Independence: #2 Angel (28 page)

“Don’t make me start crying again,” she wailed, offering no protest when he turned her and handed her off to Colin. She stared up at him, blinking and sniffling. “Why are you here?”

“I didn’t know I was a secret,” he teased, coaxing her to sit and handing her the cup of tea her grandmother had gestured to. “Drink.”

“He arrived half an hour ago,” George told her, nodding in approval as he added honey to the steaming mug. “He wanted to get our blessing and I’ve decided I like him with you, Little Wing.”

“That will need explaining,” Colin said with a chuckle when she gaped at him over the mug of tea. “Little Wing?”

“She used to perch in the branches of trees, like a bird when she was barely four or five. It might take her hours to scale the tree she selected, but she would find a way to get to the branch she wanted and just stretch along it, watching,” Nora recalled with a smile at the pink tinted cheeks.

“It isn’t something that left her when she grew, either,” George told him with a laugh. “She hasn’t told you much about her childhood or us.”

Colin sighed, his fingers stroking lightly over her head. “I told my mother this morning when she asked what Angel knew of my family, my childhood…that things were complicated and we hadn’t talked about those things much. But we would…in time,” he said with a confidence that came to him naturally.

Angel sniffled and then hiccupped. She sighed and hiccupped again.

“You never…you spoke to your mother? About me?” She tried to ignore the laughter from her grandparents. “And why are you here?” She hated the whine in her voice, wanted to stomp her foot and pout.

“She dislikes having her plans disturbed,” Nora confided with a sip of her tea. “Colin arrived thirty…forty minutes before you. He said you had plans with him, but canceled to come here. He was concerned with you being out alone after the…” she shook her head. “The court decision this morning.”

“I was worried about you,” Angel looked from one to the other. “I…the things I allowed myself to believe…the things I allowed to…to hurt you…”

“That type of talk will stop immediately,” Nora lowered her mug of tea, her gaze filled with acceptance. “This is a place you had to come to in your own time, Angel. We’re just glad we were still here to see it…and feel it.”

“I…I’m sorry,” she whispered, squeezing her lashes tight. “I know he’s never bothered you before, but…this is different than anything that’s happened in the past.”

“Vianne Summers let him use his own words to make him look like a raving fanatic,” George said with a deep swallow of his tea. “Delicious, as always.”

Angel relaxed in Colin’s arms, her head comfortably nestled against his shoulder, her tea cup empty. He looked down at her features and then over at Nora.

“I’m surprised she fell for it,” Nora said softly. “She would make herself sick worrying about when they were coming for her again. I used to brew this special tea to put her to sleep. She would work herself up with concern and fear.”

“She’s asleep,” Colin brushed her forehead with his lips.

“They put that fear in her eyes and took away her rights and her sense of adventure. Her sense of safety…her peace,” Nora finished her tea and set the cup down. “I will show you her room. It has a king sized bed,” she tipped her head with a smile, ignoring the cough from her husband. “Unless you would prefer a room of your own.”

“Her room will be fine.” Colin gently unwound her fingers from the cup and handed it to Nora. He stood up, cradling her against him.

“You can settle her for the night and join us for dinner,” Nora told him, leading the way to the back and up a wide set of stairs made from halved logs. “I will make her favorite breakfast. She forgives easily, Colin.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Consciousness was returning to her slowly. That was the best way to begin a morning, she’d always thought. There was the soft sound of music that broke into her dreams and reminded her that a new day was about to begin. But there was something alluring about the warmth and the softest sounds of morning today that held her attention, foggy though it was at the moment.

There weren’t many birds awake before the sun came up. Not in early December, but the rooster certainly liked making people aware of his presence.

One eye popped opened against all internal warnings.

She didn’t have a rooster. And she was pretty sure none of her city-dwelling neighbors, had roosters. It all came rushing back about the same time the very possessive palm cupped one breast and raked a thumb nail over the nipple until it wrinkled and pulled a tiny, soft groan from inside her.

Colin.

In bed with her.

At her grandmother’s house!

