Dayne, curled up on the couch, cradled the cordless phone against her shoulder and sniffled. "I don't want to be comforted, Paige. I just want to stay at home for a few days and be alone." She pulled the afghan up under her chin and said, "I'm sure. I really don't want company."
She switched off the phone and dropped it to the floor, then rolled over and shoved her face into the nubby cushions of the back of the couch. She was a lot more depressed than she'd let on to Paige—she didn't care if she never got up again. Her life felt hollow; emptier than when Torry had died, worse than when she'd lost the baby. Adam had been her hope of happiness; he'd been all her dreams rolled up into one wonderful package. He'd been her chance to get it right this time—her chance to find out if love was everything the songs and the novels said it could be.
And now, for all she knew, both of the men she'd cared for in her life were in Hell.
She wondered if she'd ever sleep again.
She clutched a throw pillow to her chest and sobbed.
"Please don't cry," a soft voice whispered in her ear. Warm lips kissed the back of her neck.
She screamed and rolled over, bringing her knees up, ready to attack whatever stranger had broken into her house—but her scream died off into silence, and her legs dropped weakly to the couch, and she gasped.
"Adam! How . . . ?" She stared at him. His face was unchanged, his body was just as she'd seen it before—except with navel this time. He knelt by the couch wearing nothing but the worried expression on his face, and he was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Yet something about him was different. The aura of otherworldliness, the compelling air of nearly magical bad-boy sexuality—that was gone.
She was surprised to find she was glad to see it go. He seemed both more touchable and more real to her than he ever had.
She finished her question. "How are you here?"
"I made a deal with God."
"But Lucifer dragged you back to Hell."
"And God pulled me out. I loved you—and there is no love in Hell. That is, in fact, the defining characteristic of Hell."
Dayne nodded. That made sense to her. "But how did you get back here?"
"I asked God to make me human, to let me be with you."
Dayne frowned. "You were immortal."
"Now I'm something more." He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. "I'm human. And I love you. And if you'll let me, I'll love you for the rest of my life."
"And beyond," Dayne whispered, kissing him back. "If love is the defining characteristic of Heaven, there will be a place for our love there. And I could ask for nothing more than to love you forever."