Tempting Angelica

PROLOGUE

I tripped and landed on the gravelly path hard. I sucked in a deep breath as my knee began to sting painfully and pushed myself up. Blood trickled out the cut and down my pale leg towards my boots. I limped down the street and up to Jenny’s house where I saw her brother Alexander stood with his friends. He was eighteen and one of the notorious bad boys of the town along with his friends Kit, Dallas and Logan. I bent slightly and gazed at my knee for a second before scooping up some of the blood before it reached my boots. When I looked back up I found Alex watching me, his cigarette dangling limply from his fingers, and a concerned look on his face.

“Alex I fell over,” I said quietly and watched him quickly stamp his cigarette out.

He strode over swiftly and carefully scooped me up so my back was to his left arm and my legs were dangling over his right arm. He carried me inside and into the kitchen where he set me gently on the counter. Going to the sink he ran the tap and got a clean cloth then put it under the cold spray. Alex returned with the cloth and tenderly began to dab at my cut. I whimpered at the sting and Alex stroked my cheek comfortingly before carrying on. When he’d done he stuck a large plaster over it and placed his hands on either side of me.

“Thank you Alex,” I said with a smile.

“You’re one of the only people who call me Alex...or who I let,” he acknowledged.

“Well I’m allowed because you’re my big bad wolf Alex and I’m your angel,” I told him with a dazzling smile, repeating what he’d told me a dozen times before.

“Yeah,” he said with a smile, “I’m your big bad wolf Alex and you’re my angel.”

“I’m special,” I said cheerfully.

“You’re very special Angelica, you don’t even know the half of it,” he whispered more to himself than to me.