Independence: #2 Angel

by Karen Nichols

  Colin made certain there was a clear path to the bathroom before losing his jeans and rearranging her on the bed. A warm sense of right settled into him when she melted into his embrace, his hand stroking over her head. He didn’t know how long it would last, but for the moment, his touch had been accepted.

  Vanilla was something Colin hadn’t been for a long time. Not since the first time he realized the heat that came from a girl whose eyes lit up with fire when he tugged her head to the side for a kiss. He was afraid he’d been too rough.

  Less than an hour passed before his hands began exploring his sub. Fingers speared into her thick, tousled hair and pulled her head to the side. His mouth took hers while she murmured and responded to his touch. She’d called his name in her sleep when his fingers stroked over her mound and through the puffy labia. Moisture greeted him and hardened him.

  He leaned on one elbow over her, watching the sleep mingle with arousal. She hesitated when she raised her hand but when he offered no words, she allowed her fingers to stroke over his shoulder and down his chest. He should have thought of giving her free rein before now.

  Making that decision, he gripped her waist and let himself flatten out on the bed. He put his hands over his head and watched her. She curled her long legs beneath her, kneeling at his side, waiting, with her hands on her thighs.

  “I’m yours, Angel. And what I want is your touch. Everywhere and anywhere you choose,” he told her firmly, cupping his hands beneath his head and watching. She drew her tongue around her lips and seemed to be considering his instructions.

  Angel thought it had been a dream. A really sensuous, horny dream. Then she felt his hand in her hair and his mouth over hers. And her insides and all else, melted.

  Maybe it still was a dream, she thought, dragging her tongue around her lips. The sleep felt like it had faded. But she was kneeling naked beside a really well developed guy with an erection. And she was the cause. And he’d just given her instructions.

  Nodding slowly, she placed her hands on one of his knees, gently urging it to part. Then she moved to the bottom of the bed and crawled very slowly between the parted feet. She stopped at his calves, each lightly coated with pale hair that tickled the center of her palms as she stroked them along his legs. She cleared his knees and moved forward, her knees nudging his thighs a little further apart.

  Colin wondered when he’d lost his ever loving Dom mind.

  Because at the moment, he wasn’t sure where it had gone. Putting Angel in charge of arousing him made him think of Dianna and Evan and how she’d torture him for hours before he was allowed to come.

  And there knelt his little sub. Between his legs and bending forward to lick her way along his cock. But she stopped at the head and shifted to rub her face over his stomach and then his chest. All the while, her hands stroked over his skin and left trails of fire. Sometimes she’s use her nails, other times, just those soft palms caressing over his muscles and tensing him into knots.

  “Fuck,” Colin uttered the single word seconds before sitting upright. His sudden action sent Angel tumbling back, falling to her elbows and staring.

  “I…did I do something wrong? I’m sorry, sir…”

  “I did something wrong, pet, not you,” he grabbed a condom from the nightstand and handed it to her. “I had some idiot notion I could…”

  “Be submissive?” She asked coyly, biting her lower lip to keep from laughing. She closed her fingers around the condom packet and moved gracefully back to her knees.

  “Don’t enjoy it too much, little sub, I’ll get even for the laughter,” he warned but lost his sternness with a growl. “Get that thing on me…I want you and I want you now.”

  “Yes, sir,” she looked down at the packet and carefully tore the end off. It wasn’t like she had a lot of practice with these things. Alright, admittedly, no practice. But how hard could it be? She almost broke into giggles at the last thought. It looked pretty darn hard at the moment. “Hold still,” she lost to the giggle as she fit the latex over the top and carefully rolled it into place.

  She barely had time to admire her work when she was lifted astride him. Until he began pushing into her, she had no idea she’d become that wet just touching him.

  Or that having him thrust in one hard, long movement would send her body into an instant spike of pleasure. Maybe it was the carnal look in his eyes; the hot demanding hunger that he somehow shared with her.

  Where had it come from so quickly? So perfectly?

  Colin kept reminding himself that he’d allowed her to suck him off just so he would last longer. But the instant her body began rippling and clamping down on him in twisting, vice-like pulses, that theorem vanished.

  When he finally came down, he was careful and rolled to the side until he dislodged her and both of them lay on their backs. He fit his fingers into hers and waited with her, for their breathing to return to normal. He returned from the bathroom a few minutes later and curled against her in the large bed, the blankets warm and soft over them both.

  Angel moved quietly an hour later. She listened to his breathing, it was slow and deep as she quickly dressed, digging her clothing from the bag he carried his toys in. Her behind still twitched when she thought about him playing with her anus.

  Baffling, we women, she thought as she slipped from the room and walked quickly along the halls to the exit. Something like that shouldn’t have excited her, she reasoned as she wrapped her jacket close and ran for the bus. Talk about cutting it close!

  She huddled in the seat and watched the Puget Sound night flow past. It was barely two in the morning but some streets were still teeming with people in varying sizes as far as clusters went. Very few were singles, she noted.

  By the time she slid her key into the lock and then her body between her blankets, her eyes were only partially open and her body was definitely looking forward to a peaceful Sunday.

