Touching Angel's Desires (43 page)

He tried to get around her to open the door. Angel backed up against
it, holding it closed, “Please don’t go! You can’t do this to me.”

“Do what to you?” His voice was gentle and sympathetic. “Angel, you’re
my boss. This is a job. I am handing in my notice, which I am fully entitled to
do.” He reached for the door handle again. Angel grabbed his hand, holding it,
bringing it to her face and kissing it, wanting, needing to feel his skin on
hers. “Angel, please let me go.”

“No, I don’t want you to go,” she told him, tears streaming down her
face, unable to imagine her life without him being part of it.

“You don’t have a choice,” he said, pulling his hand out of her grip
and once more going for the door. They tussled, fighting for the handle. “What the
hell is the matter with you? Can’t you handle the fact that I love someone?”

“No, I can’t handle that. I could never handle that. I love you. I
love you so much Dan. I would give up everything for you. I am so sorry…” She dropped
to the floor, sitting back up against the door and covering her face. “I am so
sorry… I am sorry.” She couldn’t bear for him to see her in this state. She
felt humiliated enough without breaking down like some stupid little schoolgirl
with a crush.

Angel saw Dan’s feet moving backward away from her. She felt him
coming down to her level, taking hold of her arms and helping her back to her
feet. “Come on,” he said in a calm voice. “It’s frightening to see you in this
state.”

“I am so sorry,” she repeated. He took her into his arms and they
cuddled. Angel closed her eyes and snuggled into his chest, taking deep
breaths, smelling his unique scent. She felt her body relax as she heard his
heartbeat in her ears and felt his arms once more around her, soothing her, his
cheek resting on her hair. Her knees weakened, and she wanted desperately to
take him to her bed and make love, but her tears flowed, soaking into his shirt.
She knew it was too late for that, now. She had lost him to Stacie and it was all
her own fault.

A thought trickled into her mind. He didn’t yet know whether Stacie
loved him. He loved her, there was no doubt about that, but she might not feel
the same. And even if she did have feelings for him, she might not be able to
deal with the fact that he had slept with women for money. Or, come to that,
the fact that he had been sleeping with Angel the whole time he’d been with
Stacie. He might yet be heart-broken. And if he knew there was love to be had
here, from her, then he may still come back to her.

They stood for a few minutes longer, him holding her tight as she
calmed down.

“I love you, Dan,” she said into his chest. “I would do anything for
you. I am so sorry for everything. You’re right, I have been a bitch. I never
realized
how jealous I
could really get.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, pulling back to look at her. Angel pulled
him close again. “Angel, what do you mean?” he said again, taking her shoulders
and putting her away from him, putting distance between them.

Angel stared into his eyes, feeling her guts turning. Her body felt
cold where he had been. The thought of telling the whole truth flashed through
her mind. She instantly dismissed it. If he knew she had set Stacie up with
Larry, there would never be anything for them.

But then, she pondered, he suspected it anyway—he had said as much
earlier. If they did have a relationship, it would be better to start it on a
foundation of truth. Added to that, she would always be terrified of Larry
exposing her.

But he would hate her, argued the scared side of her.

Perhaps not, argued the other. It might just show him how much she
loved him, the level she would go to in order to try to save their
relationship.

“Angel? What is it you’re not telling me?”

She backed away from his suddenly cold eyes. “When I saw Stacie, I
instantly
realized
how beautiful she was and then…” she faltered, “I guess, I just got
out of control. I knew when I saw her I made a mistake in giving her to you.”

“What do you mean you got out of control, Angel,” he asked. “What
did you do?”

“I did want to stop it, but I couldn’t…it was too late. Dan, I am so,
so sorry,” she said, trying to look into his eyes, blurry through her tears.

“What was too late?” he demanded. She stared at him—her mind all
over the place. “Angel, what was too late?”

“Larry.”

Dan released her immediately, pushing her away from him and stepping
back.

“Dan, I’m sorry,” she sobbed, frantic now, rushing to him, trying to
put her arms around him. “I did it for us, because I love you so much, baby.”

“Angel, tell me exactly what you did.” He stood like stone, refusing
to accept her desperate caresses and attempts to touch him.

“I had to do it…I’m sorry,” she babbled, looking in his eyes, seeing
his anguish, needing to beg for his forgiveness with her heart aching in
despair. She cupped his face with her hands. “I…I heard that you fancied her
and so I set up Larry to shag her, but I honestly wanted to stop it, but it was
too late, he had already had her.”

“You really are an evil bitch,” he said, pushing past her to get to
the door. Angel tried to get between him again, but he held her at arm’s
length, easily holding her off as he opened the door and stepped through and
out of her life.

“Dan, please, I am so sorry.
I
love you
,” she screamed, rushing out into the corridor after him. But he
was already gone.

Angel collapsed on the floor in the corridor, unable to get herself
back on her feet. Her legs felt like spaghetti. She couldn’t believe what she
had just confessed to. He would never forgive her. He would never come back to
her. If only she had given Stacie to someone else. If only she had
realized
how she felt
about him before this, before she had just proved to Dan, and to herself, how
truly evil she was, how low she could stoop. The man Angel loved more than
anything in the world, the man who had made her see another side to life and
love, was gone from her life forever. Angel was under no illusions, not any
more. She had seen the damage she had done. Even if Stacie didn’t love him, Dan
could never love Angel, not now.

She pulled herself up by the door handle and when she felt she could
make it, she went to reception. Shannon and Bailey stared at her. She could
only imagine what a mess she looked, her face red and puffy, her makeup
blotched and running down her face. She didn’t care.

Angel glanced up the stairs, wondering if Dan had gone to his room to
calm down.

“Is he…?”

“He’s gone, Angel,” Shannon said, her face etched with sympathy.

“He left you this,” Bailey said, holding out a piece of folded
paper.

Angel froze on the spot, the nausea of anxiety rocking her body once
again. She stared at the paper, hesitating, fearing what it would say. But
then, how much more could he hurt her?

Angel took the paper from Shannon, and unfolded it. Tears poured
from her eyes, blurring the words written in bold capitals—

I QUIT, DAN.

Angel screwed up the paper and threw it on the floor. All her pain,
all her desperation exploded into a sudden fierce hatred of that fucking smug
bastard and his fucking boring Little Miss Perfect. She couldn’t believe she
had grovelled on the floor before him, begging him to love her. Well, no more.
Love was for the weak. And she, Angel, was not weak.

This was not the end. Stacie fucking Clifford would regret the day
she ever thought of touching Angel’s desires.

*THE
END*

About the Authors

Holly J. Gill

Holly J Gill is a wife to Nigel and mum of three children, Rhys,
Victoria and Alisha. She works as a care assistant at a residential home and in
her spare time she writes erotic romantic novels.

Her writing career started as a young child with a wild imagination
and after twenty years her dream has come true. In her spare time she likes
visiting friends, listening to music, watching movies and travelling the
English countryside.

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/HollyJGill

Blog:
http://hollyjgill.blogspot.co.uk

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/hollyjgillauthor

Nikki
Blaise

Nikki
Blaise
likes cats, erotic art, sex,
running, music, writing and singing (badly and

drunkenly). She writes naughty stories she daren't tell her mother
about and lives in London

with her collection of carnivorous plants.

Will tweet for money.

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Nikki_Blaise

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/nikki.blaise

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Blaise
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www.secretcravingspublishing.com