Cross the Line: A Gabriella Cross Paranormal Romance Book 2

by Lovestone, M. J.

  Gabby smiled and tapped glasses before downing the shot.

  “So, how do you know Michael?” Valentine asked.

  “It’s a long story,” said Gabby, finding it strange that someone of obvious supernatural ability wasn’t afraid to touch her. “What…what are you?”

  Valentine gave her a devious little smile. “I’m just a girl looking for fun.”

  Gabby gave her a look of disbelief. “You’re not a were, I can tell that much.”

  “No, what I am is far more interesting than a run-of-the-mill shifter. Would you like to see?”

  Valentine stood from her chair, and Gabby realized how tall the woman was. She had long blonde hair and the lithe body of a Russian ballerina, along with a face made for breaking hearts.

  Gabby glanced around for Quip and shrugged. “Sure, why not.”

  Valentine took her by the hand and led her up the stairs to the second-level wraparound balcony.

  From the balcony rail one could watch the dancers below. Across from the rail sat half a dozen couches and lounge chairs. There were less than a dozen people hanging out up here, and Valentine found a sofa at the center of the arrangement for her and Gabby. She sat and patted the leather cushion next to her.

  “This is a cool little spot,” said Gabby. “But it doesn’t explain what you are.”

  Valentine offered her that same mischievous smile. She leaned in closer. “See how everyone is staring?”

  Gabby had noticed the attention that Valentine got, not only up here but down at the bar as well. “Yeah…”

  “Watch.”

  Valentine motioned a woman over to her who had been sitting with a guy in his mid-twenties. Gabby watched with growing curiosity as the woman obediently walked over and bent so that Valentine might whisper in her ear. The woman’s eyes widened at the whispered words and Valentine kissed her full on the lips. When they parted, Valentine smiled at the woman and nodded.

  Gabby watched, perplexed, as the woman went back to sit next to the guy across from them. They began making out, and to Gabby’s surprise, the woman unzipped his fly and went down on him right there on the couch in front of everybody.

  “Oh, my, God!” Gabby laughed.

  Valentine whispered something to the men beside her and then gestured for another woman to come to her. She kissed this woman as well, and she too returned to her seat and began kissing the person she had been sitting with, who just so happened to be another woman.

  “How are you doing this?” Gabby asked, enthralled. The woman who Valentine had first kissed was now riding the guy on the couch. They had both stripped completely out of their clothes, and Gabby couldn’t help but stare at the erotic display.

  “They cannot help themselves.”

  “You’re using mind control?”

  “Not exactly. I’m not doing anything, per say. You know how alcohol lowers inhibitions?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, it’s kind of like that.”

  Directly in front of Valentine and Gabby, another couple had begun to have sex on a wooden coffee table. The man took his date from behind, pulling her hair and thrusting to the rhythm of the music. Beside them, three men were caught up in the most interesting train Gabby had ever seen, and the other woman Valentine had kissed was locked in a passionate sixty-nine with her girlfriend. Their dates came up the stairs and stopped when they saw the orgy. They looked to the women and to each other like they were the luckiest men on the planet. They soon joined in.

  The balcony lounge soon filled with the sounds of passion. Some of the women moaned softly, others screamed for more, saying some of the dirtiest things that Gabby had ever heard.

  The room was thick with the smell of sweat, perfume, and the musky scent of sex.

  “This is crazy,” said Gabby, becoming quite hot herself.

  “Have you figured out what I am yet?” Valentine asked, taking off a glove and slowly running a fingernail up the length of Gabby’s thigh.

  “Some kind of siren?” said Gabby, unable to stop her voice from shaking. Valentine’s finger sent chills through her aching body.

  “Close,” said Valentine, devouring her with her eyes. “And do you know how hot it is for a person like me to meet a person like you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Valentine smiled at her, looking amused.

  Gabby was only half paying attention. She couldn’t help but stare at the spectacle before her.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” said Valentine, admiring the writhing bodies as well.

  Gabby loved the way she spoke of the scene and the look in her eye as she surveyed the room full of naked bodies. Valentine looked at them as one might look upon deeply meaningful art.

