Fallen Angels: Beguiled / Wanton / Uncovered

When the knock sounded on the door, she let out a startled, short scream, jumping back two steps and bumping into the kitchen table. A chair tipped over and crashed to the floor. Grayson woke, his disgruntled wail piercing in the otherwise leaden silence.

She heard Derek call out, “Angel!” at the same time a key sounded in the lock. The door immediately swung open. She couldn’t help herself, she gaped at him. How had he known to show up just when she needed him most?

In the next instant, doubt surfaced, and she had to wonder if it was a coincidence, or part of a plan. Was it possible he was working with his family to drive her away? Had she inadvertently stepped into the lion’s den?

Derek stormed in like an avenging angel, took one look at her standing there with nothing more than the towel covering her, then crossed the room with long, angry strides. He grabbed her shoulders. “What’s the matter? What’s happened?”

Angel managed to shake herself out of her stupor. She clutched at her towel with a fist. “What are you doing here?”

He looked nonplussed by her calm question and tightened his hands on her. “I wanted to see you.” His head turned in the direction of Grayson’s wails and a fierce frown formed. “You’re both okay?”

“Yes, of course.”

“But you screamed.” He turned back to her, raised one hand when she started to speak, then shook his head. “First things first. Go get dried off. I’ll get the baby.”

She was shaking all over, but he thankfully didn’t comment on it. “Thank you. I think the phone disturbed him, and then your knock…”

Derek started her toward her bedroom with a gentle push. “I understand, babe. Go. We’ll talk about it in a minute.”

Regardless of what he’d said, Angel followed Derek into the baby’s room and made certain everything was all right. She never let Grayson cry, and even now, when she was so rattled, she couldn’t stand to hear him upset. Derek cradled him close to his chest, rocking him, murmuring to him, and Grayson immediately began to quiet, his yells turning into hiccups as he recognized his father’s scent and voice. Derek held his face close to the baby’s, nuzzling, kissing his tiny ear, his cheek, smoothing his large hand up and down Grayson’s back. Angel’s throat felt tight and her chest restricted.

He turned suddenly when he realized Angel had followed him. Slowly, his gaze ran the length of her, lingering, she knew, on the still harsh scars of her left leg. His attention returned to the baby. “Go get something on, Angel, before you catch cold.”

She wondered if her leg repulsed him; his voice had sounded unusually gruff and low. It really was ugly and overall she looked like a drowned rat at the moment. “All right. I’ll…I’ll be right back.”

In the bathroom again, she quickly dried off, dragged a comb through her tangled hair, then shrugged into her housecoat. It was long and thick and covered her from head to toe. She hurried back in to Grayson. The baby now had his entire fist stuffed in his mouth, sucking loudly. She knew from experience that would only suffice for so long.

“Let me have him. After I nurse him, he should fall back to sleep.”

Derek gave her a long look before nodding. “Let me change him first.”

He disappeared into the other room and Angel paced. The letter this afternoon, then the phone call…. It was the first time she’d heard a voice. Usually the calls consisted of heavy breathing and ominous silences. Again, chills ran up her arms and she ducked her head, her brain working furiously. Mick was right; she had to trust Derek, had to tell him of her suspicions. But she wouldn’t tell him everything. She’d only confide about the most recent events. After she saw how he reacted to that, then she’d consider telling him the rest.

When he touched her shoulder, she again jumped, whirling about to face him, her hand pressed to her throat. His expression was dark, his eyes narrowed, and she tried a nervous laugh.

“I’m sorry. You startled me.”

“Obviously. But we’ll talk about that in a minute.”

She took the baby, quickly settled herself on the couch and then looked at Derek. He always left the room when she nursed Grayson, giving her the privacy she needed, but this time he stared right back. Slowly, his gaze never leaving her face, he took the chair opposite her. Heat bloomed inside her. “Derek…”

“No more secrets, Angel.”

Grayson rooted against her, anxious for his meal, and she knew, judging by Derek’s expression, arguing would gain her nothing. She pulled her gaze away from him, deliberately ignoring his very attentive audience, and went about feeding her baby. She felt stiff, unable to relax, so many things racing through her mind.

