“I understand.” The caller sniffed.
Once again, Alex was impressed by Angel’s level-headed ability to see both sides of the situation, and his admiration for her only increased. If she ever had children, she’d never let bitterness keep them from their father. He grinned into the darkness. “Max… she’s just about fucking perfect, even if she is a pain in the ass.”
Angel continued, “It happened. It won’t, or can’t, be undone; so you need to decide what you want moving forward. I’m sorry I don’t have a magic wand to take the grief away for you. I wish I did. If your friends and family are only adding to your pain, even though their intentions are good, take a break from them as well. Tell them you just need some time to deal with things on your own. Take your kids on a trip somewhere that you have no memories with your husband, or move somewhere that you’ve never lived with him. All of this will help, little by little.”
“Thank you, Dr. Hemming. Can I call you again if I need to?”
“Of course, Joanie. Take care. You’re listening to Angel After Dark, and I’ll be answering an email from James in Des Plaines after the break. Be right back.”
Alex remained where he was on the couch with Max for the remainder of Angel’s show; at times pissed at himself that he couldn’t pry himself from the spot, and, other times, completely content with the sound of her voice filling the space around him.
He pulled out his cell phone and hit redial, ignoring the missed call from Cole. He had no desire to talk to his brother until the little heart-to-heart that they’d be having on Monday.
“KKIS, this is Chris.”
“Good evening again, Chris. Can I please speak to Dr. Hemming?” The giggle from the other end took him aback. “Hello?”
“Um, sorry. Do you wish to speak to her on air, Mr. Avery?”
“How did you know it was me?”
“We’ve spoken twice now. I recognize your voice, of course.”
“I’ll tell Angel how competent you are, but no, this is personal.”
“Hold on, please.”
Alex moved his dog off of his leg and stood up, pacing in front of the stone fireplace. He’d just had his house built the past spring, but the architecture and features were decidedly classic, reminiscent of his parents’ estate with dark hardwood floors, lots of marble and stone, and solid wooden beams. Masculine, but refined.
“Mr. Avery, Dr. Hemming has regretfully declined this call. Personally, I think she’s nuts, but it is what it is.”
Alex was disgruntled. Shit! But at least this girl seemed to be on his side. “Thank you… I’m sorry. I don’t remember your name.”
“Christina.”
“Thank you, Christina. Can you please give Angel my number and tell her I’ll be waiting for her call.”
The girl sighed. “I’m afraid, if I know Angel, you’ll be waiting a while, sir.”
“Well, tell her, whatever it takes.” His voice was low and he surprised himself. When he said those words, he actually meant them.
He could hear Christina’s breath rush out. “Crap, hold on.”
He heard the phone rustle, and then Angel’s impatient voice greeted him. “Alex. I can’t talk now. I have to go on.”
“Just say you’ll have dinner with me.”
“It won’t get you what you want,” she said quietly, and he smiled in satisfaction.
“How do you know what I want? Unless, it’s what you want, too.”
She sighed, her exasperation clear. “Fuck.”
Alex couldn’t help it, a surprised laugh burst forth at Angel’s expletive. She was so incredible.
“Okay,” he said in his most sultry tone. “If that’s what you want, you won’t get an argument from me. But, I was only intending dinner,” he teased. “Say yes.”
“Ugh. I have a big case to work on this weekend; I need to focus.”
“Excuses. You have to eat. Eight o’clock. I’ll pick you up at your apartment downtown.”
“But… how do you know?”
“Please. You’re kidding, right?” Alex waited with baited breath for her to answer and then decided not to push his luck. Things were going well. “You better go, gorgeous. See you tomorrow.”
“Put up your dukes, Alex. This shit is on.” She tried to make her voice hard, but he caught the amusement behind it.
“This is one fight I’m looking forward to, Angeline. More than you know.”
He hung up his phone and looked at it for a second while he waited for her to come back on the air. He couldn’t wipe the stupid-ass grin off his face, even if he’d wanted to. He was feeling very pleased with himself.
At the end of her show, Alex was still hanging on every syllable.
