Archangel (Black Reign MC #11)

Chapter Eleven

Sonya

I didn’t make it the first twelve hours waiting on Archangel. Me and Linnie and Bella had pizza and beer until we were stuffed, then passed out for a couple of hours. They left right at dark at my insistence.

“There’s no use you guys staying here when you could be at home in your own bed. I’ll have Ripper send me the bill because I think I want to chill here for another day.”

“Stay as long as you like. You know your dad won’t mind.”

“I just want to be away from both clubs for a few hours so I can think without everyone wanting to know what happened. That’ll come soon enough. I need to have time to process.”

“You sure you don’t want one of us to stay with you, Sonya?” Bella gripped my hand in hers. “I don’t mind.”

“I appreciate it, Bella, but I’m good. Really. Besides, you guys have work to do.” We all three burst into giggles again.

“God, I’m full,” Linnie groaned. “Got Lock and Poison headed here with a cage. One will drive my car home and the other will take us home. He might have brought someone with them to get Bella’s car too, but I’m not sure.” She shrugged. “Someone’ll get it for her.”

“You guys are the best,” I said again. “I know I said it before, but I mean it.”

“You feel better?” Bella gave me a hopeful look.

I thought about my answer before nodding. “Yeah. I actually do feel better. I also realize you were right, Bella.”

“Oh?” Her eyes widened in surprise. “Er, I mean, of course, I’m right. But what was I right about this time?”

I laughed, pulling my friend into my arms for a hug. “About Archangel.” I pulled back and smiled at them both. “I might have overreacted just a touch.” I tried to grin, but I knew my expression looked as forced as it was.

“You were protecting yourself,” Bella said softly. “You weren’t leaving because you didn’t want him. You were leaving because you wanted him too much. When that woman showed up… Well, that was the feeling you were trying to avoid. By leaving before he could convince you to stay.” Of course, Bella knew what I was feeling. Felt like the three of us had been friends forever.

“I’m still going to look at what Ripper finds before I talk with Archangel. But I’m not going to assume the worst. He told me what happened, and I believe him. His next actions will tell me all I need to know.”

Linnie nodded. “I think that’s a good assessment. Take all the time you need. I’ll call you tomorrow and bring food.”

“Make it tomorrow evening. I’m going to try some of that meditation shit Angel was trying to teach me.”

“Seriously?” Linnie traded a look with Bella. “She’s got it pretty bad, Bella.”

“Meditation? Who are you and what did you do with Sonya?”

“Shut up.” I grinned. “I’m going to be all right. In fact, now that I’ve decided to grow the fuck up and stop acting like a sulking teenager, I feel better about the whole situation.”

“You just tell us what you need and we’ll make it happen. If that means we drag Archangel here by his hair, that’s what we’ll do.” Bella was the sweet one, but she was also fierce as a dragon when someone messed with her family.

“I got this, Bella. Thank you, guys, so much.” We group hugged. “You’re the best friends ever.”

“We love you, Sonya. You need us, you call or text. We’ll come with reinforcements.”

“I will, Linnie.”

After they’d gone, I’d soaked in the jetted tub for the better part of an hour. Thinking. Meditating. Trying to find my inner peace like Archangel had taught me. I was surprised, but I had a measure of success. I managed to float in a sea of calm until my mind was quiet and I could find my inner strength once again. The first thought when I came back to the here and now was that Archangel would be proud of me. That was when I realized I was torturing us both by not talking with him.

I got out of the bath and dried off, wrapping a towel around myself. My hair was still up in a messy bun to keep it out of the water so I didn’t have to dry it. I picked up my phone and opened my texting app. I stared at Archangel’s name for a long moment before opening the last messages we’d traded. I took another unsteady breath and texted him with shaking fingers.

Me: Archangel? Are you up ?

Immediately, the dots of an incoming text flashed.

Archangel: Always .

Crap. The guy was smooth. I couldn’t help but smile. The butterflies in my stomach made me shiver.

Me: If you’re not busy, would you like to talk ?

Archangel: When and where ?

Me: The girls got me a suite in Palm Beach. You could come here whenever you have time. I’ll share the key with you on the app .

There was a whirr as the door to the room opened and Archangel stepped inside. He put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, then shut it, turning the lock as well as closing the safety latch.

“Angel!” I jumped up and took a couple reflexive steps back. “You asshole! You scared me to death!” I tried to be mad. I really did. But all I felt was relief. I grinned and threw myself at him, wrapping my arms and legs around him.

He chuckled. “Ah, baby. I missed you.”

“Were you sitting outside my door? That’s a little fuckin’ creepy.” I laughed. Because he was waiting for me to call him. He was watching over me. And he respected my privacy by not coming in before I invited him. Yeah. I was a goner on this man.

“Like I said. I missed you.”

“I was only gone a few hours.”

“Way the fuck too long.” He hugged me as hard as I hugged him. “Though I confess I hadn’t expected this kind of greeting.”

I pulled back to grab him and kiss him all over his face. He laughed until our lips finally met.

