Earthbound Angels Part 1: The Heartthrob Fallen Celestial Stories Collection (8 page)

His first mission was a man whose name was
Dennis Harmon. The first time he met him was the time Dennis had
saved him from a muggers. But he had been beaten so much that he
lost consciousness, only to learn upon waking up in the hospital
that Dennis himself had been accused of the one that had beaten and
tried to steal from him. Oh, and did he need to be reminded how
painful it was to be mugged?

It was ironic, that the beings he'd been
accusing for a long time of being worthless of the Father Time's
love, proved themselves to be worthy just by being themselves --
reckless, ignorant, and weak. Oh, how much they had thought him
about humility. Angels and humans had the capacity to believe they
were "better" than certain other people. It's the attitude, and not
the person, and someone with a superior attitude would always find
something -- even the most ridiculous reasons -- to insult another
and then feel superior.

Did that mean that angels were just incredibly
insecure? That would have been Dreama's answer, had she known about
angels.
Had
she known about me,
he
thought.

As he reflected on the past, he gradually moved
forward and landed in the present.

THIS BROUGHT THE beautiful image of Dreama
Addison to his mind. With her perfect light blonde, shoulder length
hair and sexy aquamarine eyes, she drew him in more and more all
the time. Even though he had known her for a while, he had never
been able to get as close to her as he wanted because of some
inescapable complications.

The first one was that she was the younger
daughter of the senior partner in the Law Firm where he worked. The
second was that Raven, the older and favorite daughter, had made it
quite obvious as soon as she could manage that she wanted him for
herself. And Raven could be very ruthless when she wanted
something. Just a whiff that Simon was actually interested in
Dreama could set manipulated events that would make life
uncomfortable for the younger woman. That was the reason why, on
social gatherings when both of them were there, he avoided being
near Dreama for too long, in case Raven noticed that he was
interested in being more than a friend to her younger sister.

Yes, truly. Raven could be such a pain in the
ass.

Simon was still very much lost in thought,
figuring out how he was going to find time being with Dreama
without Raven there, when the phone on his desk buzzed.

Hitting a button on it, he said, "Yes,
Rosalyn?"

"Simon, Ms. Addison is here to see you," Rosalyn
said over the message system.

"Wonderful, Rosalyn! Send her in!"

Simon jumped up from behind his desk with a
decided spring in his step as he hurried to the door. Whipping it
open to greet her, he had to adjust the disappointed look on his
face when he saw who it was.

"Ah, Raven," he said.

"Well, yes, Simon," the woman said to him. "Who
did you think it was?"

"I knew it was you," he lied as he allowed her
to hug him.

"Oh, did you think my lovely sister just dropped
by?" Raven said archly.

"No, I knew it wasn't Dreama."

Even as Simon lied to Raven, he did his best to
hide that fact. But he had a feeling that he wasn't fooling her in
the least.

So Raven had heard that Dreama had been dropping
by recently. There was no doubt that she was here today to find out
how he liked being visited by her sister.

He did think Dreama would be here today, had
actually thought this was true when Rosalyn said a Miss Addison was
outside his office door. Since Dreama started assisting Holli in
her wedding preparations, the younger woman would sometimes be near
enough the office that she would drop by to visit her father,
peeking into his office a few times, too, before she would leave
for a restaurant or for the castle to meet Holli.

Raven tilted her beautiful head to the side a
bit, her long black hair swinging. Her dark eyes flashed at him in
disbelief, but she kept her thoughts to herself. Instead, she laid
a well-manicured hand on his arm. "I thought we could have lunch
together, if you don't have any plans," she said.

"Um, sure, I'd like that," he said. "Let me just
tell Rosalyn that I'm leaving."

Turning his back to grab his suit jacket gave
him a chance to regain his composure. He didn't want to be so
transparent, especially to Raven, but it was becoming harder all
the time to deny how he felt about her sister Dreama.

Dammit, he had to get a grip. If he didn't,
everyone would know how he felt and that just wasn't something that
could happen.

At least not yet.

So for now, he turned around and smiled at Raven
as they strolled out of the office.

OVER LUNCH, RAVEN kept up a running stream of
chatting.

She was really quite good at that, which came in
handy when Simon wasn't in the mood to talk. He had a lot on his
mind that he barely tasted his steak sandwich and cheese fries.
There were times that he simply didn't want to eat healthy and this
was one of them.

Raven had lifted a carefully arched eyebrow at
him when he ordered his food but wisely remained silent and ordered
her own shrimp salad and mineral water.

Finally, she stopped talking and sipped her
water.

"Simon, you haven't been listening to a word
I've said," she said icily.

"Sure I have, Raven," Simon protested. "I've
just got a new case that's kind of preying on my mind right now.
I'm sorry if I've made you feel that I'm not paying enough
attention to you. Please, go ahead with what you were saying."

"Oh, never mind," Raven said, waving her hand
dismissively. "It's not important, anyway. What I wanted to ask you
about is Erick's wedding. You're his Best Man, aren't you?"

"Yes, I sure am," Simon answered, smiling, even
as he began to feel like he needed to take care about what he would
say next. If Holli and Dreama had hit it off from the first, Holli
and Raven did not. Upon knowing about Dreama's humble background,
Raven had acted snobbish, and had petulantly declared that she
wasn't someone worthy of a billionaire like Erick to a select few.
Noone had to tell Holli about this, because she already was
sensitive enough to know. But when Erick noticed, the look on his
face was enough to tell that Raven would never be in any if his
lists. Not even of his least favorites.

"Well, I thought I would help you out and go as
your date, since I know you don't want to be hounded by all of
those single women that are sure to be there. Just let me know when
you have all the details on the date and time so I can have a new
outfit to wear."