“Did you ever meet someone and something indefinable happened? I mean, you felt an instant shock run over your skin at just a look from this person or the slightest touch from his hand? You couldn’t control it. Immediately, all your girly parts stood at attention, despite the fact that you knew things about his behavior you didn’t particularly like? Yet, he sucked you in with his eyes… something about him was irresistible? Oozing sex and muscled perfection… Were you a helpless, quivering mess?”
Her voice was soft and sultry, dripping desire, and Alex’s body hardened immediately. She was speaking to him and he knew it. Teasing, describing exactly how she’d affected him earlier. She would be the biggest cock-tease of his life, and he loved every second of it, but was more determined than ever to turn the situation around until she was begging him to take her. His mouth almost watered at the thought, completely in sync with his aching body. His breathing sped up in an involuntary response.
Her voice changed, laced with laughter as she tried her damnedest to deadpan. “Yeah… well, that didn’t happen to me tonight. This is Angel After Dark. See you next week, babies. Be safe.”
The sound of Alex’s laughter reverberated through his empty house combined with the song Angel played at the end of her set; Maneater by Nelly Furtado. He wasn’t familiar with the song, but Angel’s message was loud and clear.
Fucking priceless!
6
Sexy Bastard
“I told you this would happen, Angel!” Becca laughed as she walked through the door of Angel’s condo. She was carrying the little girl Angel adored. “Your ass owes me, girl.”
“Anja!” the baby squealed as she opened her arms and was immediately transferred from one woman to the other. Angel giggled and put her mouth to the fat little cheek, planting a motorboat series of kisses, ignoring Becca’s comments. Jillian wrapped her plump arms around Angel’s neck and hugged her tight.
“Jillybean! How’s my baby girl?” The two of them laughed together as Angel carried her into the apartment. The little girl’s eyes were alight with pleasure. “Thank you for bringing Mommy to Auntie Angel’s. I missed you!”
“Meesh you,” Jillian copied Angel’s words in her little-girl-ese. “Stay.”
Angel’s eyes widened and her face curved into a bright smile. Her nerves had been on edge, driving her insane at the prospect of dinner with Alex Avery, so a good shot of Jillian was just what she needed. “You want to stay?” The toddler nodded and put a hand out to touch Angel’s cheek. “Of course, you can stay, baby. Do you want cookies?”
“Angel!” Becca groaned.
“Oh, can it, Becca. I have oatmeal raisin. At least they have some nutritional value.”
“You blow off the gym and then eat cookies. Must be planning a sex-athon workout tonight,” she said with a grin. “I can’t believe he’s the guy!”
Becca had laughed her head off when Angel had revealed that Alex was the gorgeous missed opportunity from Home Depot.
Angel pulled a big cookie out of the package she’d gotten from Truly Scrumptious earlier in the day. Easily the best bakery in downtown Chicago, and, bonus, they delivered. “Like I said, can it. I’m considering bailing, but I don’t know how to get in touch with him.”
Becca laughed loudly, mocking Angel�
��s words. She sat on a stool across the counter with an arm on either side of Jillian, who Angel perched on the marble counter top. Jillian held her cookie with both hands as she happily munched away.
“You don’t expect me to believe that shit, do you? Angeline Hemming, brilliant doctor, can’t find a phone number? Please.” Her eyes followed Angel’s movements. “You dragged my ass around Home Depot three times looking for him, so I don’t get your attitude. I mean, how many times did fantasies of him give your vibrator a workout?”
Angel glanced up at Becca from beneath her lashes and sucked in a big breath. She was filled with a mixture of curiosity, apprehension, and just plain lust. Her fingers tapped on the counter in uncharacteristic nervousness that didn’t go unnoticed by her friend. “Will you shut up?”
“What’s the big deal? You go out with him, play the banter game you guys are so damn good at—tease, tease, tease—drive him crazy, and leave him with a raging boner. That’s the plan, isn’t it?”
