The Cowboy and the Angel (35 page)

“Not exactly.” She rolled over, their legs twining, and he knew she could feel his arousal against her. She kissed his chin before flicking her tongue to lick the rasp of his jaw.

“Evil Angel,” he growled, rolling so she lay beneath him. “I have to work today.”

Her brow furrowed. “But your ribs . . .”

“I’m fine,” he assured her, ignoring the twinge of pain that came with every breath. “There is plenty to do that won’t require physical work. I’ll call the contractor out to work on the house more since I’ll have time to meet him out there now.” He pressed his lips to hers quickly as his stomach growled loudly, and he climbed off the bed. “Feed me.”

He pulled on the jeans he’d tossed to the floor the evening before and turned to look at her still twisted in the sheet. It was far more see-through than she realized, and she presented a tantalizing picture. He considered climbing back into the bed with her when he heard a door slam downstairs and his brother’s voice. Derek sighed.
Time to get to work.

“Should I ask Sydney or Jen to bring you up something?”

She glared at him and he laughed. “I’m getting up,” she groused, pulling the sheet so that she could wrap it around her body as she searched for her clothes. “I hate morning people,” she grumbled.

“You’re so cute when you’re grouchy in the mornings.” He laid her bra and shirt on the edge of the bed. “Would you like me to get you some clothes from your room? Or I could cover the hall for you while you sneak in there?”

She shot wide eyes toward him. “You don’t think they know, do you?”

He laughed. “Of course they do.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “You aren’t exactly quiet.”

She couldn’t have stopped the adorable blush that flooded her cheeks if she’d tried. He pulled a clean t-shirt over his head and pulled her into his arms, his hands at her hips, and kissed her thoroughly. “You have the look of a woman who’s been completely satisfied.”

Angela frowned, her lips forming a thin line of disapproval. “Watch the hall and make sure no one comes.” She clutched her clothing to her chest.

The knock at the door froze her mid-step, and she stared at him like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. “Derek, can you tell Angie that there’s a news van coming down the driveway?”

Her blush returned. “I’ll do that,” he called back.

The furrow on her brow deepened. “They already think I’m using you.”

“Are you?” he asked, getting right to the heart of the matter.

She lifted her chin defiantly, but he could see the hurt in her eyes. “Do you really need to ask me that?”

Derek waited until the footsteps receded from the hall. “I thought Skip went back to the station.”

“I have no idea who it could be. Or why they are back.”

“I overheard your conversation yesterday. I’m assuming it was with Joe.”

She scooted closer, wrapping her free arm around his waist and looked up at him through her thick lashes. “Derek, open book? I promise, I don’t know.”

She looked vulnerable and frightened. Derek slid his finger through the ring on the gold necklace. He wanted to trust her completely, but Scott’s words and his past mistakes gnawed at the edges of his mind, holding him back. She knew the pain of betrayal better than most people ever could. Maybe if he could twine her heart with his, even if it was nothing more than desire right now, she would think twice before turning her back on him. He had no doubts that her need for him was real.

Derek curled his hand around the back of her head and kissed her. He poured his heart into the kiss, praying she could hear his declaration without speaking it. When he broke the kiss they were both short of breath. He pressed his forehead against hers.

“I get the feeling you like me a bit, Angel.”

Her eyes were dark with desire but they sparkled with humor. “Maybe a little. Now, go make sure there’s no one in the hall so I can get dressed.” She shoved him toward the door.

Derek opened the door and checked the hall, finding it empty. Stepping across the hall, he opened her door and stood at the top of the stairs. “Angela, there’s a news van coming down the drive,” he said, loud enough for everyone downstairs to hear.

She glared at him as she hurried across the hall into her own room. “Go,” she mouthed, waving a hand at him.

He laughed and leaned forward as she scooted past him, stepping on the back of the sheet dragging on the floor. She realized too late as she dropped her clothing at her feet and stood just inside her doorway, completely nude.

“Good morning, Angel,” he drawled.

She spun, giving him an eyeful of gorgeous satin-skinned woman before slamming the door. “Jerk!”

