His entire body went stiff. For a long moment he sat there, his hand still against her back. And when he finally spoke, the absolute certainty in his voice made her heart sink.
“But I can’t give you what you need, Angel girl.”
CHAPTER 10
Angelina trudged into the kitchen in a pair of pajama shorts and a muscle shirt, yawning broadly as she rubbed her eyes.
“Want something to eat?” Micah asked. “I’m doing toast and juice.”
She stood by the counter and looked around like she was having a hard time getting her bearings. Guilt crushed him. She looked tired and vulnerable, and he still wasn’t convinced he hadn’t hurt her. She was a small woman, and he was not a small man.
His entire gut clenched as he remembered the way her pussy had gripped him. So tight that he’d had to force his way in, pushing against her body’s natural resistance.
Jesus, he had to stop thinking about her. This was insane. She was David’s little sister. She trusted him, and he’d used her in an unforgivable manner to slake his lust when any of the other women in that room would have been more than willing to take whatever he wanted to dish out.
But no one had fired his senses like sweet, innocent-looking Angelina, a woman who knew everything he’d tried so hard to forget.
His head jerked up when the doorbell rang. What the hell? It was six in the morning.
“I’ll get it,” Angelina said as she started forward.
“I don’t think—”
But she’d already disappeared into the hallway.
Angelina opened the door and peered out at the two men standing just a few feet away. They were both tall. One was solidly muscled and looked intimidating with his bald head and goatee. A small gold hoop hung from his left ear. He wasn’t someone she’d want to meet on a dark street.
The other man was leaner but no less muscled, and he wore his muddy blond hair in a short military style. Both had on faded jeans and casual T-shirts, and both looked at her with open curiosity.
“You must be David’s sister,” the guy with the muddy blond hair said.
“Uh, yeah,” she said cautiously.
“What are you two boneheads doing here at this hour?” Micah growled from behind her.
She jerked around just as Micah pulled her back and stepped toward the two men.
“Not going to introduce us?” she murmured.
Micah scowled. “Guys this is Angelina Moyano. Angel this is Connor Malone and Nathan Tucker.”
“And which is which?” she asked in amusement.
The bald guy grinned, transforming his badass looks into boyish charm. “I’m Nathan.” He jerked his thumb to the side. “This is Connor. We work with Micah.”
“That doesn’t explain what the hell you’re doing here,” Micah said darkly.
“Ah, well, you’re usually gone by now, so we were just checking to see if you were coming in,” Connor said.
Micah shot them both murderous glances that suggested he didn’t believe a word they said. Angelina cleared her throat to disguise her laugh. “Well, it was nice meeting you two, but I really need to get dressed and ready for work.”
At that Micah seemed to forget all about his two friends.
“You found a job already?” he demanded. “Where? Doing what?”
“A little café two blocks from here.”
“Waitressing? Why the hell are you waitressing? I know damn well David would be spinning in his grave. He made sure you were able to go to college. You did graduate, didn’t you?”
“You’d know if you’d bothered to be there,” she said lightly to disguise the quick flash of hurt. “You couldn’t leave fast enough after David and Hannah died.”
Immediately Micah’s face became a stone wall. “That’s enough.”
She glanced between him and his friends’ confused expressions. “They don’t know about Hannah?”
“I’ll see you two at work,” Micah said to Connor and Nathan right before he slammed the door in their faces.
She stared at Micah. “They don’t, do they?”
“I don’t talk about Hannah,” he said in a tight voice. “I never talked about David either until you arrived and I had to explain who you were.”
She turned away and walked down the hallway toward her bedroom.
“Angel,” he called.
But she ignored him and shut the door to sever the connection.
She sank onto the bed then flopped back to stare at the ceiling. Maybe he hadn’t let go of Hannah after all. Was he still deeply in love with her? Is that why he was convinced he couldn’t give Angelina what she needed? Was he still mourning his dead wife?