by Marie Wathen
“Fine,” she grunts, smirking.
“Fine,” I mock while chuckling. “Shall I go first, or do you want to try shocking me with a juicy little secret about the mysterious Angel?”
“Whatever. I’ll go,” she says. I smile, and start driving again after the traffic light changes. “I took self-defense classes a few years back. I can whip your ass without breaking a sweat.”
A devilish grin breaks across my face. I look at her through the corner of my eye. Her set smirk assures me that this is the truth. Interesting. “That’s hot.”
She burst out laughing. “It’s hot that I just threatened you?”
“No, doll, your hands moving all over my body while you try to get me to submit is hot. Now, I need to see your skills.” She hums. “What level?” Her teeth slip over her bottom lip, and I frown. Damn, that question bothers her?
“I didn’t finish.” Why does that feel like a lie? “Your turn.”
“I’m allergic to strawberries.”
“What?” she practically screams, so I glance over at her again. “Blues, that is so damn lame. You aren’t getting away with something so ridiculous.”
I chuckle and take the exit leading toward my favorite Asian restaurant. “Are you making the rules up as we go? Someone is cranky when she’s hungry.”
“Blues,” she crosses her arms over her chest, “I basically tell you that I can kill you with one hand, and you’re actually going to try to get away with telling me your secret is that if you eat a strawberry I’ll need to take you to the ER. That’s such a girly thing to confess, don’t you think?”
Damn, I love her smart mouth. “All right, Ms. Rule-regulator, what would you have me share, that I can’t wipe the floor with your cute little ass on Black Ops?” She scoffs. “Oh doll, don’t poke fun, I guarantee that you would go down in flames.”
She makes that sexy little hum again, and says, “We’ll see.”
I pull into the vacant parking lot of Panda Pan. Angel’s eyes nearly bug out of her head, taking in the dilapidated old building. The place is older than me by several years, but it has the best Asian food. Once inside, she smiles while pointing toward the front door and says, “This place needs a facelift out there so that it will match the inside. It’s stunning.”
Before I can respond, the hostess approaches and escorts us to a table. The place is empty since we arrived between services, but she seats us in a booth near the back. Angel sits so that she’s facing the door. Not only because I want to sit close enough to her whenever possible, but my cop instincts force me to also keep my back angled toward the least threatening area. Instead of asking her to swap, I slide in with her.
“Gonna sit all up on me, huh?”
“Can’t do this if I’m all the way over there,” I counter, lacing our fingers together, and lifting, so I can kiss the back of her hand. Her eyes lock on my lips and she licks hers, shifting forward to sample mine. The waitress interrupts our kiss, taking our order and breaking the moment. She returns thirty minutes later with several more waiters following with loaded trays, carrying out our ten different platters.
“You don’t really expect us to eat all of this, right?”
Shrugging, I reply, “Sure.”
“Oh my god, there is no way in hell that we can eat this much food.”
“I’m only teasing, doll. You’re going to try each, and then tell me which ones are your favorites.”
“I already know what I like,” she argues.
“Then we’ll discover what else you like.”
“God, you are so stubborn.”
This makes me snort. She is the most stubborn woman that I’ve ever met, and she’s calling me stubborn. “Just try it.”
“Fine,” she snaps, glaring with her eyebrows pinched together.
I mock, “Fine.”
After watching her take a bite of almost everything, I laugh at her bright smile. When the waitress returns to check on us, I ask for some plum sauce for my Bibimbap. She drops a bottle on the table, refills our drinks and then disappears out back again.
“What’s that?” Angel asks with a mouth full of tempura, pointing with her fork toward the sauce.
“It’s a spicy sauce for rice,” I say around a bite of rice, topped with the delicious sauce. “Try it.” She squeezes a huge dollop on top of her rice and I warn, “It isn’t ketchup, doll.”
