Page 60 of Angel

‘Thank you,’ I whispered, my throat tightening.

‘Always,’ he replied.

Always.

The word echoed in my skull, picking at every insecurity I owned.

Did he mean that for real, or was he playing the dutiful protector because a marriage certificate bound us together?

His thumb smoothed over my inner palm, sending a jolt of pure electricity straight up my arm to my core.

A desperate, aching yearning pooled in my gut as our eyes locked.

Then he released my wrist, sat up against the headboard, and reached for the hot coffee cup, his smoky, sleep-sexy eyes on me, probing me.

A sudden tidal wave of emotion hit, and I turned away to hide the vulnerability churning in my soul.

‘I’m making breakfast,’ I said, retreating toward the bedroom doorway. ‘Come down when you’re ready.’

I fled the room before I exposed more of my fragile heart.

Chapter 13

ROXY

Later that day, Carlo let us borrow the sleek wooden motorboat to cross over to a secluded cove where they sold the best fish on the island.

I was still coming off the high of sleeping in Angel’s arms.

Was I foolish to want more of the same?

Stop hoping, I cautioned myself as my heart flew, eyes on him as he guided the skiff over the waters. He was just being a gentleman.

Still, I couldn’t help feeling that we were getting closer and not just in a platonic way.

I moved nearer to him, coming alongside as his hands sat easy on the wheel.

His cologne wafted into my nostrils, and with no warning, my nipples pebbled.

Then he turned to me and hit me with a chin raise and a growly reverberation.

‘Hey you.’

Be still, my heart.

‘Hey. Done a little boating in your lifetime?’

‘Dad’s an Aussie; we love the ocean, and we learned how to swim in it and pilot boats from childhood.’

‘Sounds idyllic, did he teach you?’

Angel glanced at me for a moment over the top of his sunglasses before turning to face the water.

‘My dad is the most hands-on father you’ll meet, ever-present, pushy as fuck, but he’s the reason I’m the man I am today.’

I tamped back an ache because I had never experienced fatherhood the way Angel described it.

We docked at the fish stalls by the sea and, following a list from Mrs C., as we now called her, we picked a selection of seafood.