After a moment, Derek rose from his chair and reseated himself beside her. The soft, worn cushions of the couch slumped with his weight and her hip rolled next to his, bumping into him. He felt warm and hard, his presence overwhelming. Angel was acutely aware of his undivided concentration on her breast. She kept her visual attention firmly placed on Grayson.

Casually, Derek slipped his arm around her shoulders. She had trouble breathing. She moved Grayson to her other breast, closer to Derek, and as he nursed he began to fall back to sleep. He looked precious, and she couldn’t hold back a smile.

“He’s beautiful, Angel.” Derek’s warm breath fanned her temple and she shivered. “You’re beautiful.”

His voice sounded with awe, and as he scooted even closer, seeming to surround her with his heat and scent and power, she felt herself relaxing. This felt right. Derek was doing nothing untoward, only taking part in what was rightfully his. His left arm moved across her abdomen in an embrace, just below the baby, circling both mother and son. He kissed her temple, a light, loving kiss. Slowly, Grayson released her nipple and a drop of milk slid down his chin. With his fingertip, Derek wiped it away.

They neither one moved. She knew Derek was looking at her, studying her, but there was nothing lurid about his scrutiny. He dipped his head and kissed Grayson on his silky crown. In a low, husky whisper, he asked, “Would you like me to burp him and put him back to bed?”

Angel nodded.

As he was lifted, Grayson stretched and groaned and gave a loud belch, making any further efforts unnecessary. Derek grinned as he hefted the small weight to his shoulder and got to his feet. He looked down at Angel. “I’ll be right back,” he whispered. “Don’t move.”

Other than covering her breast and nervously shifting, she obeyed.

It was late, now close to eleven o’clock, but she was far from sleepy. So many emotions were pulling at her—fear and anxiety and anticipation, but also a deep contentment. Derek was everything a father should be, and she couldn’t quite work up the energy to distrust him anymore. It took all she had as she fought herself to keep from falling in love with him. Despising him was out of the question.

Derek stepped out of the baby’s room, softly closing the door behind him. For long moments, he merely stared at Angel across the room. The time of reckoning, she thought.

For the life of her, she couldn’t seem to move. Her heart began racing, her palms grew damp. She saw Derek lock his jaw, saw his shoulders tighten and flex, and she knew, without him saying a single word, he was caught in the same inexplicable flow of emotions as she.

What would happen next, she couldn’t guess, but she was anxious to find out.

And then the phone rang.

Angel gasped. Both wary and disgusted by the interruption, she stared toward the kitchen where the phone was located.

Derek frowned at her. “Do you want me to get that for you?”

“No, I’ll…” She shook her head, wiped her palms across her thighs. And still she sat there, staring at the phone.

Sparing her a curious glance, Derek stalked to the phone and snatched it up on the fifth ring. “Hello?” He kept his gaze on Angel as he spoke and she tried to clear her expression, but she could see he’d already read too much there.

“Hello?” he said a little more forcefully. He looked at the receiver, then gently placed it in the cradle. As he walked back to loom over Angel, she could see the questions in his eyes. “What’s going on, honey?” His tone was soft, menacing.

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

He waited, not moving away, not saying another word. She recognized his stubborn expression, only now there was more of a threat there, more determination than ever.

“Sometimes I get strange calls.”

She hadn’t meant to make such a bald confession, but it just slipped out. After a deep breath while he raised one eyebrow, encouraging her, she continued. “Sometimes, eight or ten times now, someone has called and just…breathed in the phone. Today I finally heard a voice. He…said things to me.” She lifted her gaze and got caught in his. “He called right before you got here.”

Derek’s eyes darkened, his eyebrows lowered, and suddenly he was crouching there in front of her, his hands holding hers, hard but not really hurting her. It did give her the feeling she couldn’t get away, even if she tried.

His gaze was so intense, so probing, she squirmed. “You thought it might be me,” he accused.

He didn’t sound angry precisely, though she couldn’t pinpoint the dominant emotion in his tone. She straightened her shoulders and frowned right back. “I wondered. I have no enemies that I know of, no reason for threats. You’re the only person who ever seemed to despise me, and I’ve never really understood why.”