  Chapter Twelve

  It didn’t surprise her that she slept so easily, but it did surprise her that she didn’t move until almost eight in the morning. That was so unlike her, she thought as she stretched and shoved the blankets aside. A long hot shower was definitely in order, but not until after a run.

  So that was the prime advantage of really good sex, she thought as she hit the trail that went through the very large state park on one of the tips of Puget Sound. Ferns over six feet in length, large, dark green and cooling as you ran through the woods. Really good, restful sleep, she mused, unaware of the cheerful smile that beamed out at fellow runners.

  By the time she returned to her apartment, she was high on her run and coated with sweat and the scent of the forest and ocean. She’d gone outside her normal path and taken the last half of her run on the hard packed sand of low tide. She laughed at the gulls, inhaled the unique scent that only true lovers of the ocean could appreciate and upped her pace just to prove to herself she could.

  Maybe it was the distraction of feeling so good. She’d think about it later and wonder where her attention had been. She’d never leave her door unlocked and certainly never leave it sitting ajar. But when she entered the hall, her mind had been on the protocol of whether or not she should have left the club and Colin. It wasn’t like she had a lot of experience or knowledge on the inner workings of a relationship like this.

  Then the words popped into her head: was this a relationship or just getting together for fun and sex?

  Those were the last words she thought before her attention was pulled from the variety of musings. She made it two steps into the apartment when something warned her to turn and run. Only one of them had come in behind her and she ran smack into a hard body dressed in a finely tailored suit and wool coat.

  “Jacob!” Angel’s voice held the instant fear and dreading she’d managed to shove aside for a few hours. Her head whipped back and forth, the brightly colored yellow band she wore around her forehead falling to the floor at her feet, damp with her sweat.

  “Hold the bitc
h still,” the second voice came from behind her.

  “Michael…please…I don’t belong out there at the church. I don’t fit…” Angel had used the same words most of her life but they never listened.

  “And you fit this?” Michael Morehouse held up the slim piece of leather that she’d left lying on her bureau. “Property of Master Colin W.” He read from the soft, dark leather, his thumb cruising over the gold scripted letters. “Is that you, sister? A man’s property?”

  “Let me go. Isn’t that the way you treat your wives? Like belongings? You don’t understand. He’s a good man. A good person,” she pushed the words through her teeth, wincing when it only made Jacob’s hands bite painfully into her arms. She craned her neck, trying to look at her other brother and the collar he had gripped tightly in his fingers. He threw it to the floor and walked up behind her.

  “No need to change. Father has your dress already selected for you,” he told her flatly, nodding toward the door and striding out with his brother dragging Angel between them.

  “No! I don’t want to go out there!” Angel kicked and screamed, the hall of her new apartment the last thing she saw before her brother backhanded her and Jacob put a black sack over her head.

  His hand circled her throat.

  “Silence. Father wishes your presence, so you will be there, Angelica,” Michael Morehouse waited a long pause. “Silence, yes?”

  She nodded, the darkness and stars floating around in her head making it easy to slump to the side and be carried along.

  ****

  Colin was slamming things as he showered and dressed.

  He blamed himself for not telling her what he expected. But why wouldn’t she have stayed with him? He knew he’d been tired, but too tired to know when a woman left his bed? Especially this woman. He was fairly certain she hadn’t run out of fear. Most likely, she left because she thought it was what was expected of her.

  He searched carefully after loading his bag. She hadn’t left the collar he’d had made for her, so he decided that was a good sign. He’d go to her apartment and talk out the next steps. He’d take her out on a date. Something like dinner and time learning about one another. He enjoyed talking to her and listening to her laugh when she told him about customers. He liked her comments and observations about cases that he’d spoken of to her.

  He stopped long enough to grab coffee and a sandwich, making it almost eleven when he pulled into a slot near her apartment. Once an old industrial area, the buildings had been renovated and the neighborhood was slowly coming back into a new type of community with shops and groceries and entertainment all locally grown.

  When the small Vietnamese woman came running toward him as he stepped from his SUV, he wasn’t really sure what was going on. Especially since he’d barely mastered English. He looked toward the apartment, something in her tone sending him running to the entrance.

  The door was open and bounced off the wall when he shot through it. He took the stairs two at a time, the sandwich he’d eaten settling like a hard lump in his stomach. He knew enough that the tone inflections in the older woman’s voice weren’t good and in fact, probably bordered on panic.

  He topped the stairs and came to a skidding halt, his hand instantly reaching for the inside pocket of his jacket. His phone was out, a thumb cruising through numbers at the same time he eased the unlocked, ajar door inward.

  “Bailey, can you understand Vietnamese? I thought I’d heard Gabe say something…” he listened to the abruptly sharp voice on the other end.

  “Two men…hood over her head…she took photos with her phone! Oh my god, we’re on our way! Are you at the apartment? I know the way to the church, Colin, wait for us, please!”

  He closed the phone and went further into the apartment, taking cautious steps. He bent and lifted the thin, etched leather collar even as he kept looking around the room. The woman had finally quit talking and stood at the door wringing her hands. She had tears on her cheeks and was shaking her head.

