For Angelo (Full-Length Standalone Italian Billionaire Romance) (4 page)

“Just because we didn’t end up together doesn’t mean we weren’t really in love. We were the ones who made mistakes, but love…” And Laura’s smile had been of undimmed hope and dreams. “Choosing to love is always the gloriously right thing to do.”

Lane looked back at her fallen angel.

His concerned gaze made her heart skip a beat, and his voice was like the most darkly seductive melody as he murmured, “If you’re sure you’re okay…”

“I think I hurt my ankle,” she blurted out.
God forgive me.
“M-maybe you can check on me later?” She could feel a blush stealing over her cheeks at how unnaturally forward she was being. “I’m out in an hour.” Lane’s words had the stranger raising a brow, but even as her cheeks turned redder, she just couldn’t make herself take the words back.

“I see.” The stranger’s lips curved in the sexiest little smile, and his silvery gray eyes settled on her contemplatively.

His sudden scrutiny was unnerving, but Lane forced herself to meet his gaze. She had nothing to hide. She was just crushing on him, and now she was, well, flirting outrageously with him. Other girls did it all the time. So it wasn’t bad…right?

“You’re…different,” the stranger murmured.

“In a good way…right?” Lane clarified worriedly.
 

His smile widened, but he didn’t say anything.

Her heart slammed hard against her chest.
Gosh, oh gosh
. It was just a smile, but she felt hot all over.

When he took a step back from her, Lane caught her breath, the pain of the increased distance surprising her.
 

“I’m keeping you, aren’t I?”

He nodded.

Her heart sank. “You’re meeting with someone?”
Please say no, please say—

Another nod.

“I see.” Her heart had sped up its descent at his response, and she struggled to paste a smile on her trembling lips.
Infatuation and heartbreak at first sight,
Lane thought numbly. Who could’ve imagined it would happen this way?

Slowly, she made herself take a step back as well. Not meeting his gaze, she mumbled, “Sorry for keeping you.”

“It’s nothing.”

Silence.

“I’ll check up on you later—”

“You don’t have to—”

The stranger cupped her chin and forced her to look up. “Why not?”

She refused to be excited, frowning unhappily at him. “Because.”

“Because…what?” Again, his lips curved in that sexy little smirk, which even in her pain didn’t fail to make her body tingle all over.

“Because you’re meeting with someone,” Lane snapped in a rare display of annoyance. “Happy now?” The words were supposed to come out a snarl, but she ended all choked up with hurt disappointment.
 

The stranger released her chin. “See you later.” And just like that, he turned and started to walk away.
 

“I said you don’t have to,” she muttered resentfully.

“Even when I tell you I’m only meeting up with the college dean for work?” the stranger answered without looking back.

Her eyes widened.

“And have I mentioned the dean also happens to be fifty years old, bald, and male?” But he was getting farther and farther away from her now, and she barely heard his next words, spoken in a musing tone. “But then, if you think I shouldn’t be checking up on you—”

“NO!” Lane clapped her hands over her mouth, shocked that she had actually ended up yelling the word out.

The stranger stopped walking.

She didn’t hesitate.

She hurried after him, and by the time she reached the stranger he had already turned to face her, a familiar smirk on his strong, beautiful face.
 

“You don’t seem to have a hurt ankle—”

She didn’t hesitate, pretending to limp on the last few steps.
 

His laughter rang out, and this time she realized what made it so different, what made her want to hear it again and again.

Lane stumbled to a stop.

She was suddenly perilously close to tears.

His laughter…reminded her of Laura.

Her brazen sense of joy, her indomitable spirit, her fierce love—

Against all odds.

“Are you okay?” Her fallen angel was in front of her again, his tone a mixture of wariness and worry, and she couldn’t blame him at all. She had to look crazy in his eyes right now, with the way she was flirting outrageously with him one moment and then fighting back tears the next.

“I’m not crazy, I promise,” she told him, trying but failing to repress her smile.

“If I weren’t a gentleman, I’d admit to being unconvinced.”
 

“You already said it,” she pointed out helplessly.

“Then I guess I’m not a gentleman.” And his silvery eyes gleamed in a way that told her there were other ungentlemanly things he wanted to do.

Oh, Looooooord.

And she heard herself ask breathlessly, “You’ll check on me later?”

“We’ll see.”

“
Please
?” She had never flirted in her entire life until now, but somehow the words came so easily to her, never mind if she couldn’t help blushing while she said them.

“We’ll see,” he repeated firmly. And it was clear in the way wickedness flashed in his silvery gaze that he liked hearing her beg, liked keeping her on her toes.

Lane watched him go, and not once did he look back even though he had to be aware of how her gaze followed his every movement.
 

Sadist
, she thought absently, but for some reason, this didn’t displease her at all.

