“Yeah. That just makes it worse, though.”
“Makes what worse?”
“That I couldn’t control myself.”
My hands tightened on the wheel. Blood was thumping through my body, making my cock throb. “Did it ever occur to you, Angeline, that maybe you don’t need to control yourself?”
She made a littletssshtsound that sounded annoyingly like my sister. “Of course I do.”
“Not around me, you don’t.”
When she was dead silent, I glanced at her to find her watching me.
I trained my eyes on the road, wondering if this was the best conversation to have while I was driving. But she seemed embarrassed or regretful or something. I did not want to walk into this party, filled with friends and colleagues—andherfriends—while she was in any way uncomfortable with me.
Angeline showed her emotions pretty freely. And just because I had a hard time reading what they were didn’t mean that other people would. I knew that much. What would her friends see her feeling tonight when they saw her with me? Attraction? Discomfort?
Both?
Even though I’d sensed that she was hot for me in the past—or maybe just wanted to believe that I did—I’d ignored it, mostly for my sister’s benefit. But also because I knew I couldn’t exactly indulge it. Not without dropping a bomb into the calm waters of my relationship with Elle Delacroix and her band, and every other industry contact Elle had wrapped around her finger in this town. Simply put, I fucked Angeline Delacroix and a whole bunch of people got their shit in a knot, from her sister to my sister and a whole lot of people in between. I knew I’d get grief over it.
But those waters weren’t exactly calm anymore. Maybe they never really were, right beneath the surface. So what the hell was I trying to protect anyway? Some moral code that was never my own to begin with?
Angeline was the sweet, quirky, lovely girl everyone adored and I was the asshole everyone tolerated, for the most part. I knew how it was.
Things ended with her boyfriend the bodyguard and everyone still loved him. He still had his job as Elle’s trusted protector. If Angeline ended things with me after a few fucks? I’d end up the bad guy everyone hated for it.
Been there before, a few too many times.
Thing was, now that we’d fucked, I wasn’t gonna let her convince herself it was a one time mistake or something to be ashamed of. I didn’t want her to feel bad about it.
“Are you on birth control?” I asked her. I didn’t come inside her, but still. We’d both trusted each other enough, hopefully, that neither of us was gonna have to worry about what we did last night without protection.
“I am. Are you clean? Please tell me you’re careful with that.”
“I am.”
“Do you wrap it? Like, with other girls?”
“Yes.”
“With Brianna?”
“Yes.”
“The why didn’t you with me?”
“I don’t know.” That was the truth. Maybe because she didn’t ask me to? “Are you okay with that?”
“I was last night. I think I still am.”
“It wasn’t a mistake, Angeline. You wanted it. So did I. It doesn’t have to be complicated.”
“That’s the thing, Johnny. What if it is complicated?”
I considered that. “Then it’s complicated. Deal with it.”
She made a soft, exasperated noise, like I wasn’t getting it or something. “Be honest. Did I weird you out?”
