Angel's Halo: Guardian Angel (6 page)

Harley told me that his name was the one his momma gave him. He was no older than thirty if I was guessing, and he gave me a smile that was a mixture of friendly and appraising. He didn’t make me feel threatened, exactly, just really uncomfortable. I forced a smile back at him and rushed to shake the last man’s hand. His name was Trigger, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know how he’d gotten that club name. The man was a little older than Onyx, but despite his name I actually felt kind of safe when his big hand clasped mine.

“Nice to meet you, Gracie,” he murmured. “I knew your momma. She…” he broke off and shook his head. “She was a really good girl. You look just like her.”

I swallowed hard and gave him the best smile I could produce, considering I was so close to tears that someone other than myself would think her such a good person. In my eyes, my mother was the best mother ever. Despite what my father had done to her she had been fiery and full of life. I just hated that the man who had cost her the rest of her precious life shared DNA with me. “Thanks, Trigger.”

“I’m going to put Gracie to work now, boys.” I gave Trigger another smile and turned to follow Jack into the garage’s office. “Bash usually works here a few days a week too. Monday thru Wednesday. Thursday thru Saturday he takes care of club business for the most part. When he was enforcer, he sometimes had to take care of inner club issues for a few other charters. Now that he’s president, that stuff falls to Spider to take care of,” Jack told me as he showed me into the office. “Anyway, don’t be surprised when you see him Monday morning.”

“Okay,” I said and nodded before taking a seat behind the desk he had led me to. It was neat enough, with a few papers that looked like order forms already waiting on me. There was an older computer already on with a screensaver of a motorcycle driving from side to side.

For the next forty or so minutes, Jack told me what he expected of me and gave me a crash course on how to put in orders, who to call for parts, and how to set up appointments. I also found out how to give customers prices and how to write up a bill for them. It was all basic things that I caught on to fairly quickly. By lunchtime I was confident in my ability to run the office for Jack and he was more than comfortable enough to leave me on my own while he went out to pick up a few parts that Trigger needed for the truck he was working on.

My stomach started to grumble, letting me know that I hadn’t stopped long enough to grab so much as a toaster pastry breakfast. Hawk had said he would bring me lunch but I was starting to wonder if he had forgotten. Disappointment filled me not because I’d been looking forward to whatever meal he was going to bring me, but because I’d been excited to see him.

Sighing, I picked up my purse. Jack had told me to just hang the sign that I was out to lunch when I was ready to take my break. I turned it over so that everyone would know I would be back in half an hour and headed out. As I walked toward the Chevelle I heard one of the guys call my name and I lifted my head with a forced smile when I realized it was Harley.

I stopped and waited as he jogged toward me. “You going to lunch?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. Want me to bring you guys back anything?”

“Nah, we’re good. We ordered a few pizzas, actually, so if you want to stay and eat with us that’s cool.” He glanced back toward the other guys and I followed his gaze. Onyx and Snake were still working, but on different vehicles than what I’d seen them working on that morning. Trigger and Clutch, however, were watching us.

I wouldn’t have minded eating with the other guys, but Harley really made me uncomfortable, so I smiled and started to shake my head when I heard the rumble of a motorcycle pulling into the parking lot behind me. My heart started racing as soon as I turned my head and saw Hawk sitting on his hog. Completely forgetting about the man standing there waiting for my answer I just barely contained my need to sprint across the parking lot toward the big blond biker god getting off his bike and pulling a sack of food from Aggie’s from his saddlebag.

Seeing me, Hawk grinned and opened his arms. Without hesitating I wrapped mine around his waist as he pulled me against him almost roughly. Warm lips pressed a kiss into my forehead. “Did you think I’d forgotten about you, baby?”

I shrugged. “You were half asleep when I left this morning. It wouldn’t have hurt my feelings if you had.”

“I definitely was not half asleep, sweetheart. One taste of your skin and I was wide awake. Couldn’t get back to sleep so I got up and had breakfast with Raven and Lexa.” Another kiss to my forehead and he stepped back, offering me the bag of food. “Hungry?”

“Starving.” The smell of the food coming from the bag was making my stomach hurt I was so hungry. “Will you eat with me?”

“That was my plan.” He grasped my hand and linked our fingers, tugging me back toward the garage’s office.

Harley was still standing where I’d left him, a grim smile on his face as Hawk and I passed him. “Hey, brother,” Hawk greeted him with a smile of his own. “You been taking care of my girl?”

“Didn’t know she was your girl, but yeah. We’ve been taking good care of her.” Harley muttered something under his breath, making Hawk’s hold on my hand tighten, but I didn’t hear what he’d said. After a tense moment where Hawk turned a cold glare on the man he went back to the garage bay he’d been working in all day. “Later, man.”

