Page 24 of The One

“Okay, so then.” I wiggle in closer, wanting him to know I’m not going anywhere. “What do you do for them?” I ask again.

“I get information for them.” That doesn’t sound so bad, but it can’t be that. Not with how he is being evasive about it.

“What kind? Like you keep up on the gossip?” I tease with a laugh, but Abel’s face remains unreadable.

"If someone needs information, I extract it for them." My brows rise.

“You extract it for them,” I repeat. He nods. “As in, if I knew something and you wanted to know that something, you could get it from me?”

“Generally.”

“How?”

“You know how, Angel.” I’m pretty sure I do.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“What am I supposed to say to that?”

“I didn’t think you’d still be on my lap.”

“I’m not supposed to run from you.” I slide my hands up his chest and around his neck. My thumb goes over the scar there. It’s hard for me to picture Abel doing such things, but maybe that’s not Abel. That’s Church.

“And that’s what I mean, Angel. I have no idea what I’m capable of, but the thought of you running from me or leaving pushes me toward the edge.”

“You won’t hurt me.” I can’t believe that. I won’t.

“I told you that first day I didn’t want to hurt you.” I recall that moment. Why does it feel like it was months ago?

“That you’d never physically hurt me.”

“I wouldn’t. But I also won’t let you go.”

“Even if I ask?”

“Even if you asked.”

I lay my head on his shoulder. That should scare me, but for some reason, it doesn’t. In fact, it makes me fall a little more for him. Maybe I'm not right in the head, either.

“I’m not asking you to,” I tell him, pressing a kiss over the scar on his neck.

I want to be the center of Abel’s world, because he’s quickly becoming mine.

15

CHURCH

Her not running or fighting me on this gives me a shred of hope that when all of the cards fall into place, Angel might not hate me. That she won’t run from me when she knows some of the things I’ve done, even to her own family.

I stand with her in my arms, carrying her back toward the bed. I need the rest of her. “I need all of you, Angel. To be inside of you.” I lay her out in the center of the bed, coming down over her.

“I need that too.” She gently strokes the sides of my face. I swear with each stroke of her fingers, she soothes the demons inside of me. She takes them into her hands and holds all the power over them. Over me. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her as long as she stayed by my side. I don’t think my Angel knows the power she wields. “Make love to me, Abel. Be my first.”

“Your only.” She smiles at me. Her dark green eyes are full of so many emotions. It is one of the things I love about her. She wears her emotions. There is no hiding them. It’s her nature. “My only.” Angel’s eyes widen in surprise at my admission.

“But how?”

---