by D. L. O'Neal
Gabriel dropped to his knees, his mouth seeking and finding the intimate heat of her. She smelled spicy and very feminine. It drove him wild. He used his tongue with wicked effect, rhythmically stroking the very core of her, eliciting muffled whimpers of pleasure and cries for completion. Gabriel drank in the sweet sounds of her pleading as he drank of the very essence of her.
"Let go, sweet witch. Let go. Trust me," he urged. Gentle convulsions racked her body as he held her hips between his hands. It was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen.
Kalesia's knees were trembling and she felt limp from the powerful release. When she again became aware of her surroundings, she was in Gabriel's arms, held tight.
Small shock waves still assaulting her senses, Kalesia mustered the energy to tease. "You follow directions very nicely...for a tomcat."
A startled burst of laughter escaped Gabriel, and then he was hugging her close. "Sassy and unrepentant to the end." He shook his head. "What does it take to make you admit defeat?"
"Defeat? If that's your idea of defeat, you have my permission to wage war whenever you want," she purred. She became conscious of the hard thrust of his shaft against her belly, and trailed a nail down his swollen manhood.
"It's my understanding that to the victor go the spoils of war. I seem to have lucked out."
"I've yet to negotiate settlement. Assuming anything is unwise until one hears the terms of surrender," he rasped from between clenched teeth as she languidly circled the head of his shaft.
"By all means, let's adjourn to a...bargaining table." Without warning, Kalesia cupped the heavy fullness at the base of his manhood, gently massaging.
"Witch!" The laughing accusation turned passionate in intensity as he swept her up into his arms. When he lowered his head, Kalesia could taste herself and Gabriel's own unique essence.
Chapter 7
"SONOFABITCH."
Kalesia awoke to a snarling hiss and an outraged curse of pain. There was a familiar warm weight on her chest. Turning her head, she saw Gabriel sitting up in bed sucking on his knuckles. Kalesia groaned as her rapidly clearing brain put together what had happened.
"Oh, dear."
Gabriel's attention shifted to her. "Oh, dear, my ass. Do you know what that refugee from a flea market did?" he demanded. He glared at the black cat. Hannibal glared back.
"Hannibal's very protective." Hitching herself up higher on the pillows, Kalesia attempted to soothe both males at once.
"Protective!" He showed her his hand. Kalesia winced at the long, angry gashes and numerous punctures.
"He thinks it's his duty to protect me." Gabriel ought to identify with that, the man literally oozed with protective instincts.
His gaze switched back to her. She wished it hadn't. An angry fire that boded ill filled his eyes. "He didn't want me to touch you. That damn cat wasn't being protective, he was being territorial. Hell, I didn't even know he was here until I reached out for you," he muttered in disgust. Gabriel paused and then asked silkily, "Just what is he doing in here in the first place?"
Hannibal, sensing something ominous in the quiet tones, bristled. Kalesia sighed glumly. Was it too much to hope for that the two males in her life would get along? The male of the species could be a royal pain at times, she decided, annoyed.
"He always sleeps with me," she admitted.
"Not anymore. I refuse to share my bed with that animal."
"Gabriel, he doesn't mean any harm..." Kalesia trailed off as he stared at her in open disbelief. "Well, not usually," she qualified. "I don't know why he doesn't like you."
"Kalesia."
"All right. All right. He sleeps elsewhere." Grumbling under her breath, she rose from the bed, clutching the irritated cat. "I still say it's stupid." She watched as Gabriel got out of bed, her breath catching as the sunlight clearly defined his form. Lord, the man was a sight to behold.
"Elsewhere, Kalesia," he warned as he snagged a tissue off the bedside stand and pressed it to his hand to stem the flow of blood. He shot the cat one last, baleful look as he headed out the door.
Kalesia put the huge cat down in the chair next to her suitcase. Hoisting the leather bag up onto the bed, she dug out a jonquil tee shirt and blue shorts.
"You old reprobate," she scolded as Hannibal hopped onto the bed. "It wasn't nice to attack Gabriel. He's helping us."