Archangel responded to my eager kisses with equal passion, his hands sliding down to cup my towel-clad bottom as he held me against him. Our lips moved together hungrily, tongues tangling. I felt like I was starved for a taste of him. Angel had given me a small bite and I wanted the whole fucking pie.

When we broke apart, both of us were breathing heavily. Archangel rested his forehead against mine. “I’m so sorry, Sonya. I don’t care if it was my fault or not. I will take full responsibility and beg your forgiveness and mean every fucking word. Just please let me explain.”

“It’s OK. I swear. I just needed a bit to calm down. I’m sorry for making an idiot of myself in front of… uh… your…”

“ Ex -wife. Emphasis on the ex .” He slid me a sheepish grin. “Shotgun fixed that first thing. She’s still at the Black Reign compound because I want to make sure whoever she was with before isn’t still a threat to her. While there’s no way I’m continuing a relationship with her, if she’s on the run from someone, I can’t kick her out until I’m sure she’s not in danger.”

“Nor would I expect you to.” I smiled up at him, still cupping his face in my hands. “You’re not that kind of man. You’re a protector. A fixer. You can’t go against your nature. Not like that.”

He pulled me close again, this time turning to sit on the bed. My knees were beside his hips and I clung to him. He sighed and so did I, both of us content to just sit there and hold each other.

When he finally pushed me away from him enough to look at me, he brushed a few strands from my forehead and tucked them behind my ear. “I fucked this up to hell and back. I’ll tell you everything you want to know. But I swear to you, I don’t remember half of what happened that night.”

“I think you explained that part well enough. What I want to know most is what happens from here? You said she was now your ex-wife, but that she was staying at Black Reign until you knew she was safe. What will your obligation be to her?”

“Nothing.” His answer was immediate and firm. “El Diablo said Jezebel was taking care of her. If she wants to stay, they’ll find work for her. If not, they’ll settle her somewhere else if she needs help.”

“Like financial help? I thought she had all kinds of money.”

“No financial help. She’s got all the money she’s getting from me or the club. But if she needs help moving her stuff, the prospects will help her out.”

“No one is that much of a saint, Angel. While I think it’s admirable and I wouldn’t want it any other way, why would you do that after she deceived you?”

He moved us farther onto the bed and rolled over so he laid on top of me. I loved the tender smile he gave me. He looked… younger, or something. Maybe carefree? Contented? Whatever he was feeling certainly agreed with him and I wanted to always see that expression on his face when he looked at me.

“When I first met El Diablo, he told me something I took to heart and I try my best to live by. He said to treat everyone with respect, even if they hadn’t earned it. He said, when you understand the difference between granting respect to someone you don’t know and making someone you do know earn your respect, then you had the right to choose which applied. If you aren’t sure, you err on the side of caution. It costs nothing to be nice. You might make an ally.”

“Sounds like something he’d say.” I smiled up at him.

“So I’m going to assume she thought she had a good reason for what she did. To be honest, I don’t care why she thought tricking someone into marrying her was a good idea. All I care about is getting that marriage dissolved -- which it has been -- and getting back to figuring out us .”

“Speaking of us. What exactly do you see happening here? How do we end up?”

“I want you to be my old lady. I want to spend the rest of my life making you happy. I see us ending up very old, very wrinkled, and very happy in a beach house surrounded by grandkids and great-grandkids. And before you tell me how much older I am than you, I plan on living to be at least a hundred and twenty.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “You’re so full of shit.”

“Am not.” He leaned down to kiss me again, tenderly. Gently. With so much love it made my heart clench. “What I am, is so in love with you, I’ll defy any god to take me from you before I’m ready.” He spoke so fiercely, I actually believed he could make good on his word.

Then I registered everything he’d said. “You’re… in love with me?” The words were barely above a whisper.

“Yeah, baby. I love you. With everything that I am.”

“Not because of, you know, because we had sex?”

“Sonya, honey. I try to be an honorable man in everything I do. That means I don’t lie. Especially not to people I love. I would most certainly make you my old lady to do right by you. But I will never lie to you about my feelings for you. And I’d never tell you I loved you if I didn’t mean it.”

“You didn’t wake up after we had sex and suddenly decide you loved me. I won’t believe that.” It hurt. Not because I thought he was lying. Because I was hoping like fuck he wasn’t. I wanted this so bad! I wanted Archangel for my own so no one else could have him but me. I wanted to ride behind his bike and for him to be proud to have me with him. Because I’d be damned proud to be with him.

He leaned in once more to place a lingering kiss on my lips. “Sonya, when you came home after your first semester of college, I realized you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever imagined. Not only that, you were wicked smart and sexy as fuck.” He leaned in again to nip at my neck, making me squeal. “I wasn’t in love with you then. But I had a healthy dose of lust aimed squarely at you. No. I fell in love with you when you were telling me about your life in Bane and how you loved everything about living there, even with your father breathing down your neck. You were so passionate and free spirited, you made me feel young again. I remembered a time before I met El Diablo when there was nothing to look forward to but death in battle and wished I’d met you then. Because, in those precious moments when you spoke to me from your heart, I knew you’d have been the person I looked forward to coming home to. And my life would likely have been much, much different.”