Hawk stood just outside the office door, still glaring after the other man. I wiggled my fingers. They were starting to go numb from the tight hold Hawk had on my hand. The movement caught his attention and he loosened his hold. “He give you any trouble?”

“Nope,” I assured him as I opened the office door. “I’m hungry, Hawk.”

After only a slight hesitation he nodded and followed me inside. I pulled my hand free and started pulling wrapped sandwiches from the bag. There was a greasy bacon cheeseburger on top and I knew it was for him. Shaking my head, I unwrapped it and sat it on the desk before pulling out the toasted club sandwich he knew that I liked. “Mm, this smells yummy.”

“It better be. Aggie’s was packed for lunch and it took Little John forever to get my order fixed. I was about to go back there and fix it myself.” I pulled out a large order of fries and stuffed one in my mouth as he sat down in my chair and pulled me down onto his lap. “This good for you?”

There were several other chairs around the office I could have sat in or even on the edge of the desk, if I’d really wanted to. For me, the problem was that I wanted to be right there on his lap. I didn’t know why with one kiss the night before I’d suddenly become comfortable enough with showing him that I wanted his touch, his heat around me always. Yesterday I would have been to nervous to stay on his lap, now it was the only place I ever wanted to sit again.

In answer I stuffed one of the fries into his mouth and kissed his cheek before reaching for my sandwich. “Guess that’s a yes,” he muttered with a smirk.

Grinning, I shifted so he could reach his burger and started to eat my lunch. Hawk ate his meal one handed since he seemed to need to have one hand stroking up and down my back at all times. When he smeared ketchup across his mouth I wiped it away for him with my napkin.

“No.” He shook his head and gave me a stern look.

I bit my lip, only to quickly let it go when I felt the pain from the small puncture wound I’d caused the night before. “You were saving that for later, were you?”

His lips twitched but the stern expression remained. “No napkin. Lick it away.”

My body decided it liked that suggestion and my panties became almost uncomfortable from dampness.
From just the thought of licking his lips!
Damn.

When I hesitated his expression turned even sterner. “I’m waiting, baby.”

Gulping, I leaned forward and lightly ran my tongue over the spot on his lips I’d just cleaned away with my napkin. The lingering taste of ketchup mixed with something far more enticing exploded on the tip of my tongue. My nipples hardened almost painfully and his breath seemed to rush out of him in a rough groan.

Leaning back, I shyly met his hot gaze. “I…” He cleared his throat. “I think you missed a spot. Right here.” He touched his fingers to the other side of his lips. “Yeah, I’m sure of it.”

“Nope. It’s clean.” I kissed his cheek and forced myself to get off his lap. As much as I wanted to sit there all day, I had to get back to work. Jack was paying me to do a job, not to sit and lick Hawk Hannigan’s delicious mouth all day. If he did, I would seriously work all the overtime I could.

“Guess you’re going back to work,” he grumbled with a sigh. “Can I stick around for a little while or are you gonna kick me out?”

“I don’t know how much work I’ll accomplish if you’re in here with me, Hawk,” I confessed.

A grin spread across his face, making him all the more sinfully attractive. Damn it, it just wasn’t fair that he could do something so natural and become so devastatingly sexy. “Worried you can’t keep your hands to yourself, baby?”

I felt the heat from my blush as it filled my cheeks. “Something like that,” I muttered half under my breath.

A deep, delicious chuckle filled the air and I couldn’t keep from shivering—the sound seemed to caress down my spine, stroking every vertebra. Big, strong hands grasped my waist and pulled me against him as he stood. Slowly, I lifted my head, hoping that he might kiss me before he left. His fingers tightened at my waist and he brushed his warm lips over the tip of my nose. “I’ll go so that temptation is out of reach, baby. Can I have one last taste of those damn soft lips before I go, though?”

I couldn’t have spoken if my life depended on it. I gave him one small nod and he groaned as his head lowered. If I’d thought that our first kiss last night had been mind blowing, it was nothing compared to the kiss he gave me then. My mind went completely blank to anything and everything except for the feel and taste of his lips on mine.

My fingers curled into the shirt he was wearing under his cut, holding onto him almost desperately. If I let go I might fall...or attack him for more. His tongue brushed over my lips and I willingly parted them for him. Teasingly he thrust the tip of his tongue into my mouth, causing me to tremble. The next stroke went deeper, tangling with my own tongue as he kissed all common sense from me.

