Betting On His Angel by Aiden Bates

Author:Aiden Bates [Bates, Aiden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

11

Kieran

As we left the restaurant and hugged my parents goodbye, I didn’t know whether to hit Duncan Rourke or kiss him.

“How the fuck did you do that?” was the first thing that left my mouth as they headed back down the sidewalk toward their hotel.

But Duncan only raised his hand to bid my parents adieu a final time. “Nice people, your folks. Thanks for introducing us.”

“Nice people? That’s rich. They should’ve eaten you alive in there!”

I wheeled around to face him and found myself immediately wrapped up in his arms. He pulled me against him, palms smoothing down my back like they were trying to soothe away my confusion and the strange tinge of annoyance in my voice.

“They weren’t very kind to you growing up, were they?” Duncan asked softly, running a thumb down my spine through the thin fabric of my t-shirt.

“They were…fine.” I wanted to look away from him, stare down at the way long-ago discarded pieces of gum spotted the cracked, rugged sidewalk, but there was something in his eyes that held me captive. His gaze bound me to him now just as much as his hands held my body against his. “I was an accident. They never planned on having kids. Had a lot of expectations on me that I didn’t live up to. Don’t think they ever adjusted well to the idea of being parents.”

“You’re many things, Kieran,” Duncan said softly. “But you’re sure as hell not an accident.”

“I just don’t know how you did it,” I repeated, pulling away slightly to get a better look at him. The furrow in my brow was so deep, it made my head ache. “You in your designer suits and your city-boy manners…They should’ve hated you. They always hate men like you.”

“Men like me.” Duncan’s lips turned up in a soft smile at the sound of that phrase again. “Is that why you invited me?”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “I’m just trying to figure out if you asked me there to watch them sink their teeth into me like half-starved coyotes spoiling for a fight, or if you asked me there because you knew it’d piss them off.”

“Doesn’t matter, does it?” I answered with a little laugh. In truth, it’d been a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B. The idea of annoying my parents with a man like Duncan and watching him squirm all night? It had been appealing in more ways than one. “I’ve failed on both counts now. Mom’s going to expect you to go antiquing with her next time they’re up.”

“And how do you feel about that?”

I glanced around, seeing the way people were watching us on the street as they walked by. Duncan in his best suit, me in my George Straight t-shirt and cowboy boots, his arms wrapped around me and my lips turned up toward his like we were frozen on the poster of some romance movie, seconds away from a kiss.

“I’m still not sure,” I admitted, feeling something warm and foreign flood my chest.

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