Page 74 of Cuts Like an Angel: Part 2

“I mean Josh is here for a good reason. To help William.”

“Help him?”

She nodded and Rosie glanced from William to Carly, not agreeing. Her head shook before she voiced it, “He hates William. He doesn’t want to help him.”

“True,” Carly agreed. “But he is here to help, nevertheless.”

“I-I don’t get it,” Rosie mumbled, fighting with all the data she’d learned in school. But the information was all jumbled and out of order. “I can’t even argue because I can’t remember the shit I learned,” she whispered. “But it doesn’t feel right,” she shook her head, looking at William. No, it wasn’t William staring at her. It was another man. Josh. Her finger shot at him of its own accord. Something about this Josh said bad to Rosie.

She moved her finger to Carly, pointing at her next. “There’s something not right about it. About him,” she went back to pointing at this person who’d taken over William. “I don’t like him.”

“You don’t like Josh?” Carly asked.

“No, I don’t.” She regarded him. “He’s an ass to William.” Anger slowly burned inside her as she considered all the people in his life that had been cruel and ruthless to him. “And I will not put up with it.”

“Put up with what?” Carly wondered, making Rosie feel like she was the patient now.

“With him hurting William. Talking mean about him. Lying about him,” she hissed, aiming a glare his way.

He shot out a laugh and gestured to Rosie while looking at Carly. “See?” He turned his gaze on her now and muttered, “And she wonders why I have to kiss her perfectly.” He stared at her, the look in his eyes making her breathless. “How else are you supposed to kiss angels, but with perfection?” Passion and fear and so many other things she wasn’t sure about boiled his gaze.

Rosie swallowed, praying for the right words, her eyes filling with tears. “If I’m an angel, then … maybe I don’t need perfection,” she whispered. “Maybe … maybe I was sent just … to love you?”

She held his gaze for many seconds and the second she saw William entirely there, she hurried to him and locked her arms around him, pressing her face into his chest. “William is mine,” she sobbed. “Please don’t take him from me.” Her cries came louder and unrestrained. “Tell him not to take William from me,” she begged Carly. “I love William. I love William,” she choked over and over.

The arms that went around her were very familiar. The soft, gentle, reverent stroking along her back. It was William. Her William. “Okay, sweet Rosie,” he whispered at her ear. “I won’t let him.”

She gripped him tighter, crying more. “William wants to live, he does. He just needs me to help him, that’s all,” she wept. “Don’t let them take you. Not ever, please.”

They stood there for several minutes with Rosie crying like a baby and William comforting her with promising whispers and sweet coo’s over and over. Rosie would’ve been ashamed except it really sounded like William was happy to be helping for a change, instead of hanging from the cliff. It was much in the way of a victory, but Rosie took it and counted her blessings. God knew they had mere scraps of them.

* * *

“Josh or William,” she muttered, propped on her hand, staring down at him in the bed.

He rolled his eyes.

“Must be Josh,” she said, climbing on top of him. He turned his gaze to her, suddenly only concerned with what she had in mind. She held her hands out to his and he laced his fingers in hers. She smiled and lowered them next to his head till her face was inches from his. Staring at him. “Let’s get something straight here,” she said.

He angled his head, his erection jerking beneath her as he stared back at her.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Have you,” he whispered, answering the soft roll of her hips against him with his own. “Tell me.”

The thick hunger in his voice sent a thrill through her. Sex was the one medium where she seemed to have the ability to have both William and Josh, depending on how she played it. “I still want to explore things with you.” She gripped his fingers tighter and moved herself right along his erection with a deliberate, measured pressure while watching his face.

“I’m all yours to explore,” he whispered, his gaze lowering to her breasts.

“I like … making you,” she confessed.

“I know that,” he muttered, the jerk in his erection saying he knew it and loved it. “I like that you like this.”

“Do you really?” she sincerely wondered, getting more aroused.

He returned his gaze to hers, desire making the blue appear stormy. “Very. Much.”

He marked the words with careful clarity that made her smile and her tummy flutter with excitement. She squeezed his sides with her thighs and pressed herself harder on his cock, moving her hips with small flicks right where she knew he liked it. Watching how it affected him sent a blast of heat through her. She returned to what she’d wanted to tell him. She’d meant to have a casual, serious discussion about it but that was lost to the fire. But she could still have the discussion. “What if … I told you that … I only want to command William?” Mostly because Josh didn’t need commanding and was likely too bossy for it.

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