“You’re welcome, Angelina.” He smiled.
Okay. I’d take that. My name in his accent was just…ooof.
I slid under the sheets and held the steamy cup as he found a chair and brought it close to the bed.
“You’ll be cold like this. You even left your wine in the kitchen.” I felt guilty that he had to leave his warm bed and do all that for a girl he didn’t even know.
He tucked me in before he sat. “I’m not cold.”
Still, I wanted to make it up to him. “Would you like me to play for you a little?”
“That would be very nice, but I’ll take a rain check. Just try to get some sleep.”
“Okay.” I took a sip after another of the chamomile, our gazes never leaving each other.
Maybe I shouldn’t be scared of what the thunder brought anymore. Thunderstorms no longer brought pain and abandonment. They now brought kindness and hot drinks and a fuzzy feeling in my stomach.
Chapter22
Tino
“Would you like me to play for you a little?”
I’d have taken her up on her offer if I hadn’t been waiting for her all night to fall asleep. “That would be very nice, but I’ll take a rain check. Just try to get some sleep.”
“Okay.”
I watched as she drank, counting the seconds.
“You’re so kind, Tino, you know that?” Her beautiful eyes drooped lazily. The drug I’d slipped in her tea when she’d been busy ogling must have started to kick in. It was the same kind I’d put in Nicole’s dinner. Nothing heavy. Just enough to knock her out for the rest of the night. No interruptions to my time with my Angel allowed tonight.
“Kind is never a word to describe a man like me. Have you already forgotten the warning on my chest?”
“But you are, at least to us.” She yawned. “Tino…I think Nicky has a crush on you.”
I frowned, not sure if she meant what she’d said or it was the drug speaking. “Your sister is like a daughter to me.”
“That’s not very assuring for the Baldi sisters, you know?” Her eyes closed as she put away her mug, and she slumped down.
A heavy sigh troubled my chest. “I’ll never think of your sister in that way, Angel.” I said her name the way I loved it, knowing she wouldn’t remember in the morning. I was tired of calling her anything else.
“Can you please tell her that? I don’t want her to fall in love with you.”
I smirked. Was my little Angel, too, protective of her sister? Or was she jealous? “Why?”
“Even if you ever think of her in that way, even if you love her back,” she yawned and rolled on her side, “you’ll hurt her. She’s been hurt enough.”
Pursing my lips, I left my seat, put my gun on the nightstand and lay next to her. “What about you, my sweet Angel? Do you think I’ll hurtyou?”
“Yes,” she murmured, her breathing gaining a steady rhythm.
I held her in my arms, taking in her peaceful, innocent face. “But you’ll like it, won’t you?”
“Mmhm.”
“Why, Angel?” I stroked her hair. “Haven’tyoubeen hurt enough?”
“Don’t know. Just want it.” She clung to my shoulders, her breath warm and quiet on my chest.