There, let him deal with that, she thought and jerked away to walk carefully into the kitchen. She needed something to drink, some warm tea. And she needed to escape his close scrutiny.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Derek stand, then pace around her tiny living room. He had his hands back in his pockets and his head down in deep thought. She was familiar with that look now, that show of serious introspection. She’d seen it a lot lately, though in the past she couldn’t recall Derek ever doubting himself, ever giving so much thought to anything pertaining to her.

She put water on to boil, then asked, “Would you like some tea?”

“Thank you.”

After righting the fallen chair, she sat at her small kitchen table, waiting for the water to get hot. Moments later she felt Derek’s hands on her shoulders, heavy and warm.

“The problem is,” he whispered, “I’m not making the calls. And I don’t despise you.” His hands slipped up to her throat, caressing, then smoothing her damp hair back behind her ears. “On the contrary, Angel, I want to take care of you.”

Anger caused her eyes to narrow. She wanted to believe him, to understand and accept his help. She twisted to face him. “Why? Why now, when you made it plain months ago how you felt? You deliberately humiliated me in front of my supervisors. You didn’t just break things off, you tried to break me. Why?”

His eyes closed and he turned his head away. “You’re right, of course. I can’t undo the past. I can only have regrets, which don’t amount to a hill of beans. But I’m here now and I’d like to help.”

Since that was what she’d wanted all along, what her entire plan had been, she should have been relieved. But somehow everything was different than she’d expected. He wasn’t the same man, easy to be detached from now. The Derek who’d first hurt her had been more of an illusion to her, an image of strength and power that had seduced her by sheer impression. She hadn’t really known the man, other than in the most superficial ways; she’d merely been attracted to his image. But now she genuinely liked and respected him. When she could set the past aside, he was fun, and when he held Grayson, the affection in his eyes filled her with an insidious warmth that expanded her heart. More often than not, she didn’t understand what she was feeling.

Only one thing was certain: Grayson could be at risk if she didn’t find some sort of protection.

She got up to serve the tea, collecting her thoughts. After she set his cup near him on the table, she said, “I’ve gotten several anonymous calls lately, more than ever before. Usually, it’s just breathing and such. They started before I’d moved, when I lived in my old apartment. After I moved here, they stopped for a while and I thought I’d lost whoever it was. But just recently they started up again. It’s possible my phone number was taken from one of the posted ads around the colleges. The ads are generic, offering typing, but since I’ve been transcribing for colleges ever since the accident, it could be my number was relocated that way.”

Derek nodded. “Very possible, I suppose. But the person making the calls would have to be damn determined.”

Angel shivered. “He spoke for the first time today. He said, very clearly, that I couldn’t hide. He called me a few…choice names and told me to give him what he wanted.”

She saw Derek’s jaw go hard and knew he was clenching his teeth. He stared at her and she shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what he wants. I wish I did.”

“Go on.”

“I also got a letter in my mailbox.”

“Where is it?”

She pulled an envelope from the basket on top of her refrigerator and handed it to Derek. The letter was now wrinkled from her many hours of examining it, but Derek had no trouble making out the typed message. “I’ve found you,” he read aloud. He was silent for a long time, his face dark, his expression tight. He threw the letter on the table and turned on her.

“You thought I was behind this?” he asked, his teeth clenched, color high on his face. “You thought I would resort to sneaking around and stuffing threatening letters in a woman’s mailbox, in your mailbox?”

His reaction was genuine and for the first time she felt absolutely positive that he played no part in the harassment.

A little truth now certainly wouldn’t hurt. Problem was, as she tried to give it, tears gathered in her eyes, and she couldn’t quite work up the nerve to accuse his family, the most likely of suspects. Not yet.

She shook her head. “No,” she said, trying to sound sure of herself. “I don’t really think you’re behind it. But the letter came after I contacted you. Before that, all I’d gotten was phone calls. And you noticed the fake name on my mailbox that day. Now tonight, you showed up right after the call, and it was the first time he’d ever spoken to me. That’s a lot of coincidences.” She searched his face, hoping he’d understand. “I had to consider you, Derek. I couldn’t take any chances with Grayson’s safety.”

