Johnny Angel (4 page)

             
Johnny pushed her t-shirt up and cupping her breast, took the stiff peak of her nipple into the hot cavern of his mouth. She cried out, tugging his hair and he sucked harder and filled his palm with her other breast.

             
She’d never had a man’s hands on her elicit this kind of reaction.

             
This was why she’d waited.

             
Sofia allowed herself to explore him, hands running beneath his shirt over his hard-muscled back and wide shoulders.

             
“You’re so beautiful.”

             
“Don’t talk with your mouth full. I don’t.” Sofia gasped, and pushed his mouth back to her nipple. She didn’t want him to feel like he had to say those things to her when she knew they were patently untrue. Sofia was afraid if she gave him a chance, he’d reconsider what was happening between them. Pathetic, but she couldn’t help it.

             
A low rumble sounded from him that could have been laughter.

             
A creaking sound, much like wood snapping in the fireplace echoed through the room, but through her haze of lust, Sofia dismissed it. Didn’t matter what it was, only that Johnny keep doing that with his mouth.

             
Except it did. Matter, that is.

             
While Johnny plundered her, the couch decided it had had enough of their antics and promptly surrendered.

             
Both front legs snapped out from under them and dumped them forward with a surprising amount of inertia. Which sent them careening into the two-thousand dollar coffee table that she’d been so adamant he keep his feet off of.

             
It wasn’t meant to be load bearing.

             
The coffee table died a quick, but painful death as it splintered under their weight and tossed them to the floor.

             
This time, it wasn’t Johnny who landed on top of her, but the other way around.

             
And her knee was in a very bad place.

             
The look on his face was one of absolute horror, and to their mutual chagrin, the TV spontaneously switched channels to a showing of The Nutcracker.

Chapter Four

Johnny Not So Angel

             
She insisted he come to bed with her since the couch was out of commission.

             
Only after swearing on a stack of bibles she wouldn’t molest him in his sleep. Not that she could anyway since he had an ice pack on his balls.

             
Again, Heaven had to be fucking with him. Why would they have given her case to him knowing the attraction that would spark between them if they weren’t supposed to be together?

             
But the incident with the couch had to be divine intervention. Especially with the smart ass soundtrack.

             
The Nutcracker Suite? Really? That shit was
not
funny.

             
The Heavenly choirs sounded in his head. Almost as if to say: “Yeah, it sure was.”

             
Johnny wondered again why being dead was so uncomfortable. He didn’t actually have a body anymore, so why did he feel pain?

             
Or desire?

             
He turned to look at where Sofia was already sleeping, safely tucked away on her side of the bed.

             
What the hell had he been thinking? Trying to get into her knickers wouldn’t help her. It would just be a band-aid where she needed a permanent fix.

             
Trumpets sounded in his head loud enough to make his eyeballs jiggle.

             
Johnny took that to understand he was on the right track.

             
Okay, sorry. Next time, you don’t have to kick me in the balls. I get it.
He thought to himself.

             
Suddenly, he found himself staring into large, doe eyes.

             
“That’s not creepy at all,” she murmured, “to wake up and see you staring at me.”

             
“Sorry.” Damn, but he was saying…err…thinking that a lot. He decided to be honest with her. “I’m going to be honest. I shouldn’t have done that.”

             
“If you apologize for kissing me, I’m going to knee you in the balls again.” Her self-esteem couldn’t take it if he did.

             
“Sweetheart, that was much more than a kiss.”

             
“You’re right, it was. I’m not sorry. And we’re going to do it again.” She pursed her lips. “As soon as you’ve recovered.”

             
“Heaven doesn’t like it. Why do you think the couch broke? Why do you think the TV turned on to The Nutcracker Suite? They were all signs.”

             
“They were nothing of the sort. The couch broke because it’s old and it wasn’t meant to endure what we were doing to it. I kneed you in the balls because we fell. And the TV changed channels because we landed on the remote. If Heaven didn’t want us together, it shouldn’t have sent you to me and shouldn’t have made you so hot.”

             
“I—“ he began. Johnny was trying to do the right thing.

             
“Remember you said you’d owe me a favor?” she asked pointedly.

             
“Eh, yes…” She couldn’t mean to say what he thought she meant to say? Nah.

             
“Well, that’s what I want. You. For one night. I don’t give a crap about Christmas past or future. I just care about right now.”

             
Being hit with a Mac truck would have been less of a surprise. “Sofia—“
              She pursed her lips again and took a deep breath. “Unless you really don’t want me.”

             
Self-doubt was plain on her face. The woman really didn’t know her own appeal. The realization was like a slap with that same Mac truck.

