging around on clouds and walking
golden streets with his wings fully unfurled, not limited or bound
by physical or temporal chains, free to roam the landscapes of
celestial beauty and enjoy the bliss of the highest music
imaginable, the music that only specially chosen mortals were
allowed to hear a whisper of in their last moments -- Bach, Mozart
and Milton had been among these lucky few.

Now, here he was among the very same beings he
held in contempt, and worst of all; he actually was one of
them.

He still hadn't found the answer to his
question. In fact, the longer he stayed here, the more he realized
how weak humans were, how prone they were to make trouble for
themselves and their fellow men.

They just couldn't stop hurting each other,
the miserable little cursed creatures.

He found himself saving these lowly beings
because it was the only way he could be himself. However, much as
he might despise their weaknesses and the frequent abandon with
which they surrendered to them, he was incapable of being false to
himself.

Being punished did not mean being guilty. He was
here as a test. And, well, he did irritate the hell out of the
Father.

Unfortunately, he could not yet see the light.
He felt it would be a very long time before he could find the
answers he sought.

But since meeting Hollianne, there had been a
gradual change inside him.

It was like he was waking up...to something
unexplored -- for him, who had thought he had seen and known
everything humans were capable of. The human side imposed upon his
holy person was stirring, was that it? That part of him that
exemplified being wholly human had never throbbed that way with any
other woman in the past.

Erick swore under his breath.

Centuries ago - no, yesterday - he would have
abhorred the possibility that he might have succumbed to the
inevitable. However, he had been told he would eventually embrace
his humanity and that would be the time that he would get his
answers. He didn't hate the idea now.

In fact, if being human was the way for him to
explore this awakening, he couldn't wait to start.

Was it because of Hollianne?

He saw those fiery eyes again, seeking for
something they did not yet know how to see.

He would have to figure out and try to
understand this new sensation, and whether he should resist or
accept it. He would have plenty of time to do that with Hollianne
moving into his home. There would be lots of opportunities to see
how much stronger it could become.

Hollianne had definitely started tugging at his
humanity.

He just needed to figure out why that was.

Hollianne wasn't able to sleep at all that
night. It may just have been the after-effects of the wine, but
every time she lay down, she could hear her heart pounding in her
ear. Her mind was racing with every detail of that evening,
reliving it, not to groan at some embarrassment or
misunderstanding, as so often happened, but to puzzle out its
meaning. After two hours, she wondered whether it had really
happened, and was not just some fantasy she had devised to hide
from the grim reality she had been faced with just that day.
However, the impressions were too real, too vivid and complete, to
be her invention. It had really happened, however impossible the
whole thing seemed.

She finally got up around four AM; feeling
light-headed but strangely alert, and made some coffee.

She had collected some boxes earlier that
evening to help with the packing, and with the prospect that had
suddenly opened up before her, the task was no longer a burden. Her
furniture would go into storage now that she would be able to
afford it. The only things she was taking with her were her clothes
and personal items. Erick told her he would send people to pick up
her things and deliver them to the storage facility of her
choice.

He was also having a rental car delivered to her
at his expense because he knew she would need one living so far
outside of the city. She and Adam had moved into the city partly
because they couldn't actually afford a car of their own. In the
city, they had plenty of access to public transportation when they
needed it. Otherwise, they simply walked to most of the places they
frequented.

Hollianne couldn't believe her tremendous luck
in landing this job. It was just what she needed right now and it
would certainly get her back on her feet financially. And Erick was
phenomenally wonderful!

He wasn't hard on the eyes, either.

She felt her bones melting, all the tension and
excitement of last night easing, as she envisioned him once again,
closing her eyes.
His name fits,
she thought as she involuntarily hugged the pile of clothes
she was about to transfer to an open suitcase.

Erick Angell really did fit her idea of an angel
-- not that she had ever imagined one specifically, but she
suddenly knew that Erick was what an angel should be like.

She suddenly felt a little guilty about her
reaction to him.

