Broken Halo: The Montgomery Series, Book 2

by Asher, Brynne

  “Angel.”

  I open my eyes but don’t move. I’m afraid he’ll take his touch away at the same time I’m scared to death he’ll reach for more. I’m even more scared that I want him to take everything. “Hmm?”

  “Don’t worry about Griffin. I started working on it after I left. I won’t let anyone take him from you, even for a three-hour visit.”

  “Thank you.” I can’t not worry about it, but that does make me feel better.

  “Baby, you’re quiet and you have been all night. What did your dad say to you?”

  “Nothing that matters and nothing you need to worry about.” I look down just in time to see his big hand swallow mine, absorbing it possessively, turning that current into an electromagnetic force so strong, I feel it everywhere.

  “Come here.” He gives me a yank and I’m pulled and twisted, landing sideways on his lap. “It matters. What did he say?”

  Dammit, his T-shirt is as soft as it looks. I’m impressed and wonder if he uses fabric softener.

  I shake my head. “Did you know I had an aunt that died when I was little?”

  His icy blue eyes turn sharp. “You told me a little about her after we met.”

  “Well, she was an addict and it was bad. She disappeared for a couple years … even my dad couldn’t find her. Then, one day, she turned up dead and he blames your uncle and dad because he thinks they were her suppliers.” I shrug and run my hand down his chest. “His reasoning for not wanting me involved with a Barrett.”

  He puts his hand to my chin and tips my face to his. “There’s a good chance he could be right about my dad and uncle.”

  My answer comes quick. “I know. But you’re not them—not now and not ten years ago.”

  He lowers his voice. “I don’t care what your father thinks of me.”

  My throat gets thick making my voice rough and weak. “He made me do it.”

  Trig frowns and his hand sitting on my hip and ass tighten. “Angel, don’t.”

  I shake my head and force the words out because I have to tell him. Tell him I didn’t want to leave him, didn’t want to retract his alibi, and that I never stopped loving him. That when I lost our baby and him, I felt as if I were dying a slow death without ever being put out of my misery.

  “You have to know. It’s what I tried to tell you that Thanksgiving. My dad threatened me. No—he threatened you. That if I didn’t retract your alibi and cut you out of my life, he’d have you charged for being with me while I was still seventeen. I knew you didn’t buy the makings for that meth lab, and not because I was your alibi, but because I knew you’d never work with your dad—never be involved in his filth. Your chances of getting off on those charges on your own were good compared to my father coming after you for statutory rape. It was your only chance and I did everything I could to protect you from my father. You have to understand why I did it, please—”

  “Baby, stop. I know.”

  My body freezes. “What?”

  “I said I know. I know everything.”

  My breath catches deep in my lungs and my pulse goes haywire.

  No.

  Just no.

  20

  Fallen-Fucking-Angel

  Never stop falling in love. Keep falling and falling and falling. It does the heart good.

  Ellie

  “But you left, and when I tried to reach out and explain, you cut me off.”

  His arms constrict and pull me in tighter, my ass tucked to his cock that I can feel growing thicker by the moment.

  “Stop,” he clips and his hand on my back slides into my hair. “I’ve only known for a few days. Your sister dropped some big-ass hints then left me hanging. I was forced to go looking for information on my own and learned everything from that crooked sheriff who followed your dad around like a pathetic, balding, overweight puppy. That was a couple days ago.”

  I feel my jaw go slack and whisper, “That’s the reason for the change toward me?”

  He shakes his head and puts his hands to my face. “I cut you off. All I had to do was take your call—read one fucking text.” Anger emanates from every pore of his body but not toward me. I feel it, his rage, laced with hurt and desperation. “They backed you into a corner and then I turned my back on you. Baby,” he breathes, his despair reminding me of how it felt when he blocked me from his life. “You did nothing wrong and I’m the one who’s sorry. I have no excuse for what I did besides being young, stupid, and a fucking mess after I thought you turned on me. I could’ve changed the course of us.”

  He doesn’t allow me any space—to move or run away. He holds me tight and forces me to look into his blue, determined eyes.

  His voice turns pained. “I did everything I could to try to move on from you. Every fucking thing. Am I proud of it? No. But at the time, I thought you threw me to the wolves. I’m not going to lie, angel. It fucking hurt and I was willing to do anything to get you out of my heart.”

  I shake my head and my damn tears return in full force. “I don’t have it in me to deal with this. It’s too overwhelming. What happened yesterday in your office shouldn’t have happened.”

  Trig’s hands tense ever so slightly on my face, his eyes dropping to my lips. I feel his chest moving with deep breaths as he studies me but he says nothing.

  “This isn’t a good idea,” I whisper because, even after all this time, it kills me to hurt him in any way.

  But instead of pushing me off his lap, walking out of my house and taking his mother’s memories with him, he does the very opposite.

  He pulls my mouth to his and I fist his soft shirt at his shoulders. His lips move on mine in a way that reminds me of the first time he kissed me below a live oak on my parents’ property. It was right after he told me to get back on my horse and ride home. His exact words were…

  “Do what teenage girls do best—go play with your makeup and gossip with your friends.”

