Hunter's Edge

Chapter Twenty Nine

Times change, Angel

"Let me go, damn it. I can't... I can't..."

"Can't what?" she asked as his voice trailed off and all he did was try again to pull away. Angel tightened her grasp.

"I can't stop!" he snarled.

She blinked, unsure at first what he meant, but the answer was already there, already forming in her mind, thanks to the bond between them. "Kel...you did stop."

He stilled, his big body shuddering, shaking. In a hoarse voice, he rasped, "Just let me go, Angel."

"I've done that once already, Kel. I let you go, watched while an empty box was put in the ground and dirt shoveled over it. I let you go, let it destroy me...and now you're here again. You're back. How can you ask me to let go now?"

His head drooped. He reached up, pulling her arm down and then untangling her legs from his hips. "If you don't, I'll end up destroying you for real. I can't trust myself." He shifted around and sat up on the edge of the bed, staring at the floor.

Angel shoved up, coming after him. Draping her arms around his neck, she pressed her breasts against his naked back and kissed his ear. "I trust you, Kel. You wouldn't hurt me. You didn't hurt me."

He snorted and reached up, touched his fingers to his lips. The sight of the red stain seemed to infuriate him. "I already did," he growled, trying again to pull away from her.

But she wasn't letting go willingly. If he wanted her to let go, he'd have to make her and he wasn't willing to do that. Wasn't willing to hurt her...and he doubted his control? She could feel the conflict raging inside him, feel the need for her tangle with the need to keep her safe.

"You don't need to keep me safe from you, Kel. You've never been a threat to me. The only thing that could hurt me would be losing you again."

Kel slid her a look and shook his head. "You're wrong." Then he reached up, carefully prying her arms away from him and this time, when she struggled, he ignored her. He was off the bed in less than a second, turning to face her. "You don't know me, Angel. Don't know what I've become. What I've done."

She blinked and momentarily froze. Then fury shot through her. Coming off the bed, she stalked across the room and jabbed him in the chest with her finger. "I don't know you? Kel, I know you better than anybody. Better than everybody. I always have."

A mocking smile curled his lips. "Oh, baby, you have no clue how wrong you are." His gaze slid down to her neck, lingered on the spot that even now seemed to tingle and throb, almost like her body craved to feel that again.

"You just fucked a vampire—let one feed on you like a parasite."

He saw the warning in her eyes, saw it in her body as she tensed, and he could have moved to stop it. He let her hit him though, a solid jab to his jaw. If he'd still been human, it might have knocked him on his ass. Angel had always been strong. That hadn't changed. But all it managed to do was hurt her hand—his body absorbed the minor twinge like water but he could see that her hand was already swelling. Just one more little guilt to pile on him.

Staring at him with haunted eyes, she said, "I just fucked the man I loved. The man I've always loved. I loved you even before I understood what it really was to love anybody but my dad. I loved you when I just a little girl and you were standing there blushing to the roots of your hair, so embarrassed by what I was telling you and even then you couldn't say anything because a part of you felt it, too. You wouldn't have done or said anything to hurt me."