Seconds ticked by, then he reluctantly nodded.

She drew a deep breath of relief. “The whole reason I contacted you again, the only reason I introduced Grayson to you is because deep down, for some incredibly insane reason, I guess I still trust you. Even after everything that happened, I thought…I thought you would help. I hoped you would help.”

She swallowed, the sound audible, almost choked. “Derek…I’ve been so scared, and I don’t have anyone else to go to.”

A stunned moment of silence fell between them. She could feel the waves of emotion emanating from him, anger and regret and need. Then she was in his arms and it felt so good, so right, she curled closer and snuggled tighter, trying to fit herself completely against his long, hard length. His arms wrapped around her, urgently, almost violently, while his mouth nuzzled down her face, giving her small anxious biting kisses until finally he reached her lips and then he was devouring her and she was glad, so very, very glad.

CHAPTER SIX

DANE KNEW HE SHOULD pull back, that he was making a terrible tactical error. He wasn’t completely in control, and he should be. But he couldn’t put so much as an inch between them. He wanted, needed her, right now. Even two seconds more would be too long to wait. And Angel was so soft and anxious against him, her breasts pressed to his chest, her pelvis cradling his own. She wanted him, too, and that was all that mattered. The deceptions, the worries, could be taken care of in the morning. He’d make it all okay, one way or another, but for now, tonight, he wouldn’t say a single thing that would put a halt to her greed.

Growling low, he slid his hands down to her backside and cuddled her even closer. She felt so damn good.

“Angel.”

She pressed her face into his throat and shuddered. “I don’t understand this, Derek,” she said on a near wail. “I’ve never felt like this before.”

How could he possibly explain it to her, when he didn’t understand it himself? He knew she would compare him to Derek, and as much as he’d loved his brother, as dedicated as he was to finding out the truth, right now claiming her took precedence over everything else.

He shushed her with more kisses. “I’ve never felt this way either, honey. Don’t worry about it now. Just let me love you.”

She opened her mouth against him and took a soft, greedy love bite of his throat. Gasping, he quickly picked her up, mindful of her injured leg, and hurried to her bedroom, nudging the door shut behind them until it closed with a secure click. He didn’t want to take the chance of waking Grayson. He wanted no interruptions at all.

He didn’t put her on the bed, choosing to stand her beside it instead. He wanted her naked, and he wanted to look his fill. It felt as if he’d been waiting forever.

As he grasped the cloth belt to her robe, ready to pull it free, she caught his wrists. His gaze darted to her face and he was amazed to see how heavy and sensual her eyes had become, her thick lashes lowered, the green eyes bright and hot. Her high cheekbones were colored, but with need, not embarrassment. She took soft, panting breaths as she looked up at him.

She licked her lips, and even that innocently seductive sight had him trembling.

“I don’t want to disappoint you, Derek.”

He’d never before minded being mistaken for his twin. Through his entire life people had often done it, sometimes even his parents. Before their father had died, he and Derek had often played tricks on him, deliberately confusing him.

But now, he hated it. He had to struggle for breath. He gave her a hard quick kiss, which turned tender and hungry and lingered sweetly. When he pulled away, it seemed to take a great effort on her part for her to get her eyes open. He smiled. “There’s no way you could disappoint me, honey.”

“My body’s changed. The baby…”

Still holding her gaze he tugged the knot out of the belt and pushed the robe off her shoulders. She dropped her arms and the robe fell free all the way to the floor. Angel lowered her head and turned slightly away.

For nearly a minute he was speechless. She was more beautiful than any woman had a right to be, and there was absolutely nothing motherly about her heavy, firm breasts, the stiff dark nipples. Her rib cage expanded and fluttered with her uneven breaths and her belly looked soft and slightly rounded, very pale. He spread one large, hot palm over her stomach and heard her small gasp.

“Derek…?”

“Shhh. I’ve never wanted a woman the way I want you, Angel. Trust me when I tell you there’s not a single thing about you that could disappoint me.” Her legs were long and so sexy, even with the harsh scars on her left shin. He immediately pictured those long legs wrapped around him, her heels digging into the small of his back, urging him on, and he groaned as his erection pulsed, demanding release.