The unconcerned glance Hannibal shot her made it clear he thought they didn't need Gabriel's protection. After all, he'd just won that battle, was here with her while the usurper was downstairs.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Kalesia prepared to explain the situation to the battle-scarred tom. Settling him in her lap, she began extolling Gabriel's virtues. Supremely unimpressed, Hannibal began cleaning his paw.
Kalesia gave up, and followed Hannibal when he jumped down and strolled out of the room. The two combatants would have to work it out between themselves.
She only hoped Gabriel survived.
The ringing of the phone, a muffled thud, and then a curse, floated up the stairs. The phone stopped ringing.
"Damn cat. What?" she heard Gabriel bark.
Kalesia grinned. Round two to Hannibal. She hurried down the stairs in time to hear a steely note enter Gabriel's tone.
"I see. When--" He glanced up from writing something down on the pad by the phone. "I see," he repeated, continuing to write. "Thanks, Tom. Yes, I'll tell her." He replaced the receiver.
"Tell her what?" Kalesia tried to sound breezy and unconcerned and failed miserably.
"They found a body." He was watching her closely.
Kalesia gripped the banister rail until the bones of her hand ground against the polished wood. "Do they know who it is yet?" she whispered.
"They ran a check on him. He turned up in the computers almost immediately. His name was John Crump. He was a pro."
"A professional killer? Dear God." She felt the blood drain from her face. Dazed, she sat on the bottom step. Kalesia put her arms around herself, cold to the bone. She had the awful fear the chill would never go away. "I'm scared."
Gabriel wanted to tell her, so was he. A terrible premonition that everything was falling apart, stalked him. He looked down into eyes so dark that they were almost black. Impotent anger tightened his lips. This time, he vowed, he wouldn't screw up. Gabriel gathered her close. Tension gripped Kalesia's body, winding her so tight it was a sheer wonder she didn't shatter like old glass. "No one will hurt you."
"Promise?" The words were a thread of sound.
"Promise." Gabriel winced, well aware how weak the assurance was.
"What do we do next?" she asked, rubbing her cheek against his shirt.
"We do what I should have done from the beginning. We get outside help." Framing her face between his palms, he lifted her face to his. "I mean it, Kalesia. I won't allow anyone to harm you. In any way."
Kalesia smiled gently. "I know." She brushed her lips across his. "You're a man of your word, Gabriel Steele. If you say nothing will hurt me, then I believe you."
Gabriel crushed her tightly against him and rested his cheek on the top of her head. Inside, he wished he shared her faith. Things were beginning to feel like they had the last time: unraveling and spinning out of control. This time, though, he refused to make a mistake. If anything happened to Kalesia because of him he'd lose his sanity.
Gabriel set Kalesia from him. She looked at him with a questioning glance. "Go on up and start searching your computer records for any mention of John Crump or anyone with those initials." She stood up, then waited. "I'll be up in a minute," he told her. "First I need to make a couple of calls."
He watched her until she was out of sight. Gabriel reached for the phone. It seemed a person could never completely escape the past. One way or another, it always managed to catch up with you.
"GABRIEL, I checked my records as you requested. I came up empty on references to a John Crump or those initials. Was there any other angle you wanted me to try?"
> Kalesia eyed Gabriel covertly, holding her breath to see if this time she'd get a civil answer. Gabriel had grown steadily more quiet and withdrawn as the day drew on and slipped into night.
"No."
Kalesia sighed inaudibly. So much for using the case to draw him out. But at least this time he had answered. The last time, when she had tried a little gentle teasing, he hadn't even bothered grunting a reply.
Kalesia didn't know which was worse, when he totally ignored her, or when he did deign to look at her. There was a chill in the grey eyes. A chill that came from some frozen well down deep inside. When he did pin her with that icy gaze, a cold finger slithered down her spine. She didn't know if it was because she wasn't sure if he actually saw her, lost in that black world of his own as he was, or if because he saw her too clearly and was deciding she was too much trouble.