  Directly across from them, the two women who had previously been locked in heated passion were now having sex with the two men. Gabby watched the shining bodies, which were like living canvasses beneath the club’s pulsating and ever shifting lights.

  Gabby found herself quite wet with passion.

  She glanced around for Michael, wanting nothing more than to feel him inside her.

  “You are so quiet, are you nervous?” Valentine asked. She sat close enough for Gabby to feel her heat.

  “I’m sorry, this is just so… there are no words.”

  “I know how you feel,” said Valentine. She placed a soft hand on Gabby’s knee.

  Gabby jerked, though she didn’t mean to. “Sorry,” she said with a nervous laugh.

  “I am sorry,” said Valentine. “Sorry that I’m not Michael.”

  Gabby looked to her, surprised that she knew her mind. There was no way that she had read it. Otherworld powers didn’t work on her.

  Those deep green eyes devoured her, and Valentine leaned closer.

  “Close your eyes, and picture your Michael,” she whispered in Gabby’s ear before biting the lobe playfully.

  Gabby didn’t know why, but she did as she was told, closing her eyes and lying back against the soft sofa.

  Valentine’s lips haunted her neck. Her hot breath sent prickles down Gabby’s spine. Hands were suddenly on the backs of her knees, reaching hands that crept higher, even as kisses dotted her chest. Long nails hooked her panties, and Gabby shifted to hasten their removal.

  The music became ethereal, with deep digital bells and a quickly rising, pitch-shifting beat. The many voices cried out in animalistic need. Gabby realized that the voices were not from the music, but rather from those around her, and also her own. It seemed that the more excited Gabby got, the louder and more passionate the people became.

  The top of her dress was slowly pulled down, and a tongue found her exposed left nipple as, simultaneously, Valentine slid two fingers inside her.

  Gabby shuddered and clutched the woman’s shoulders.

  “Is this what you want your Michael to do to you?” Valentine whispered in her ear before licking it.

  Her tongue traveled down Gabby’s neck, breast, and then left her, leaving Gabby shuddering on the edge. Valentine’s fingers hooked to find her g-spot, and suddenly a soft tongue found her clitoris.

  Gabby arched her back and cried out in ecstasy. She imagined Michael’s mouth with every swirl, saw his rippling muscles with every flick of Valentine’s tongue. She thought of the time she had accidentally spied on a werewolf orgy outside of Aurora Lodge near Yellowstone. She saw Michael’s muscular body glowing in the moonlight as he thrust into the woman who had been straddling him. He had looked to Gabby like a Greek hero.

  The orgasm hit her suddenly, and Gabby cried out in ecstasy, clutching the back of the couch and holding Valentine’s head firmly by the hair as she gyrated against those soft lips.

  Everyone in the room seemed to climax with her. Women cried out in passion, men groaned and growled, and Gabby imagined Michael there between her legs, tasting her.

  Another orgasm followed upon the heels of the last, and Gabby writhed and cried out beneath Valentine’s skilled mouth and hands once more. The second c
limax hit her in ever increasing waves of pleasure. When she spasmed for the last time, Valentine suddenly withdrew, leaving Gabby quivering. Soft, wet lips found hers and kissed her tenderly.

  Gabby finally opened her eyes.

  Valentine tossed back her hair, crossed her legs, put her gloves back on, and took a sip of her drink. She turned to Gabby and bit her lip.

  “You are delicious.”

  Gabby lay there for a moment like a slug, fully spent from the earth-shattering orgasms.

  “I like you, Gabriella,” said Valentine, caressing Gabby’s shaking knee. “You’re fun.”

  Gabby pulled herself up and tried to straighten herself as gracefully as Valentine had, but she knew that she had what Quip called “hump hair.”

  “Here you are, darling,” said Valentine, handing her a beautiful leather makeup case.

  Gabby touched herself up and began laughing as she did so. Valentine smiled too, seeming truly enamored by her.

  “Why do you look at me like that?” Gabby asked, glancing over the compact mirror.

  “Doesn’t everyone?” said Valentine. She seemed quite serious.

  “Look,” Gabby began. “I’m not gay.”

