Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
“How dare you pull that shit?” Angelica’s voice ricocheted through the room, anger building in her chest and pulling tightly into a ball. “We talked about this!”
Hope paled, her jaw going slack. She was stuck between the door and Angelica with no way to step farther into the room, and like hell would she escape it.
“Angel…”
“No! Don’t you Angel me!” Angelica pointed a finger at her, very nearly pushing it into Hope’s chest. She would ride this anger as best as she could. “Don’t you ever think you can bribe your way in here to push me to do what you want me to do!”
“Angel.” Hope said her name sharply.
“No!” Angelica threw her hands up in the air. She would die on this hill if she had to. Because she needed to expend some of this awful energy somewhere, and Hope was the best target for it. “I’m not going to do this. I’m not—”
“Angel…” Hope said one more time, stepping in closer. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
Angelica pressed her lips together and clenched her jaw tightly.
She shook her head and spun around on her toes, pushing her way into her room.
Everything in here was untouched. She’d barely slept the last few days between everything going on.
And Hope hadn’t… She paused and breathed at that thought. Hope hadn’t been there with her.
Because Angelica hadn’t allowed her to be.
Stepping to the desk, Angelica spun around and stopped. “Josef. Florence. This whole season. Us… take your pick.”
Hope narrowed her eyes and set down the plate she’d been carrying onto the top of the dresser. “That isn’t anything more than you can handle.”
Angelica sighed heavily. It absolutely was, though. Everything was too much, and she hadn’t managed to find a minute to even breathe. Every day, she woke up, chose to make it to the end of the day, and then collapsed in the chair to finish out the rest of her work. And Hope had no idea.
Hope must have sensed something, because she stepped in closer with concern in her gaze. “Angel?”
“Just stop.” Angelica put her hands out in front of her, desperate to stop this onslaught of chaos that she couldn’t seem to escape.
Hope came in closer, snagging her hands and squeezing them. “I know I haven’t…” she stopped and started again. “I know I haven’t been doing a good job of taking care of you.”
“Jesus.” Angelica snorted and shook her head. The last thing she wanted to deal with was Hope’s self-flagellation.
“Hear me out. I’ve been distant and so have you. And that’s on both of us, okay?” Hope brushed her thumbs across the tops of Angelica’s hands. “All this drama with Josef has been… a shit show.”
“Understatement,” Angelica said, her lips curling slightly. “I just want him to go away at this point. I’m tired of feeling like I’m on guard every second of the day.”
Hope hummed and nodded. At least they had an understanding on that point. Angelica dashed her tongue against her lips and slowed her breathing.
“I don’t know how much more of Josef’s threats I can handle.”
“Has he done anything else?” Hope asked.
Angelica shook her head. “No, but…” she stopped. It wasn’t Josef that was bothering her. It was everything combined, and she needed to be honest when she told Hope that. “My brother called me when I went to California.”
“Christian?”
Angelica nodded, heat rushing through her. “My mom is… on her deathbed. At least he thinks so.”
“For real this time?” Hope cupped Angelica’s cheek and pulled her face closer.
“I think so. The family’s calling me, trying to convince me to go visit her.” Angelica’s stomach twisted sharply. That’s what this was really about, wasn’t it? “But then the Kartalis want me to buy them out.”
“Angel…” Hope trailed off on the word.
“I just… it’s so much change, Hope. And you know I don’t do change.”
“I know.” Hope’s lips quirked upward. “But that’s what I’m here for.”
Angelica sighed heavily. “That and so much more.”
Moving in, Hope kissed her tenderly. “Whatever you need.”
And what did she need? Angelica stayed right where she was, holding that thought carefully. “I need… we can’t keep doing this, can we?”
“Doing what?” Hope whispered, a light tease in her tone.
“They all know.” Angelica looked up, meeting Hope’s eyes. “Why haven’t I seen you?”
“We haven’t…” Hope frowned. “Can I treat you like I love you on set?”
Angelica dashed her tongue across her lips. What would that mean, exactly? Because she wasn’t sure she could handle everyone staring at them like they were clowns or something. “You do love me, every day.”
“Angel…” Hope snorted. “Can I kiss you? Touch you? Take care of you?”
“I don’t…” Angelica paused and shook her head, clearing the cobwebs. “I don’t know.”
“Then let’s start here, okay?”
Angelica nodded slowly, but the thoughts from before plagued her. Her mother, her family, her bosses, the show, Josef—everything came bounding back into her brain in an instant. Hope stepped forward and touched their lips together.