Without a second’s breath, she bolted upward, spun and knelt facing the stunned man watching her in the dim, grey light of dawn. Her mouth opened and closed. Twice. Her head swiveled, taking in her old room and her hands rose to shove her fingers into her hair and tug.

“She gave me sleeping tea again,” she whispered with a little growl.

“You’d been through a lot yesterday,” Colin answered honestly, rolling to his back and raising his arms. His hands went behind the sleep tousled hair and relaxed there. His eyes roamed from her face, lower, to the nipples that stood up.

It was a little chilly, she thought and tugged the blanket up. The man was too damn sexy for her sanity.

“I can fix that little cold problem you have,” he suggested, his voice husky and low.

“You need to go back to your room,” Angel hissed out, her head turning to look at the closed door and then back at him.

“This is my room,” he answered, humor evident in his voice.

“No. This is my old room. I…you…” Her shoulders stiffened and her eyes widened. “They know? You told them we…you and…”

“Angel, you’re over eighteen and besides, I think I won them over. They like me,” he informed her with that natural confidence that oozed out of every male pore on his body. A warm, sexy male body that made her want to crawl over him and…

Angel shook her head, gripping the blanket tighter. “Oh, no. I will not…this is my grandparent’s house!”

“How do you think your mother got into the world, Angel?”

“I…oh, no…” she tried scrambling back, out of his reach. Only problem was, he had a damned long reach. If not her, he managed to get a handful of blanket and pull, leaving her perched there in her birthday suit.

Colin laughed and made a wild lurch forward, his hair falling into his eyes as she bounced to her feet and almost made it over the side of the large bed. His hand was out like a whip, circling her waist and pulling her back against him. Her squeal ripped through the slowly erasing darkness.

“Let me go!” She hissed at him, bucking her body to the side only to realize her struggles were having a decided effect on him. “My…they’re here! They’ll hear…I cannot do this…”

“Then you’d better be quiet,” Colin murmured through his laugh, his gaze drinking in the length of the woman gracing his bed. He had one leg slung over hers to pin her to the mattress, her hands trapped between his body and hers.

Angel cleared her throat, Twice. Trying to think her way through this. No. Out of this, she corrected, thoughts of her grandparents and her in the same house while she and Colin…oh, no.
No, don’t let your thoughts go there
, she ordered firmly.

“Colin…” She began in a calm, reasonable sounding tone. Until she raised her gaze from the light coating of pale hair over his chest and looked into his eyes. One of those damn Dom brows was lifted into a high arch that not only sent her heart skittering, but her body betraying her with a stroke of fire between her thighs.

And he waited with that damn brow up, his sexy, tousled head tipped slightly and a delicious grin that made her want to scream.

“Sir…” She corrected slowly. “I honestly don’t think I can…I could…focus…”

“You doubt my ability to pull your focus?”

“I did not say that,” she answered instantly, the words all crowded together at the look in his eyes that she was coming to know all too well. Her head shook adamantly when he lifted on one elbow and gently nudged her to the side before rolling to his back. When he seemed satisfied, he placed both hands on her waist and lifted until she was stretched over him.

Angel tried keeping her legs together and stiff, which worked only until one of his hands left her waist and came down very sharply on her bare ass. Her legs fell apart instantly with him in the middle.

Her yelp was ripped from her throat before she could make her brain remember where she was and with whom. His hand returned to her waist, both of them holding her firmly in place until she relaxed and closed her mouth, the too fast breathing gradually settling into a soft pant.

“Tighten your knees on my hips, Angel.”

Her response was instant, the simmering sexuality and control in his voice breaking through the fears that occasionally gained access to her thoughts and emotions. She kept her eyes on his, watching the color darken as his hands showed her how he wanted her to move.

Her labia split down the center by the hard length of his cock, stroking through the collected moisture and making her groan softly. Her head lulled slightly forward and then back, her eyes closed against the intensity.

“Reach over my head, Angel.”

