“Yeah… turns out it costs about ten thousand dollars a day to keep someone on life support. That combined with the emergency care straight after the accident, what can I say, it adds up. I mean, I could have chosen not to pay it, declared bankruptcy, but you know, who wants to be declared bankrupt at eighteen. Besides, it would have made life on my own even harder.”
“So that’s why you live at Midtown Apartments,” I say, “and work a graveyard diner shift; at the same time as going to college.”
She nods. “I know going to college is a luxury, and that it would’ve been smarter to find a full-time job and focus on that; but I felt like so much had been taken from me, I wanted to keep hold of at least one thing. I don’t know, that probably doesn’t make any sense.” She looks down at her lap.
“It makes perfect sense,” I say, pulling her in for a hug.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“For what?”
“For listening, for sharing, it means a lot.”
I lean down to kiss her, it’s not passionate or intense, but it feels more intimate somehow, maybe because we’ve shared things with each other that not many people know, or maybe it’s because we’ve decided that it’s just going to be us. Something has switched inside us both, we know that this is more than just sex.
“Come on, let’s go home,” I murmur against her hair, inhaling her vanilla scent and knowing that no matter what, I never want her to go through anything alone again.
Elizabeth
My front door is still locked, which is always a good feeling; I’ve come home so often to find it busted open and my stuff thrown everywhere, then abandoned when no valuables were found. I close the door behind Angel before locking it and applying the chain.
“I’m staying long enough to need the chain on?” he asks.
“If it didn’t cause me more issues to have one, you’d be staying long enough to lock the deadlock.”
He chuckles. “You planning on keeping me locked in your tower, princess?”
I look around my apartment. “Hmm… more like dungeon than tower, but, yeah, I’m keeping you here till tomorrow morning. And you can only escape then because I have class.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll willingly stay here as long as you’ll have me.”
Nerves flutter through my stomach. The sex we’d had at Miguel’s house had been different, but after sharing what we did on the pier, it feels like it’s going to be different again, it’s exciting, but new… scary.
“Do you want something to drink?” I ask, trying to distract myself.
He looks at me and licks his lips in a way that makes my knees weak.
“Nah, I’m not thirsty,” he says, his voice husky and so fucking sexy.
“Anything to eat?”
“I’m not hungry either… for food anyway.”
The next thing I know, I’m being lifted into his arms.
“Angel, no! I’m too heavy!”
“If you’re too heavy, then how come I’m carrying you just fine, princess?” he asks.
I can’t argue with that, and my place is so small the bed is literally three steps away, so I’m soon being placed down in front of it.
He pulls me in for a kiss, and we take our time slowly exploring; running our hands over each other’s bodies, kissing each other’s necks and throats, wherever we can reach. I slide the cut off his shoulders and let it drop to the floor, before working on his shirt buttons, pausing only to let him push my jacket off and lift my t-shirt over my head.
I kiss his chest, running my mouth over his scars and tattoos, enjoying the feel of his hands tracing my back before he unhooks my bra. It falls to the floor, and he runs his hands down my breasts, teasing my nipples.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he murmurs, lowering to his knees and covering my body in kisses on the way.
He undoes my jeans and slides them down my legs. After making quick work of my boots, I’m left standing in my underwear, my hands resting gently on his shoulders while he looks up at me.