“Angel.” I stroked his beard gently, like I might pet a cat. “I’ve loved you since I was a teenager. There’s no other man I’ve ever wanted to be with. So I’m all in with this. You’re my fantasy. My dream.”

“You have me, honey. Everything I am.”

“You think you’ll be able to handle girls’ weekend?”

He stilled where he’d been kissing my palm and narrowed his eyes at me. “What’s girls’ weekend?”

“Well, you picked me up from one.” I gave him a bright smile. “One random weekend a month, we go to Moore Haven to pull pranks. Just to keep Lawdawg on his toes.”

“That’s your girls’ weekend?”

“Yep.”

Then he grinned down at me. “Yeah. I can handle girls’ weekend.”

“Good. Because I will fight for my right to party.”

He did laugh then. Leaning in once again to kiss me. “Yeah, baby. You do. You create havoc, I’ll keep the fuzz off your back.”

“Sounds like the best of plans. But I have a better one.”

“Oh?” He kissed me again. “What’s that?”

I pulled him close, so my lips were right at his ear. “I want you to fuck me until I beg for mercy. Then I want you to fuck me some more.”

“Christ,” he swore, sucking at the delicate skin of my neck. The little sting told me he’d definitely left a mark. Good. I liked him staking a claim. “You’re gonna keep me on my toes, aren’t you?”

“I’d rather keep your dick in my pussy. Think you can manage that?”

“Oh, little witch. You’re playing with fire.”

I turned my head and bit his ear with a sharp nip of my teeth. “ Then burn me !”

Archangel growled low in his throat, a primal sound that sent shivers down my spine. In one swift motion, he yanked the towel from me, taking it with him as he stood. His eyes roamed hungrily over my naked body as he quickly shed his own clothes.

“You want to burn, baby?” he rasped, settling his weight between my thighs. “I’ll give you a fuckin’ inferno.”

He took my lips in a searing kiss as he thrust inside me in one smooth stroke. I cried out at the delicious stretch, digging my nails into his shoulders. Archangel set a punishing pace, driving into me with powerful strokes that had the headboard slamming against the wall.

“Oh god, Angel!” I gasped, wrapping my legs around his waist to pull him deeper. “Yes! Just like that!”

Archangel groaned, burying his face against my neck as he pounded into me relentlessly. His teeth grazed my skin, sending electric shocks of pleasure through my body. I arched up to meet his thrusts, our bodies moving together perfectly.

“Fuck, Sonya,” he rasped. “You feel so Goddamned good! So fuckin’ tight and wet!”

Arousal flooded me and made my pussy weep for him. I loved how vocal he was during sex, how he told me exactly what I did to him. I loved his dirty fantasies and the way he kept me on edge wondering what he’d say or do next.

“Only for you. Only for you!”

“That’s right, baby.” He grunted with his efforts as he fucked me harder, giving me everything he had. “And you’re gonna take all I have to give you like a good girl, aren’t you?”

“Yes! Fuck me, Angel. Fuck me!”

He shifted slightly, hitting the perfect spot inside me with each stroke. My orgasm built rapidly, tension coiling around my insides so I wanted to erupt to release the pressure. “Come for me,” he demanded. “Let me feel you come on my cock.”

His words pushed me over the edge. I screamed his name, embracing the pleasure he gave me and demanding more. Archangel grunted and buried his face in the pillow beside me and shouted into the fabric. Hot seed erupted inside my pussy, filling me with him.

And then it hit me. “Uh, Angel?”

“Yeah, baby.” He was breathing as hard as I was, his heavy weight on top of me the most comforting peace I’d ever had. I didn’t care what had just happened. All I wanted to do was lie like this for hours and hours.

“Hmm…”

He chuckled. “That sounded like a contented woman.”

“Yeah,” I said, stretching. I tightened my legs around him so he knew not to move.

“But I want to know what you were going to say.”

“Yeah…” I drew out the word a little. “We… uh… you know. Didn’t use…”

“Protection?”

“Yeah. That.”

I didn’t expect him to laugh, but he did. He laughed and kissed the side of my neck. Even when I tried to push him off me in a fit of temper, he still kissed me, his cock staying right where it was, buried deep inside my pussy.

“It’s not funny, Angel!”

“Honey, I’m not laughing about that. I’m laughing because you just baited me into hard, rough sex all while yelling at me to fuck you, and you couldn’t even say the word condom.”

“Shut up.”

He continued to chuckle, and I couldn’t help but laugh with him. One thing led to another, and I found myself getting railed from behind. And no. He didn’t use a condom that time either, and I wasn’t at all torn up about it. I knew this was his way of solidifying his claim on me.

“If you’re wondering, no. I’ve never come inside a woman intentionally without a condom. I can’t speak to Gloria since I have no idea if we had sex or not, but I knew when I woke up with my dick in your mouth that morning I was never going to tolerate a barrier between us. You’re mine and I’m not letting you go. I will use everything I can to make unbreakable ties between us because you are everything to me, Sonya.”

“I’m yours, Angel,” she whispered. “All yours. Forever.”

“Say it again,” he demanded hoarsely.

“I’m yours. Only yours, Angel. Always.”