AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I licked my lips. “Do you always bring women into your office and play doctor? Is that your thing? Or am I your first hostage?”
Deacon straightened slowly.
My heart skittered out of time. I eased back when he leaned into my personal space, his eyes glued to mine. Fingernails desperately scraping the underside of the desk, I struggled to breathe.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
Knots tightened my throat. “Angel.”
“Angel,” he hummed, pressing his lips together like a wine taster who’d sampled the most exquisite bottle in the world.
Nerves a mess, I hiccupped.
His eyes zipped to mine and a slow, devastating smile threatened to end me. “Do you want to be my hostage, Angel?”
By this time, my chest was swelling and falling visibly.
I had to get out. Had to leave before I lost even more of myself to this dangerous tension. Whatever… this was, it was too powerful to be good. Too consuming to lead to happiness.
Life had a habit of tearing control from my fingers. Daddy’s illness. Mom’s depression. So little went my way. If I stuck around Boss for one more moment, I’d lose yet another tiny piece of my control.
He would take it from me.
And not by force. I knew, like my next, shaken breath, that most would offer anything he demanded. Because men like Deacon had never asked for anything twice. And women rarely denied him.
Get a grip, Angel.
This guy had a huge ego. Handsome or no, he needed to be brought down a peg.
And I was just the woman to do it.
5
Deacon
She watched me intently, nostrils flaring. I could sense her surprise, her righteous anger. Fear made her lips tremble. Pride kept her seated. This woman would not run away, not before she felt she had bested me.
I liked that.
Liked her.
Angel.
The name fit her so perfectly I wanted to utter it again. Wanted to see the little muscles in her jaw bunch and jump when I did. Wanted her eyes to sharpen and her knuckles to tighten as she gripped the desk.
To say I’d never felt this way about a woman before would be an understatement. The strength of my feelings, the mounting clamor of my interest, should not be.
Yet it was.
I was reminded of the day I held Reid for the first time. Emotions had crashed over me, a mighty wave against a cold and bitter statue. I’d crumbled immediately.
But Reid was my flesh and blood. Half my DNA. My blood ran through his little veins.
And this stubborn, beautiful, stunning woman… was a stranger.
She swallowed audibly and shifted her tempting leg away. “Is that how you repay the woman who saved your son? With threats?”
“It’s not a threat.”
