Free Her Sinful Angel by Felicity Heaton Page B

quickly looked back over her shoulder, towards the tunnel. Lucifer stood there, shrouded in shadow, the golden light from the torch playing over his handsome features. They were sombre again, clouded in a way she found she didn’t like. One that made her want to say or do something to lift the sorrow from his heart.
    She rose onto her feet and padded up the short incline to him, stopping on the grass just a few metres from him.
    “How long have I been here?” Nina turned and looked back down at the river, watching the water sparkle in the dappled light as it raced around a bend near the bridge.
    “In the valley?” he said, his soft voice soothing her almost as much as the sun on her skin and the beauty surrounding her.
    More so in fact.
    It comforted her, chasing away the lingering trace of fear in her veins. When she looked at the red bridge to the forest now, she wasn’t afraid of what might be in those woods.
    She felt safe with Lucifer standing at her back.
    She felt he would protect her.
    A ridiculous notion. She barely knew the man. Just because he had protected her once, didn’t mean he would do it again. And what was there out here that she needed protection from anyway? There was nothing in this valley but her.
    And Lucifer.
    She turned her face towards him but stopped just short of looking at him, keeping her profile angled slightly away from him instead. She felt his gaze on her face, slowly roaming it and then lower, igniting that low burn in her blood that she felt sure would always be there when he looked at her.
    She nodded.
    “Fourteen hours.” He sounded distant. Lost in thought?
    Lost in looking at her?
    A blush climbed her cheeks and she looked away from him, needing a moment to compose herself so she could focus on what was important. It didn’t feel as if she had been here fourteen hours, but she had lost track of time. She checked her watch again and frowned as the second hand ticked past the minute mark.
    If she had been here fourteen hours, it should be dark. Presuming time moved in the same way here as it did back in London.
    Heck, she really had lost her mind if she was beginning to believe it was possible she was in a place where time flowed at a different pace.
    “Does it ever grow dark?” She lifted her gaze to the bright orb in the sky. Was that even real? Was any of it? What if it was all just an incredible illusion and she was really standing in another grim black room?
    Or the valley was in fact as dark and bleak as that land she had seen beyond the trees?
    Did Lucifer have the power to make that happen?
    He had said that he had created this place.
    When he didn’t answer her question, she looked over her right shoulder at him and found him staring off into the distance.
    “It can,” he murmured and his eyes slowly dropped to rest on her, losing their glassy quality and gaining a sharp edge that pierced her with its intensity and sent a bolt of heat shooting through her blood. “But why would you desire to see the darkness?”
    Nina supposed it was a strange question considering that she hadn’t enjoyed her time inside the gothic fortress, shut away and unable to leave. She had made it painfully clear to Lucifer that it felt like a cell to her too, and that she craved light and air. Freedom. Now she wanted it to be dark. Why?
    “It just seems strange as it is,” she whispered and then found some strength to place into her words as his eyes narrowed on her, a flicker of curiosity in them. “The sun never moves… the stars never shine… the seasons probably remain the same. Time never flows. It’s static and you must grow bored of seeing it always the same?”
    Lucifer’s eyes left her, returning to the valley and remaining there, the distant edge back in them. He looked absorbed in the scenery, but she knew he was thinking about what she had said and she feared she had overstepped the mark and offended him by finding a flaw with this place of his creation.
    “Do you