  “What is gay?” said Valentine. “What I gave you, you needed. Why must we complicate such a beautiful thing with labels?”

  Gabby didn’t know what to say. She looked around at the ongoing orgy and felt her heat rising yet again.

  “Should I leave you two alone?”

  Gabby snapped her head to the side when she heard Quip’s voice. Over his shoulder, she saw Michael beginning down the stairs to the lower section.

  Had he been watching the whole time?

  “Oh, hi,” said Gabby, a little bit too excitedly. “Thanks for the drink,” she said to Valentine, and then she got up and grabbed Quip’s arm. “Just walk,” she hissed.

  “It was my pleasure,” Valentine purred.

  Quip gave a laugh and led her down the stairs. “You want another drink, or you need some air?”

  “Air,” said Gabby. The room had begun to spin—the vampire blood was wearing off and the alcohol was kicking in.

  When they were outside, Quip lit a cigarette and handed it to Gabby before lighting his own. He took a long drag and let it out, silently laughing at Gabby. “What was that all about? If I knew you was that freaky I coulda brought you to some slamming parties a long time ago.”

  “What was she?” Gabby asked, trying to catch her breath.

  “You don’t know? Thought you could sense that shit.” Quip shook his head. “Valentine’s a succubus.”

  “Succubus?” said Gabby.

  “Yeah, you know, like supernatural seduction goddess?”

  Gabby breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, alright, then that explains it.”

  “Explains what?” said Quip with a raised brow. “Girl, you’re immune to that shit. Remember? That was straight-up girl on girl lust up in there. You’s a freak.”

  The valet pulled up with Quip’s car and again, he sent a twenty-dollar tip flying to the man’s shoulder.

  “You don’t understand, Quip. I’m not a lesbian,” said Gabby as they got into the car.

  Quip put on his fuzzy pink seatbelt and eyed her sidelong. “Well, apparently you’s bi. You just had sex with a succubus in the middle of an orgy…in a nightclub.”

  “She just went down on me. I didn’t do anything to her.”

  “Mmm hmm, did you want to?”

  Quip pulled onto the street and headed south.

  “No…I don’t think so. She told me to imagine Michael.”

  “Now that’s funny. He was watchin’, ya know that? When I came up the stairs he was standing there like James Bond with a little shit-eating smirk on his pretty face.”

  “Oh. My. God!” said Gabby, burying her face in her hands.

  “What’s the big deal?” said Quip with a laugh.

  “What’s the big deal? What the hell has gotten into me? What is he going to think?”

  “He’s going to think that you’s a freaky bitch. You told me that you walked in on a werewolf orgy. Hell, he’s definitely into all that shit. He’s probably whacking it to the memory as we speak. Girl,” Quip said with all seriousness. “If you weren’t before, you’s officially been filed away in the Michael Steele spank bank.”

  “Don’t laugh, this isn’t funny, it’s…it’s crazy.”

  “Nothing too crazy about it. You’ve been going through guys like a shopaholic trying on dresses. You know none of them did nothing for you, and that’s because you’s sprung on Otherworld sex. Call it supersex. Shit, those vanilla boys can’t even compete.”

  Was he right? Had Victor spoiled her for all non-magical men? In the back of her mind Gabby had thought she had been playing the I-don’t-want-a-serious-relationship card, but now she realized that none of the men had really done it for her. Not in the Otherworldly way that Victor had.

  “But that still doesn’t explain why I had sex with a woman,” said Gabby, trying to make more sense of it all.

  “What’s there to explain. You might be immune to her magical power, but she’s been running her game so long she hardly needs magic to attract people. Hell, the bitch basically exhales sexual allure.”

  “Why, did you feel an attraction to her too?” Gabby asked hopefully.

  Quip sniffed moodily and glanced away from her. “I’m not proud of it either, trust me.”

  “Yeah, but you’re susceptible to her spell. I’m not,” said Gabby.

  “Nah, you’s just a slut,” said Quip playfully.

  Their laughter was cut short when the rear window suddenly exploded.

  “What the fuck!” Quip screamed.

