Angel's Halo: Fallen Angel (Angel's Halo MC Book 6)

by Terri Anne Browning

  His head snapped up as the world seemed to shatter with light around me. I couldn’t catch my breath as everything inside of me suddenly felt like it was buzzing with life yet dying at the same time. My legs tried to close as I attempted to hold on to the feeling, but he kept them apart with a gentle touch on each knee.

  I looked up at him through my lashes, too weak to lift them farther. His jaw was tense, and there was a hunger blazing out of his blue eyes that both thrilled and scared me. Sucking in one deep breath after another, praying my heart would calm down before it exploded, I watched as he opened the top drawer of the nightstand beside the bed and pulled out a condom.

  Jealousy ripped through me all over again. Having a stash of condoms meant that he used them regularly. That they were right there beside the bed meant he fucked other women on the same mattress on which he was about to make love to me. Tears stung my eyes all over again, but I quickly blinked them away as he dropped one more kiss to my pussy before jerking to his feet.

  Leaning over me, Matt lifted me so that I was in the middle of the bed before spreading my thighs wide with his knees. He pressed his forehead to mine and I heard him swallow hard. “You’re sure?” he muttered in a tense, deep voice.

  “Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “I’ve wanted this from the first night we met, Matt. Please. I want to be yours.”

  “You are. You always have been.”

  I felt the tip of his cock push inside. Inch by inch, he pushed into me, stretching me, filling me. I gasped at the pleasure then tensed, making my walls clench around him as he began to tear through my hymen. His arms started to shake, and I watched as sweat beaded on his brow.

  “Fuck, girl,” he groaned. “You’re killing me, baby.”

  “I-I’m sorry,” I got out in a shaky voice, and two tears spilled from my eyes. I hadn’t realized it would hurt him. Did I suck that badly at this? “I didn’t realize it would be so hard for you.”

  He paused, his entire body going still over and inside me. “No, Rory. It’s good, sweetheart. You feel so fucking good, I’m about to embarrass myself.”

  “O-oh,” I whispered.

  He shifted his hips, going a little deeper, while his eyes watched me intently. “Does that hurt, baby?”

  I shook my head. “The pain is over,” I assured him. “All I can feel is you now.”

  “Good,” he bit out between clenched teeth. “If it hurts, tell me. I’ll stop, I swear.”

  I wrapped my legs around his waist, trapping him inside me. “Don’t stop. I want this. I want you.”

  He closed his eyes, his head falling back onto his shoulders as he tried to hold on to his control. “I knew this would be good between us. Fuck, baby. Fuck. I’ve dreamed of being inside this pussy. Ached for it.”

  “Matt.”

  “Give me a sec, sweetheart. I’m so close right now. I just…” He shook his head as if he were trying to clear it but couldn’t seem to be able to. His eyes opened and he looked tortured. I touched my fingers to his cheek, and he shuddered. “I love you, Rory. I know it’s been three years, but time means nothing.”

  “I-I love you too,” I panted.

  Slowly, he began to move. Pulling out just a little and then sinking back in carefully, as if I were fine china to him. I could see it was costing him to be so gentle with me.

  I bet he was never like this with the other sluts who were in this bed.

  The thought came out of nowhere, surprising me and pulling me back from the edge of another orgasm. I didn’t want to think about what he had done with other women in his bed, but at the same time, I realized it was probably true. Matt wasn’t the kind of guy who made love unless the person he was with meant something to him. And I knew in my bones, in my soul, that I meant more to him than anyone else who had come before me.

  I caught the back of his head and pulled him down for a kiss that said everything I couldn’t right then. That told him I loved him, that I loved how good he was making me feel, and that I needed more. So much more. It started out slow and easy but became hungry and all-consuming within a few seconds. The wildness of the kiss began to mimic his thrusts until he was pounding into me with more force.