She rolls her eyes while squeezing more, and I chuckle. Little minx insists on finding out the hard way. After chewing for two seconds, her eyes widen and her mouth drops open as she flaps her hands. I slide her water closer. She snatches it up and gulps down half the glass. “Shit! That’s hot.” I throw my head back and laugh. She finishes the water and sighs.
“Really?” I tease and she pinches my side, making me laugh more. I lean back in my seat. “You really are cool.” The alarm on my watch goes off. I glance at it and say, “Oh, look. It’s 3:33.”
Shocked, her mouth drops open. She closes it, narrows her eyes and snaps, “You’re a cheater.” With an innocent look, I shrug. “Wait,” she says, a small crinkle forms between her brows, “Why did you say it like that?”
“Say what like what?”
“You said, ‘you really are cool,’ like someone tried to convince you of that fact.” Shit, I didn’t mean to say that aloud.
“Well, Natalie and Jude told me that I should spend more time hanging out with you, because you’re so cool.” She smiles then her eyes wells with tears. I take her hand in mine. “I’m sorry, Angel. I can be an insensitive ass sometimes.”
Shaking her head, she dabs her napkin into each corner of her eyes and says, “No, they are your friends, too. Please, don’t feel uncomfortable about mentioning them around me.” She sniffs, and the sound stabs my heart. Damn, I want her to know the truth. “One day, one day soon, I hope that I can see Natalie and the kids again.” I offer a pathetic smile. She glances back at her plate and then changes the subject. “I am officially stuffed. Can we go?”
“Yes ma’am,” I reply, leaning sideways to press a kiss to her forehead. She leans into me, and I sigh with a melancholy feeling washing over me. I’m happy that she is here, depending on me to help her get through the heartache, and sad because of the events that brought us to this moment, and because of my betrayal. I am a total fucking loser for lying to her.
At the cash register, we grab up fortune cookies before exiting the restaurant. Sitting in the car, I say, “So the rule is you have to take a bite before you read the fortune.” Surprisingly, the stubborn ass woman doesn’t argue, and before she can read hers, I snatch it, explaining that she’ll read mine and I’ll read hers.
She does roll her eyes at this suggestion, but reads mine with a smile curling her pretty lips. “86400 seconds in a day to speak the truth.”
Holy shit! Talk about dumping a ton of guilt on me. Thanks a lot, knock-off Confucius. I swallow hard, feeling the blood draining from my face as she stares at me expectantly. “Well?”
Exhaling, I search for a way to lie to her and pray that she won’t hate me. Only her name passes over my lips before she jumps in with, “Blues, are you going to read mine now?” She totally tossed me a life-preserver and doesn’t even know it.
I nod and read, “Until you break, you don’t know your strength; it all lies in the rebuild.”
Excitedly, she points and shouts, “In bed.”
“What?” I look up at her and laugh.
“It’s just a stupid thing my girlfriend from college always says after reading her fortune.” Seeing her like this is so intoxicating that I can’t wipe the smile off my face. “What?” She whines, rolling her eyes.
Leaning into her, I insist, “Kiss me.” She lays one on me that takes my breath away. This kiss is so unlike all the others. Something is definitely changing on her end. Is it possible that she’s falling too?
We part lips, but our forehead touch for a minute while we slow our breathing. She smiles, and my heart melts. Backing the car out of the
parking lot, her words are still rolling around in my head. “Doll?” She hums against her fingertips, pressing lightly on her lips. I face the road and say, “I didn’t know that you went to college.”
“Uh…” She clears her throat and says, “Okay, so…even though you totally cheated by setting your watch, this is my hourly secret.” I glimpse a look at her before merging into the southbound traffic on the interstate. Her eyes are locked on the road ahead, avoiding again. “I took one semester last year. But, I was working part time and couldn’t afford tuition. So, I dropped out.”
“Do you think you’ll go back?”
She pauses for a minute. I look over a couple of times, and finally she says, “I doubt it. There aren’t too many places that will hire a junkie on probation. Besides, I like my job.” She turns toward me and demands, “Your turn, cheater.”