Slowly, so he wouldn’t startle her, he slid his palm downward until he was cupping her, his fingers tangling in the dark blond curls over her mound. They felt damp and soft under his fingertips, her flesh swollen, and he breathed deeply through his nose, trying to ease the constriction in his lungs. He held still, just holding her like that, letting her feel the heat of his palm, letting the anticipation build.

Angel moaned and stepped up against him. Her hands gripped his biceps, her forehead pressed to his shoulder.

Dane swallowed and smiled grimly. “Do you remember when I touched you in my office?” he asked against her temple.

She nodded her head.

He licked her ear and gently nipped the lobe. “You were so close then, Angel, and I’d barely done anything to you. Little more than kissing.” He nearly groaned with the memory.

Her hips jerked, encouraging him. Anticipating her response, he inched his fingers lower, gliding over her warm flesh, opening her soft, plump folds, learning her, exploring. She was already so hot, so silky wet, and it amazed him the way she reacted to his touch. It also made him nearly crazy with a frenzied mix of lust and overwhelming tenderness.

Her body felt frozen against his, very still, waiting. Even her breathing became suspended, as if she was afraid to move for fear of missing something. Determination swelled within him. He had no intention of leaving her with complaints; her views on the joys of sex were about to be altered.

“Open your legs a little more for me, Angel.” He could tell that she responded to his words, and he wasn’t about to disappoint her. “Let me feel you. All of you.”

With a shudder, her face well hidden against his chest, she carefully widened her stance. Immediately he pressed one finger deep inside her, at the same time he braced his free arm around her waist.

She needed his support.

Her body went alternately stiff and completely yielding. Holding her against him, acutely aware of her broken breaths, her soft moans, the way her fingers dug into his chest, he stroked her. He could feel her tightening, feel the small shudders moving up and down her body. He eased her a little away from him and she allowed the small separation, her head falling back on her shoulders, her still-damp hair trailing down to tickle against his arm. He saw her breasts heaving and dipped his head down to take one plump nipple into his mouth.

“Ohhh…”

He lapped with his tongue, nibbled with his teeth, drew deeply on her. Her hands raised from his chest to his head and her fingers tangled in his hair, tugging, trying to draw him even closer.

“I have to sit down,” she moaned.

“No.” He blew on her damp nipple, watching it go painfully tight. The pregnancy had no doubt made her breasts extra sensitive, and he intended to take advantage of that fact. “Right here, Angel. We’ll get to the bed in a minute.”

He switched to her other breast and heard her give a soft sob of compliance. Voluntarily, she parted her legs even more and then thrust against him. He slid his finger all the way out, teasing, then worked it heavily back into her again. “You’re so wet for me, honey,” he said on a groan, amazed and thrilled and so hot himself he wanted to die.

Forcefully, making him wince, she brought his mouth back up to her own and this time she kissed him, awkwardly but with so much hunger he thought he might burst. He rubbed his heavy erection against her soft hip while he carefully forced a second finger inside her. He found a rhythm that pleased her and went about seeing to her satisfaction. He was playing it safe, not about to remove his clothes or lie with her on the bed, knowing his control was thin at the moment and any little thing could send him over the edge. He wouldn’t risk taking his own completion before he’d seen to hers.

Within minutes she was crying, her body tight and trembling, her hands frenzied on his back and shoulders. Slowly, he eased her down to the side of the bed so that her legs hung over the edge, then knelt between them. She dropped back, her hands fisting in the bedclothes, her hips twisting. Dane lifted her legs to his shoulders and before she could object—if indeed she would have given how close she was—he cupped her hips in his hands and brought her to his mouth.

She tasted sweet and incredibly hot and he was beyond teasing her, so close to exploding himself. His heart thundered and her scent filled him as he nuzzled into her, driving himself ever closer. As his tongue stroked over her sensitive flesh, as he found the small engorged bud and drew on it, teasing with his tongue, tormenting with his teeth, she gave a stifled scream and climaxed.