  I was so tuned in to kissing him, so lost in the sensations of him sliding in and out of me fast and harder, that my second orgasm snuck up on me. I reached out blindly, needing to hold on to him so that I didn’t shatter into a billion pieces under him. I caught hold of his upper arms, my nails sinking into his biceps. I heard his ravenous, almost feral growl, felt it vibrating through his chest.

  I felt the change in his cock, how it stretched even more as he grew harder, and knew instinctively that he was going to come. I broke the kiss and buried my face in his neck. I licked over the corded muscles, sucking on his salty skin.

  “Yes,” he roared, and I felt his cock convulse inside me as he came. “Yes, Rory. Fuck. Yes.”

  I wrapped my arms around him as we slowly came down. He was breathing like he had just run five miles, his body was shaking, and sweat was rolling off him. I stroked my fingertips up and down his back, wanting to soothe him as he returned to himself.

  His energy seemed to drain from him suddenly, and his full weight pressed down on me. I welcomed it, basking in the feel of him on top of and inside me. For three years, I had felt like I was drowning, missing him and grieving for him. Now I was safe in his arms, in his bed. I was where I was meant to be, and I didn’t want to leave it or him ever again.

  But reality was already starting to weasel its way into my own little utopia.

  My father wasn’t going to let me be with Matt now any more than he would have let me three years ago. I couldn’t let him put Matt in jail.

  “Hey.” Matt’s voice was hoarse in my ear. “You’re not going anywhere tonight. Don’t even think about it.”

  “But my dad will have you arrested if he finds us together, Matt.”

  “Then we won’t let him find us together,” he said in a voice thick with sleep. He rolled onto his side and then pulled my head onto his chest. “Stop worrying so much, babe. We’ll figure it out. For now, just let me hold you while we sleep. I need this more than anything right now.”

  “But…”

  He kissed the top of my head. “Sleep, girl.”

  A small smile teased at my lips, and I gave in. Forcing all my muscles to relax again, I burrowed against him. “Love you.”

  “Love you, baby.”

  Chapter Five

  Rory

  “COME ON, COME ON,” I muttered to myself as I searched my room for my keys. I was already ten minutes late for class, and if I didn’t find the damn keys to my car, I was going to be even later. “Shit. Shit. Shit!”

  All I needed was for my asshole professor to call my father and let him know I was late—again. But that was what was going to happen if I didn’t get out the door and park my ass in the front row of his class in the next five minutes. Groaning, I glanced around my room one more time, hoping I had just misplaced them. My bed was a mess because I had overslept and hadn’t even bothered to make it. I had clothes scattered everywhere, a mixture of clean and dirty littering my floor. My desk was a disaster because I had disarranged everything in my rush to find my keys, while the top of my vanity looked like a makeup artist’s worst nightmare come to life.

  I had searched the entire room from top to bottom—twice—but had come up with nothing. My keys had either gotten up and walked off, or…

  Anger twisted in my gut, and I grabbed my book and purse as I stormed downstairs. “Dad!” I raged as I hurried to the back of the house where my father’s home office was.

  It wasn’t the first time he’d taken my keys without telling me in the week since I had been home, but I was getting fed up with his trying to control me. I was twenty years old now, not seventeen, damn it. I marched down the hall, so pissed I could feel my face turning red.

  A laugh I knew belonged to my father was quickly followed by a voice I was familiar with. The DA,
Royce Campbell, was my father’s best friend. He always seemed to be around, and I couldn’t stand him.

  It took a few seconds for what Royce was saying to register, but when it did, I froze several feet from my father’s office door.

  “Reid’s truck is a pile of ash right now,” the DA was saying, an amused tone in his voice that set my teeth on edge. “The sheriff said there was nothing but bones left when he got there earlier.”

  Something inside of me squeezed hard, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t even understand what the creep was talking about, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Creswell Springs was a pretty small town, so it wasn’t like there were many Reids they could have been discussing, but only one of them owned a truck as far as I knew.

  Matt!

  No. No. No.