“Maybe; if I wasn’t so damn nervous. There’s just something about this man that…”
“There’s just a hundred things about him, you mean. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hotter guy. I bet his, uh, junk is effing perfect, too. Mmmmmm.” Her eyes flashed with wicked amusement.
“Not helping!” Angel had done more than enough thinking about his junk and the many pleasures she’d find underneath his clothes. She had fantasies about that mouth doing unspeakable things to her, hot melding of bodies and passionate kisses. She swallowed. God, she wanted him. Alex made it crystal clear he would go there, so it wasn’t like Angel was counting her chickens. There was so much more to this man than sexual magnetism.
Fuck, he was the sexiest bastard she’d ever laid eyes on, but it was more than his looks. Confidence… and brilliance oozed out of him. It was easy to resist an attractive man, she’d done it often enough, but Alex Avery punched all of her buttons intellectually, too. Angel knew she’d have to be on guard every minute of their time together. It would be too easy to let the fun they had teasing each other, and the overwhelming attraction, cloud her judgment.
Jillian held her saliva-soaked cookie up, silently offering to share. Angel ran a hand over the little girl’s golden hair. “Thank you, baby. That’s so nice of you to share.” She bent and took a small bite from the least mushed-up edge. “Yum!”
“I know how badly Kyle hurt you. Is that what are you afraid of? You’re much stronger now. You can handle him, Angel.”
Angel bristled. “I’m not afraid, exactly. I just don’t know if it’s worth it.”
“Well, it will be if you fuck him. Except, I sort of picture it as him fucking you. Hard.” Angel shot Becca a hard look as she gasped in surprise.
“Becca!” Angel picked up Jillian and walked with her into the living room. “For God’s sake!”
“What?” Becca asked incredulously. “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it! It’s likely he’s a sex god. I bet he makes women come just by breathing on them.” She smirked and followed Angel into the other room. “Let alone his co…”
“Stop, Becca!” Angel burst out laughing but her insides did little flips. It wasn’t anything that she hadn’t considered herself. “Yeah, you’re probably right about his God-like status, but I’d never let myself become a receptacle. Oh, no, if I decide to go there, I want to shake him.”
“My Anja, dance!”
Angel hugged the little girl. “In a few minutes, sweet pea. Auntie Angel wants to talk to Mama for a minute. Then we’ll dance, okay?” Jillian nodded and shoved the cookie back in her mouth, gnawing at it with her little white teeth.
Becca sat on the couch next to her friend. “Shake him how?”
“Just… I don’t know! But he’s so confident in his abilities, in bed and out of it. I’d like to see him wanting and uncertain he’ll get it.”
“Angel. Don’t you think he’ll get it? Because personally, I think he will,” she said tongue-in-cheek.
Angel chuckled. “So, now I’m easy? Alexander Avery will make mush of me, and all my convictions mean nothing?”
“This has little to do with your convictions. Why does taking some pleasure from the man you’ve been thinking about for months make you a slut? Men use women for sex all the time, and this particular man has admitted that he doesn’t do emotions. So… what’s wrong with turning the tables? And, he is hot, no denying it. I’d hop on that, if given half a chance.”
“He is gorgeous, that’s for sure.” But I like him, which makes him a risk, Angel thought.
“Do you think he’s all show and no go? Some attractive guys don’t deliver the goods. Know what I mean?”
“I think we’ve all been there, honey.” Angel rubbed the baby’s back and bounced her knee slightly underneath her. “Somehow, I’d be extremely surprised if Alex is lacking, in any area. That’s why he’s so dangerous.” A shiver ran through her at the thought. She tried to clear her head of the man who had occupied her mind for the last 18 hours. “Plus, I have to work this weekend. I should be at the office transcribing a clinical report right now.”
“Which case?”
“You know I can’t talk about who it is, but I wish we could put this guy away forever. My gut tells me he’s guilty as sin, but if he’s managed to cheat the tests, my hands are tied. Effing tests. They’re not foolproof. Sometimes, I hate this job.”
Jillian climbed down off Angel’s lap and started toddling around. “Dink?”
“Sure, sweetheart.” Angel got up and walked into the kitchen.