He chuckled. Her voice carried through the door as he headed down the staircase, knowing she would be furious when she came down but that the view had been absolutely worth it.

“M
ORNING.
” D
EREK WINKED
as she made her way into the kitchen in clean jeans and a t-shirt. He held a cup of coffee out to her, and she took a tentative sip.

“Good morning,” she muttered as the others took their seats around the table and began dishing up their food.

Sydney tore tiny pieces from a plain pancake for Kassie and dropped them on the tray of her high chair while Jen fed Blake a bottle. Both glanced her way but without their usual friendliness. Neither Scott or Clay said anything.

Silvie tried to alleviate the palpable tension in the room and rubbed Angela’s shoulder. “Sit and eat,” she ordered.

“I’m going to see who’s here,” she said, heading for the front porch.

They probably thought she was trying to escape, and she was, but she wanted to know who Joe sent out and why. He already had the footage they’d taken at the rodeo, and he would be editing the first part of his bogus series. She held the mug between her hands and eyed the van as it came down the long driveway and parked in front of the house. Joe climbed from the driver’s seat.

“Hey there, Gigi.” He bounded up the porch stairs and leaned toward her as if he was going to kiss her cheek, stopping short. “What? You’re not happy to see me?”

He was the last person she’d thought would dare set foot on the ranch. She sipped her coffee. “What are you doing here, Joe? I told you yesterday I won’t do that story.”

His lips thinned to a sharp line and he arched a brow, his eyes glittering with outrage. “I am still your boss.” His voice took on a threatening note. He might have appeared calm, but she could feel the animosity radiating from him. He crossed his arms over his chest, daring a retort from her.

She accepted his challenge, taking a step closer to him. “For now,” she replied quietly. “I wonder what the studio would say if they knew you were threatening your reporters and falsifying stories.”

“What the hell is your problem?” he asked through clenched teeth, grasping her elbow and dragging her down the porch stairs toward the van.

Coffee sloshed over the side of her cup and onto her hand. “Ow!” she said, shaking her hand and jerking her arm from his grasp. “Let go of me.”

She saw her father standing in the open doorway of the barn watching them. Worry creased his brow before he disappeared inside again. She was tired of feeling alone, of no one protecting her. She spun on Joe. “I am not a child. I will come when I’m ready.”

“What the hell has gotten into you since you decided to take this story? You’ve changed.” He looked her up and down disdainfully. “Wait, I
do
know.” He glanced toward the house. “How many of these cowboys are you sleeping with?”

“You’re disgusting.” She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him know his insult had actually stung.

Joe shrugged. “Look, there’s nothing wrong with slumming, I guess, but I came to save your ass. The station wants to fire you.”

She felt the blood drain from her face. Joe didn’t look like he was bluffing. Even knowing she didn’t have to be responsible for her father—for
Robert
, she corrected—she still needed a way to take care of herself. She bit her lower lip.

“You are going to come back with me today. If you don’t, we’ll run the story without you.”

She glared at him but didn’t miss the determination in his eyes. There was no pretense. “Don’t threaten me.”

He grasped her chin between his thumb and first finger. “Oh, it’s not a threat, sweetheart. I’m making you a promise. If you don’t come back with me, you’ll be fired and I’ll run my story. The one filled with sex and lies and how a reporter buried a story of animal abuse in rodeo because the stock contractor seduced her. I have plenty of reporters who will sit at that desk and report anything I tell them to.”

He cued up a video on his phone and she watched the clip showing a cowboy’s wrist as he gave steroid shots to the bull that had attacked Derek. Other footage showed barbs slipped into the fleece lining used on bucking horses and bulls. It never showed faces but it didn’t need to. With copy stating the name of the contractor, it would destroy Findley Brothers. “Where did you get this?” Horror flooded through her limbs, weighing her down. “Skip?”

He crossed his arms and leaned on his shoulder against the van, smirking with his perceived victory. “Please, Skip isn’t smart enough to manage this.”

“You drugged those animals? That was why they acted that way.” The pieces began to fall into place with an ominous thud. “You drugged them and nearly got Derek killed.”

