Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 53965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
“Just so we’re clear,” he grunts. “If you’ve laid hands on Delilah, you will be marrying her.”
I grin. “Mr. Somerset, just so we’re clear, the Lord himself couldn’t stop me. I mean, figured I’d ask first though if that works for you?”
He grins and shakes his head. “You really are some kind of smartass, aren’t you?”
“That I am, sir. That I am.”
“Yeah, well smartass, she’s waiting outside for you.”
I stop short, my heart racing, and I slowly turn to look at him.
“Go on,” he chuckles. “Get.”
I’ve never run so fast out of police station, and believe me, this is far from the first time I’ve run out of one. I slam through the front doors and half-stumble down the front steps, and there, leaning against the pickup truck in that gorgeous blue dress, looking like salvation itself, is Delilah.
She screams when she sees me, and we come crashing together as she jumps into my arms. She gasps, and her lips crush to mine, and I kiss her like I never want to stop.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she gasps.
“Nah, I’m like a bad penny,” I grin.
She giggles and hugs me tightly. “Well, you’re my bad penny.”
“I’ll take that,” I groan, holding her close before her mouth finds mine again, and I kiss her deeply.
“I love you, Delilah Somerset.”
She moans. “I love you too, Gabriel Mar—” She suddenly frowns. “Wait, that really is your name, right?”
I arch a brow mysteriously, and her jaw drops before I crack up.
“Yeah, angel, that’s me.”
“Oh my God, you almost had me, ass!” she punches me before she kisses me deeply.
“See I’m pretty sure I do have you.”
“Goddamn right you do,” she murmurs.
I chuckle. “My goodness, Delilah Somerset, and here you are taking the Lord’s name in vain. What sort of wicked sins have I dragged you into?”
“I don’t know,” she purrs, and her eyes spark into mine. “But maybe we could get out of here and you can drag me into whatever sin you want?”
My cock pulses, and my hands tighten on her as I grin wolfishly.
“Ma’am, I’ll have you know, I am a preacher—”
“Hey Gabriel?”
“Yeah?”
She grins. “Shut up and kiss me.”
Oh, and I do.
Epilogue
Gabriel
I’ve been told I’ve got a mouth on me, and I don’t mean that in the way Delilah screams it sometimes when mine is between her thighs. My mouth, and the smartass behind it, has been my meal ticket ever since Kane and I found ourselves on the street trying to figure out how we were going to survive. But it’s also gotten me into arguably more trouble than it’s ever gotten me out of.
The fact is, when I hit Canaan, I’d been talking so loud and running my damn mouth so long, I was deaf to anything else. Snark and sarcasm and charm can take you far in this world, but when the wheels fall off, or when the gas runs out, it helps to have something else, too: love, or at least a heart that’s open to finding it.
But charm and a smartass mouth was all I had. I’ve spent most of my life running, and thinking it was me versus the rest of the world. I existed in a bullshit sense of superiority over the “suckers” I robbed, preying off their faith, and love, and hope. Except I know now that I was the biggest sucker of them all, for arrogantly thinking I was above all that shit. I felt superior to people—that somehow since I didn’t have love, or faith in pretty much anything but the almighty dollar, that I was better than them.
I was wrong.
I wasn’t better than anyone who had love in their heart. I was pathetic for thinking running my mouth was a substitute for opening my heart up. I laughed at people who had “faith” in what I could not for the life of me distinguish from believing in fucking magic, or superpowers. To me, praying to God, or thanking Jesus was on the same level as thanking Ron fucking Weasely for the meal you’re about to dig into, or asking Batman to forgive your sins.
But then, Delilah Somerset walked into my life and turned the whole bullshit parade upside down. She didn’t “convert” me, or “save” me, but she did save me, if that makes any sense at all.
Like I said, I’ve spent my whole life running—sometimes, often times, running from something. But also, if I’m being honest with myself—because that’s something I actually do now—it was that I was running towards something else that I was pretty sure I was never going to actually find. It was as if running towards it and never getting it was somehow “proving” to myself that it didn’t exist.
I’m talking about love, by the way.
But, maybe love and faith are the same thing, because I do know that the day Delilah fell into my world, it was like being saved, as people like to say. Maybe not from Hell, and maybe not in the sense of being saved into some sort of heavenly father’s arms. But, saved from my own blind, stubborn, self-righteous bullshit.