Angel Falls (Angel Falls Series, #1) by Babette Jongh (inspiring books for teens txt) 📗

down at his still unsatisfied erection. “Because it would appear that I’m not ready for this to end either.” He bent gingerly to retrieve his jeans from the floor. “Would you allow me to kidnap you for the whole weekend?”

“You wouldn’t mind?” I asked, beginning to feel a little self-conscious.

“I’d be honored.” He scooped up my discarded sweats and dropped them onto the bed. “Get your beautiful naked body covered, so I can have a hope of getting my jeans buttoned.”

I started getting dressed. “What should I pack?”

“Nothing. Anything. Whatever you like.” He pulled up his jeans but didn’t button them. “I’m taking you to my house, so you can go naked all weekend if it suits you.”

I threw some things into a duffel bag. “I’ve got to fill the food dispensers for Lizzie and Chester, then I’ll be ready to go.”

“Doesn’t Lizzie want to come too?”

At the sound of her name, Lizzie tipped into the bedroom and looked up at Ian, then at me. She had very sweetly elected to spend last night in her living room dog bed, and I wanted to reward her by letting her come along. At the same time, I didn’t want to impose on Ian quite so soon in our relationship.

“She’ll be okay here.” I knew she’d be lonely, but she wouldn’t lack for food or water and the dog door gave her freedom to spend her time indoors or outdoors as she pleased.

“She’ll be okay at my house, too. We’ll take her for a walk in the woods behind my house.”

If I hadn’t loved him before, I did now. The three of us loaded into his car just as an orange glow lit the eastern sky.

*

I slept late on Sunday, cradled in Ian’s arms in the center of his massive four-poster bed. Lizzie slept on top of the silky soft comforter that was crumpled at our feet. A wash of cold air signaled Ian’s departure, but I rolled over and snuggled back down until he tossed an armful of Sunday papers onto the comforter and climbed in beside me. He was sexily rumpled, his cheeks darkened by the night’s growth of beard.

I turned toward him. “You read all those?” There had to be at least a dozen different newspapers there.

“Not in detail, no.” He stacked a couple of pillows and leaned against the headboard, then unfolded the Angel Falls Informer and scanned the front page. “I like to compare our paper to others. See what we might do better. We could go with more of a magazine format, or—”

“I thought you said y’all were going digital. Online, I mean.”

“Yes, but we won’t stop the print version. We’ll have both.”

I scooted close, draped one leg over his midsection and laid my head on his chest. While he read, he sifted through my hair in an idle manner. I snuggled, adjusting my position until I felt the promise of subtle movement under my thigh, but after a moment he dropped a casual kiss on top of my head. “I know someone sent you to kill me. There’s no use denying it.”

I moved my thigh away from his vital organs. “Don’t worry. I’m so sore I wouldn’t dare instigate anything.”

‘Hmmph.” As Ian rifled through the paper, I played with his chest hair. He placed a quelling hand over mine. “Sweetheart, you’re driving me crazy. Why don’t you read one of these? There are plenty to choose from.”

I moved away and leaned over the edge of the bed to reach my duffel bag. Good thing I’d thought to bring a book. I was reading Outlander for the third time—Ian’s Scottish accent had prompted me to take the book off my keeper shelf and get to know Jamie Fraser again. “I’ll just read my book, thanks.” I stacked my pillows as he’d done and leaned against the headboard on my side of the bed.

“You’re welcome to read a newspaper,” he said in a slightly puzzled tone. As if the news  could compete with Claire Beauchamp and Jamie Fraser.

“That’s okay.” I opened my book to the page I’d turned down. “I don’t read the newspaper.”

“You don’t?” He said this as if I’d just declared I didn’t believe in brushing my teeth. “Why not?”

“I just don’t.” I wasn’t about to apologize. Lack of interest in current events is not a crime.

“You have to have a reason.”

“I have a multitude of reasons, but I doubt you’d be interested in any of them.” I wasn’t reading my book, but I turned a page as if I was.

He folded the paper and crossed his arms over his chest. “Try me.”

“Okay.” I put my book aside, picked up his hand and turned it to the light. “Look at this. Your fingers are covered in newsprint. Doesn’t that drive you insane?”

Frowning, he studied his hand. “I’ve never noticed it.”

“Well, I do. I can’t even touch newsprint without getting the shivers. That coarse paper all covered in ink.”

“We use soy ink these days, completely safe and doesn’t transfer like—”

“I don’t care.” I shuddered. “Touching that rough newsprint is worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.”

“You’re kidding.” His tone was incredulous, exactly as I figured it would be.

I picked up a newspaper and slid my hand down a page, then held my arm up for his inspection. “See?” Every hair on my arm stood on end. “And besides that, newspapers never finish an article on the page it started. You always have to hunt for the rest of it.”

“That’s because—”

“Yeah, yeah. I know all that. But I still don’t like it.”

“Okay,” he conceded. “I guess you watch the news on TV.”

“I hardly ever watch television. I’ll read a news article online every now and then, but I find them extremely frustrating. All headline and no meat. I end up with more questions than answers.”

“How do you know what’s going on in the world?” He looked at me as if I were a strange breed of animal he hadn’t encountered before.

“Unless it happens to you or somebody