All Amity Allows (Fall for You Book 2) (18 page)

She just needed to find the courage to do it and call in a few favors to guarantee some private time. She could only hope Peter would be willing to help and that Drew would be willing to agree.

Chapter Seventeen

After the depressed
start to dinner at his father’s house, Drew actually found himself enjoying being out of the house filled with reminders of the two women he’d cared for. Eventually, his father and Addy were able to take his mind off the day he’d had and he was able to relax a little. If he’d been in any doubt over his choice to take a break from the shit that life had thrown at him in the last few weeks, it was completely removed by the time he left his father’s house. In fact, by the time he’d slid behind the wheel of his car, he had a solid plan in place and a promise to his father to return in a week without the baggage he’d carried around with him since Becca had unceremoniously dumped him.

His plan was to do the one thing that Amity had been trying to get him to do since she’d first appeared in his life: to do something spontaneous and fun. After getting home and packing his suitcase, he slept restlessly as the reality of what he was going to do settled over him as a growing knot in his stomach. It was crazy and impulsive—everything he wasn’t but maybe needed to be for a while.

Early the next morning, he drove straight for the airport with his passport and luggage. He strode up to the first desk he saw and slapped his credit card onto the counter.

“One return ticket to anywhere,” he said with a confidence he didn’t really feel.

The man behind the counter, Ted according to the name badge pinned to his immaculately pressed suit, appraised Drew with barely concealed contempt. For a moment, Drew regretted getting dressed in such a hurry, he’d just been so anxious to get moving before he became so paralyzed with fear over the unknown that he backed out entirely.

“I’m sorry, sir, I need to input a destination.”

“The next flight, where’s it going?”

Ted raised an eyebrow at him before turning to his computer with what appeared to be a deliberate slowness. He hmm’d and typed, before pausing to give Drew another withering glare, sighing, and turning back to type in a few more lazy letters.

“Well?” Drew asked as his irritation got the better of him.

“It’s going to Chicago.”

“One ticket to Chicago then.”

“I’m sorry, sir, the soonest I can get you on a plane to Chicago would be tomorrow afternoon.”

“But you just said the next flight’s going there.”

“It is, sir,” each time Ted said the word, he sneered it just a little more. He clearly thought Drew was being a menace or wasting the airline’s precious time. “But that flight is fully booked.”

“What about the flight after that?” Drew asked. He was over the conversation already.

If he’d known spontaneous was going to earn such contempt, he would have planned in advance.

“Tampa Bay.”

“Are there any seats available?”

“There are two seats.”

“Well, I’ll take that one then.”

“So you don’t want a ticket to Chicago?”

“No.”

“Just a second, please,” Ted said before muttering something under his breath. A moment later, he returned to his slow tapping on the keys.

In an attempt to avoid saying something overly rude to the booking clerk from Hell, Drew turned to survey the slowly growing crowd around him. A giggling couple raced to the next counter, spoke with the woman with the perfectly coiffed hair standing behind it for a few moments, handed over their credit card, and then received tickets almost immediately. Drew was starting to regret his choice in helpers when Ted cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry, sir, there are no seats available on that flight.”

Drew’s fingers curled into fists and he took a couple of deep breaths. “I just want the next ticket on the next flight that is leaving this airport with a free seat that I can purchase. Do you think you might possibly be able to manage that?”

Ted looked down his beak-like nose at Drew. “I am trying to help you, sir. I do not need to accept your attitude.”

Drew blinked in disbelief. “My attitude?
My
attitude?” he practically shouted at the clerk.

“If you don’t calm down, sir, I will have to call my manager.”

“Call your fucking manager,” Drew said, hoping that Ted’s manager might be able to get him to actually do his job sometime before Drew strangled him. “And maybe we can discuss the incompetence of the staff here.”

Ted gasped in surprise and looked like he was going to say something, but then his eyes focused on a spot over Drew’s right shoulder. Whatever he saw, he appreciated.

Drew turned to look in the same direction. When he saw what had caught the clerk’s eye, he stopped breathing. Gliding toward the desk where he stood, was a blonde-haired angel. Literally. He wondered why Amity was there after the way things had ended the night before. Hadn’t he made it clear that he wanted her gone—with his words at least even if he hadn’t meant them in his heart. Why she was dressed in a skin-tight, red mini-dress was another mystery, but one he was less inclined to worry about when he at least had the chance to study her one last time.

When his gaze met hers, and her lips curled into a cautious smile, his heart leapt into his throat. He swallowed hard to push down the emotions that the sight of her, smiling and strolling toward him, stirred within him.