A knot of fear that had nothing to do with her vision of murder, began growing in Kalesia. It had everything to do with the fact Gabriel was separating himself from her and she hadn't the faintest clue of how to combat it.
She had tried everything except....
"Gabriel?"
"What?"
It wasn't exactly encouraging. Kalesia plucked up her courage, desperately needing to close the distance growing between them.
"It's time to go to bed." She held her breath.
"Go on ahead. I'll be up later." The curt dismissal hurt more than she thought possible. Feeling encased in ice, Kalesia got to her feet and walked stiffly up the stairs. She would not beg. If the man wanted some distance between them, then he'd get it.
Gabriel watched her leave the room, his gut knotted. He hadn't wanted to make those calls. It had been his policy never to rely on others, to work alone. His resolve had strengthened after that last fiasco. To continue to do so, however, could cost Kalesia her life.
No choice.
Making those calls had been necessary, because instinct shouted he was getting in over his head. He needed contacts he no longer had, those he had deliberately cut.
No choice.
Fury at having to again rely on someone else grew slowly all day. To combat the simmering anger, he had separated himself from Kalesia, from her softness, her vulnerability and, most of all, from his need for her.
It hadn't worked. He still wanted her.
Gabriel sat there, brooding, a darkness blacker than night invading his soul. In the end, he realized, it came down to a simple decision; either he asked for help or he lost her. God help him, he couldn't contemplate not having Kalesia, with her penchant for yellow and the tiny fantasy creature circling her ankle, in his life.
He needed her.
So what the hell was he doing down here when she was upstairs in his room, in his bed?
With a muffled curse, Gabriel stalked up the stairs, primitive anger and desire mingling, making his mood volatile. His body throbbed with the potent mixture.
Opening the door, Gabriel stopped on the threshold, taking slow, controlled breaths, trying to regain a measure of control.
"Gabriel?" Kalesia sounded unsure, as if she could sense the roil of emotion tearing him apart.
Gabriel crossed the room. With a savage twist of his wrist, he flicked the drapes open. Moonlight flooded the area.
"Hiding in the dark?" he mocked. Tonight of all nights, he didn't want to be closed in.
She pulled the sheet up to her throat. "What is it? What's the matter with you?" Her breath caught as he discarded his clothes haphazardly. A tiny flare of feminine wariness invaded her watchful gaze.
"Funny you should ask that. I've sat downstairs for an hour trying to determine that very thing." He rested one knee on the side of the bed, putting a considerable dent in the mattress.
"You're angry."
"Brilliant observation. You know what? After much consideration, I came to the same conclusion. Care to speculate why?" He shifted, caging her between his arms. He leaned over her, purposefully intimidating.
"I don't have to speculate. I know why," she said, then bit her lip.
"Really," he drawled. A part of him was appalled at his actions, at his need to see fear in her eyes, but he couldn't seem to help himself.
Kalesia licked her lips. "Yes. You're angry because I've disrupted the calm existence you've carved out for yourself. Because of me, you no longer have complete control."
"Do you also read crystal balls in your spare time, witch?" he asked, a hint of savagery underlying the question. Kalesia saw too damn much for her own good.
Her fists tightened on the sheet, pulling it a notch higher. "What do you want, Gabriel?"
"What do I want? That's an interesting question." Without warning, he snatched the sheet from her hands, flinging it to the floor with suppressed fury. "I want compensation."
"Compensation?" she repeated, sounding dumbfounded. At least he could take satisfaction in the fact she didn't know everything about him.
"Yes, compensation. I want compensation for everything I've given up." He tangled one hand in her hair, pulling her head back, forcing her to meet his gaze. "And I know just how I'm going to get it."
Anger sparked in her eyes. "Why, you arrogant tomcat. Go to hell. I refuse to sleep with you because, mmf..."
Gabriel slammed his mouth down on hers, trapping the rest of her scathing comment. "You owe me, woman," he gritted as he lifted his head, "and tonight I intend to collect." He covered her mouth again, his tongue insinuating itself between her lips.
It was the flash of vulnerability in the silver eyes that shattered Kalesia's resistance. A tiny part of Gabriel realized he was stepping over the line, she realized, was demanding what couldn't be forced, and was afraid she was going to call him on it.