  I call him on his bullshit. “You’re just scared of my daddy.”

  “You have no clue who you’re playing with, Montgomery. Don’t egg me on.”

  We’ve been circling each other for what seems like forever. I’m becoming brave and know what I want—I’m old enough to know when a boy is interested in me.

  But Trig isn’t a boy. He’s a man and nothing like the guys at school who fight for my attention. He’s played it cool, like he hasn’t noticed me and, now, treats me like I’m an annoyance he has no time for.

  I shake my head. “Nope, you’re scared. I bet you don’t even have the nerve to kiss me.”

  I know I’m playing with fire. I’ve spent hours watching him work our ranch with the other hands. Trig Barrett will take any dare laid at his feet.

  I’m right.

  Because one moment he’s standing five feet from me and the next, I’m backed up against a tree realizing I only thought I’d been kissed before. In reality, I had no clue what it was like to have someone touch me—consume me.

  When Trig finally lets me up for air, my legs are wrapped around his waist and one of his big hands is kneading my ass cheek peeking out of my short-shorts. My lips are bruised and I’m pretty sure my tank ripped from the bark of the tree.

  “You’re like a fallen-fucking-angel, sent from the devil himself just to tempt me, aren’t you, little girl?”

  I’m so happy, all I can do is smile.

  He shakes his head and warns, “I never turn down a dare—don’t do that shit again.”

  I lick my lips. “Good to know, cowboy. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  Just like then, Trig doesn’t just consume my lips, he consumes me. He twists me and my back is to the sofa, only this time, it’s not because I dared him. I’m not some stupid dreamy girl whose only concern in the world is gaining the attention of the older hot guy she can’t stop thinking about. And Trig was so hot, he could scorch the blazing Texas sky fiercer than any fiery star. Only Trig could make me feel the things I did back then.

  And, apparently, nothing’s
changed.

  Unlike ten years ago when he kissed me on a dare, today he takes my mouth because his desire is unyielding. I don’t fight him. I forget about everything because nothing has felt like this in so long—since it was just him and me, and for the few short weeks, our baby.

  The happiest weeks of my life.

  He presses me into the cushions and runs a big hand down my side where he catches me under the knee, hiking my leg. Ripping his mouth from mine, his words are heated and heavy across my face. “Told you I’ll take care of your fucking in-laws and the drug charges. You focus on Griffin but I’m not leaving. I’m never doing that again.”

  He presses his cock between my legs and a shudder runs through me, an antidote to the decade that kept us apart. He dips his head and I feel his tongue stroke my skin, licking and sucking, his teeth coming out to play, nipping at my ear.

  Reaching up, I thread my fingers through his thick, dark hair as his lips move on my ear. “And I want to get you out of this damn house. You don’t belong here.”

  I fist his hair as he yanks up my tank. “Trig—”

  He palms my breast over my bra and squeezes. “Don’t push me away again, angel. I don’t think I can take it.”

  I shake my head because the thought of sending him anywhere right now hurts too much. I cup his jaw in my palm. “I’m not pushing you away but we can’t have sex. I’m not on birth control and I don’t have any condoms. We can’t take that chance again.”

  He squeezes his eyes in frustration and I can tell he’s berating himself for not coming prepared. I guess I should be happy he only came bearing old journals and not assuming he’d get me here—on my back, ready and willing.

  Because I’m certainly ready, and if we had a condom, I’d be more than willing.

  Opening his eyes, he studies me for a quick second before asking, “Do you trust me?”

  “What?” That is not what I expected him to say. I thought he’d roll us onto our sides and tell me we’d snuggle and I’d get too hot while we slept on the sofa again.

  “Baby, answer. Do you trust me?” I exhale and think but Trig isn’t in the mood to be patient. He pulls the cup of my bra under my breast, exposing me, though he doesn’t look away from my eyes. “It’s just you and me. We’re the same people we were before everyone started fucking with us—I feel it and I know you do, too. Tell me you trust me.”

  I swallow over the lump in my throat. There have been times in my life when that answer was a resounding yes and then, later, an even more unquestionable no. I’m not sure I’ve trusted anyone but my sister in a really long time. I haven’t trusted my dad since he forced me to turn on Trig. I only talked myself into trusting Robert and that faded with time and ended up being the biggest mistake of my life.

  Do I trust Trig?

  “Angel,” he growls the pet name he anointed me with right after our first kiss and it stuck. His words vibrate through me—so weighty, I feel them in my bones. “They broke us. Fuckin’ kills me I allowed that to happen. I’ve never been the same and I don’t think you have either. Forget everything. It’s just you and me again. Do you trust me?”

  My answer comes swift and honest when I breathe, “Yes.”

  “Yeah you do,” he grits as he twists my nipple and presses his cock between my legs. “You can trust me more than anyone. It’s the way it should’ve been, and from here on out, the way it will always be.”

  My tank is ripped over my head and my bra lands on the floor next to it. My cut-offs, panties, and Trig’s soft tee join them in short order. When I’m naked on my sofa and blanketed by Trig’s warm skin and rock-hard chest, his thick arm dips under my back when he pulls my nipple into his mouth.