Knowing he didn’t want to have a confrontation with Amity in front of the obnoxious Ted, Drew moved away from the desk without another word. As he moved, dragging his suitcase along behind him, Amity started to walk faster, racing toward him with a greater urgency. In fact, her ever quickening strides made him think something must have been dreadfully wrong. Had she been sent by Heaven to deliver even worse news than everything he’d learned so far?

He found his own steps quickening to cover the distance between them, the wheels on his suitcase click-clicking loudly behind him in protest to his speed. As soon as he was in earshot, he murmured her name.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his concern leeching into his voice.

Her pace slowed and she frowned. “Wrong?”

“I just thought . . .” he trailed off as he tried to articulate the concerns that had raced through his mind when he’d seen her. “It’s just that, well, after last night, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

“Why not?” Her expression was enigmatic, making it impossible for Drew to judge the meaning of her words. “Just because you told me you didn’t want to?”

Amity sucked
in a comforting breath, preparing to put it all out there. She would either be rewarded or rebuffed—but at least there wouldn’t be any lies and Drew would know everything.

“I don’t think that’s enough to keep me away,” she admitted.

“What do you mean?”

She stepped closer to him, so close she could feel the warmth radiating from his body. With her heart beating a million miles a minute, she placed her palm over his cheek. “I mean, I want you, Drew. I know it’s wrong and I can’t promise you forever, but I can’t leave things the way they are.”

Drew lifted his hand and placed it over hers. He closed his eyes and exhaled a shaky breath.

Because of the connection between them, she knew exactly how he was feeling. Without words, he affirmed everything she felt—everything she’d hoped that he felt.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I was trying to do what you wanted me to do: get away. But Napoleon there wouldn’t sell me a ticket.” He swung his hand back in the direction of the clerk, who was gaping openly at the pair.

Amusement danced in Amity’s eyes, but her voice was somber when she spoke. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”

Drew wanted to, so badly, but he didn’t want to open himself up to the heartbreak that he knew was inevitable. “I’m not sure there is much more to say.”

“Please? I have something important to discuss with you.”

Despite clear reluctance, he nodded. Amity followed a few steps behind as he led the way back to his car. The emotional aura emanating from him was almost palpable. Amity wished she could say something to put his mind at ease, but there was no way of telling him what she needed to talk to him about—she had to show him. She only hoped she was doing the right thing.

When they were secluded away in the privacy afforded by the cabin, he rested his head back against the seat. “What was it that you wanted to say?”

“I’m sorry, Drew. This might hurt a little.”

She took one of his hands in hers before pressing her other against his temple and hitting him with the full force of her grace. Then she left Earth behind once more, not allowing any part of herself to stay behind—after all, she didn’t want to be found.

Chapter Eighteen

Drew opened his
eyes as the sound of crashing waves replaced the roar that had occupied his mind since the moments after Amity’s apology. He tried to remember what had happened exactly, but he couldn’t. All he could recall was a white light, brighter than anything he’d ever seen in his life, and a roaring sound that had rushed past his ears and overtaken every part of his being. He dropped his hand from Amity’s and took a step back from her.

“What the Hell?” he cried out in shock. Nothing that he’d ever experienced before had even remotely prepared him for whatever had just happened.

Amity’s eyes danced with amusement. “You’re looking in the wrong direction. There are some advantages to being a Heavenly being. This is one of them, but unfortunately, the trip won’t be as gentle for you.”

“What are you talking about?”

Before he’d even had a chance to fully absorb the fact that he was standing on a golden beach somewhere in the world, only God—and Amity, Drew supposed—knew exactly where, he realized that both his and Amity’s outfits were different than they had been only seconds earlier. Amity was in a white, practically see-through dress that left very little to the imagination. Drew had miraculously changed into a pair of white board shorts and a light-blue collared shirt that was hanging open, exposing his chest and stomach.

After assessing his outfit, all while trying to work out if he had in fact become certifiably insane, he lifted his gaze to the horizon again. Despite the situation he found himself in—not that he knew exactly what that situation was—he had to admire the beauty in his surroundings. As he turned a full circle, he saw a brown wooden shack rising out of a dense forest. It looked almost designed to impede on the view as little as possible.

In both directions, the land curved back on itself almost immediately; the island, or peninsula, they were on must have been rather small. It didn’t escape Drew’s notice that the water surrounding the pristine shoreline was the soft azure blue of Amity’s eyes and the white sand on the beach almost perfectly matched the color of her hair.

“What’s happening?” he asked. “Where are we?”