She quit struggling, her lips softening as she accepted and absorbed his fury. She couldn't fight him, couldn't send him away...reject him. Gabriel expected rejection. She saw it in the uncertainty in his eyes.
Gabriel needed her.
Her arms went around his neck, her fingers finding and lovingly tracing the corded muscles. She would always respond to this man. Always seek to soothe his pain and anger, arouse his passion. She had no more control over that than she did her visions.
Gabriel's mouth eased its ravaging pressure, became soft and searching. His whispered groan warmed her lips.
"Hell, I'm sorry." He placed tiny kisses at the corner of her mouth, a silent apology for his earlier roughness. He winced, his eyes becoming bleak as the sliver of light from the hall showed the swollen fullness of her mouth. One long finger traced the outline of her lips. His hand shook.
Kalesia smiled tremulously, capturing his hand in hers. "Don't look like that. You didn't hurt me, Gabriel. You wouldn't, you swore to protect me."
He shook his head. "You defeat me with your faith. Remember that," he added urgently. "Remember I would never hurt you on purpose," and covered her body fully as his mouth sought hers in a wild, primitive mating.
THE SOUND of faint knocking woke Kalesia the next morning. Gabriel was still sleeping. She smiled. Gabriel had kept her awake most of the night. She remembered a recent article that said men over thirty were past their prime. Slipping out of bed, the soft sensual aches contradicted every word of the `experts'. Donning a robe, she hurried downstairs before the insistent knocking woke him.
Kalesia failed to notice the small, pulsing light almost hidden by the door facing, nor the touch pad next to it. Gabriel's precise instructions for utilizing his custom security system totally slipped her mind as she reached for the doorknob. The light began to glow steadily.
Opening the door a crack, she peeked around the edge and was confronted by the sight of three tired, rumpled men. Oddly enough, they reminded her of Gabriel. All three wore a certain hardness and a shielded aloneness as most men wore a suit. One of the men, the blond, offered her a wide, open smile. It almost, but not quite, hid the measuring gleam in the hazel eyes.
"Leave it to Gabe to find a looker."
THE INSISTENT burring so
und issuing from what looked like a small digital alarm clock, suddenly intensified. Gabriel's eyes snapped open. Low murmurs floated up from downstairs. He was halfway down the stairs, a wicked blade held familiarly by his thigh, when he recognized Sam's laugh. Gabriel came to an abrupt halt, only then aware he was rushing downstairs stark naked. Jaw clenched, he made his way back upstairs to get dressed.
Gabriel sat on the edge of the bed, hands held loosely between his thighs, and tried to come to terms with the fact he had slept so hard that he hadn't heard his security system the moment it sounded. The near silent alarm began getting on his nerves. He punched out a code, viciously silencing it.
It scared the hell out him that he had slept so hard. Such a thing had never happened before. His uncanny hearing had saved his life innumerable times, so where had it been this morning? he wondered in disgust.
Hell, he hadn't even heard Kalesia leave the bed. A solid knot of fear lodged in his belly. Had his skills become so rusted that he was endangering Kalesia? Gabriel scowled. Or had she slipped under his guard to the extent that his subconscious felt safe relaxing around her?
Speaking of relaxing that second level of tone to the alarm meant that Kalesia had opened the door without deactivating the system. It was a stupid risk. She should have wakened him immediately at the first hint of strangers. Gabriel planned to let her know the full scope of his displeasure.
Soft feminine laughter drifted up the stairs. He shoved his legs in his pants.
Right after he determined what was so damn funny.
KALESIA WAS scrambling eggs, a delighted grin curving her lips in response to a comment made by Barry Williams. It was a cozy picture: three men, jackets hanging on the back of their chairs, sipping coffee and joking with the sleep-disheveled woman. And Kalesia, his robe hugging her curves, was at ease, warm and friendly, that hint of nervousness she'd exhibited at their first meeting, missing. She obviously felt comfortable with his friends, finding an easy rapport.