  “I speak English,” she said softly, pain evident in her voice. “I am sorry. I was…I am so angry. I could not get husband and son outside fast enough to help. They had a large black car with another man driving. I have seen them here before.”

  “I think they were her brothers,” Colin said quietly, continuing his walk through the apartment. Nothing had been disturbed. As far as he could tell. Other than the collar on the floor, and he knew Angel would never have left it there. “Was she…walking?”

  “They had her between them, mostly dragging her,” Mah Chow recalled with a nod. “I phoned police…”

  “Then it wasn’t long ago?” Colin asked flatly as he turned and met the very dark eyes. It was impossible to hide his fury but this little woman wasn’t the least bit affected by the dark cloud over him at the moment.

  “Over thirty minutes,” she said, looking down at the watch on her wrist. “Yes, almost forty minutes now.” She walked to the window and spun to run lightly to the open hall. “Police and little red are here. Her man is angry, like you. Good.”

  Colin didn’t have a response to that and went to the hall, trying to formulate a plan. He hadn’t expected them to just take her. But if that was their normal behavior where she was concerned… He braced his feet when he saw the redhead come tearing around the corner of the lower opening. Before he could open his mouth to speak, she had launched herself forward with a hug that almost cut off his breath.

  Thankfully, Gabe was behind her and removed her hands from his neck.

  “The police are here,” Gabe said quietly. “Let Mah Chow make a report. Let’s go in the SUV. Bailey knows the way.”

  Colin didn’t protest the plan since he had no actual information he could offer. He wasn’t even sure what time she left the club.

  “She was wearing running clothes. Head band bright yellow, shoes that matched,” Mah Chow said behind them, her gaze meeting each of their eyes with a firm nod. “You will help her.”

  “We’ll help her,” Colin promised, striding down the stairs while Bailey had a quick talk with the older woman.

  He kept walking. He didn’t want to growl or hit anything. He especially didn’t have the patience to explain anything to the police officer who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment. And the very last thing he needed was a cop disinterested in the problem.

  “Good idea,” Gabe Garrett said from his side, checking over his shoulder to see his redhead running to catch up with them.

  “I don’t have anything to contribute,” Colin said tonelessly. “Where is she, Bailey?”

  “I put the address in the GPS,” she answered immediately, jumping into the front seat and buckling herself in, waiting impatiently for the men to get inside. “I’ve been trying her phone. It goes straight to voice mail but I didn’t see it on her counter and that’s where she tosses it when she comes into the apartment.”

  “Why do they want her, Bailey?” Colin managed to keep his voice calm despite the boiling inside him.

  “He likes having his family together at certain events,” she said after a quiet pause. “I don’t know the whole…why thing…Angel says he just gets this possessive streak now and then and dislikes that she defies him. So to prove his control, he usually sends two of her brothers to bring her to the church,” she tipped her wrist up. “The mass is at noon. We should be there before it begins.”

  “Will he hurt her?” Colin stared out the front window, watching the highway signs flashing past.

  Bailey pursed her lips.

  “Be honest, pet,” Gabe said softly, covering the twisting hands on her thigh with one of his.

  “Usually, yes, he does. It’s part of his…yes,” she finished in a whisper. “He…he uses her as an example of sparing the rod. That she should have been…been beaten more because the devil is inside her and…” she stopped when the word leaving Colin’s lips was barely audible and quite emphatic. “She fights…she always fights them…until they take that
away, too. I’m sorry…”

  “Not your fault.”

  “I thought she was with you at the club?” Gabe looked into the blistering blue eyes that met his gaze in the mirror.

  “I took for granted that she would stay,” Colin answered, his tone filled with self-loathing. “When I woke up, she was gone.”

  “Angel loves running in the park and along the beach,” Bailey swiped at the tears on her cheek. “Sunday is her only morning to run not on a treadmill. She…she told me once she took up running so she could get away from them…only there were always more of them and…” Her voice trailed off, her fingers closing around Gabe’s hand.

  “She’ll be fine,” Colin told her firmly, pulling his phone from the inner pocket. He sent off a quick message to his assistant. He wanted the police report the instant it was available. “What’s the woman’s name, Bailey? The one not speaking English,” he listened and typed in the information about the restaurant.

  “She was probably getting ready for the lunch Sunday people,” Bailey said with a little smile. “She always watched out for me, too…and now she watches Angel.”

  “She’ll make a good witness,” Colin said, tucking the phone away. “Will Angel file charges?”

  “I…I don’t know. I don’t know why she wouldn’t,” Bailey said after a thoughtful minute. “Usually, there was never anyone around when they’d do this. And there’s the paperwork from the last time and the hospital filed a report. She told them who’d done it and the police have a record, but…they claimed to have witnesses at the church. I think it made her feel…defeated…that they would lie to cover what her brother’s had done and no one would believe her.”

  Colin stared at the large, imposing structure that had come into view a few miles from the highway. Nestled in a small valley to the southeast of Tacoma, the church held a prominent place in the community. That was more than evident by the number of vehicles in the parking lots.

  “Where would they take her, Bailey?” Gabe ignored the parking valets and maneuvered around them toward the main entrance.