If the kiss had lasted an hour, a day, a year it would have been too short. When he lifted his head after only a few seconds I whimpered in protest. My lips felt swollen and they pulsed with a need for more of his kiss. Hawk sucked in a deep breath, his fingers biting deeper into the flesh at my waist as he held me closer against his hard body.

“Your kisses are dangerous, baby. Worse than Irish whisky; it goes straight to my head and makes me want to do crazy things.” His breath caressed my cheek as his lips stroked across it, to my jaw and then down. When his hot, damp lips connected with the sensitive skin of my neck I cried out in pleasure. “And those sounds you make… Ah, damn baby. I can’t help but wonder what sounds you’ll make when I’m inside of you.”

“Hawk,” I whimpered and buried my face in his chest. Images of him between my legs, making love to me filled my head. I wanted that, wanted it so bad. But I didn’t know if I was ready for us to go there yet.

The office door suddenly opened and Hawk’s grip on me tightened almost painfully for a moment. When I heard Jack’s laugh all the sexual tension I’d been feeling evaporated quickly. “Wondered how long it would take before you came checking on the girl.”

“Thought I would bring her some lunch.” Hawk kissed the top of my head and with a reluctant sigh stepped back. “I’m going to head over to the bar and do some work. Make sure Harley stays out of the fucking office when she’s here.”

I turned around to face Jack as Hawk spoke and saw the way the older man stiffened. “What’s he done?”

“Sniffing around where he’ll get his face busted in if he isn’t careful,” Hawk practically growled. “If you want him in prime working order, make sure he stays away from her.”

“Hawk,” I said, not liking that he was making threats, however veiled they might be, “stop it. Harley hasn’t done anything for you to get all snarly over.” The man had just made me feel uncomfortable, surely that wasn’t enough reason to hurt him.

His eyes had darkened to a deep hunter green again when he turned his gaze on me. “I’ll speak with Trigger. He’ll keep an eye open for you.”

“Hawk…” I started to protest but he pressed another kiss to my forehead and stepped away.

“See you tonight, baby. Later, Uncle Jack.”

I stood there, angry that he’d ignored everything I’d just said. If he acted like that now, how would it be if things went further with us? Tears filled my eyes and I quickly turned away before Jack noticed. What if he actually did hurt someone over me? After growing up in a house where a man became violent over no good reason, I didn’t know if I could deal with this…

Willa

The feel of warm lips on my neck woke me up in more ways than one. Blinking my eyes open I saw the clock beside the bed and groaned. I didn’t know whether to be pissed that he’d woken me at two in the afternoon or to take him up on the very tempting offer he was silently offering me by pressing his hardness against my bare ass.

“Happy birthday, baby.” Spider kissed my neck again, his facial hair tickling my sensitive skin.

I groaned again, having completely forgotten that it was my birthday. I was twenty-two today. I’d never really cared about birthdays, mine in particular. My mom would always make it a special day¸ but I’d always considered it more for her, the woman who had spent so many agonizing hours pushing me into the world, than for myself. Really, shouldn’t it be for her because she’d went through all that work getting me to the nine-month mark and then going through all that damn pain?

Last year had been the first year without her and I hadn’t celebrated at all. Sure, Bash had gotten me a goofy little card and he and Lexa had attempted to make me a cake. It had been sweet, but it had only made me sad that my mom was gone. She should have been there to celebrate my twenty-first.

I didn’t want to celebrate this year either, but Raven now considered me one of her family and was throwing me a party. Lucky for me Bash had warned me in advance and I’d been able to get Spider to convince her to have a much smaller get together than what she had originally planned. A simple dinner out with just a few of us and then back to the Hannigans’ house for drinks.

That was it. I didn’t want more than that.

“Come on, Willa.” Spider nuzzled my ear before sinking his teeth into the lobe. “Wake up. I want to give you your present.”

“If it’s anything but your dick, I don’t want it.”

With his bare chest pressed so close to my back, his chuckle vibrated through me. One large, questing hand traveled from my stomach, lowering to cup my pussy. “I can definitely make that happen. But I still have something else for you.” He parted the lips of my sex with his fingers and thrust his thick middle finger inside of me.

I moaned, unable to hide just how much I wanted him as liquid pleasure flooded my entrance and dripped onto his hand. “James…” When he pulled his hand away, I whimpered in protest and turned onto my back. “You are a cruel man, James Masterson.”

“You can have my dick as soon as I give you your first present.” He pulled a small wrapped box out from under his pillow and sat it on my stomach. I blinked at the little box, knowing that it couldn’t be anything other than jewelry from the size of it.