“Indeed,” I chuckle. “I earned my bachelor’s degree at the University of Georgia, for criminal justice. I was a couple credits short of my masters when I resigned.”
“Do you regret leaving the force?”
Clenching the steering wheel, I bite on the inside of my cheek. I hate leading her on. All of these lies are piling up. One day it will be too much. How could she possibly love me when she hears the truth and knows that I could have save her from all of this bullshit? She won’t be able to forgive me, and I’ll lose her forever.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, turning away to look out the side window. “I don’t mean to pry.”
“Don’t apologize,” I growl, tightening my grip until my knuckles pale. “Never apologize about wanting to know things about me. I want to know about you too, doll, but there are certain areas in my life that I can’t talk about.”
There is a discomfited silence that stretches between us which last for several miles. After that awkwardness, it feels like the closer we get to Atlanta, the further she slips away, and that soon, I will completely lose her. And I absolutely can’t lose Angel. Without her love, I will go mad. I need more time. With that thought, I quickly devise a plan for exactly that and adjust our travel plans. For now, I need her more than anything else, so real life will just have to wait.
Breaking the silence, she asks, “One day, when we trust each other, will you tell me about what being a cop was like?” Her eyes are still on the scenery to her right, while she chews on her thumbnail nervously. I wish that she would look at me again.
Releasing a silent breath, I loosen my death grip on the steering wheel and with a raspy voice, I promise, “Everything, I swear it.” She faces me, flashing an understanding smile.
Nothing, not hell, not Max, no one will prevent me from keeping this vow to Angel.
Chapter Thirty
We stay at a local bed and breakfast in North Carolina, wrapped in each other’s arms and making love until the sun comes up the next morning. While Angel continues to sleep, I contact my assistant and have her call in a food order, stocking up my beach house in South Carolina for a week. The future is hanging out there in front of us on this road trip back home, but I’m putting off facing it for as long as possible, especially when I have the woman of my dreams in my arms and bed each night.
After waking her with a kiss and taking a shower together, where we get a little dirtier against the shower wall before we get clean, we hit the open road again. We arrive on Seabrook Island just after the sun sets. It is cold, but I decide that a walk on the beach and a long talk just might be what we both need.
“I like you in my shirt,” I tell Angel, sliding my hand into hers and roping our fingers together. The wool sweater is three sizes too big on her, but seeing her in my clothes is damn-sexy.
Staring up from her sand-covered shoes, she smiles and rubs the tips of her cast-covered hand over the soft shirtsleeve. “It’s really warm. Probably should have brought a jacket too. It is freezing ass cold,” she states, returning her attention back to the hard sand stretched for miles ahead.
“I’ll keep you warm.” Releasing her hand, I wrap my arm over her shoulder, drawing her against my side. The heat radiating from her soft body with this closeness intoxicates me. Angel molds perfectly against my side, like she was divinely carved away from me. I lick my lips and swallow around the cotton-mouth feeling that hits me. I don’t know why I’m so nervous all of a sudden. Truth is I want the dream, faithful love, an adoring wife, a large family, and the forever song, playing each and every minute of our life together until my final days. None of that can happen unless she knows the real me. For now, there are certain things that I am sworn to withhold. The general stuff about my life is fair game though, and that’s exactly what I have planned for the next couple of days.
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” She elbows me playfully.
Shocked that she is the one to break the silence, I ask, “How have I surprised you?”
“This whole trip…” she trails off, raising her closed hand up to her mouth where she chews on her thumbnail. When I don’t respond immediately, she glances up at me and shrugs. Shy is so cute on her.
“I guess that I am a man of mystery,” I offer.
She snorts. “Understatement.”
“Ask me anything, and I promise to answer…to the best of my ability.” My tone is still nice, but she needs to heed the warning in the last part of my statement. Anything involving mafia business is not on the discussion table.
“Really?” I believe that I detect sarcasm. She stops walking, stepping back so that she can look directly at me. She crosses her arms and asks, “Even without the clock dictating our conversation?”
