Page 82 of Guardian Angel
I stepped back, out of his grasp, and this time he didn’t try to stop me. I didn’t want him touching me right now. He’d been keeping secrets, big ones that I deserved to know about. He’d been lying by omission. And somehow that hurt worse than anything Joriel had said. Learning I couldn’t have children with the man I loved was devastating, but it didn’t compare to the pain I felt from the fracture in my trust.
Nate had lied. And I had no way of knowing how deep those lies ran. I didn’t know what other secrets he could be keeping.
He turned to Joriel. “You told her.”
Joriel looked down, but not before I saw the guilt in his eyes, and I was sure Nate had seen it too.
“Fuck you.”
“She deserved to know, Nathaniel. Were you just not ever going to tell her?”
Nate tugged at his hair. “You don’t get it. Having children is her dream,” he said as if I weren’t still standing right there. “I was trying to figure out how to break it to her.” He took a step in Joriel’s direction, his wings erupting from his back and tearing through his shirt. “It wasn’t your place.”
Joriel lifted his hands. “I’m sorry, Nathaniel.”
“Sorry doesn’t fix it. It doesn’t take back the fact that you decided I was taking too long to break her heart.”
“Nathaniel.”
Nate’s eyes brightened, and I swore I could see heavenly fire burning within the green irises. He flew at Joriel, but he never reached him. Another body jumped between them.
“Enough.” Samuel shoved Nate back. He looked between the other two angels as if he couldn’t believe he was the one breaking up a fight. “We don’t really have time for you two to duke it out right now. And this isn’t the place.”
Nate took a step back, his chest heaving.
Joriel’s hands were still up. He hadn’t spread his wings or readied for a fight.
“Here’s how this is going to go,” Samuel continued. “Nathaniel, you’re going to put your wings away, and then we’re all going to go inside.” His eyes landed on me for the first time since his opportune arrival and widened. Maybe he’d never seen a woman post ugly-crying before?
He shook it off and headed for my back door, unlocking it and waltzing in without waiting for me. I didn’t want to know when or how he’d gotten a key to my place. A month ago that would have freaked me out. Now I actually had bigger problems than random men being able to get into my apartment.
“Sierra…” Nate reached for me, but I held up a hand to stop him.
“Don’t,” I said coldly, barely able to keep the tremble from my voice.
“I’m sorry.” He sounded like he meant it, but I wasn’t ready to forgive him yet.
I turned my back to him and followed Samuel into my apartment. I felt Nate behind me, heard the door close behind us.
“Sierra, please,” Nate whispered, stepping around me until we were face-to-face again.
“Nathaniel, we need to talk,” Samuel said from where he stood at the door into the rest of the building.
“It can wait,” Nate answered, not taking his eyes off me.
“No, it really can’t. You have two minutes before I’m dragging your ass out of this apartment.”
I felt Nate’s frustration, but he didn’t snap at Samuel. He was wholly focused on me.
“What can I do?” he asked, his voice holding a note of pleading.
I shook my head. “There’s nothing you can do now.”
He reached out to touch my face or hair. “Sierra—”
“Don’t touch me.” I ignored the hurt in his eyes. I didn’t want to feel bad about his pain. He had done this to us, not me. “I don’t know how to trust you anymore. You lied to me.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”