“You probably don’t want to know the answer to that,” Amity said in an amused tone. When he met her gaze, it was full of something he couldn’t read—fear maybe but that was in such contrast to her tone that he didn’t understand it.

“How did we get here?” He found it impossible to wrap his head around the fact that a minute ago, they were in Flint, and now they were somewhere completely different—and in different clothes no less.

“You wanted to get away.”

“To see somewhere new and try to have some fun; not to avoid civilization altogether.”

At his words, Amity’s smile sunk. Despite everything that had happened the previous day, he hated seeing her so crestfallen.

“I mean, it’s beautiful,” he said to backtrack. “It’s just . . . well, where are we?”

Amity laughed, filling the air with the tinkering of bells that had an almost Pavlovian reaction on his cock. He willed away the feeling, knowing he couldn’t have that with her. That was part of the issue they’d found themselves in, wasn’t it?—well, that and the fact that she’d lied to him.

Although hadn’t she said herself that she wanted him? His mind wandered down the dangerous path, remembering her words at the airport. She had something important to tell him, but why did she have to bring him to . . . well, to wherever he was, to tell him?

“I still don’t think you want to know, but we’re together and I can guarantee we won’t be interrupted for at least a week. Surely that’s what matters?”

“Maybe, but—”

She cut him off with a finger pressed against his lips. “Just think about whether the where is really that important. If it is, ask me once again and I’ll tell you. Otherwise, just trust me when I say that I’m sure you’d rather not know.”

The touch of her warm skin against his lips sent a shiver down Drew’s spine. His board shorts did nothing to hide the reaction that her presence caused on his body. Even as the thought struck him, Amity’s gaze trailed down his body and she released a small but wanton sigh when she spotted the prominent bulge.

She dropped her finger away from his mouth. Drew’s heart leapt into his mouth as Amity’s fingertips trailed down his chest and over his stomach until she palmed his cock through the thin material.

His breathing sped and he closed his eyes at the sensation. A needful moan passed his lips even with the warnings Amity had given him ringing in his head. Letting himself fall for her would only end in heartache, but as she made her move, he found himself not caring.

“This week is about wish fulfilment,” she purred as she moved closer to him, close enough that their bodies were touching. “Anything that you want, you can have.”

It was hard to concentrate on the reasons he should argue against what was happening when his entire focus was on the small circles she traced with her fingers.

She stood on tiptoes, leaning against him. It was immediately clear that she had very little—if anything—on underneath her slip of a dress. Through the thin material, her perked nipples rubbed against his chest as she pressed her body against his. Her hand moved from his cock to his back, trapping him in her presence. “Anything that we both want,” she whispered against his cheek with heated breath.

She wrapped her other arm around his neck and touched her lips to his, light little caresses that wiped his ability to think of anything else but her mouth and her touch.

“I want this,” she breathed between soft kisses. “I want
you
.”

Drew felt an almost palpable relief run through him as she invaded his every sensation and left him with little choice but to accept everything she offered. One arm snaked around her waist, pulling her closer. His other found her hair, his fingers dipping into the silken threads. Nothing existed for him except for the sensation of her body yielding against his own. The power he felt about bringing this heavenly creature to her metaphorical knees just as she’d done to him was as heady a drug as Drew had ever tasted.

Amity’s touch was divine. Her lips tasted like honey, and when her tongue swept forward to brush against his, it was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. Every other kiss, the touch of every other woman he’d ever caressed, faded into the distant past as he reveled in his present with her.

In his future.

The thought was enough to stop him cold.

He had no future with Amity, and he had no right to be dreaming of one. They had nothing beyond this stolen kiss on a secluded beach. Loosely gripping the top of Amity’s arm, he pushed her away. Her face fell and her eyes practically screamed with hurt and rejection as he stepped away from her. Although he longed to wipe the pain away, he only knew one way and he couldn’t do that without risking replacing it with greater agony when things ended.

“What am I doing?” he murmured as he turned away from her.

“You’re letting go,” she replied, placing her hand on his arm. Her look was pleading, imploring him to continue what they’d started moments earlier.

“Letting go of what?”

She brushed her fingers over his forehead, trailing fingertips through his hair. “Of who you used to be. Of the hurt. Of the assumption that you have to be the best of everything in order to have a happy life. Of the fact that you have to have a plan for the future in order to live in the now.”

He breathed out a mirthless chuckle. “Why did you have to be so perfect?”

Moving closer to her again, he pushed his fingers into her hair. The movement wasn’t guided by lust as much as it was by sorrow.

