Page 205 of Never Fall for an Angel

“Don’t go in there again.”

“You aren’t the boss of me.”

“Please?”

She’s so surprised at my request that she falls silent, her cheeks flaming for an entirely different reason. I remember she had a similar reaction when I asked her to lower the gun from her head nearly two months ago.

“Fine,” she concedes. “But you better find a better nurse. Yours suck.”

CHRISTIAN

After dinner, I have a call to take, and when I return, I find Mila in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room. Snow falls from the sky, blanketing everything in a spray of white that glistens like fine glitter on the trees beyond.

I don’t know what’s fucking happening to me, but I know it’s her fault. My chest hurts when I look at her. My cock throbs when she touches me. Fuck, she’s all I can think about, even when she’s lying in our bed beside me.

Is this what love feels like? Like cutting yourself open, time and time again, just for the off chance you’ll get to see their smile? Hear their laugh?

It really was too simple. I was fucked the moment I saw her. Before her, I was merely existing. Living to work. Going through the motions of what everyone thought my life should be.

Now, for the first time, there’s something greater to lose if I don’t come home. Something far more important than my own life, and I’m learning, I don’t have much control over it.

I’ll live for her. Bleed for her. Fuck, I’d take another bullet for her.

Ask me to give her up?

Good fucking luck.

“It’s snowing,” she says softly when I hand her a glass of wine and sit down on the couch across from her.

“First snow of the year.”

“I’ve seen snow once. When Marcus took us to Aspen for one Christmas.”

Every day, I find more and more things that I want to show her. Experience with her.

Guess we have to add snow to the list now.

“Mom loved the snow,” I murmur without thinking, taking a drink of the whisky in my glass and watching the large snowflakes fall outside.

“Christian . . .” she starts, staring at the wine in her glass as if it holds the secrets to life. “Why was Talia here today?”

Fuck.

Her gaze burns when it meets mine, and I know what she’s thinking.

“I told her I never wanted to see her again.”

Her head snaps up from where she twists her fingers in her lap, eyes narrowing on mine.

“Why . . . would you do that?”

I shrug. “Because she made you uncomfortable.”

“That’s it, then?” she chuckles dryly, shaking her head.

“Not all of it,” I murmur gruffly. “Because I won’t tolerate someone disrespecting you.” Her gaze tells me everything I need to know. “Whether I’m around to see it or not.”

“She was your friend, wasn’t she? Bella said you two were close after your mother and brother . . . passed.”

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