  “Oh,” I moan, running my fingers through his hair, realizing how much I missed this—something I’ve never had with anyone but him. Utter and total ecstasy that only Trig can give me. I’ve done everything to squash the feelings bubbling in my heart after we lost control in his office yesterday, my brain doing its best to talk the rest of me into the fact it was a mistake.

  But now, I can’t deny it. Hell, I can’t deny him or my heart any longer.

  He kisses his way down my stomach, to my hip, and over my bare pubic bone.

  “Never forgot the first time I tasted you,” he murmurs against my skin. “You might’ve been hell on wheels, but not with this.” He easily runs a finger through my sex that’s slick, just for him. “You were embarrassed and shy. I had to talk you into it, remember, baby? Promised you that I’d make it so good, you’d beg me for more.”

  “You were so cocky.” I look down my body at him and can’t believe we’re here. “You were always cocky but you were mine.”

  Without taking his eyes off mine, one side of his mouth barely tips into a wicked smirk because he knows it. Then he makes me gasp when he drags his tongue from my sex to my clit, slow and with just enough pressure, he knows he’s doing nothing but leaving me on the edge of a cliff, making me want to give up everything and jump, handing him my life.

  And for him, I would. I’d give up everything. I already did. I already have.

  My head falls back to the arm of the sofa and I lift my hips.

  “Fuck, I missed you,” he says right before he grips my ass with his big hands and lifts me to his mouth, showing me just how much he missed me.

  He sucks and nips and fingers me, and not gently, not like when he had to talk me into putting his mouth on me for the first time so long ago. Now, he’s out of control—taking as much as he’s giving—and my mind starts to blank … there’s nothing in the world but us.

  * * *

  Trig

  I wasn’t lying. I’ve missed her. It wasn’t until the last few days that I admitted to myself just how much. Something I’ve been denying and trying to bury for years. As much as I tried, I was never able to get over my Ellie.

  It was always her.

  I growl into her pussy as my cock aches—I can’t remember the last time I needed to come so bad. I suck harder, pulling her swollen clit into my mouth.

  When she comes on my tongue, she comes hard—her body quivering and jerking, calling out as her moans echo off the walls of this fucking house that I hate almost as much as the land I grew up on.

  She tries to pull away but I don’t let her go, even though I’m about to lose my load in my shorts like a virginal teenager. I keep at her and she calls out—to both me and the holy Savior—and not in a bad way as her thighs squeeze my head in a vice.

  I rip at my shorts, yanking them down my legs and kick them to the floor when I lick her one more time before letting her go, her body is limp and spent. I don’t waste anytime—crawling over her, I catch her leg under my arm, and thrust inside.

  Fuck. Home.

  My angel.

  “Trig,” she murmurs at the same time she lifts her hips to meet my thrust. “We can’t.”

  I put my lips to hers and her tongue dives deep into my mouth, surely tasting herself on my lips and she moans as her pussy tightens, hugging my cock like we were made for each other. I shake my head. “I’ll pull out. I need you, even if it’s just for a second.”

  She lifts her knees and I groan, taking her deeper and harder and falling into love with her all over again, even though deep down, I know I never stopped. As much as I’ve accomplished since I lost her, nothing has been harder than hating her.

  But loving her?

  Fuck, that’s as easy as breathing.

  Second nature.

  It kills me but I slow because if I don’t, I’m gonna come and I don’t want to give her up yet.

  “Don’t stop,” she begs on a breath, desperate as I feel her pussy start to milk me. “Please.”

  I lean down to kiss her again, hard and deep, for as long as I can take it. When I feel my balls about to explode, I pull out, still slick from her, and rub the underside of my shaft between her pussy lips and clit, dry humping her, making her come again. She arches and I move faster, not able to look away from our bodi
es, my darker skin assaulting her fair, pale perfection, reminding me of the first time I took her at a time when she was too young, but even then, I knew.

  She was mine.

  And, fuck, I’ll move heaven and earth, because she will be again. There’s no other possible ending to our story, not as long as we’re both breathing and walking this earth.

  When she comes again, I join her, shooting my load up her stomach and hitting her tits. The only thing that could make her mine any more is planting my baby deep inside her and not by accident this time, but because we deserve it, and even fucking need it, to heal our gaping wounds that have never closed.

  I press my hand to her belly, feeling my way up to her tits, spreading my cum over her beautiful skin, making her gasp. When she opens her eyes and looks between us, she’s still catching her breath, her face flushed and lids heavy over her dark blue eyes.

  “We’re back,” I state and lower my body to hers, my cum gluing us together in a way I’ll never allow to break apart. When I shift us to our sides and press her back into the sofa like I did last night, but tonight with nothing between us, I add, “Though, sooner or later, we need to find a bed to sleep in.”

  Her heart strums through her chest, slowing, and I feel every beat against mine—recovering to a steady and even tempo. I slide my hand down her back to her ass and she hikes her bare leg over my hip.

  “Ellie?” I call for her when she’s gone quiet without saying a word.

  “Hmm?” Her hum comes across my neck as her body seeps into mine.