Page 123 of Poison Aches

Like a robot, I accept the flute. After the flight attendant disappears, Emmett turns to me and smiles…only with his lips. His eyes remain cold, sharp, and dangerous.

“Here’s to the beginning.”

“The beginning?”

“Yes. The beginning of the end, Angel.”

“The end?”

“You and I both knew it’s been coming, didn’t we?” he says with a sly look on his ridiculously handsome face. “What has to come will never be late and every debt must always be settled.”

This time, the pain that strikes through me is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.

Before I realize it, Emmett has unbuckled me and moved me out of my seat and into his lap.

Holy God! What the hell is happening?

He presses my head against the left side of his chest and then he murmurs against the crown of my head.

“What are you doing?”

“Giving you your 3 minutes.”

Oh God…

Feeling overwhelmed but wanting those three minutes, I freeze.

But Emmett doesn’t care about my complicated feelings.

“I told you before, it’s still beating, Angel. And as long as it keeps doing that, you owe me your life.”

CHAPTER 16

Emmett

It’s safe to say, I didn’t mean for that to happen at all.

By the time my mind caught up with my body, I had Angel already on my lap, snug and warm in my embrace as if she belonged there.

I wasn’t prepared for the way she just…fit.

I didn’t like the way her warmth made the thing in my chest almost seize up as it strained to cozy up next to her.

But then again, this, having her listen to it…it does something to me.

Don’t break.

Don’t break.

Don’t fucking break.

In the span of a few days, I’ve done this twice already, as if I’m a glutton for punishment.

And what’s even worse is the way she starts out shy but as a single groan stretches into a beat, she gingerly presses her ear over my chest, listening to my shit heart.

A heart that will croak right damn now if I prolong the way her soft body keeps pressing into my chest.

“You remember the three minutes?” she whispers.

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