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Angel’s brows scrunched together, and she rubbed her hands along her forearms. The room’s temperature had chilled even though the sun hadn’t started its descent.
“W.. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He shook the cobwebs away. Nothing was wrong with her. She was fucking perfect.
Her tiny fists balled against her sides, and she stamped her foot. An angry angel. His lip quirked up. This girl. This woman. His woman. He’d have her or no other. He shifted back on his boots, loosening their shackles.
“Nothing,” he repeated, ignoring her glare. “Other than this.” He dropped to the edge of the bed. It groaned and protested from the sudden weight, lifting and nearly upending him. A shit bed.
“Oh.” Her eyes widened, and a grin softened her lips. “Didn’t think about that.”
“What did you think?”
“I thought you’d changed your mind.” A lopsided grin winked at him.
This woman, how could she read him? But… no lies. They wouldn’t start with a lie between them. “I did.”
Angel’s feet stumbled when she took a step back. Her arms wrapped across her belly. “Oh.”
The sexiest lip rounding had his dick hardening even as his brain cautioned that this wasn’t the time.
“I wanted you. Still want you. But this feels like forever. For-ever-ever.”
“It’s just a one night,” she waved to the windows. “Okay, a one-day stand. Right?”
She would have to chew on his dickhead the same way she worked her lip.Focus.
“I don’t think so.” He argued, when arguing was the furthest thing from his mind. “Have you ever unfolded one of those giant road maps and then couldn’t put it back together again? That’s how my whole life has been.” He swiped a hand down his face. “Unsettling. How does it feel to you?”
Her braids swayed against her face as she shook her head. “It feels like a sexy man wants me. And I want him too. Want what he’s offering.” Angel’s voice dropped even lower than her normal silky jazz tones, vibrating like a tuning fork along his spine.
The bed slammed against the floor when he stood up. He grimaced when Angel flinched. “Sorry about the bed. Even sorrier that our lives are about to change, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.”
He took her hand and pulled her closer. Tucking her head under his shoulder. “But we won’t worry about that today.” Hannibal stroked down her braids. They were soft, not the corded rope texture he’d expected. Instead, each soft braid kissed his palm. He stroked up and then down again.
“Right now, we’re going to focus on this one day. You said,I want you. That’s like comparing skim milk to a bowl of fresh whipped cream. Here, let me show you.”
Angel arched away from his kiss, placing her hand on his lips. “We still have the bed problem. You don’t fit.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist, and they faced the bed together. They might not fit perfectly into each other’s lives, but he would make it work. Hannibal swept the thick comforter and sheets onto the floor.
“Trust me. I’m not a man who gives up when things look tough.”
She looked down at the pallet he’d formed. “You think it will always be this easy?”
“Angel. Watch me.”
He knelt on the nest he’d provided and lifted her hand to his lips. Kissing each knuckle, giving her his gentle when he wasn’t soft at all. But for this day. For their first time, he would offer her something he’d given no other woman. There’d be plenty of time for neck biting, wall slamming, and bed breaking in their long lives. Because he wasn’t going any-fucking-where.
It only took a light tug to have her tumbling into his arms. Her brown skin shimmered before his eyes, a sexy vision on the white sheets. She was too gorgeous for words. Too beautiful to be his, but no one else would have her now.
Fuck that.Hannibal traced the details of her face. His finger’s calloused ridges abrading the satin smoothness. Damn, why couldn’t he come to her clean and unscarred? He didn’t do regrets. You couldn’t focus on your rearview mirror and expect to keep moving forward.
He kissed her eyelids shut. A benediction. And a veil. She didn’t need to see how fast and hard he was falling.
Her arms wrapped around his neck, craning up like a flower seeking the sun as she sought his mouth. Her frantic lips were hungry and demanding. But he refused to break the thread. The single wire holding him back, reigning him in.
Angel’s eyes snapped back and glared. “What the hell is wrong? Why are you holding back?”
