Sweet Temptation (Sweet #4)(68)

He touched her shoulder and followed the smooth surface of her skin to the curve of her neck.

“Angel girl,” he said in a low voice. “Wake up.”

She scrunched up her nose and frowned. “Go away.”

“Hey, wake up for me. I need to talk to you.”

At that her eyes flew open and she pushed herself up on one elbow. “What’s wrong?”

“He showed himself today.”

He hated the way her eyes went wide with fear. Her hand flew to her throat, and her breathing sped up.

“Did they catch him?”

“Unfortunately not. He threatened Serena outside her office this morning.”

“Oh my God! Is she all right? He didn’t hurt her, did he?”

“Shh, baby. Serena is fine. Scared and shook up, but she’s fine. He didn’t hurt her. I’m going down to the police station now.”

She flung the covers aside. “I’m not staying here by myself.”

“Okay, but take your time. Get dressed and meet me downstairs. It’s going to be fine, Angelina. I need you to believe that.”

Her troubled gaze met his. “I brought him here, Micah. And now innocent people are paying the price. How am I supposed to feel about that?”

“You’re innocent in this too, Angel. You don’t deserve this. We’ll find him.”

He dropped a kiss on her hair and then turned to go. “I’ll wait for you outside.”

“This makes me nuts,” Serena muttered. “Damon is beside himself. I won’t be able to so much as take a piss by myself for the next year.”

No one laughed. Angelina, Julie and Faith sat with Serena in one of the conference rooms at the police station while all the men did God knows what in the next room.

“I’m sorry this happened to you, Serena,” Angelina said. “I never meant for anyone to become involved. I shouldn’t have—”

Julie held her hand up. “Don’t say it. Don’t say you shouldn’t have come and all that bullshit because I’ll have to hurt you if you do.”

Faith smiled then, but she reached over and took Angelina’s hand in hers and squeezed. “She’s right. Don’t say it. It’s completely wrong anyway. I’m glad you came. You’re good for Micah.”

Angelina sighed.

“Oh, come on, girl. It can’t be that bad. You’ve been shacked up with the man for several weeks now. Surely the sex makes up for any cabin fever,” Julie said.

“Sex is good. Great. No complaints.”

“Huge but in there,” Serena said.

“Yeah, huge,” Faith agreed. “What’s going on, Angelina? Is he still being a butthead?”

Angelina shifted forward in her chair and put her hands on her cheeks. “You guys don’t need to hear me whine. We’re here for Serena. Let’s forget about Micah.”

“We’re waiting for the but,” Julie drawled.

“Micah’s great,” Angelina said gloomily. “He’s tender, very loving. Great in bed. Very generous lover. But...”

“Ah, here we go,” Serena said.

“He’s still holding a part of himself back. It’s almost as if he’s pretending to play house with me and loves it in theory but he only loves it because he knows it’s not permanent.”

“Whoa,” Julie said. “My head is spinning after that explanation. Way too deep for my limited brain power.”

“I wish I knew what to say,” Faith said unhappily. “Gray resisted at first. He resisted hard. I just had to keep after him.”

Julie nodded in agreement. “Nathan was a stubborn bastard as well. I sorta did give up on him. Well at first anyway. But I’m glad I didn’t, so you definitely shouldn’t give up on Micah if you love him.”

“I’m afraid I was the difficult one in my relationship with Damon, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that Damon didn’t give up on me,” Serena said softly. “He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I cringe every time I think of the way I tried to drive him away.”

Angelina’s lips curved into a rueful smile. “In other words, I should shut up and quit whining. Do what I need to do.”

“Whining’s good. We do whining,” Julie said. “It’s sort of required when dishing about men.” She reinforced her statement by wrapping her arm around Angelina and squeezing. “You’ve got a lot on your plate, hon. Micah isn’t going anywhere. Not yet. Take it one day at a time and focus on staying safe. I don’t care what the man tells you or doesn’t tell you, he’s gaga over you. He probably doesn’t even know it, and he’ll probably want to cut out his tongue before admitting it. You just have to be the bigger person and wait for him to pull his head out of his ass.”

“Very good advice,” Serena said with a nod. “It was pretty much the same advice she and Faith gave me when I was busy f**king things up with Damon.”

Faith and Julie both laughed, and Angelina smiled at the three of them.

“You’re lucky to have such good friends in each other,” Angelina said.

“Yes, they are extremely lucky to have me,” Julie said smugly.

“Good grief,” Faith said with a roll of her eyes. “What a huge ego.”