Angel Falling (Falling #1)(42)

“Crazy ‘bout you, Darlin’.” I grinned while buttoning up my shirt, then fixed my tie.

She cleaned herself up and put herself back together sans panties. Those were in my pocket for safe keeping. I had a duffle bag full of these ripped pieces of lace. Her hair was a lost cause though.

Aspen inspected herself in the bathroom mirror. Long fingers tugged through her sex-hair. “Oliver’s going to be pissed that you pulled my hair down.”

“I don’t give a shit what he thinks. I’ll sick Dean on ‘em.”

“You really like Dean?” she asked. Her fingers ran through her golden hair. It still looked perfect to me. Then again, everything about her did.


“I do. He’s a good guy. Man’s man, you know?”

“Yeah, I get it. You have more in common with Dean than with Oliver. I’m glad you’ve made a new friend. I think you’d really like Tripp, too. He’s a mix between a manly man and a chick. You never really know either way. One moment he’s kissing a woman, the next he’s taking it in the ass from a hot male model.”

“Whoa, Angel, too much info. Jeez. You gotta keep that shit to yourself,” I told her, smiling wickedly and squeezing her ass.

We exited the bathroom and went back to our group. Food had been served and there were two plates sitting at our table. After the bathroom acrobatics, I was starving and the pain in my shoulder was thrumming. Nothing another beer wouldn’t fix. ’Sides, I’d gladly take a little pain for a lot of Aspen.

“You had to f*ck with her hair, didn’t you, Hank? Damn it! That took me forever to get just right.” Oliver pouted and gave me the evil eye.

“I’d say I was sorry, but we both know I’d be lying, so I won’t. Had to be done.” I told him as I pulled out Aspen’s chair for her to sit.

Dean, London, and Tripp laughed so loud other tables were staring.

“It had to be done or she had to be done,” he quipped. Oh, my Buddy wanted to play. Yeah, I was definitely warming to the fella.

“Both,” I grinned and he gave me a fish face.

“I’ll take note that you prefer her hair be down when you’re going to go all macho on her.” He harrumphed and took a sip of his wine.

“Are you kidding? Aspen, tell him it was you who attacked me!” I clasped my beer and chugged the entire thing down smiling like a loon.

“Shut the hell up, Ollie.” Aspen pinched Oliver in the shoulder.

“Ouch!” He moved closer to Dean and out of her reach.

“Such language, Aspen. You realize who’s here tonight. You should be minding your manners,” said the cool voice of Aspen’s mother from behind her.

“Oh, Mother. Not everyone is as perfect as you are.” Aspen downed the rest of her wine and held the glass out to me. “Another, please.”

I jumped up, not wanting to participate in a battle of words with Aspen and her mother. I wanted to take my angel home and f*ck her until morning, and then start all over again. Fighting with her about her mother was not going to fit into that plan.

Dean and Tripp followed me to the bar.

“God, that woman is insufferable.” Tripp was the first to break the silence.

“I’ve never understood why she was such a bitch to Aspen. Out of the three children, Aspen is by far the most successful. You’d think she’d be singing her praises, but instead she finds every opportunity to prod her.” Dean jumped into the first seat on the Hate Aspen’s Mother train.

I just let the two men vent, listening intently to their opinions on the mother-daughter dynamic.

“Oh great, and then the party takes a complete nose dive,” Dean gestured over to Aspen. A nice-lookin’ fella in a suit was standing next to my angel. His hand was on her shoulder, his thumb creeping along her bare neck. I could see her visibly shrink back.

Oh, hell no. I saw only red.

I made my way through the crowd coming up behind Aspen. With my good arm I flicked the man’s hand off Aspen and circled her waist with my hands possessively. I pulled her tight against my front. She leaned against me willingly. Kissing the soft flesh of her neck where the man had touched her gave the added oomph I needed to make the man’s eyes widen in shock.

“I missed you, Angel.” I kissed her neck once more.

Her mother’s eyes were blistering with anger as she took in our comfortable body language. Instead of letting her go, I reached out my hand to the space invader. “Hank Jensen. And you are … ?”

The man’s composure turned from shock to perfectly composed in mere seconds. “Grant. Grant Campbell, I’m Aspen’s—”

“Business partner on Bright Magazine,” Aspen completed his sentence. I knew who the f*cker was and I already hated him with a passion. He had hurt her not once, but twice. That alone was worthy of a beat-down, but his smug “I’m better than you” tone was a close second contender. Though at that moment, I wanted to hurt him just for shits and giggles.



“So who are you to Aspen, Mr. Jensen?” the man asked a sneer twisting his lips.

“I’m the boyfriend.”





Chapter 10



My eyes must have been the size of baby elephants. Hank just announced in no uncertain terms that he was my boyfriend. Holy shit! Grant’s reaction almost matched my mother’s horrified expression, except hers was delivered with a gasp. Next time she’d think pretty hard about inviting my house guests to her events in the future.