22. Chapter 22
C leo dozed close to me under the dappled sunlight through the trees in the backyard with her half-chewed rawhide lying next to her. Though she slept, I knew she would always be on alert should anyone try to hurt Angel or me.
I raised my bow, feeling the smoothness of the wood and the tight pull of the string as I pulled back the arrow.
After holding my breath, I let the arrow fly, letting it out slowly once it hit the target Angel had made for me.
Easton had been working with me a lot and told me I was a natural.
When I first saw the bow, it called to me, and I knew I had to have it and learn it.
After some warm-ups, I moved about the wooded backyard, practicing different directions and distances. Then I’d work on my pacing, firing off several arrows as fast as possible, hitting the target every time. Practicing daily vastly improved my aim, and I loved challenging myself.
Angel said tomorrow, we’d work on more self-defense and some martial arts. He said sometimes fights got close and personal, so a bow wouldn’t always save me. We also trained with guns, but I preferred the bow. It was like a third arm. A part of me whenever I used it.
After emptying my quiver, I gathered my arrows to keep practicing before Cleo perked up and growled. She stood with her hackles raised, walking closer to me. I nocked an arrow and hid behind a tree to wait. Cleo wouldn’t have tensed had it not been something or someone headed our way.
The sound of the gate opening and the car diving closer to us had Cleo relaxing. Her fur settled back down, and she trotted toward the front of the house, and I followed close behind, placing my nocked arrow back into my quiver.
When I saw Angel’s car, my heart and stomach did a little dance full of backflips and spins.
He was finally home. I tried not to worry about him, knowing he could handle himself, but it would kill me if he died, especially because of me.
Regardless, I paid him to do a job, and I knew he would finish it or die trying.
I put down my bow and removed my quiver, then skipped toward his dark, blacked-out car with a smile on my face, ready to hug and kiss him, but he was still sitting in his car.
Cleo ran over there and whimpered and paced around the car, then she pawed at the driver’s door.
Something was wrong. Those happy flutters earlier turned into acid-burning creatures.
I ran over there and opened his door, but it was still locked, so I knocked on his window.
“Open the door, Angel,” I yelled through the thick glass.
As soon as I heard the popping sound of the locks, I opened his door as fast as I could to find a bloody mess. I wasn’t sure if it was his or someone else’s, but his weakened state showed he’d been injured.
“Oh, Angel.”
“See… I’m not so… immune to injury. No angel here.”
I scoffed and waved him off. “I’m not stupid. You’ve been injured before. Even angels get hurt in battle.”
“I’m okay. Give me a minute… just a little dizzy.”
I reached inside and unbuckled him, not caring that I was getting blood all over my clothes. Before I could help him out, he gently eased me back. “I’m fine. Really. I’ve had worse.”
Instead of insisting I help him, I trusted him and took a few steps back to give him some space. He eased out of the car and stood, seemingly stable, so I didn’t reach for him. Cleo whined again and licked his bloody hand. He gave her a little pat on the head and walked inside.
“Tell me what to do,” I said, wanting to help him in some way and not stand there, being useless.
Although I hired him, seeing him covered in blood and hurting had me filled with guilt.
He was my angel, and I sent him into danger.
Yes, that was his purpose, but still, seeing the consequences of what I had done hurt. Maybe my revenge wasn’t so important.
He walked back toward his bedroom. “Grab me a big glass of orange juice, would you? And I’ll need help peeling these clothes off.”
Without another word, I rushed off into the kitchen and poured him some juice into the biggest glass we had, then headed back into his bedroom, careful not to slosh the juice everywhere.
I found Angel sitting on the toilet with his suit jacket removed and lying in a pile on the floor.
He reached out to me, and I handed him the glass, and he chugged the whole thing down.
“Help me get undressed, and then I need you to reach under the cabinet and grab my first aid kit. Once I’ve pulled out what I need, I’ll need your help getting it clean, and the wound closed, so you’ll have to scrub your hands first. I’d do it, but it’s in an awkward spot on my side, and I can’t see it too well. ”
I nodded quickly. “Anything.”
I made quick work of the buttons on his shirt, then eased it off him, taking my time around his wound since the shirt was sticking to it.
Once the shirt was peeled off and piled with his jacket, I helped him stand, and we removed his shoes, pants, and socks.
He was only in his underwear, and together we scrubbed our hands in nearly scalding water.
My mind was focused only on treating Angel. All my worries and guilt were temporarily shoved aside. I sat him back on the toilet and pulled out the big red box under the sink, put it on the counter, and opened it. He pulled out several things and told me to put the box back and out of the way.
The wound was long and leaking too much blood. My angel looked pale, and his hands shook slightly, but he didn’t waver as he pulled out a syringe, filled it with some liquid, then handed it to me. “Place several injections along the wound to numb me. Just a little bit at a time.”
“Won’t that hurt?”
He scoffed. “Probably, but it will hurt less than doing stitches without it.”
My stomach dropped. “Stitches? I’ve… never done that before.”
“I’ll show you.”
“No,” I said and rushed off to get my phone before he could argue. I opened up a video on how to do sutures and watched it as Angel compressed his wound with a towel.
After washing my hands once more, I sat on my knees and took the syringe.
I gave him several shots, wincing each time I did.
Not that it bothered me, but I worried about his pain, although he never complained.
As he got numb, I opened the suture kit and followed the instructions closely.
I loved my phone and watching videos. I’ve learned so much in such a short time.
The cut was several inches, but I had no idea how to measure it. I just knew it was as long as my first finger. “I hate that you will have another scar.”
“What’s one more?”
“But it’s because of me.”