I glanced down at my left hand where my engagement ring shimmered in the light coming through the curtains of the apartment. I wasn’t much for jewelry, but that ring was any woman’s dream come true. That the man I loved had given it to me with the promise of making me his wife…

Yeah, that was everything I’d ever wanted wrapped up in a sparkling diamond.

I pulled the string of the ribbon and took the top off the little box. When I lifted my head to look inside I couldn’t help the gasp that left my mouth. It wasn’t jewelry, but a key.

“What did you do?” I whispered.

“I gave you my heart four years ago, Willa.” Spider dropped a soft kiss onto my lips and I had to blink back my tears before they fell. “Now I’m giving you everything else. I’ve had my mom working on getting us that house that was for sale on the same block as Raven and Bash. She’s good at haggling a good price, and she got us a good deal. As soon as you’re ready we can move in.”

“But…don’t we have to wait for the sale to close?” I breathed, confused and so utterly happy that I didn’t know how to contain myself. I would be just down the street from Lexa. I could see her every day if I wanted to. And I definitely wanted to. Up until recently I’d been raising her as if she were my own. Now that Raven had stepped in as her mother I was happy for Lexa, but kind of sad for myself.

“Money talks, baby. I have a good savings from working at the Ink Shop, Paradise City, and my share of the jobs I’ve done for the club.” He shrugged. “It’s legit money, and it’s not like Ma gave them a duffle bag of cash. I wrote a check and the deed has already been put into your name.”

I gave up blinking when the tears started flooding my eyes faster. Pushing the box away I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his hard chest as a sob escaped me. I’d never thought I could be this happy, but with Spider everything that I’d never dreamed could be possible was.

It was crazy how happy this big scary biker could make me at times. With the exception of a few people, when others looked at him all they saw was this huge, menacing-looking man in an MC cut with a terrifying spider inked into his neck, that packed a gun and tattooed for a living. What I saw every morning when I woke up in his arms was the beautiful, kind man with a soul as caring as any angel. At least, for the most part he had that kindness, because he was only like that with a few people. I was lucky enough to be included with those few.

“Hey, none of that.” His lips pressed against my eyes, kissing away my tears. “I don’t like it when you cry, Willa. It guts me.”

“These are h-happy tears, babe,” I tried to assured him.

“Doesn’t matter. Tears are tears to me, baby. Seeing them falling from those beautiful gray eyes, hearing those little sobs… I don’t deal well with that, love. It makes me want to rip things apart.”

My lips quivered but I grinned as I lifted my head and met his nearly black gaze. “Sorry.”

He blew out a mock exasperated sigh. “It’s hard work trying to make you happy, woman. You’re always crying whether I’m doing good or bad.”

I snorted at that, but apparently that was the reaction he was hoping for when he grinned devilishly down at me. “I’m not a crier, you dickhead. You just made me incredibly happy and I couldn’t help it. And I definitely don’t cry when you do bad, mister. I kick your ass.”

Spider tossed his head back and burst out laughing, making my entire body feel as if he’d struck a match to it. Damn, just the sound of that rich, deep laugh and my pussy pulsed with need for him.

“Fuck, Willa. I love you so damn much,” he muttered when he’d stopped laughing. “Don’t you ever leave me, baby.”

“That’s never going to happen, James,” I whispered. “You’re stuck with me for life.”

His eyes brightened. “Does that mean you’re ready to set a date to marry me?”

“I’d marry you tomorrow if that’s what you wanted.” Honestly, we hadn’t even talked about a date to get married yet. I didn’t need anything fancy. Just for this man and a preacher or even a justice of the peace to speak a few words and pronounce us husband and wife. And a good three weeks for our honeymoon, because as soon as I was his wife I was going to jump his bones and not let him see daylight until I’d worked off a fraction of the need I had for him.

“Really?” His frown told me he didn’t believe me. “I thought females wanted a big dress and lots of flowers. That kind of shit.”

I’d never rolled my eyes so much as I have since this man had come back into my life. “I’m not like most females, babe. I would get married naked if you could handle that.”

A growl came from deep in his throat that should have made me scared, but only made me wetter for him. “Want me to commit murder on our wedding day? Cause that is what would happen.”

A girly giggle bubbled up and I was helpless to hold it back. “No. That’s okay. I’ll just wear some jeans or something.”

“You fucking will not be wearing jeans at our wedding,” he grumbled and sealed my giggles with a fierce kiss. When he lifted his head again, his gaze looked drugged with desire. “I’ll ask Bash to take you, Lexa, and Raven down to Redding and you can try on some dresses.”

“James…” Fresh tears pricked at my eyes. It was all his fault for making me so happy—I couldn’t hold back my tears.