She glanced toward the house and saw Derek and Scott step onto the porch, watching her.

“You better decide what you’re planning to do before they come over here. If you don’t come back with me, I’ll destroy them and you. You won’t have a career left when I get finished.”

“I thought you were my friend,” she whispered.

“I thought you’d eventually come to your senses and realize that we belonged together. I never pegged you for a tramp. I guess we were both wrong.” He narrowed his eyes, looking through the passenger window at the brothers standing on the porch. His anger snapped and he grasped her wrist, yanking her toward him. “You barely let me touch you after years of friendship, but you whore yourself for him in a matter of days?” She saw Derek start toward the stairs and Scott put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. She could see the pain even that movement caused him. He was in no shape to fight Joe right now, even if Joe wouldn’t be a match for him under normal circumstances.

“Angel?” Derek called.

“Isn’t that sweet?” Joe whispered, laughing viciously. “Angel?”

“Let me go.” She jerked her wrist from Joe’s grasp and took a step backward so she could see Derek. “I’m fine, we’re just talking.” She tried to make her voice sound light, but it sounded strained. If Derek came over here, she was afraid he’d end up with more than a few ribs broken. She turned on Joe. “You can’t do anything. You have no proof.”

A sadistic smile spread over his too-thin lips. “Who needs proof? All I need to do is report it. People will believe anything they see, true or not. But you’re wrong, I have proof, right here on their own ranch. It’s your choice. You can destroy your own career and take them down with you. Or you can come back, renew your contract, and we’ll do your story about injuries in rodeo. He can come out a hero and you stay with me. Either way, you’ll say goodbye to your boyfriend.”

She wanted to slap the overconfident expression from his face. How could she have ever thought he was a friend? Or that he would help her? She wondered how many times she’d trusted him to talk with the executives at the station on her behalf. How many times had he sabotaged her stories to keep her stuck in the newsroom, under his thumb? Joe didn’t care that all of this was completely untrue. He only wanted her, to bend to his will again. And he’d found his bull’s eye in Derek and her feelings for him.

She glanced back at Derek. This morning, waking in his arms, she realized that she couldn’t leave him, in spite of her fears. Being without him would be like going without air. But Joe had her trapped with nowhere to turn. Derek’s family, this legacy to them, meant everything to him, and he meant everything to her. If all he loved was ruined because of their relationship, he would never forgive himself. She couldn’t let Joe destroy what this family had built—even if it meant ripping her heart out and leaving him behind in order to protect him.

“Fine,” she whispered. “I’ll go get my things.”

“Oh, and
Angel
,” Joe began, grabbing her jaw between his thumb and finger roughly, “this stays between us or deal’s off. I almost killed him once. I’ll make sure to do it the second time.” He kissed her, crushing her lips against her teeth.

Joe followed her as she walked around the van, into the sight of the men on the porch. Mike and her father had joined them, both looking concerned for her welfare.

“Hey, Robert.” Joe greeted her father cheerfully, ignoring the other men entirely.

Her father looked away. Angela didn’t have time to worry about him. She wanted to get Joe away from the ranch, away from Derek, as quickly as possible. She deliberately avoided walking past Derek and went to the back door, through the kitchen. She put her coffee cup in the sink.

“Did you want breakfast?” Silvie asked, looking at Joe. “I could warm it for you both.”

“No thanks, Silvie,” Angela assured her. She hurried up the stairs to her room with Joe following closely. She wasn’t sure if it was better to have him with her to keep an eye on him or to send him back to the van while she packed. “Do you really have to follow me?”

“I’m not letting you out of my sight for a second,
Angel
. Who knows what you might try to pull.”

“I’m not the liar here,” she said in hushed tones.

They entered her room and he closed the door behind him, cutting her off from any safety. She’d never been truly afraid of Joe before, but today he’d proven he was completely unpredictable.

The door opened with a crash. “What the hell is going on?” Derek’s eyes flashed with fury, turning them completely black. He looked at Joe. “Get out.”

“I’ll leave when she’s ready to go.”

Derek took a step closer, and Joe’s smug grin faltered. “You will go when I say. Now get out of my house,” he ordered.