Free Redeeming Angel by J.L. Weil Page B

split-second of surprise
and jumped to her feet. With a feral cry, she lunged off the bed,
coming down on me. I could have darted to the side, but I was
afraid she would hurt herself, which was not what I wanted. Landing
on my back, her legs locked around my waist, squeezing like a pair
vice grips.
    “ What do you think you’re
doing?” I hissed, reaching up as her arms wrapped around my
neck.
    “ Shut up.” She pulled back,
putting her full weight into the movement, and down we went,
tumbling to the floor.
    I rolled, making sure I took the brunt
of the impact and groaned as her body hit mine. The damn wiggle
worm twisted, throwing her legs over mine and weaving them between
my legs. “If you wanted to snuggle, all you had to do was ask. No
need to get aggressive, unless of course you like it.”
    Her answer was to press her lips to my
ear lobe and take a nip. It wasn’t hard, but a warning. She wasn’t
playing around.
    “ I always thought you had a
kinky side,” I said.
    Anger made her cheeks flush.
Straddling me, her hand snaked down over my hips, going for my
pocket. “Of course you would turn this into something perverted.”
Her mouth grazed the side of my jaw.
    I snatched her wrist. “If you bite me
again, so help me, Angel...”
    She smiled tightly as she tried to
yank her arm free. “You’ll what?”
    If she only knew what I was planning
to do to her... But I said nothing. I let her go and she scrambled
to her feet, hands curled at her side. “That’s what I thought. You
don’t have the balls to hurt me. Now let me out of
here.”
    Standing, I met her gaze. “You know I
can’t do that.”
    “ Give me the key,” she
demanded, shooting forward.
    I took a step back, out of her reach.
I didn’t care if the devil himself was knocking on the door. Hell
wouldn’t be cackling much longer. “I have something else in
mind.”
    Her chest rose quickly, and I could
sense her panic. “You don’t understand. They’re waiting for
me.”
    “ I don’t care.”
    I recognized the wild look
that sprang into her eyes, like a crazed hyena. She was about to
lose control. Dammit . This was not how I’d envisioned things going. Granted, I
didn’t think she would cooperate, but actually fighting her had not
crossed my mind. We would have to do this the hard way.
    She exercised a whirlwind kick, knee
bent at a ninety-degree angle. The power pack whooshed into my gut
and momentarily stunned me. Hot pain jarred me to the bones. “Where
the hell did you learn to do that?”
    Her chest rose quickly from exertion.
“I learned from the best. You. And there is a whole lot more where
that came from.”
    My brows shot up.
    She rolled her eyes. “I’ve watched you
fight countless times.”
    “ Watching is a whole lot
different than being able to execute moves like that,
sweetheart.”
    She shrugged. “I’m a
natural.”
    “ And I have more
experience,” I countered, keeping a steady eye on her.
    Angel was fast—I’d give her that—but I
was faster. And a good thing. Spinning around, she jabbed her elbow
into my side and used the heel of her palm to hit me in the chest.
I darted behind her before she could sweep a kick to my legs. She
pivoted around, swinging her arm in an arch that just barely missed
my chin. Ducking, air rushed over my jaw and I wrapped my arms
around her waist, drawing her back against my chest. I pinned her
arms with mine.
    She went wild underneath me, wiggling
like crazy. “Let me go!” she screeched, as if I was hurting her,
another one of her manipulation tactics.
    “ Are you going to be
reasonable?” I asked, although the probability of reasoning with
her was up there with lunacy. “It’s your choice. We can do this the
easy way or the hard way. If you fight me, I promise you’re not
going to like what happens.”
    Rocking forward and then backward, she
used the momentum to her advantage, slamming my back into the wall.
“I think you got it backward, douchebag.”
    I held her