  Tears stung my eyes even as my father chuckled. “Well, I guess that’s one less sonofabitch we have to worry about. Now if I can just get rid of the rest of those MC bastards, I can run this town the way I want. And get that fucking Samson dickhead off my back. I don’t need some damn senator putting his nose in my business. But he wants the Angel’s Halo motherfuckers taken out as much as we do… He didn’t do this, did he?”

  “Wouldn’t surprise me if he did. But, no. Those MC dumbasses have pissed off Carlo Santino, and his crew likes to play with explosives. He took two out with that bomb, so I want to shake his hand.”

  Bile rose in the back of my throat as the first tears began to fall. On legs that shook, I turned and ran back the way I had just come. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that I didn’t have my keys. I didn’t need them, didn’t fucking want them. That stupid car belonged to my father, not me. It, along with everything else, belonged to him and was just one more thing he used to control me.

  Never again.

  Outside, the air felt slightly chilled, reminding me I hadn’t grabbed my jacket, but I didn’t turn back. I had to get away from this place, away from that vile man who ran Creswell Springs and with whom I unfortunately shared DNA. I ran down the driveway, my heeled boots catching in the slight grooves of the asphalt every now and then, trying to trip me. Nothing could have stopped me, though. I could have fallen and broken an ankle, but I still would have gotten back up.

  Matt. I have to get to Matt.

  “Please be okay. Please be okay.” I fought back a sob, bile churning in my stomach as my imagination became overactive and I pictured Matt’s truck exploding. “Please, babe, be okay.”

  I thrust my hand into my purse, searching blindly for my phone even as I continued to run. My fingers wrapped around it, but when I lifted it out, I realized it was the one my father had given me as a Christmas present the year before. The one he probably tracked my every move with. I tossed it on the ground, leaving it, along with everything else in my purse, behind as I searched desperately for my other phone. The one Matt had given me so we could talk every night without my father fucking it up. Again.

  When I touched it, I jerked it out and swiped my thumb over the only number in the call history. It rang and rang, making my heart pound even harder. Fear for the only person who mattered in my life made it impossible to breathe. A generic, automated voice mail filled my ear, telling me to leave a message.

  “Matt? Matt! Call me back. I need to know you’re okay. Please be okay.”

  I hung up and called him back, only to get the voice mail all over again. “I love you, Matt. I’m on my way to the clubhouse now. I need you to be okay.”

  Six more times I called him, and each time he didn’t pick up. Tears blinded me to the point that I could barely make out where I was going, but I didn’t pause for even a second. I knew in my bones Matt needed me. I left him one message after another, telling him I loved him and that I was going to be there soon.

  I passed car after car, but I ignored the drivers and passengers when they tried to honk or stopped to ask if I needed help. Everyone in Creswell Springs knew who I was and was probably already coming up with their own theories as to why Aurora Michaels was running like her life depended on it in the direction of the local MC’s clubhouse. The entire town knew about my history with them, knew I had been sent away because of one particular member. There wasn’t a single person in town who didn’t know.

  The clubhouse was five miles from my father’s house, just on the outskirts of town. By mile three, I’d broken one of my heels, and I cursed the delay as I had to stop and kick them both off. I barely noticed the gravel and God only knew what else that sliced through my socks, tearing the bottoms of my feet to shreds.

  It was at mile four that my heart nearly stopped. I could smell smoke in the distance. I froze, unable to run, barely able to stand as Royce’s words came back to haunt me.

  The sheriff said there was nothing but bones left when he got there.

  No!

  “Rory!”

  My head shot around at the sound of my name being called. No one but Matt and his family and friends called me Rory, but it was the name I had given myself the night I met Matt Reid for the first time three years ago. I saw a black SUV stopped on the other side of the road, heading away from the clubhouse. I recognized the brunette behind the wheel almost immediately. Willa Masterson waved her hand out the window, and I rushed across the road to get to her.

  “Is he okay?” I sobbed, taking in her tearstained face and swollen, bloodshot eyes. “Tell me he’s okay.”