“Stop thinking,” Hope whispered.
Angelica breathed her in, the scents of the kitchen, the warmth of her touch. “I don’t know what to do.”
“And that’s okay,” Hope answered. “I’m not here to tell you what to do.”
“Then why are you here?” Angelica asked, her eyes fluttering shut.
“Because I love you,” Hope responded, pressing her lips to the corner of Angelica’s mouth. “And this is what I do for the people I love.”
“Hope…”
“Let me take care of you,” Hope whispered with another kiss.
Angelica relaxed. She turned into Hope’s kiss, pressing their lips together lightly and fluttering her eyes shut.
She just breathed in this woman, the person she should have been relying on before now.
Angelica wrapped her arms around Hope’s middle and pulled her in, planting her forehead in the crook of Hope’s neck and just stilling.
Everything had been spinning out of control lately.
Every which way she turned, something else was going wrong, someone else was needing her or yelling at her, some other major decision weighed on her shoulders. And yet here… here she could find a stillness she’d craved.
Angelica eventually pulled back slightly, her lips curling upward as if the weight that had been on her shoulders was already lifted. She looked up into Hope’s eyes and trailed her hand down the front of Hope’s chef’s coat.
“You smell like fish.” Angelica dropped her gaze to the path her fingers had blazed.
“I was teaching Trey to break down flounder. Here.” Hope immediately moved to undo the buttons on her jacket and pulled it off, tossing it to the side.
Angelica froze then, the thin wire of Hope’s microphone a stark black against the white of her tank top.
Her chest constricted. They hadn’t turned them off.
Fuck. It didn’t matter if everyone knew about their relationship, it was the fact that she still didn’t need the entire crew to be aware of the details of what went on behind closed doors.
Hope must have caught her gaze, because she immediately reached down to the mic pack and turned it off, pulled out the microphone and set it on top of her chef’s coat.
“Yours?” Hope asked.
Angelica could barely function. The microphone she wore was taped to her skin underneath her dress, the back underneath the fabric with the belt that was specifically made for these kinds of clothes to hide the damn thing.
She turned her back to Hope, sliding her hair away from the top of the zipper on her dress.
It didn’t take long for Hope’s fingers to move against the zipper, sliding it down.
Cold air brushed against Angelica’s skin as each inch was bared.
Hope brushed her knuckles down Angelica’s spine until she reached the belt Angelica wore with the mic pack.
The weight of the pack lifted, but Hope’s hands stilled.
“Do you want to take it off entirely?” Hope asked.
“Yes.” Angelica glanced over her shoulder, making eye contact. “Take all of it off.”
Hope bit her lip as she pulled at the Velcro, tugging it from around Angelica’s body.
Helping, Angelica pulled the top of her dress down to her waist and pulled the tape from her skin.
She balled it up and threw it onto the top of the desk along with the mic pack that Hope had set there.
Instead of pulling her dress back up, she turned around and looked into Hope’s eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Angelica murmured, once again trailing her fingers across Hope’s collarbones and between her breasts.
“For what?” Hope seemed genuinely confused.
“For not relying on you.” Angelica lifted her chin to look into Hope’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I should have.”
Hope hummed. She cupped Angelica’s cheek and pulled her in for another kiss. “There’s always next time.”
Angelica softened instantly. Hope wasn’t angry or upset. Simply, she just understood. This wasn’t easy for her. She’d done everything on her own for so long, and it wasn’t natural for her to rely on someone else to begin with.
“I’m not going to see my family,” Angelica said firmly. Just saying those words out loud solidified them in her heart. This was exactly what she needed.
“I’m not telling you that you should,” Hope replied.
“I know. I just…” Angelica stopped. “I want to buy the hotels.”
“So buy them.”
“I don’t know if I’ll have enough collateral. I don’t know if I can afford it—not just financially, but time-wise.” Angelica reached up and brushed her fingers across the short hair on Hope’s forehead. “We’ll never see each other.”
“We will.” Hope kissed her again on each cheek and then her forehead. “We work together.”
Angelica sighed with a laugh. “I don’t want to only see you at work.”
“Well, that’s comforting to hear.” Hope chuckled and kissed the corners of her lips. “Do you know how hard it is not to touch you when you’re half-naked in front of me?”
Angelica hummed, her entire body thrumming with arousal and anticipation. She hadn’t planned to end up in this situation, but she was glad she had. She was happy that Hope had chased her down and forced her up here.