  He made a hard right and gunned it. Gabby fought the g-force and peeked behind them.

  “Stay down!” Quip yelled as he shoved her head down.

  A machine gun chattered, and Quip cried out in pain. They began to fishtail as bullets riddled the car. Gabby screamed, thinking that at any moment a bullet would rip through, ending her life suddenly.

  “Give me a fucking gun!” Gabby cried over the screeching tires.

  “Glove box,” said Quip.

  Gabby saw blood on his left arm and froze.

  “Glove box!”

  Gabby snapped to action. Inside the glove box was a thirteen-round Glock.

  “Where the hell are they?”

  “Lost ‘em for the time being.” Quip popped the e-brake and slid through a red light. When the tires caught, they were rocketed south toward the freeway. Ahead of them, a black SUV suddenly slid into view. Smoke bellowed up from the tires, and they began to accelerate straight at Gabby and Quip.

  He popped the brake again and barely missed the collision as he tore through an alley that proved slightly too tight. The Z28’s engine screamed in the enclosed space, and sparks flew from both sides of the car as it grated through the alley.

  “Screw the gun. Call Michael on the emergency number,” said Quip.

  Gabby switched the gun to her left hand and speed-dialed the number.

  “Steele Security,” a woman answered. “Do you have an emergency?”

  “I…uh, we’re on…” Gabby glanced around for a street sign.

  “Gimme that!” said Quip, snatching the phone. “Listen up. We’re on Lincoln headed south. We got a bunch of bloodsuckers up our asses and need a plumber.”

  He hung up and handed the phone to Gabby and gunned it through another red light.

  “What did they say?”

  “Not to divert too much from the trajectory, and to stay alive.”

  “How you doing?” Gabby asked, trying to get a better look at Quip’s arm.

  “I ain’t bled out, so it didn’t hit a major artery. You know, you’s a dangerous bitch to go clubbin’ with.”

  Headlights quickly approached from behind them, and Quip dared push the car harder through the city streets. He took a right onto an overpass and merged onto the freeway heading south. The traffic was mod
erate, and Quip weaved in and out of it like a pro.

  Gabby looked back. Two sets of headlights were weaving through traffic after them now. “We’ve got company.”

  “Hold on,” said Quip.

  Gabby was holding on, and if she squeezed much harder, her fingernails were going to go through the leather upholstery.

  Quip did the unthinkable. He veered left toward the median.

  Just before they hit, the barrier gave way to a turnaround reserved for police and emergency vehicles. He cranked the e-brake and slid through the divide like a Tokyo drifter.

  Their followers nearly caused a pile-up trying to get over in time as Quip floored it and the car shot in the other direction.

  “Fuck you!” Gabby yelled, flipping double birds in the vamps’ direction. She turned to Quip, delighted. “You did it…Quip?”

  His head had lolled to the side, and his hands fell from the steering wheel.

  “Quip!” Gabby cried, taking hold of the wheel and glancing at the speedometer. They were doing ninety.

  “Quip, wake up!”

  She steered around a minivan and tried to shake him awake. Glancing in the rearview, she saw many headlights, though she could not be sure if any of them belonged to the vampires.

  “You’ve got to wake up. Hey! We’ve got to switch places. Quip?”

  Luckily, his foot had relaxed on the pedal. Unfortunately, they were quickly slowing. Gabby nervously glanced at the mirror as she steered them over to the right side. The rumble strip did nothing to rouse Quip.

  Gabby pulled the e-brake at twenty miles an hour and held on as the car came to an angry stop. She shot out of the car as fast as she could and ran over to the driver side. The gun was in her hand, though she didn’t remember bringing it with her. Her eyes were locked on the road behind them.

  To her horror, she heard screeching tires and saw a car crest the hill and erratically veer to the right.

  “Quip, Quip move!” Gabby cried, unbuckling him and pulling him out of the car. She dragged him from the car with strength that she shouldn’t have been able to muster and pulled him around the other side.

  The headlights were coming straight at them. Rumble strips thrummed as the SUV barreled down the side of the road. Gabby changed her momentum and hurriedly shoved Quip toward the guardrail.