             
“Jesus, Sofia. It’s not that at all. Did you forget I almost had you naked on the couch?”

             
“Well, you’re being awfully recalcitrant.”

             
“I don’t want either of us to regret it. I’m here to help you, not get in your pants.”

             
“Maybe getting in my pants is the help I need, Johnny.” Her voice was soft and hesitant, and if he hadn’t been listening carefully, he never would have heard her words.

             
What he wouldn’t have given to have heard that from a woman when he’d been alive. He’d have thought he’d died and gone to Heaven. She still doubted her own appeal, but it was obvious that she was beginning to trust him. “Sofia, you’re in dangerous territory here. I’d like nothing better than to show you how dangerous. That’s the honest truth.”

             
“You want honest?” she continued. “I’m a virgin.”

             
He would’ve choked had there been anything besides his own tongue in his mouth.

             
“Pardon?”

             
“You know, Virgin? Untouched? Pure? NOT the Whore of Babylon?”

             
“But I thought you said…”

             
“I did. And I have. I’ve wanted to please my partners, but it never felt right to give that part of me to someone. I want that with you.”

             
“Shit. I can’t believe I’m going to do this.” He wanted her so much he ached with it and not just because she’d kneed him in the jewels. “That should be a gift for someone you love.”

             
“It is. I love myself. It’s my gift to me.”

             
He’d never thought of it that way. Heaven had indicated he was supposed to make her a promise when she’d asked. It wouldn’t want him to make a promise and then welsh on it. Right?

             
Maybe he really was the Devil. He could rationalize anything.

             
“I’ll make you a deal.”

             
“I thought deals were the purview of downstairs?” She smiled.

             
“Yeah, well, I’m starting to see the allure.” He stroked a finger down her cheek. “There are four bases, right?”

             
“What?”

             
“You know, first base, second base, etc.?”

             
“Yeah.” She narrowed her eyes, obviously waiting for him to go on and obviously convinced she wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

             
“For every base you let me show you something else. Another possibility. Another memory.”

             
“That’s not fair. We were already halfway home.”

             
“Those are my terms.”

             
She scowled.

             
“It’ll give us something to do while my dick’s in traction.”

             
She blushed. “I said I was sorry.”

             
“I’ll let you make it up to me.” He kissed her forehead.

             
“Okay. Fine. It’s a deal.”

             
He pulled her close. “Now go to sleep.”

             
“You really are the Devil, you know that?”

             
He’d just been thinking the same thing, but asked, “How’s that?”

             
“You got me to make a bargain to get you to live up to a promise you already made me. I’m convinced you could sell a freezer to an Eskimo.”

             
He didn’t need to sell a freezer to an Eskimo, he needed to sell her a future that she wanted. A future where choking to death on gingerbread was not acceptable way to die.

Chapter Five

Every Time A
Bell Rings

             
As corny and trite as it was to admit it, she’d enjoyed sleeping in his arms. Even when the ice pack leaked on her back. She’d just been thankful to discover she hadn’t wet herself. With the way things were going, it wouldn’t have surprised her.

             
She’d been convinced he wasn’t anywhere near as interested in her as she had been in him, but the way he’d attacked her on the couch, well, that left no doubt. Until he’d started rhapsodizing about how they couldn’t…blah blah blah. Now that she knew he wanted her, she wouldn’t let anything stand in her way.

             
Sofia couldn’t, because she knew that she’d regret it for the rest of her life.

             
There would never be another Johnny Gallo.

             
She’d agreed to let him show her the pictures Heaven wanted her to see, but she was going to try out her charms in the process. He said he wanted her? Sofia wanted hard evidence.

             
Very hard evidence. 

             
Sofia chose another form fitting t-shirt and a denim mini skirt. He seemed to like her ass, so she was going to show it off. She didn’t care for it, but she wasn’t the one who had to look at it.

             
When she emerged from her bedroom, she saw that her choice of clothing had the desired effect. His eyes were everywhere but her face and when she slipped into his arms, the evidence of his appreciation was hard against her belly.

             
“I see you’re feeling better this morning,” she purred.

             
“Enough of that. You owe me three lessons before we get down to business.”

             
“You want me to pay in advance for the home run?” She arched a brow. “This is so backward. You’re supposed to be bribing me to put out.”

             
“Sweets, I’d like nothing more than to plow you like field, but after what happened, I’m pretty sure that we’re going to be struck by lightning or hit with a meteor. So I have to at least try to do my job before that happens. Remember, if I fail I’m going to Hell.”

             
“You’re being overdramatic.”