“Water, Angel. She’s had too much juice today.”
“Okay.” Angel filled a sippy cup that she kept for Jillian with water and one ice cube from the door of her refrigerator, returning to the room and handing it to the baby.
“So? Tell me something about it.”
“Just a creep accused of raping his stepdaughter. The poor kid was so terrified, she didn’t come forward with it right away. By the time they did a physical exam and rape kit, there wasn’t enough evidence.”
“They’re not prosecuting? Kenny’s office isn’t involved?”
“Yes, but he isn’t working on it personally. It basically comes down to this girl’s word against the defendant’s. Her hymen was broken, but she’s sixteen, so it’s likely the defense will try to smear her and say she’d had sex with a bevy of boys. Kenneth thinks they’ll drag her through the mud badly enough that she might never recover. Ugh, it’s a mess. The dude is fairly successful, so the judge slapped a gag order on everyone involved in the case, and the files are sealed. That bastard’s rights matter more than the victim’s. I hate how the system works. It makes me sick.”
“Is her mother on her side?”
Angel nodded. “That’s the blessing. She took her child out of the situation immediately, so at least this man can’t abuse her again. I only hope I can do enough to get him behind bars.”
“What does Kenny say?”
“It will depend on her credibility as a witness and what I can document. The problem is, I have to put down what the tests show. That’s the curse of being a clinical psychologist and not a therapist. It’s not about my opinion. It’s about what I can prove.”
“I know you’ll do your best, Angel.”
“I have a deposition on Tuesday morning, so I have to examine the transcripts. The lawyer is a viper, and the guy himself is pretty scary. That’s why I don’t need Alex Avery consuming so much grey matter. I can’t afford this right now.”
“So? Move him out of your head and into your bed, babes. The solution is a four letter word. F. U. C. K.”
“Yeah, I get the picture, Becca. I think you’re delusional, but thanks.” There was no way in hell a night in his bed would banish thoughts of him, would it? More likely, she’d be even more consumed… unless the sex sucked. “Humph!” Angel huffed. Like that was even a possibility.
Jillian toddled up and put her gooey hand on Angel’s knee. “Anja, dance!”
“Ye
ah, Anja,” Becca deadpanned with a grin. “Dance!”
Angel’s face lit up and she giggled, scooping up a squealing Jillian and hurrying over to the stereo. “Dance? Okay, let’s dance! What should we dance to, honeybun?”
“Boogee Jooze!” Jillian said happily, and Becca burst out laughing.
“Boogie Shoes, it is!” Angel flipped on Jillian’s favorite music and immediately the little girl began bouncing in her arms, giggling in delight. Angel sailed her around like an airplane during the horn bridge and the two of them fell into fits of laughter.
Becca settled back and watched her baby giggle in the arms of her best friend as they bounced to the music. Angel and Jillian adored each other to the point that Jillian almost forgot about her mother when Angel was in the room.
The doorbell rang and Becca jumped up to answer it while Angel started the music over again at Jillian’s insistence. When she opened it, she was faced with a big bouquet of deep purple Canna lilies topped off by a Yankee’s baseball cap, which was all that was visible of the deliveryman behind them.
“Delivery for Dr. Hemming,” the boy said.
“Uh, just a second. Angel!” she called. “ANGEL!” she shouted again over the music and then took the square crystal vase from the boy. “She’ll give you a tip. Hold on.”
Angel hurried to the door with the baby attached at her hip. “Pretty!” Jillian exclaimed and reached toward the flowers. Angel gasped at the beautiful bouquet of at least three dozen of the gorgeious blooms. “Hi. Who are these from?” Angel asked, already knowing the answer.
“Alexander Avery, ma’am.”
Angel inhaled deeply. “Of course. Just a second, I’ll get my purse.”
The boy shook his head and put up a hand to keep her from walking away. “That’s not necessary, Dr. Hemming. Mr. Avery was very generous. But, there is this, too.” He reached out with a small box wrapped in silver paper with a dark purple organza ribbon that matched the flowers.
After Dark: The Complete Series Page 14