Page 39 of Wicked Angel
Just what I needed; my beloved niece seeing her Auntie Angie looking like last night’s drunken ho.
And surely my sister had more important things to do. Between prepping for the upcoming Champagne opening by night and recording Dirty’s next album in-studio by day, not to mention being mom to an amazing little girl, her plate was plenty full.
“I don’t mind doing it, Angie. You probably shouldn’t be over there right now. Give it some space—”
“I’ll handle it,” I told her, a little more forcefully. “I don’t need help right now. Just… let me do it my way, okay?”
My sister fell silent for a moment. I knew it wasn’t easy for her, but she said, “Okay. Just let me know if you need anything.”
“I will.”
“I love you,” she said.
“I know. I love you, too. We’ll talk later.”
I knew she wanted to ask me what I was doing today.HowI was going to take care of myself. Because the fact was I’d never really done that before.
But she bit her tongue.
“Okay. ’Bye, sweetie.”
“’Bye.” I hung up. I checked my phone, but mercifully, she was the only one I’d drunk dialed last night. Maybe I’d needed my big sister in the middle of all that chaos. It was instinctual. She’d always been there for me. Protected me.
You just have to learn when it’s time to let go of the ones you don’t need anymore.
Maybe Shayla was right about that in more ways than one. Maybe I needed to stop needing my big sister to rescue me. It wasn’t her fault that she was trying to protect me now; she was just doing what I’d always needed her to do.
Damn. My eyes burned and I felt like crying again. How was that even possible? How were there any tears left to cry?
My phone said it was almost ten, and I told myself I was just exhausted and needed to eat something. But when my stomach churned at the mere sight of the food in Shayla’s fridge and I almost dry heaved, I instead sipped some more water.
Then I forced myself over to Johnny’s place next door to deal with my homelessness head-on.
I walked out the sliding doors off Shayla’s designer kitchen and across the back deck, over the strip of grass between the two houses. The yards were pretty much mirror images of one another, though some of the landscaping in Shayla’s was less mature and Johnny’s backyard featured a gorgeous pool. I stepped onto his back deck—just as he emerged from his gym.
Barelyholding onto a towel. Which was the only thing he was… “wearing.”
It dangled from his hand, over his dick and down between his thighs—covering very fucking little of him. I gaped at his sculpted muscles and the tattoos that enhanced his ridiculously gorgeous body… all that… golden… smooth… skin…
Holy God,that was a lot of naked thigh… and hips, abs, and glorious, manly chest for this early in the morning.
Oh, right. It wasn’t early.
“Ummm,” I said loudly, failing to come up with anything else, and he jerked to a stop, noticing me standing there all man-struck.
Not a man. Johnny O.
Stop staring.
“Christ,” he muttered. “Sneak up on a guy.”
“Sorry.”
He shut the sliding door behind himself and I stared while he wrapped the towel around his hips, in no particular hurry. His gaze moved down over me, over his shirt, which I was still wearing. His eyes said,What the fuck do you want?
His body said,Look at me all you want.
As usual, Johnny’s mere presence fucked with my head. Which was why I usually avoided it.