SIMON STARED AT Raven for a few moments more
before he was sure she actually said what she had said.

And then he would have wanted to laugh, but he
instead put what remained of his tasty sandwich down on his
plate.

There was no way Raven was going to be his date
to the wedding.

How long was this nasty business going to last?
If he only knew what Dreama actually felt about him, things would
have been different.

Raven had always felt herself to be in
competition with her younger sister. There had been some issues in
the beginning when Simon and Dreama had first met. Raven had been
jealous that he and Dreama had hit it off and it had been a bit of
a problem.

In fact, Simon hadn't seen Dreama very often at
first because of the way Raven reacted -- and because something
always "happened" that would eliminate either one of them in any
event when they could have been together. When he learned that
Raven had been manipulating arrangements so that schedules would
not permit he and her sister would not be in one place at the same
time, especially when the event had something to do with the firm,
he knew he only had opportunities to act freely with Dreama
anywhere wherein Raven would definitely not be there, like events
arranged by other people and other friends.

He definitely didn't understand what was going
on in Raven's head. Of course, there hadn't actually been anyone in
his life for her to be jealous of until he had met Dreama. On the
other hand, he had never given her cause to think anything else
between them could be more than... well, friends. Although, come to
think of it, they weren't really friends. Raven was a lawyer, too,
and she was actually intelligent and smart. They had discussed
cases many times. But they hadn't really been personally close. She
might talk about personal happenings in her life, but he never did
unless it had something to do with the firm.

He had dated his share of women, but no one had
hit him like Dreama and he had never even taken her out on a date.
He definitely had never dated Raven. But... there were those
instances when they were together in one place and she would call
it a date when she talked to other people. He only had heard about
this recently, when colleagues had begun kidding him about dating
the senior partner's daughter.

But he already had plans for pursuing Dreama by
that time that he took care not to aggravate Raven until he was
sure about how he stood with her younger sister.

He had been hoping to make his move on Erick and
Hollianne's wedding. Dreama would be there, and he could ask her
out. It would be the perfect way to spend some time with her so
that she might consider actually going out on a date with him.

Dreama was going to be Holli's maid of honor, a
fact that did not escape Raven's notice. Raven wasn't even included
in anything that would put her remotely in the "in circle" that
included Erick and his would be wife. Not even her father's
association with Simon, who was known to be one of Erick's close
friends, had earned her invitations to parties in the castle. She
was surely hoping she would be invited in the wedding, at least,
and was making sure she would be there with Simon for people to
see, giving her an edge over Dreama. Simon already knew her enough
to know how she would think about things like this.

Hollianne hadn't hit it off so well with Raven due
to Raven's inherent competitive nature. Not to mention that Raven
had been a bit snarky to Hollianne, which was a serious mistake
because
that
was the
only reason why she had never been invited to the castle
ever
. Hollianne
Talbot-soon-to-be-Angell took nothing from people. It may have been
due to the things that she had gone through in her life that made
her intolerant. Whatever it was, Holli had refused to be faced with
Raven's insulting nature, so she would avoid her as much as she
could. She certainly would not be insulted in her own
territory.

Simon didn't blame Holli for not liking Raven.
It wasn't as if Raven made any great effort to be liked.

But the fact that Dreama and Holli had become
like close sisters seemed to irritate Raven more. She was jealous.
When she used to be the one people prefer to be the apple of their
eyes, now Dreama was having her own place in the spotlight.

Simon knew things about Raven that she probably
didn't realize herself. Not everything really was her fault.

Raven had been "trained" in competitive
situations since she was old enough to walk and talk. Her mother
had thrown her into one beauty pageant after another until Raven
had become old enough to refuse.

The really sad thing was that once Raven started
to put her foot down about not entering pageants any longer, her
mother lost interest in her. It was almost as if Raven had been a
doll that she could play dress up with over the years.

So Raven went from being the center of her
mother's world to being an afterthought. That couldn't have had a
positive effect on her.

WHEN DREAMA CAME along, things got worse for
Raven.

Since Raven was the one entering all the
pageants, Dreama never had to deal with any of that. Not only was
she very young, she was intelligent in a quiet way, and had started
to make her own way by being very good in her academics. Her father
adored her and her mother seemed to find time for her that didn't
involve a purpose of some sort. Dreama looked quite a lot like her
mother, with her light blonde hair and aquamarine eyes. Truthfully,
her name was perfect because she did look a lot like a dream woman.
She had always looked like that.

But Dreama's appearance belied the type of young
woman that she really was. In spite of the fact that she looked
angelic and almost waifish, Dreama was actually a very strong young
woman. When she was asked to enter a contest her mother wanted her
to enter, she refused, reasoning her way intelligently out of it
that made her mother proud of her instead of hateful that Dreama
refused to obey. The people that dared to challenge her had found
out quite quickly just how strong she was.

Her strong personality pushed her into
situations that should have made other people cower. She was so
unselfish she would put herself in the way to protect other people
who could not protect themselves. She was something of a rebel and
a champion of the underdog. That was one of the many qualities that
made her such a wonderful psychiatrist.

Her intelligence and quick wit made her very
memorable, too. Once someone met, they never forgot her.

Simon certainly had not. He thought about her
all the time. Did he want to cause more problems between the two
sisters? They already had such a rocky relationship that something
like this would be more than a drop in the proverbial bucket.
Dreama had really never shown him the slightest romantic interest.
For all he knew, she had a boyfriend tucked away somewhere.

But that didn't seem possible unless she was
hiding him from everyone. He could not imagine why she would. She
was not the kind of person who would hide the person she loved from
anyone, regardless if other people would love him or not.