Angel Falling (Falling #1)(49)

She stared intently, her gray-blue eyes swirling. I saw the very moment she understood. Her eyes closed and a slow breath left her lips. God, she was so beautiful. “Hank … ” she started but I stopped her with my lips. She tasted like honey and cherry lip gloss.

She sighed into my mouth and I dipped my tongue in tasting her more fully. I could feel people walking past us and I didn’t care. I kissed my angel like it was my meal ticket. Like a good, solid day’s work. She returned my kiss with a ferocity I didn’t expect. My hand went down and cradled her ass, pulling her up and against me. She moaned. Damn, she was perfect. She pulled away first, her eyes a deep blue now.


“That’s more like it, Stud.”

Damn, I loved when she called me that. It made my heart warm and my dick hard. I couldn’t wait to get her back home.

“Stop looking at me like that,” she chastised.

I smiled, “Like what?”

“Like you’re thinking of all the naughty things you’re going to do to me.”

I cupped and squeezed her ass pecking her on the lips one more time. “You know me too well, Darlin’.”

“Come on Hank, your Mom is waiting.”

Holy shit! “I damn near forgot! Shit!” I pushed her on into the room where my mother was happily rearranging the centerpiece flowers. Her eyes jumped up and she smiled when she saw me. “Mom, this here is Aspen Reynolds.”

“Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Jensen.” Aspen reached her hand out but my mother jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around her.

“Just call me Julia or Mom, everyone does!”

“Thank you, Julia. My friends call me Pen.” Aspen returned the hug and moved away.

I pulled out my mother’s seat and then Aspen’s.

We ordered drinks and stuffed mushrooms to start. I let Aspen choose the wine since she actually knew something about the stuff.

Out of nowhere the most beautiful words came out of my Angel’s mouth directed at our waiter. “Ci piacerebbe avere vino rosso questa sera. Che cosa mi consiglia?”

My mother and I looked on in awe as Aspen spoke to the waiter in fluent Italian ordering the wine.

“Angel? You speak Italian?” I know my smile was as infectious as my mom’s, who also couldn’t hold back her own surprise.

“I do. Spanish, French, and a touch of German, as well,” she smiled. I looked at her, completely astonished. “What?” she grinned.

“You amaze me, Angel.”

“In my line of work, I wouldn’t be able to speak to half of the models and talent if I didn’t know enough of their languages. I mean, most speak English, but it can be very hard to understand them. When I’m negotiating a contract, I want them to be fully aware of what they are signing up for.”

“You’re so smart. I bet you have a great job!” My mother gushed. “Who do you work for?”

“I do.” She answered without finishing.

“Don’t be shy, Darlin’. Tell Ma here what you do.” I was proud of my girl and wanted her to be proud of herself, too.

“Oh Hank, your mom’s really not interested in my work.” At that moment the wine arrived and she swirled it around her glass, stuck her nose in, and took a sniff. Then sipped and nodded to the waiter. He poured three glasses and she took a huge gulp. She was acting strange, knotting her fingers together in her lap and rubbing them together. Then it dawned on me. The confident, take-charge businesswoman was nervous.

“Ma, Aspen’s being shy. She’s actually a real big deal. You know she owns the very building that I’m adding to. Her account is the one I bid on and won.” I smiled wide and Aspen hung her head.

Strange behavior for her. She’d always been really confident and screamed powerful woman in a “hear me roar” way since we’d met. Especially when talking ‘bout her work. She normally was a regular stick of dynamite going off if you so much as mentioned something she was working on.

Tonight she was trying to downplay her job and I didn’t understand why.

“Wow! Such a young little thing like you, speaking all those languages and owning buildings? Amazing.” Ma placed her head in the hand leaning on the table. She smiled brightly at Aspen and it made me feel tall, bigger somehow.

“Told you, Ma. My angel is as smart as she is beautiful.”

Her eyes scanned Aspen’s face and body. “She will make pretty babies for sure!” Mom hinted and winked.

Aspen’s mouth opened and her eyes widen. “Mom! None of that talk. You’ve got two grandsons already. Don’t be greedy.” Aspen visibly relaxed. Did she not want children? I wanted kids. I didn’t expect them right away but in the future, a couple years down the road maybe. I was already thirty four. I didn’t want to wait too much longer.

Looks like we had yet another thing to add to the growing list of things to talk about later.

The meal was extremely filling and the wine had been flowing. Aspen drank more than she usually did and was starting to slur her words together. I didn’t mind, though, because when she started to drink she couldn’t keep her hands off me. She was very affectionate and loose-lipped when she drank, and I planned to take advantage of it once Ma was settled in for the night.

I took my two best girls home. Of course Aspen had her limo pick us up and my mom was thrilled to no end. She had never been in a limo before and went on and on about how exciting and fancy it was. Aspen just smiled and snuggled into my side, sneaking kisses on my neck when she thought my mom wasn’t looking. She’d had more to drink than she thought. She wasn’t inconspicuous at all, but Mom seemed to enjoy the scene. There was no reason to bring home a woman to my family when I wasn’t planning on keeping her around. Aspen I planned on keeping around for good. Every so often Mom would look over at us, a knowing look in her eye.