Seeing them, he groaned like I’d stabbed him in the chest. “No more tears, baby.” His head lowered and he sealed his lips with mine, effortlessly making me forget about everything else but the need that one brush of his mouth over mine produced.

Big hands were everywhere making me crazy for him. I pushed him onto his back and straddled his waist. With my eyes locked with his, I grasped his big, beautiful cock in my hands and lifted onto my knees just enough to place him at my entrance. As turned on as I was right at that second things were going to be over very, very quickly. I didn’t care, though. I needed him now.

I saw stars as I slid down on his hardness. His answering groan hiked my pleasure up a few degrees and I just sat there, with him stuffed deep inside of me to the hilt. It always took a moment to get used to him filling me up like this.

“Love you, Willa.”

I arched back, holding on to his thighs to keep myself steady. “Love you more,” I teased and grinned, knowing that he would argue with me on that point.

“Not possible,” he growled and I started to move my hips, riding him as my orgasm built deep inside of me faster than I was expecting.

“If,” I gasped as the first contractions hit and my thighs began to tremble from the force of it, “you…say so.”

“I say, baby. I. Fucking. Say.” Big hands gripped my ass and flipped me so I was on my back and he was over me. He thrust into me deeper and harder, making me cry out, my nails raking down his back as he took me higher. Another orgasm began to build even before the first one had time to die down.

My legs wrapped around his lean waist and I arched my hips off the bed to meet him thrust for thrust. Spider hardened even more inside of me, telling me that he was close. “James,” I screamed, seconds before his mouth covered mine. My entire body seemed to explode and shatter into a million pieces. His big body tensed and he tossed his head back, bellowing my name to the roof as he followed me into oblivious pleasure.

--

It was several hours later before I surfaced. I’d felt Spider kiss me before he’d left for work earlier, but hadn’t even opened my eyes. If I had he would probably still be in bed beside me, and neither one of us would have been sleeping.

I took my time in the shower and getting ready. I was supposed to met Raven and Lexa at Aggie’s for dinner and the guys were supposed to join us after church at the bar. I snickered as those two words entered my head. ‘Church’ and ‘bar’ were definitely two words that didn’t necessarily go together unless you were privy to the Angel’s Halo MC.

I’d asked Spider once why they didn’t just have church at their warehouse that was their clubhouse and where several members of the club basically lived. He’d frowned, thinking about it for a moment before shrugging his massive shoulders. “I haven’t really questioned it. Max Hannigan was the president when I was boy and had to run the bar on Friday nights. I guess it just fit that they would have church there. When he died it must have been too ingrained in them and the tradition was set. Besides, Hannigans’ is more important to everyone in the MC than the clubhouse. It’s kind of like home. Our family is always there; we can unwind and be ourselves at the bar.”

Dressed in a simple tank top and jean shorts with my favorite flip-flops, I grabbed my purse and the keys to my car. My phone was still connected to its charger so I snatched it up and headed out the door. As I left my apartment on the second floor I glanced down at the parking lot and grimaced. The second floor of our complex might be apartments, but the ground floor was still a hotel that was basically a pay-by-the-hour kind of establishment. Which was why Lexa didn’t come here to visit me. My heart lifted as I realized just how much of a wonderful present Spider had given me with that key to our new house.

It was with that thought that I unlocked my car and got inside. Starting it I barely looked at the gages before putting it in drive. I had an almost full tank of gas so I was good…

Nope.

I’d barely gone five feet when I realized my error and glanced down at the gages on my dash with a groan. I had a flat. Muttering a curse I shoved the gearshift into park and got out to inspect which tire was being an asshat. If I was lucky it was just low and I could put some air in it at the gas station just down the block.

Both tires on the driver side were perfectly fine, but when I walked around the back of the car to check out the passenger side I started cursing and I didn’t stop until I had my phone in my hand and it was ringing on the other end.

Raven picked up on the second ring. “Hey, we’re on our way. I’ll see you in a few.”

“Can you stop by and pick me up?” I rushed to ask before she could blow me off and hang up. Raven wasn’t much for phone conversations, I’d learned in recent weeks.

“Yeah, sure. Is everything okay?”

I heard Lexa talking in the back ground and pressed my lips together. “I’m having some tire issues.”

“That sucks. Well I’ll be there in a few.”

She hung up without so much as a goodbye and I lowered the phone as I continued to glare at my very flat tire with a screwdriver sticking out of the side. Who the fuck had done something like that? Not many people had the balls to mess with my shit these days. They knew that I was Spider’s ol’ lady and that if they messed with me, they risked his rage. The sheep had quieted down considerably since they’d found out we were getting married and the ones that still held a grudge didn’t have the balls to do anything about it.