Page 15 of Lips of an Angel

He was asleep.

He didn’t often fall asleep on his own, especially during the nights following a nightmare.

I let out a sigh of relief and left him sleeping in my bed, forcing myself into a shower before I joined him. My muscles sang with relief as I settled into the mattress. I pressed my face into the pillow to muffle the moan that bubbled out of me. I rolled onto my stomach, one arm under the pillow, and was dozing off when Angel stirred. He settled against my back, resting his face on my shoulder and wrapping an arm around my waist.

I closed my eyes and let out a shaky breath, emotions hitting me like a freight train. My eyes burned, my chest ached. I swallowed against a lump in my throat, feeling as if I were about to cry. Then, a wave of warmth washed over me. I blinked tears away, my chest relaxing. The hornet’s nest of thoughts in my head calmed, and I eased into the pillow. Angel’s hand rose to my chest, flattening over my heart.

We hadn’t done this since he’d started dating Eli, but I didn’t want to move him. Instead, I closed my hand over his and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

“I don’t likethe look on your face.”

I scoffed, chasing Ryder through his apartment as he walked away from me. “You love my face and everything about it.”

I’d caught him getting out of the shower and in the bedroom, he let his towel hit the floor. One thing about Ryder Clark was that he had no shame whatsoever. Ryder looked over his shoulder, giving me a blue-eyed stare and crooking a brow at me. “What do you want?”

I followed him through into the bedroom and leaned against the doorframe, admiring the view and forgetting why I was there in the first place. I loved my tattoos, but Ryder's smooth, unmarked body was gorgeous. He stood nearly tall enough to look me in the eye. Almost. His dark, wet curls dripped water onto tan skin. I watched a drop fall onto his shoulder, trailing down his chest and slipping into the trail of hair that led to his…

“Raleigh?”

“Hm?” I sputtered when Ryder’s wet towel slapped me in the face.

“Did you come here to check out my ass or ask me for a favor?”

“Both?”

“Spit it out, Jenkins.” He tugged on a white T-shirt and a gray pair of sweats. I tried my hardest to ignore how good he looked in those sweats.

Instead, I plastered on my best “help me” eyes. “Cover for me tonight?”

“Sure.” Without another word, he pushed past me and headed for the kitchen.

That was too easy.

“That’s it?” I called, finding him selecting a mug from the cabinet.

He looked up in surprise. “Did you really think I’d say no?” He grabbed a second mug, holding it out in invitation. I accepted, opening the fridge like I lived there and withdrawing the milk.

The coffee maker gurgled to life. “After last week, yeah. You saved my ass.”

Ryder shrugged as if it were no big deal. Maybe it wasn’t to him, but in the five years we’d owned the bar, I’d only missed two shifts. “I don’t mind. You’re clearly going through something, and the extra hours are great. Besides, it’s hardly an issue to look at Jack the whole night.”

I smiled and accepted the drink Ryder offered. “That little twink would chew you up and spit you out.”

“That’s why I admire him from afar. Even I’m notthatbrave.”

The conversation lulled, and I took the opportunity to drink my coffee. I was grateful Ryder covered my shifts with no questions asked, but I could feel his questions simmering beneath the surface. As I drank, I felt his eyes on me and knew what was coming.

“Just ask,” I said.

“What’s going on, Raleigh? For real.”

We moved to the couch and sat down, and I spilled everything. Ryder knew I’d been seeing someone, but that was the extent of his information and he obviously wasn’t expecting the situation to be so serious… or so scandalous. He didn’t even tease me about the gifts. When I got to the part about Kali being arrested for embezzlement, his jaw was on the floor.

“Holy shit,” he muttered when I was finished. He stared into his mug. “I should have made this an Irish coffee.”

“Don’t tempt me. I have a flight in a few hours and the last thing I need is to get kicked off for being drunk.” I chugged the rest of my drink, letting the warmth ground me.

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