Page 21 of Abbe's Angel

He started to move inside of her, deep and slow, pushing himself so tightly inside her she couldn’t take a full breath. Pinned, she bucked under him, desperate for more than he was teasingly withholding. He pulled back slightly and started to move faster, then faster, thrusting light and quick at first careful not to hurt her, and then harder and deeper when Abbe pulled on his hips and begged him to.

“Come, Abbe. Come for me,” he whispered, his cock so deep inside she twisted beneath him, helpless. She threw her head back and tipped over the edge of orgasm for the second time.

He let out a shout right after hers, and she felt his body seize up. While she rode wave after wave of blinding sensation, she felt him pulsing and shuddering inside her until he collapsed on top of her, and they both spiraled down together.

He eased off of her and threw the crook of his arm over his eyes, his chest heaving. “I almost blacked out,” he gasped, then started laughing. Abbe turned on her side to face him, giggling with him.

“Twice. That’s never happened to me before,” she admitted, feeling like he’d definitely earned the praise.

His face broke into a grin and he pulled his arm off of his eyes and turned to face her. “Get used to it,” he warned.

“I could,” she said, flipping over onto her back.

He wrapped an arm over her, turning her away from him, and then pulling her back against him to spoon. He buried his face in her hair and groaned.

“I’m so tired. I’ve been arguing all week, and I have to get up early tomorrow and do it again,” he said, his words falling together drowsily.

She pushed his hair back from his forehead and noticed the shadows under his closed eyes. “Sleep,” she said, and in moments he did.

When Abbe woke up in the morning, Rafe and Daisy were gone. There was a note waiting. Nothing flowery, which she preferred, just a quick scrawl saying he didn’t want to wake her and that he would call her soon.

“Soon?” she said, smirking at the vague word, sitting there on the page like it was etched a little deeper than all the others. “What the hell does that mean?”

She got up and tried not to think about it too much as she dressed, but she just couldn’t get past it. They had already established that Rafe was very literal in his thinking. He was an, “I’ll call you at exactly 11:55” kind of guy, not a wishy-washy “soon” guy. At least that’s who he’d been before she’d slept with him.

Abbe eventually balled the note up and threw it out on her way out the door. Her bike was waiting right by her front door, and she rode it to work, telling herself that it didn’t bother her when it really did.

Nine

“The Staties are at the door,” Maria said, her eyes wide and staring.

“Statie” was an all-around nickname for anyone who worked for the state. In this particular case, Abbe knew she meant someone from the State Department of Animal Welfare.

Abbe stopped taking video of Play Time in the Big Yard for her social media feed, annoyed. She could edit that last bit out, but it would step on a great moment she’d filmed between two of the black dogs that she was having trouble finding homes for.

“But they didn’t schedule a visit,” Abbe said, shielding her eyes to try and see inside the house around bright October sunshine. “Who is it?”

“It’s no one I’ve seen before,” Maria said nervously. “He’s already writing us up.”

Abbe stormed inside to find a man in an official jacket standing in the sunroom, taking notes. It was no one she recognized.

“Do you have a separate area for the cats or do they just roam around with the dogs when they’re outside their habitats?”

“Who are you?” Abbe asked, very proud of herself for keeping her temper.

He tapped his name tag officiously. It saidMorales. “Did you know it’s very dangerous to allow interspecies mixing?” he said. Like she’d never done this before.

“That’s Mabel and she goes where she pleases,” gesturing to the calico who was lounging in the sun on top of a surrendered labradoodle who was not, in fact, hypoallergenic. “She prefers dogs to cats, although Furry Faces has an entire cat habitat, with its own porch and sunroom upstairs. I can show it to you if you’ll follow me.”

“I’m going to need to see your municipal contract,” Morales said trenchantly.

Abbe huffed in surprise. “Certainly. And you can see my license to operate, my latest city health inspection certificate—my documentation is all up to date,” she said, leading Morales to the front desk where she proudly displayed her accreditations and government licenses. “We’ve never had an unscheduled visit before. May I ask why now?”

“There have been several complaints about your facility,” Morales said tightly while Abbe took down her framed operator’s license for him to peruse.

“From who?” she asked, shocked. She didn’t really expect an answer, but the lugubrious way Morales smiled at her made her want to kick him. “From who?” she repeated.

“Someone sent us a video that you had posted online, pointing out major infractions,” he replied.

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