Page 38 of Angel's Smoke

A dark flutter kicked at her insides, and she grinned behind the back of her hand. “But also, you need to know something.”

“Shoot.”

“From here on out, when it comes to what I want, I will absolutely one hundred percent not wait around for anything or anyone a single minute more.” Her mind spun around a thought, and she fired it out before she could summon the courage to corral it back. “And I want to kiss you again. I wantyouto want to kiss me again.”

Iron’s breaths grew heavy in the receiver, and for a second, Anna worried she’d said too much. But then his voice was in her ear once more, laced with an edge that was far more foreboding than she’d ever heard. “You can’t say that stuff to me.”

“Why not?”

“Because there hasn’t been a single minute of the last three days where I have not stroked myself to the memory of your taste.”

Holy fucking shit balls!

The heat in Anna’s cheeks rocketed up to volcanic levels. Then her unhelpful sex-starved pregnancy brain took over the controls. “I’d like to see that sometime.”

She clamped a hand over her mouth. Whoever this woman was who’d hijacked Anna and replaced her with a creature who cheerfully spoke her mind without regard for consequences either deserved an all-expenses-paid vacation to the Tropics or a prison sentence. Jury was still out on that one.

“Deal.”

“I, uh, haven’t accepted your apology yet, you know.”

“I’ve noticed. Tell me what to do to change that. I can be very accommodating and open to persuasion under the right circumstances.”

Do not think of him stroking himself. Do not think of him stroking himself.“You need to do something for me, something that’ll make you as uncomfortable and anxious as I’ve been.”

Regret heightened his tone. “I can’t apologize enough for what I’ve done. My actions were beyond shameful. But if it’s my discomfort you’re after, I may have the perfect thing.”

“Oh? That’s what?”

“Fuck. I can’t believe I’m going to even bring this up.”

“The horse has left the barn now. No use trying to call it back.”

“Fine. Tomorrow night, I’m picking you up at six.”

“Where are we going?”

“A bar.”

Any excitement that had previously flushed her body red-hot quickly began evaporating. Bars and pregnant women didn’t usually mix. “Oh.”

“It’s not what you think.”

“I don’t exactly know what to think, because you haven’t told me.”

“Do you really have a response for everything?”

“No. Sometimes I sleep.”

The boisterous laugh that bellowed through the phone was like air rushing into the lungs of a drowning woman. The happiness chasing it at hearing his joy was enough to erase every gloomy thought from the past three days.

“There’s a bar me and my brothers go to every now and then on Thursday nights.”

“Your . . . brothers?”

“Yup. All seven of them, plus their mates. It’s about as socially grueling for someone like me as you can expect, and not because I don’t love my family.”

Anna gripped the phone tighter. “What am I missing? What happens on Thursday nights?”

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