Very believable, since I was reasonably sure Blake took his dates to baseball games, movies with explosions, or skee-ball lounges. Unfortunately, I was in no position to knot a tie with my gauze paws, and there’d be a Cheesecake Factory on the moon before Mackenzie could figure out a decent Windsor knot.
Which left Angel.
Wordlessly, Angel went to Blake and took the tie from him, looping it around his neck, and quickly adjusting the length. There wasn’t anything overtly sexual about it, not objectively, but as Angel’s deft, artist’s fingers began fixing the silk into a neat loop, tugging on it to keep it even, Blake’s eyes slid to mine. I detected a hint of a smirk on his well-moisturized lips.
Jealousy burned in my gut, and I looked away. I know I wasn’t supposed to care, but why did Angel’s ex have to behere? And why did he have to be in Paris with Angel last January? If I didn’t have any fuckable himbos following me around, then it wasn’t fair that Angel did either!
Finally, Blake’s tie was knotted, and Angel stepped back, giving it an appraising eye. “Looks good,” he said. “My mom would be glad to know that dragging me to all of her boring TV network parties ended up being good for something.”
Blake gave Angel’s arm a familiar squeeze, and then he turned to his costar. He held an arm out for her. “Ready to bone?” he asked gallantly.
“Even more ready than I was last night,” she said with a big grin. She linked her arm through his and they were on their way.
“Are those two fucking?” I asked as soon as the door shut. “Like off camera?”
Angel sat down beside me. “Probably. Blake isn’t a complicated man. He likes sex and he likes it with as little inconvenience as possible.” Angel said it without bitterness, just like a statement of fact. Like it was something he’d long accepted.
“So does that mean that you two aren’t...”
“We are not.”
“You certainly looked like you were with him in Paris.”
Angel cut me a look that saiddon’t start. “Let me see your hands,” he said instead. “Show me where it hurts.”
Maybe I should just rip my chest open then, I nearly said.
But instead I let him unravel my bandages in the quiet of this little break room.
“Sunny says you really saved the day out there. We only have this location for two days, so she would have been hosed without you.”
“Well, I’m glad to know my vintage designer collection is good for something.”
With both my hands finally free, he held them each up and began to examine them carefully.
He blew on one particularly gnarly cut on the heel of my hand, giving me instant relief from the slight sting of having the many wounds exposed.
“Death by a million paper cuts,” I said. “That’s what it feels like.”
He blew on my other palm, his eyes locked with mine.
Without looking away or even a second of hesitation, he pressed his lips to my hand as though he could kiss away the pain.
I gasped softly, but loud enough for him to hear.
His mouth trailed down to my wrist, and oh, I liked that. I liked that far too much.
And judging by the way his long lashes fluttered and his breath hitched as he kissed along the line of my pulse, so did Angel.
Chapter Five
Angel stood, pulling me with him.
I knew losing him a second time would hurt twice as much, but with his lips tracing up my arm and then to my neck, my brain shorted out every time I attempted to consider Future Luca’s regrets.
Angel backpedaled to the door with his arm pulling me close to him so that our legs were no more than a tangle of limbs. With one hand, he wedged a chair under the doorknob.
“What are you doing?” I breathed, my mouth hungry for his, as he continued to place teasing kisses all over my necks, ears, cheeks, and even eyelids.