Closing his eyes, he rested his forehead against hers. He didn’t have any words that could fix everything; had none of his usual confidence to deal with the situation laid out in front of him. The truth was he was terrified of letting himself feel anything more for the beguiling angel than he already did. Then again, he wasn’t sure it was possible to feel
more
for her anyway.

“Why did it have to be like this?”

“I’ve only ever been what you needed me to be.” She ran her hands around his waist. “But then, you impossibly became everything I needed you to be as well. And that’s why I—I made a mistake. A terrible one. I fell for you.”

“Falling for me was a mistake?” He opened his eyes and met her gaze. There was no way he could pretend that the words didn’t sting.

She dropped her eyes to focus on his mouth. Her lip quivered as she spoke. “Yes, it was. What we feel is frowned upon, Drew. If my brothers found out, it wouldn’t work out well for either of us.”

“That’s why you’d have to leave anyway?” Drew asked to clarify her statements from the day before. He wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to feel cheered that she really did love him, or depressed because it meant nothing anyway.

She nodded. “And it’s also why we’re here.”

He tilted his head in confusion.

“Here, we’re somewhat protected from, well, from everyone who would rather us not be together. We’re cloaked from their prying grace—err, eyes.”

“Why? How?”

“Because this place”—she closed her eyes and sighed—“it doesn’t really exist.”

Amity regretted
her choice of words as soon as they were free. She hadn’t wanted to explain what she’d had to do to get this slice of privacy for the two of them, at least not this early into their time together. Mostly because she was worried that Drew might be mad enough about what she’d done to get them some space that he’d demand to leave immediately. Although, it was probably only fair that he did know. Better having to return him home straight away than to lead him on and let him think they were somewhere on Earth.

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“This”—she spread her arms out wide to indicate the small island—“is Heaven.”

Drew laughed. Then he must have realized she was serious.

“What did you do to me?” His frown returned, deeper than before, as he patted his body as if it might have suddenly evaporated without him realizing. “Am I dead?”

She dropped her head to look at the beach beneath her feet. She toed the sand a few times in an attempt to stall. It really shouldn’t have been so hard to angel-up and tell him the truth.

“Amity,” he said, his tone compelling her to answer.

She took a deep breath before swallowing down her fear to tell him the truth. “No, not dead, but right about now, airport security will be finding you slumped over in your car. In a coma.”

“A coma?” he yelped. “Are you serious?”

She looked at him with pleading eyes, imploring him to understand. A coma really was the lesser of two evils when it came to finding this way to be alone together—if only for a stolen moment. “It was the only way I could get you here, at least without actually killing you.”

His eyes widened with fear. “You put me in a coma?”

“To spend some time with you,” she justified.

“You put me in a coma so we could have a date?” His tone was incredulous.

Dread trickled down her spine. She’d worried that he would take her truth badly. There was no doubt in her mind that he would soon ask to leave and they’d never get this chance again.

“It was the only way,” she cried, clutching at his shirt. “The other angels can’t find me here. They won’t ever know about this, about us. Peter will keep our secret safe.”

“Peter?” He raised an eyebrow. His voice was somewhat calmer—as though he’d moved beyond the anger to a strange acceptance. “Like Saint Peter and the pearly gates?”

“The one and only.”

All thought that he’d found any form of acceptance was wiped away in an instant when Drew’s hand found his hair as he started to hyperventilate. “Are you kidding me? This is all a goddamned joke, right?”

Before she had a chance to respond, he added, “You’re really not joking are you? This is really happening? I’m in Heaven with a fucking angel.”

He laughed hysterically for a moment before his face went slack and his skin paled. Then he started to pace. “Are you allowed to swear here? I mean, I’m not going to be sent straight to Hell just for a fucking swear word, am I?”

“Relax, Drew,” Amity said, moving closer to him and stilling his movements with her calm presence.

He stopped pacing at least, although his crazed gaze indicated he was still far from being relaxed about it all.

She laid her palms on either side of his face, caressing his cheeks and forcing him to look her in the eye. “Just imagine this is all in your head.”

“Is it?” His gaze was steady, unwavering as he asked—no doubt watching for a lie.

Little did he know that Amity couldn’t lie; not here at least. On Earth, she was a bad liar; in Heaven, it was an impossible feat. Her angelic grace, her need for the truth to overpower all, couldn’t be tempered by her human shell when she was in Heaven.

“No,” she admitted. “But it’ll be easier if you think of it that way. What happens here is between you and me. We’re the only ones who will ever know.”

He looked at her and absorbed the calming energy that she tried to fill him with. It wasn’t enough to completely erase the crazed look from his eyes, but it did stop his body from trembling.