****

“He’s made you wait for two hours now,” Josh told his co-worker disapprovingly. “Accept it. He stood you up.” Earlier, Lane had told him about her encounter with her so-called fallen angel, and he had been aghast. He had promptly given her a lecture about stranger danger, even going as far as showing her online clips of murder victims who had fallen prey to fatal attraction.

But Lane had only stubbornly shaken her head.
 

“He’s not like that—”

“You don’t even know his name, and you certainly can’t be sure all he’s told you isn’t bullshit—”
He immediately knew he had said the wrong thing, remembering belatedly the way Lane disliked swearing.
 

But what about her fallen angel,
he thought with ill-concealed resentment. The way she was so obviously crazy about him, he was willing to bet if that stupid jerk, whoever he was, started swearing, she would probably think it was sexy.

Still, the way Lane was looking at him with such disappointment was unbearable, and Josh was no match against it.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.
 

Lane knew Josh thought she was being a prude about swearing, but she also knew she could never explain the truth to him, knew that he would never understand how it had impacted her, having spent her childhood years in the seediest bars, hanging out with prostitutes and pimps.

Her stomach growled, and she bit her lip, hesitating.

Josh was looking at her incredulously. “Are you serious?”

“What?” she asked defensively.

“You’d rather starve than—” Lane’s glare made him think twice about finishing his sentence. “Go grab a quick bite. I’ll watch out for your—” His lip curled. “Fallen angel.”

“He won’t be easy to miss,” she told him seriously. “He’s tall, dark, handsome, and he really looks like a fallen angel.”

“Yeah, sure.” But then Lane gave him a quick hug, and it was hard to maintain his anger.
 

“Thanks, Josh.”

Her sweet smile did him in.
Thank God he was poor as dirt or she would never be able to smile at him like that,
Josh thought gratefully.

“If he comes, tell him I’m at Millie’s, okay?” Lane walked backwards towards the exit doors as she spoke.

“Yup.”
Not.
 

When she left, he went back to stocking the shelves, a dreamy look on his face. He had made Lane Petersen smile.
It was the best feeling ever
, he thought.
 

Minutes passed, and there were no signs of Lane’s fallen angel. He started whistling.
Angel, ha,
he thought with a snort.
Yeah right.
A demon was more like it.
 

Behind him, Josh heard the store doors swish open, and he turned around to greet the next customer—

Shit.
 

Josh found himself staring at a man who could only be described as a—

Tall.

Dark.

Handsome.

Fallen angel.

Double shit, triple shit, all the shittiest things in the world could not compare to how Josh felt at that moment.

The stranger was an inch over six feet, and his Mediterranean heritage was very much evident in his dark eyes and olive-toned skin.

“Good evening.” His tone was faintly accented, but his English was polished, like someone who had learned the language in a private academy. “I’m looking for someone who possibly works here…” He described Lane’s features in a brief but concise manner.

“Sorry, no one like that works here.” The words were out before Josh could think of what he was doing.

The stranger’s eyebrow arched slightly. “Is that so?”

“Yup. So, if that’s all—” The stranger’s gaze suddenly narrowed, and it was as if he had sensed Josh’s words were nothing but a lie.
 

“Are you certain?”
 

The stranger’s silkily spoken question chafed, and Josh heard himself say defensively, “Well, if there was one like her, she’s my girlfriend, and you probably turned her head around only because you’re loaded.” His tone became savage. “It doesn’t mean she really likes you or anything,” he finished with a glare, but the stranger’s bland expression didn’t change.

“I see.”
 

Josh waited tensely for the stranger’s next move, ready to get into a fistfight if that was what things called for. He had been patient with Lane, dammit. He would not just stand by and let some fancy foreign dude—

“I am sorry for the unintentional intrusion.” The stranger inclined his head in an oddly old-fashioned gesture of apology.
 

“Uh…” The display of manners threw Josh off.

The stranger gave him a nod before turning away to leave.

Josh paled.

That was that…right?

He had gotten rid of his competition.

And that was okay…right?

All was fair in love and war…right?

Lane came back ten minutes later, her face hopeful as she hurried to him, asking, “Did anyone come by?”

“If there was, I’d have sent him to Millie’s, don’t you think?” But he couldn’t meet Lane’s gaze as he spoke.
She’s going to be disappointed, but it’s for the better. That guy has ‘player’ written all over him—

“He’ll probably come tomorrow,” he heard Lane say brightly.

His head jerked up. “What?”

Lane shrugged. “I’m sure he has his reasons.”

His jaw dropped. “You have got to be kidding me.
He stood you up, Lane.
” Actually, this wasn’t true, but the man
did
make his friend wait for several hours, and that was almost as uncool.

“He has his reasons,” Lane said calmly. And despite Josh’s words planting the tiniest seed of doubt in her heart, she refused to let it grow.
 

She would see her fallen angel again, and everything would be okay after that.

But this turned out to be only half true.