His body moved, the head of his cock dipping and sliding through the thick syrup when she did what he instructed. He pulled her back just a little, his cock bumping her stomach and her breasts now comfortably available to him. He released her hips and she heard crinkling before his palms began a sensual slide from her ass to her breasts.

“Hold onto the headboard and do not release it,” Colin wrapped his tongue around one nipple and pulled, hard. Her groan vibrated through her chest, her pussy clenched and he did it again and again.

“Sir…” she almost groaned again but this time at the whine the single word sounded like.

“You are a desirable, lovely woman. Your grandparents know we’re sexually active. And I wouldn’t be surprised, from the exchange of looks between them, that they are still vibrant and equally active,” Colin laughed softly at the lashes that flew wide at his comment. “If you don’t want them to hear you, I suggest you attempt to be silent. While I…attempt to break your silence.”

“No…please, sir…I don’t think so…”

She wasn’t sure it was possible, but she felt her eyes widen a little more when his hands slid to her waist and lifted. When her knees touched down on the pillow, one on each side of his head, she struggled for the first time.

“Oh, but I think so,” Colin corrected mildly.

Her fingers tightened on the headboard, her head shaking as if she was making an attempt to ward him off. It didn’t work. The man was determined. When his fingers tightened on her hips, refusing her any movement he didn’t approve, his tongue swiped out and lapped at the fragrant moisture seeping along the swollen path.

Oh, god, oh, god, oh, god!

She felt each and every swipe of his tongue. She felt his teeth nibbling on the wrinkled bits while his tongue speared and flicked. She closed her eyes at the image of herself in her mind, sitting almost astride his face, her head thrown back and low, pleading moans bubbling forth. The soft sounds gave way to a longer, more intensely breathed groan, his fingers joining his tongue on her clit, pressing and stroking until it was impossible to keep herself from moving.

Just a little more pressure…right…

She was going to scream. Sensations had built quickly and promised to careen into one another. When his mouth closed over her clit for a long minute, she was sure there would be marks in her headboard.

Her breathing was coming faster and faster. The man was so good at this! With his name on her lips, she gulped in one very large breath seconds before his hands moved and moved quickly.

Angel was caught in the vortex, her body about to release pleasure and sound when he lined up her pussy with his cock and pushed it deep inside her. One hand went swiftly to the back of her head, speared into her hair and gripping her tightly, pulling her mouth to his and swallowing her scream.

Her orgasm ripped through them both with the power of a hurricane. Muscles clenched and gripped fiercely, but Colin thrust again and again. His tongue fenced and thrust into her mouth with a tempo that matched what his cock was doing to her pussy until both of them came this time, sliding over the edge and holding for a long, timeless minute before crashing together.

Colin couldn’t remember anything more erotic or fulfilling than making love with Angel. Deliciously responsive and alternately obedient and anxious, her intelligence and hidden adventurous side called to him and held him as firmly as the muscles clenching his cock.

He rode the waves, pulse after pulse until they lay breathing thickly and quietly.

His fingers slid down her throat and stroked gently over her back.

“I’d never do anything to embarrass you in front of them, Angel.” He felt her lips against his shoulder, his arms circling and holding her close for a long minute before carefully dislodging her to the side. He was up and in the bathroom, disposing of the condom before returning to urge her back into his arms.

He pulled the quilts over them and brushed his lips over the sheen of moisture on her forehead.

“I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, Colin. I trust you.” A wispy sigh eased free. “I would never, in a million years believe that I would be here…in my room…”

“Making love with your boyfriend?” Colin chuckled softly.

“I don’t think it’s something I ever gave a thought to. Not for me,” she admitted, lifting her leg and curling her foot around his ankle. “Thank you for being patient. But I still worry I’ll hurt you…”

“Pet, the words aren’t going to vanish from your memory or heart overnight.” Colin shifted down until they lay facing one another. Somewhere outside, the sun had begun to rise and came through the thick grey clouds filtered and mottled. “Maybe it’s arrogance, I don’t know. But I do know your reactions aren’t personal and I also see how hard you’re working to overcome it.”