up and tucked her into my chest, her breathing evens out before turning into quiet sobs.
I can’t handle that either.
“You’re back then? I’ve been trying to get you to talk for over an hour.”
Her voice comes out in a little whimper. “I’m—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
I cut her off because the thought of hearing her lies right now has my gut churning with rage. “Yeah, I get that. You gonna tell me who the fuck I’m killing for this?”
She tenses in my arms but I don’t let her go. I’m not going to either, not until I have some answers. “You told me we were going to wait. I just… I need more time.”
“Angel, you’ve got to fucking answer me. Where was your old place, who did you live with there? Thorn said you told Alby it wasn’t this one hurting you so who was it?”
She turns to press her face into my chest a little more and I have to focus on my anger at the claw marks up her arms not to just say, fuck it, and spread her out. “I told you I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Thank fuck. “Then who kicked you out?”
She shakes her head. “No one, Tomi, please. I’m so tired, I just want to get some sleep.”
I try not to fucking yell because that’ll only have us going backwards. When I stand up and tug her towards the bed she pulls away from me.
“It’s the bed. I can’t—I can’t sleep in it. I’m sorry, I’ll take the couch.”
Fuck that.
I grab her hips pushing her towards the bathroom. “Just go get a glass of water.”
When she’s gone I pull everything off of the bed and onto the floor. I’ve slept in a lot of questionable places in my life, spending a night on the floor won’t fucking kill me.
Hell, I probably won’t even notice.
“What are you doing?” she whispers and I ignore her, lying down amongst the pillows.
“Get your ass down here. No, you’re sleeping right here where I can hold you. Right. Close your eyes and stop fucking thinking.”
It hasn’t taken much to notice she does best when I give her firm instructions. Clear and to the point, it’s like her brain switches off and she just gets her ass moving.
Her heart races when I get her bundled into my chest but it doesn’t take long before she’s asleep, her body finally relaxing fully and the thrashing over with.
I sleep like the dead.
So does Angel.
Maybe we were made for each other.
Chapter Twenty Five
Angel
It doesn’t matter how many times I try to sleep in the bed with Tomi, we always end up on the floor.
He pointedly doesn’t ever try to initiate sex and it’s suddenly all I can think about around him. His shirts just get tighter and tighter as the nights go on until I feel like I can count every last one of his abs.
Yup, he has a six-pack and one of those Adonis belt ‘V’ things that look photoshopped in photos.
It’s wildly unfair, especially now that sex seems to be the last thing on his mind.
I wonder what it would be like to be with him and then sleep together afterwards? What it would be like to finish and not feel… dirty afterwards.
Jesus.
The last night before he leaves for the run, I wake up on the floor again. Tomi’s arm is under my head like a pillow and the thin blankets from the bed thrown over us both, my face is pressed into his chest and his chin resting on the top of my head as he tries to soothe me. I’m shaking so bad that his arms are the only thing keeping me from vibrating all the way out of the damn room.
This is getting fucking shameful.
“It’s okay, sweetness. Everything is going to be okay.”
His voice is a slow, soothing sound and the rasp of it speaks of a shitty night of sleep.
Fuck.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble and his arms tighten around me.
“Don’t start with that shit, Angel. The only thing I need you worrying about is telling me who the fuck did this to you. I’ll fucking end the gutless cunt.”
The trembling gets worse and a sob bursts out of my throat, no matter how hard I try to swallow it. His arms turn to stone around me, crushing me to him as I dissolve into sobs, tears sliding down his chest as I just break the fuck down.
I’m waiting for him to get angry and leave, just walk out