He lifted my chin, and though his hands were clean, he still had blood crusted in his fingernails. “Enough. I knew what I was getting into.”
“Okay.”
This time I slowly followed along with the video, and after thirty minutes, I finally had his wound closed. It was messy and not nearly as pretty as it was in the video, but he wasn’t bleeding anymore. I cleaned around his wound to get rid of the extra blood and covered it with a bandage.
Angel looked down at his stitches and laughed. “Well, that’s going to be one puckery scar.”
“I’m sorry!”
He lifted my chin again and leaned down to kiss me. “I’m teasing you. Thank you for your help. Now, I need to shower to get all this fucking blood off me.”
There was some sort of tape and plastic he used to cover up his stitches, and I helped him pull off his underwear. Once he was naked, I turned on the shower and let the water get hot as I stripped out of my clothes.
“You don’t need to bathe me.”
I ignored him because that was exactly what I had planned.
When the water was ready, we eased into the shower.
He stood under the showerhead with his head down and let the water cascade over his body.
I grabbed the washcloth, wet it, and lathered it with soap, and then started scrubbing his body.
Blood was everywhere as it poured off him and filled the bottom of the shower in red.
There was more blood than just from his wound. Was he hurt elsewhere?
“It’s not all mine,” he said as if reading my mind.
I nodded, though he couldn’t see me with his back to me.
Once I was done with his back and sides, I turned him around to face me. He watched me scrub him clean with hooded eyes. “You didn’t have to bathe me.”
“I wanted to. You always take care of me. Let me take care of you.”
I rinsed the cloth of blood and lathered it up again to clean all of him. When I ran the cloth along his penis, it grew hard. I licked my lips at it, suddenly hungry for it, and I grew hard in response.
“Huh, would you look at that? See what you do to me? I thought I’d be too out of it to get hard.”
I instantly dropped to my knees, ignoring the spray of water bouncing off him and onto my face, and grabbed his swelling length.
Before I shoved him down my throat, he grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked my head back to look at him.
His pale green eyes were dark and hard. I couldn’t tell if he was filled with lust or anger.
“Why?”
I had no idea what he was asking, so I said nothing.
“You should hate me.”
My brows furrowed, still not understanding. “But I love you.”
He scoffed without a smile on his face. “You should hate me,” he said again. “You shouldn’t want any man to touch you ever again. Not after what they did to you for so long. You should hate sex.”
I shook my head as best as I could despite his tight grip. “I’ve told you. You’re mine.”
“Why do you allow me to touch you and fuck you?”
I swallowed and tried to maintain eye contact despite all the years of being taught to avoid it unless told otherwise, especially when they were angry. “It’s all I know.”
He sighed and closed his eyes. “And exactly the reason you shouldn’t be on your knees right now.”
“Why are you saying these things? I told you to trust me. You were fine with it before.”
His eyes opened and bore into mine. “Because now I’m fucking caring about you. I shouldn’t, but I do.” He scoffed again. “What a fucking liar I am. If I hadn’t cared about you right when we met, you’d be dead already.”
“You need to trust me. Yes, it’s all I know, but this is the first time I’ve wanted to give all of myself to someone.
It doesn’t scare me.” I sighed and sat back on my heels, despite him still holding my head.
“I am afraid sometimes. There are times when I have flashes of my horrific memories. I still get nightmares. But you don’t scare me.
” My hand went to my throat, mimicking being choked.
“Just when I feel like I can’t breathe as my past chokes me, you give me a small smile or a gentle touch on my head and bring me back to the present.
Our present. It’s just you and me. Then I’m happy again. Safe.”
He let go of my hair and growled as he rubbed his wet hands over his face.
“Do you want me to stop?” I asked, unsure of what he wanted me to do. If he wanted to stop this, I would, but I’d also die a little. I think I understood his concern, but I loved being with him. He wouldn’t admit it, not yet, but I think he loved me a little, too.
Angel looked down at me, grabbed my chin, and shoved his thumb into my mouth. “Open.”
I did as I was told, and he eased his penis into my mouth, which quickly grew hard again and leaked.
A burst of Angel flavor of salty bitterness exploded on my tongue, and I loved it.
He shoved himself as far back as possible, and I breathed through it when it touched the back of my throat with my nose nestled in his thick dark curls.
His fingers gripped my hair again in a tight fist as he thrust in and out of my mouth.
“God, you’re so good at taking cock. I should stop all of this between us, but I can’t. I’m so fucking weak for you. You’ve made me this way. I haven’t been able to say no to you since the day we met.”
Though he ranted, his voice was hoarse from lust.
His breathing grew heavy as he moved faster in my mouth. I couldn’t move, and my eyes watered every time he hit the back of my throat. Drool spilled, but I kept my hands on my lap and let him use me as he needed while I added on extra sucks and licks.
“I will kill them all for you. Anyone who looks at you wrong will die. Anyone who touches you without your permission or mine will die. Even if it kills me in the end.”
The tears spilled more, and not just from choking on his penis but from his declaration of love. He didn’t have to say the words to mean it.
Suddenly he swelled in my mouth, and he threw back his head. “Luca…” He exploded in my mouth, and I swallowed every single drop.
When he finally let go of my hair, I stood and cradled his face, pulling him into a kiss, wanting him to taste the heaven that I did. Then I sobbed a little from his words of love, so he held me tighter.
When I calmed down, he eased me off. “I think it’s time for me to lie down before I pass out.”
I rinsed myself off quickly and stepped out of the shower.
I was still hard, but I ignored it, needing to take care of my angel.
After I dried off, I dried him next and then helped him get dressed and into bed.
My beautiful angel quickly fell asleep as I lay there, pressed against him, with a smile on my face.