Chapter 31 Angel #2
“I better go before they start Mayhem at my four-year-old’s party,” Jer told me worriedly.
“I need more beer,” I told no one.
“Can I join you?”
“Kalon Barnes, as I live and breathe,” I greeted him. “How are you?”
“I’m good, Angel. Heard about your trouble. You good?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” I assured him. I showed him my wings. “See, I have wings to prove it.”
Kalon laughed as he pointed to the kitchen. “Beer’s inside, want one?”
Glancing back at the pony scene, I nodded. “Yes, yes I do.” I followed him into the kitchen, the multiple folding doors pushed wide, which left the whole side of the house open and provided shade from the Arizona heat.
“Can angels drink beer?” Kalon asked me before he handed me one.
“Can Devils buy ponies?”
He squinted at me in confusion. “What?”
“Ignore me.” I gave a light laugh. “It’s the heat.”
“So, I wanted to talk to you,” Kalon started, “about agents.”
My beer was suddenly no longer interesting. “I’m listening,” I told him.
As he told me about his current agent, and I made noncommittal nods and noises, I found that my attention kept returning to Onyx, who was playing with his goddaughter in the sun. Cooper was there too, but I only had eyes for Onyx. I needed to stop mooning over him and move on.
I turned my attention back to Kalon and listened to his woes. After what felt like an hour, I turned to look back into the party, and I noticed Onyx was gone. Where was he? I could see Coop but not Onyx. Did he leave?
“What do you think?” Kalon asked me, touching my arm, snapping my attention back to him. Thank God for sunglasses.
I scratched my head. What the hell had he just asked me? “I think . . . it’s a lot to process.”
The derisory snort as an arm reached past me and pulled a beer from the bucket made me tense. I didn’t relax when Onyx uncapped the beer and wrapped his arm around my waist.
“He wants to know if he ditches his agent, will you replace him?” Onyx told me, pulling me back into his body. “You should think about it,” he told me, making me instantly bristle. I didn’t need his advice on who I could sign.
“I didn’t say that, exactly,” Kalon protested.
“He also wants to fuck you,” Onyx continued as he pressed the cold bottle against my neck, causing me to flinch. “On that, I say not a chance.”
“Really?” I turned to look up at him. “Now you want to have a say?”
“I’ll leave you two to it. Um, Angel—”
“She’ll call,” Onyx told him as he kept his eyes on mine. “For the agent job, nothing else.”
“Got it,” Kalon muttered as he walked away.
“Rude.”
“He was, complete dick,” Onyx agreed. “You’re right, don’t call.”
“You can’t do that,” I said as I pulled free. “You don’t get to make a claim like that.”
“Yes, I do.” His gaze traveled down my body. “I can stake you if I like.”
“A vampire joke? Are you kidding me?” I placed the bottle of beer down and turned away from him. “Go back to your unicorn; that’s the only mythical creature here.”
Walking quickly through the house, I tried to remember the way back to my room.
Chrissy’s house was huge. Through sheer luck, I recognized the bedding and, later, my luggage.
I tried to shake off the wings, but Chrissy had helped me with getting them on, and I was scared that Chrissy might need to help me get them off.
In that case, I feared that I was going to be wearing angel wings forever.
Cool hands stilled my shoulders, and I felt him guide the wings gently down my arms. When I was free, I turned to face him.
“Thank you,” I said quietly. “Any chance you can break them?”
“Nope, my goddaughter thinks you’re an angel. I’m not going to tell her you’re not.”
“Finally, a female you listen to,” I snarked.
“I listen to you.”
“You really don’t,” I scoffed.
“I do. You just don’t see me when I hear you.”
Frowning, I looked at him. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“It means I listen, and you don’t admit it when I do.”
“Say more words,” I encouraged him.
“I didn’t do anything to Johnathan,” he said as he turned and closed the door. “I heard what he said, and then Cooper took him to the police.”
“He had a broken nose and a dislocated shoulder,” I said dryly.
“It was unfortunate that Charlie let go of him when he stumbled on the stairs.”
“He pushed him down the stairs,” I corrected him.
Onyx shrugged innocently. “I wasn’t there, I can’t say for sure.”
I stared at him open-mouthed. “That’s not listening to me, that’s avoidance.”
Onyx reached for me, and I stepped back, and he gave a heavy sigh.
“I had a guy in front of me who had just told me he was willing to fuck you over for a client list. I mean, you have good clients, but he was willing to let you die over a list.” His thumb rubbed over his ring.
“I stood there, and I listened, and every single fucking part of me wanted to gut him like he gutted that rat. But I didn’t. For you.”
“He wasn’t worth it,” I told him quietly. “You did the right thing.”
“Angel, he was so worth it. I was fighting myself to stay in place, because I knew if I moved, if I touched him, you would never talk to me again.”
“Onyx, that’s . . . I don’t even know.” Tilting my head back, I looked up at the ceiling. “She has a mirror on the ceiling,” I blurted.
“I know.”
“How do you know?”
“This is my bedroom.”
I looked around wildly. Why hadn’t I seen it before? Of course, this was his room. Away from the others, neat, black and white, manly. His cologne had even been on the shelf in the bathroom, and I had thought it was a cute coincidence. He maybe didn’t listen to me, but did I see him? “Shit.”
“Which side do you want?” he said with a smirk as he jerked his head to the bed.
“Why is there a mirror?” I asked him suspiciously.
“Because Chrissy thinks she’s hysterical and calls me vain, so she put a mirror above the bed so I can watch myself sleep.”
That would be totally something she would do because it made no sense. “How do you watch yourself sleeping?”
“She thinks she’s funny; no one said she’s smart.”
I giggled and he smiled. “Mean.”
“I’m not mean.” He straightened. “I’m not the one standing in a white dress with so much skin on display, with your ass shaped perfectly and looking like a fucking angel, that all I want to do is take you to bed and make you very dirty, while you come all over my cock.”
“It’s the wings,” I whispered as he stalked toward me.
“It’s the woman.”
“That was a good line.”
“It’s not a line. You have three seconds,” Onyx told me as his thumb traced my bottom lip. “Then you’re mine.”
I swallowed as I looked up at him, and I didn’t move. “Looks like my time’s up.”