Page 45 of Pretend Wife (Angels of the Secret Order #4)

THIRTY-THREE

Danielle

Had I heard that right? Did Hayden just apologize to me?

He’d spent the past week ignoring every single one of my messages, and now he was standing here in my brother’s house, saying he was sorry ?

“Did Nate threaten you?” I asked as the thought occurred to me. He had offered to kidnap him only a few days ago.

Hayden winced. “Not exactly.”

“Oh my God.” I ran my hands over my face. Why did my brother have to be so overprotective? “I’ll talk to him. You can leave. He won’t do anything to you, I promise.”

He frowned. “Danielle, what are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere. Not without saying what I came here to say. Please don’t send me away yet.”

It was my turn to frown. “Are you saying Nate didn’t kidnap you? ”

“What? Of course not! I honestly didn’t think he was going to let me in the front door for a minute there.”

“If he didn’t make you come here, then why are you apologizing?”

“Because I messed up. Fuck, baby, I was shocked and hurt, and most of it was not your fault at all. I never should have left, and I definitely shouldn’t have sat around waiting for you to come home instead of coming to find you.”

“You wanted me to come home?”

“Of course I did.” He took another step toward me, his hand reaching out and then pausing before he made contact. “I know you have every right to be mad at me, but I need you to know that I’m sorry. I will do anything to make it up to you.”

“But I’m the one who lied.”

“To protect your family. Because you were being blackmailed by my sister’s demon father—damn, that sounded weird. But it wasn’t your fault.”

“What are you saying?” I was afraid of coming to any conclusions at the moment. Even the blue-gray remorse and bright determination in his aura couldn’t be trusted. I needed to hear from him exactly what he meant.

He dropped to his knees, and this time when he reached out, he didn’t stop. His fingers wrapped around mine, sending a current shooting up my arm at the contact.

“I love you. I don’t care that you’re an angel or that I’ll never be good enough for you.

I want to try anyway. When I told you that your secrets didn’t matter to me, I meant it.

Yes, I reacted badly when I realized I was the only person in my family who was unaware that angels and demons were real.

If I could change it, I would. But none of that has any effect on the way I feel about you.

I will always want you to come home to me.

You are the love of my life and the only person I want to spend the rest of my years with. ”

He turned my hand over and pulled the wedding and engagement rings from my finger.

“I really screwed this part up last time, but hopefully I can make up for it.” He gave me a panty-melting smile as he held up the diamond, pinched between his thumb and forefinger.

“Danielle Towler, will you do me the immense honor of being my wife for the rest of our lives?”

Tears filled my eyes, and I couldn’t seem to find my voice. There was still so much left unsaid between us, so many things we needed to resolve.

“Baby, please say something.” Hayden’s grip tightened on my hand.

“How are we going to make this work? Our families—”

“Fuck our families. What do you want?”

I swallowed hard. I wanted the life we’d had for the past few months but without the secrets between us. “I want to be your wife.”

His entire aura brightened with blinding happiness as he slid my rings back on.

“Fuck, I love you so much, and I’m never ever letting you go.

” He climbed to his feet, wincing as he did, and then his lips were on mine.

His hands dove into my hair and ran over every inch of my body he could reach, like he was assuring himself I was real.

“What do I need to do to earn your forgiveness for being an ass last weekend?” he whispered in my ear.

“We need to talk,” I said, pulling back enough to look at him.

“So talk.”

“First of all, why do you keep wincing?”

His gaze dropped. “I’d rather not say.”

“Hayden. No more secrets.”

“Your brother punched me.”

“What?” I shouted.

“Hey.” He pulled me against him. “It’s okay. I deserved it, and I’m considering myself lucky he didn’t do worse. I did tell him he could kill me if I hurt you.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“I know. I’m working on it.”

“Come on. Let me look at it.” I disentangled myself from his arms and pulled him farther into the small guest room I’d been staying in for the past couple of nights.

Hayden took in the double bed covered in a plain white bedspread, the small dresser with a mirror hanging over it, the painting of Nate’s younger sister that hung on the wall.

“Lie on the bed.” I told him. “And take off the shirt.”

He smirked at me. “Yes, ma’am.”

His fingers worked the buttons free slowly, like he was doing a striptease.

And if I felt like being honest, it was working.

I couldn’t help staring as he revealed his chest inch by inch.

I wanted to run my tongue over every bit of exposed skin, to thread my fingers through the dusting of dark hair, to feel his abs quiver and contract under my touch .