“You are such a tease.” Leaning in, I smooth my hands over her hips, brush my lips against her cheek and then push my face into her hair. “Ask me anything, love. I am all yours.” I feel her shudder from the deep vibrations of my request.
She nods against my shoulder, and I step back still holding her sides. “Do you have family?”
Moving my hands up to cradle the sides of her head, I joke, “Bringing out the big guns with your first question, huh?” She shrugs with an adorable smirk pulling up the corners of her lips. I kiss them, and slide my hands down her arms, stopping to grasp her cold hands. “I have two brothers and two sisters.” She smiles. “My parents died when I was a teenager.” I pause, stroking my thumbs over the tops of her hands. “Plane crash. I’ve been responsible for them since.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, wrapping her hands around my back while looking up. I kiss the tip of her nose, offering a small smile in return, and then turn us so that we’re walking again.
“Attacus and Urban are my brothers. Indie and Oakley are my sisters. I’m the oldest, Ban is the baby. We’re close.” I stretch the truth.
“Indie,” she says curiously.
“Yeah,” I answer. “They are my favorite people in the world.”
She hums, and then says, “Being the eldest, I guess they look up to you?”
“Hardly,” I snort, “That’s okay though. I keep them safe, and that’s all that matters.” Her body stiffens, but she keeps walking.
A few hours later, I’ve confessed a lot, probably too much that if she does forgive me later, once she discovers the truth about Jude, and about my real job, she could use some of it to embarrass me. I feel cut open, completely exposed. Honestly, I don’t care. I want her to know everything and slowly she is beginning to reveal more about herself to me too. Besides having an adorably foul vocabulary, she is smart, strong and has a wicked sense of humor. Subtle physical actions that I am picking up from her makes me feel like she isn’t being completely honest though. And that bothers the hell out of me. I have no idea why she’s choosing to withhold details about her life, but eventually, I will burst through the damn strong wall separating us.
“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh,” Angel screams about fifteen steps away from my beach house, her voice carrying in the blustering wind. In one wild move, she leaps into my arms, her hands clutching tightly around my neck and the toes of her shoes pointing
up into the air as high as they’ll reach. “Oh my god!”
Laughing hard with one arm under her knees, the other around the middle of her back, I am momentarily caught off guard and so I stumble forward. She shrieks, thinking that I’m about to drop her. “I’ve got you, baby.” She buries her face into my neck, shaking uncontrollably. I love her being wrapped around me. “Grip me tighter,” I whisper against her hair, my voice gravely and filled with desire.
“Please do not put me down until we are on the top step.” Her voice is muffled against my chest. My heart is raging out of control with her being in my arms.
Chuckling to control my lusty voice, I ask, “What happened?” She shakes her head, refusing to answer and still gripping the hell out of me. Reaching the porch, I place her back down onto her feet, her body sliding down mine and still pressing against me tightly. “Are you going to tell me what you think happened?”
She looks up at me from under her long lashes, blush spreading across her cheeks. The beauty of it melts deeply into my chest. Then her teeth pierce her bottom lip while she glances toward the beach again. Her voice is low when she replies, “A crab ran across my shoe.”
“A crab?” I repeat, fighting against laughing, especially when I see the fear washing over her features. “Do you mean one of those tiny little white crabs that are not much bigger than your thumb?”
Her eyes are huge like saucers, her face still turned in the direction of the stairs, scanning for the little critter. “Oh, he was bigger than my damn thumb. He was like a monster crab.” She shudders, and I cup my hand on her cheek, pulling her around to face me. She’s so damn adorable.
“I’ll protect you, always.” She smiles, leaning into me, and I swoop down for a kiss to seal my vow. One of her hands moves to thread into my hair, the other remains on my hip. A strong wind rolling off of the Atlantic literally pushes us, making me stumble backwards. We break away from the kiss, and I ask, “Are you hungry?”