Adam had been her life and now here she was,
looking at another man like he was a feast.

But this had never happened to her.

Not even with Adam. She was a bookish sort and
it took a while before she had even noticed him. Adam hadn't
helped; he wasn't the assertive sort and would probably never even
have plucked up the courage to speak to her had she not made the
first move, more out of impatience than desire. Their attraction
had been gradual -- thinking of themselves first as friends for
weeks that turned into months, with meeting after meeting and one
heartfelt conversation after another. But these conversations were
never about what either of them felt, until late one evening as
they were about to part. A sudden downpour had driven them to the
shelter of a shop doorway. Adam had reached out to brush the rain
drops from her hair without even thinking of anything more. Then,
suddenly she was in his arms and her lips were pressed to his. But
it had been another month before they slept together for the first
time. He was so infuriatingly slow to take the hint. It had been
magic while it lasted, but there was nothing quick about it, or
about her other relationships for that matter, which as a
consequence had been few in number. Since Adam she had not even
looked at a man that way again.

However, when she first set her eyes on Erick,
she had been completely mesmerized. Blushing furiously even as she
thought it, seeing Erick was like seeing a real man for the first
time in her life.

Hollianne shook her head to clear it, which
turned out to be a mistake, as it only made her feel light-headed
again, exacerbating the sense of dreamlike unreality.

It surely wasn't as bad as that. It was just a
momentary crush, enhanced on by the plush surroundings and amazing
food. She would get used to his attractiveness when she started
staying with him, would start to notice those annoying quirks and
faults that always started to emerge from behind the facade that
men presented to women in order to impress them.

She just had to try to not think about him all
the time. It was imperative that she be able to distract herself
whenever she thought of him that way.

Mentally, she went through her plans for the
coming days and went back to packing.

By ten AM, Hollianne was ready to take a quick
shower and be on her way. As it turned out, she really didn't have
all that much to pack.

Following her shower, she put her blonde hair up
into a ponytail and donned some jeans and a t-shirt. She felt this
was a much safer outfit to wear so that she didn't perpetuate any
misconceptions that she may have left with Erick last night. He
needed to see that she wasn't pursuing him in a manner unseemly to
their employer-employee relationship. She looked decent enough, but
certainly not overdone. Just as she had finished dressing, the
doorbell rang.

The truck was here.

For the next half hour, Hollianne supervised the
men loading her stuff into the truck and gave them the address for
the storage facility. She had reserved the unit and the manager had
instructions to lock it after her things had been delivered.

When they had left, Hollianne stood in the
middle of the bare living room.

Looking around one last time at the home she had
shared with Adam, she brushed away tears. They had not had a long
time together, but for a while they had been happy in their own
quiet way. For the first time ever, she had looked forward to
returning home, knowing that she would find him there and that they
would spend the evening doing nothing in particular, just glad to
be close. Then it all ended suddenly, the shock like a slap to the
face that her ears seemed to have stopped ringing from only now. It
was over, and she felt able to say goodbye.

Taking a deep breath, feeling that she was
taking a crucial and final step into the next phase of her life,
she placed the key to the townhouse on the kitchen bar and walked
out the door, closing it firmly behind her -- forever.

She gave an involuntary gasp when she saw the
rental car waiting for her at the curb. It was no penny-pinching
hire -- it was a BMW coupe in sky blue with red leather upholstery.
The driver got out and handed her an odd-looking device that
reminded her of a mini remote, explaining to her that it was a
keyless car. What he handed her was a device that allowed her to
open the doors and the trunk. She only needed to push a button
inside the car to start it. Then he showed her how the security and
entertainment systems worked, and told her that the GPS had been
set to take her where she was meant to go.

Thanking him, she got into the car, started the
engine wearing a huge smile of anticipation on her face, and drove
away. Hollianne drove for nearly an hour in a direction that
brought her outside of Moon Bay. Before long, she was in a rural
area where she had rarely ventured in the past. It was good that
Erick had the GPS set for her. She would have gotten lost without
it.