When his dress shirt was hanging open, he moved to the bed and stretched out on his back, his eyes never leaving mine. He watched me with an intensity that I felt down to my core. God, he looked like a partially unwrapped present lying there, watching me like that.

Stop it, I scolded myself. He’s hurt .

That thought sobered me up. My fingers began to tingle when they got close to his bare skin, and as soon as I made contact, I felt my power rush to heal him as if it had a mind of its own. He wasn’t seriously injured, but I still took it all away.

“How does that feel?” I asked when I’d finished.

Hayden’s hand came up to catch my wrist before I could pull my hand away. “Perfect,” he murmured as he brought my palm to his lips. “You said you wanted to talk, Sunday School. Talk to me.”

“I didn’t tell Miles or anyone else in your family that I was an angel.”

“I know, and I’m sorry for accusing you of that. I was wrong.”

“Why didn’t you call me back?”

He sat up, cupping my cheek with his free hand. “You called?”

“And left a voicemail.”

“Shit. I broke my phone.”

I raised my eyebrows at him.

“I threw it against the wall in the living room when I got sick of it ringing and not being you.”

“You know you could have called me, right? The phone works both ways.”

He groaned and lowered his forehead to my stomach. “ I think we’ve established that I made a lot of mistakes over the past ten days. If it’s any consolation, I spent all ten of them utterly miserable.”

“Me too,” I admitted.

“Let’s never do this being-apart thing again, okay?”

I grimaced. “It might not be that simple.”

“Why not?” He looked up at me with a frown.

“I’m not human, Hayden. I live by a different set of rules. The only reason I’ve even been able to live on Earth for the past few years is because Micah okayed it.”

“Are you saying you won’t be able to stay?”

“I don’t know. I guess it depends on what happens when Micah and your sister get back.”

“Back? Where did they go?”

“Um… Hell?” It came out sounding more like a question than an answer.

Hayden gaped at me for a solid two minutes without saying a word.

“Are you okay?” I asked. “Hayden?”

“Is that normal? Is it because she’s part demon? You said she’s coming back—I did hear that, right?”

“Yes, they’re coming back. Maggie is helping try to save my brother Joriel.”

“So she doesn’t need to live in Hell or anything?”

“No.”

“Good.”

I didn’t say anything while I let him process the news. He’d had to deal with an unfair amount of new information in a fairly short period of time.

“What about your other brothers?” he asked finally. “ They’re married and have kids. Why do they get to stay but you might not?”

“They’re… different. Some angels—very few—have mates. It’s a sacred bond, and no one would dare come between them. Sierra and Piper are my brothers’ mates.”

“And I’m not yours,” Hayden said softly, his aura dimming with defeat and resignation as he dropped his gaze.

“I honestly don’t know. I haven’t tried to test it.”

He looked at me sharply. “You can test it?”

“Yes, but I didn’t want to know.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t care. I chose you, and it didn’t matter to me if you were my predestined mate or not.”

“But if I am, you can stay?”

“I assume so.”

“Test it.”

“But—”

“Please, baby. Do it.”

My heart began pounding. I’d never wanted to know because what if he wasn’t? Most angels didn’t have mates at all, so the chances weren’t in our favor. And what difference did it make? I could love Hayden without us having some supernatural bond.

But those were just excuses I’d told myself so I wouldn’t have to find out. In reality, I was terrified of learning the truth, and I’d let that fear drive my decision.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“What do we do?” Hayden asked.

“I’ll be right back. ”

I left him on the bed while I retrieved a dagger from Nate’s training room.

“Give me your hand,” I said when I got back.

He placed his hand in mine, and I turned it so it was palm up. I loved his hands, loved what they could do to my body. The idea of what I was about to do made my stomach churn. Fear and dread mixed together as I stared at Hayden’s open palm.

“Dani?” he asked. “What now?”

I positioned the dagger over his hand. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes, baby. I’m positive.”

If this didn’t work and I cut him, I could just heal him again, I reminded myself. I dragged the blade over his skin, bracing myself for his pain. But it didn’t come. His aura stayed exactly the same, full of nervous anticipation, and my hands didn’t so much as prickle with the need to heal.

Holy shit.

I stared at his unbroken skin for a full minute before Hayden’s voice broke me out of my trance.

“Danielle? Baby, what do we do now?”

“Nothing.” I blinked and tore my eyes away from his hand. “You’re my mate.”