it’s like to lose someone you love. I would never wish that on another person, least of all you. But I can’t. You’re stuck with me, and I’m sorry that you hate it here.” He hangs his head and leaves without another word.
Holly hops off the stool, takes a step to follow Bash, but turns around to confront Angel. “You’re a selfish, little brat. Next time you want to spout venom at the man who’s trying to step up and do the right thing, think twice before you open your mouth. And don’t you ever throw your mother’s death in his face like that again. There are many things you don’t know about your dad. Maybe you should stop and think about that. He only wants what’s best for you. These little tantrums are killing him, one small piece at a time. You don’t deserve him.”
My stomach drops. I turn toward Angel, mouth gaping. Is it possible she doesn’t know about Bash’s twin brother? Well, shit. I pull my hand down my face and watch Holly stalk out after Bash.
Mitzy grabs Noodles’ hand, and they make a quiet exit, which leaves Angel and me alone.
And that feels all kinds of weird.
Angel and I are never alone.
Fifteen
Angel
My entire body shakes. That’s never happened before. Bash and I yell. It’s what we do. He pushes. I push back. We scream at each other, and then we move on. I’ve never seen him so—defeated.
“What just happened? I feel like I crossed a line and set off a grenade.” I try and focus on what was said, but I was too heated. All I remember is Bash walking away.
Spike looks around the empty kitchen and draws his hand down his face. The piercings in his brow shimmer under the harsh light of the fluorescents overhead.
I want to run to him and dive into his embrace. Nothing can hurt me when he’s around, and I don’t know why, but I feel like I need comforting. Like I fought a war and lost.
Not because of anything Bash said, but because of something I said. And Holly? She never gets between me and my dad. It’s like she’s too damn scared to step into that stepmom role.
She’s basically useless, but damn if she didn’t just dress me down. Unlike Skye and Mitzy, who feel like friends and treat me like an equal, she and I have failed to connect on any level.
“Angel, do you not know about his brother?”
“He has a brother?”
“Had.” Spike shakes his head.
His voice changes, becoming soft and solemn. Not that it’s what I should focus on right now, but he’s simply, heartbreakingly gorgeous. His half-lidded eyes, with the piercings in his brow, gleam with sin and seduction, revealing an edge beneath his exquisite beauty.
His thumb runs across his lower lip, making the pierced ring bounce. “Bash had a brother. A twin.”
I try to focus on what he says but find that difficult. He makes it impossible.
Hot and clenching, my thighs press together, aching, wanting, remembering how his fingers ignited sparks of delirious pleasure late last night.
I wish we were in the pool now. Better yet, a bed. What I wouldn’t give to finally feel him sliding inside of me, filling me, taking me. My teeth gnash at the unfairness of it all. Why can’t Spike and I enjoy the simple pleasures the others do?
Because it’s forbidden?
Who cares?
Nevertheless, he can’t touch me when they’re around. He can barely acknowledge me in their presence. It’s not right. Especially when he looks at me like that. Potent male virility wrapped in the undeniable package of a very distracting man. Damn, that smolder in his eyes shouldn’t be legal.
Although he stands apart from me, his scent invades my nostrils. Someone should bottle that scent up and sell it. They’d make millions. It’s a mix of clean and woodsy, wrapped up in potent, raw, virile man. From the casual way he holds himself, all cocksure and arrogant, testosterone practically wafts off him and spears right into my brain, where I want to beg him to do very naughty things to me.
He clears his throat. “Angel, did you hear what I said?”
I snap my focus back to the topic at hand, even as I imagine how his scruffy whiskers will feel between my inner thighs.
“Angel?”
“I’m sorry.” I give a shake of my head to dispel the images swirling there and pour through what Spike said. Then it hits. I missed something important.
“He had a twin? Past tense? What happened?”
“I