  Willa’s hands covered mine as they gripped the window. “There was a bomb in Matt’s truck.” The bile was rising again, and I nearly bent in half as it threatened to erupt, but thankfully, it stayed down. “Tanner and Warden were in it, and…and…” She broke off as a sob escaped her. “They’re both gone.”

  Warring emotions flooded through me. Relief that she hadn’t said Matt made my knees weak, and I sagged against her vehicle as the tears poured down my face faster.

  Tanner, oh God, not Tanner!

  My heart hurt all over again, and all I could think about was getting to Matt. Of holding him and telling him how much I loved him.

  “Where is he now?” I whispered as I lifted my head again.

  “He’s back at the clubhouse. Bash and James had to lock him in his room. He was tearing the place apart and scaring all the kids. I was actually on my way to get you.” She grimaced. “I figured it was better if I showed up at your house rather than Raven. As torn up as she is right now, she was liable to punch your father in the balls and get arrested.”

  “I just heard my dad talking to the DA. They were fucking laughing about it.” It had been the final straw for me. That he could laugh at the loss of a life—any life—like that sickened me. That it could have been Matt tore apart something vital in my heart. My father said he hated the MC because they were criminals and evil, but to me, he was the evil one.

  “Get in. We have to get back to the clubhouse. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going, and if James finds me gone, there will be an even more dangerous explosion.”

  I didn’t have to be told twice. I limped around the front of the SUV and climbed into the front passenger seat. Willa didn’t waste time, making a sharp U-turn then and there, causing a driver in a passing truck to blare his horn at her. She shot him the middle finger out her window and punched her foot down on the gas.

  “What happened?” I whispered.

  “I don’t know, sweetie,” she said as she sniffed and scrubbed a hand over her still damp cheeks. “I heard James and Bash mention the Italians, but that’s all I caught. They like playing with explosives, and Lord knows things have only gotten tenser between them lately.”

  She might as well have been speaking another language because I didn’t understand a single thing she was talking about. I didn’t know who the Italians were or why there would be tension between them and the MC, but right then, I wanted them dead. Vaguely, I remembered Royce saying something about some guy named Santino and then a senator, but my brain couldn’t connect the dots at the moment.

  The clubhouse came into view, a
nd the smell of smoke was nearly choking as Willa slowed down so she could make the turn into the clubhouse parking lot. First, she had to wait for someone to open the gates. The clubhouse was a refurbished old warehouse that had been there for as long as I could remember. The entire property was fenced in, making it look more like a compound than an MC clubhouse.

  As soon as she drove through, I had my door open and was running toward the front door.

  To my right, I could see a few firemen standing around the burned shell of what had once been Matt’s truck. The sheriff was also standing there, but when he spotted me, he stiffened, and I saw him lift his phone to his ear. I knew he was calling my father, but there wasn’t shit either of them could do about me being there. Unlike three years before, I wasn’t a minor, and they couldn’t force me to leave.

  Inside, there were people everywhere, and I stopped in the middle of what was the living area. All the women were crying openly, the few children staying close to their mothers, making little whimpering sounds that tore at my heart. The men all had MC cuts on, their faces pale and drawn, but their eyes were haunted and full of a rage that scared the hell out of me.

  “Where’s Matt?” I demanded of anyone willing to answer me.

  Raven, beautiful even though her face was streaked with ash and tears, appeared out of the chaos of people crowded into the room. She took my hands in hers, and I felt how chilled her fingers were. “Rory, thanks for coming.”

  “I would have been here sooner if I’d known what happened. I’m so sorry, Raven.”

  “He’s—” She broke off and shook her blond head. “No one can reason with him, and we understand that. But he’s going to end up hurting himself or someone else. I didn’t know what to do except get you in hopes you can reach him.”

  “Where is he?”

  Still holding on to one of my hands, she pulled me through the crowd and down the hall to the bedrooms. I knew which one was his without Spider standing in front of the door. As we neared it, I could hear Matt screaming and something heavy crashing against a wall.