by Cherry Adair
His fingers tunneled up through her hair, sifting the curls as he brushed her scalp with the pads of his fingers. Suspecting that her eyes must be crossing from the sheer bliss, she closed them, feeling the tingle of his secret caress all the way to her toes.
He cupped the back of her head, lightly, so lightly, and exerted just enough pressure for her to lean closer, pressing her upper arm into the rolled arm of the sofa where he sat.
Phantom fingers lingered on her ear, stroking the fleshy pad before tracing the swirls.This is so freaking unfair, she thought, twitching her shoulders at the mixed sensation of ticklish and erotic. Then she had to pretend she was covering her shoulders with the velvet throw to hide the telltale movement. She was practically on fire from his touch.
Except he wasn’t touching her.
She’d like a few skills of her own, she thought darkly as his hand skimmed down her throat. “How long could Thom sustain?” Gabriel asked, looking at Alex.
“Straight out of the box when he first started? He told me less than an hour. After thirty some odd years? Indefinitely.”
“What degree of the assimilated skills wouldthis guy have?” Simon demanded. “Beginner or advanced. Alex?” Everyone turned to look at Alex Stone.
“Full bore.” His tone was forbidding. “When it happened to me—” Alex cut himself off as he had Lark. He raked his fingers through his dark hair, and his brilliant green eyes glittered. “He’d get everything full strength.”
Gabriel’s touch disappeared instantly, and Eden felt bereft. He swore under his breath. “What else do we have to look forward to, Lark?”
The young woman started ticking things off on her multiringed fingers with their short, black polished nails. “Invisibility. Levitation. Supernatural strength. Animal cunning. Morphing. Mind control. And flight.” She frowned. “I think that about covers it.”
Yes, Eden thought, pressing a splayed hand across her bruised throat. That about covers every spectrum of fear she could possibly imagine. And then some.
Duncan Edge was the last to leave. Eden, sitting curled up on the sofa, watched the brothers talking on the other side of the room. They were speaking in soft, hushed tones.
She wasn’t cold, but she was shivering anyway. Stress. Fear. Nervous energy. It all mixed in her stomach like a toxic slush. Whatever the brothers were discussing obviously didn’t make either of them happy.
She desperately wanted to go to Gabriel and slide her arms around his waist. She wanted to rest her head against his heart and listen to the steady beat of life.
And oh, Lord. She wanted him to assure her that this entire situation wasn’t as shocking, asterrifying as it all sounded.
The men separated.
“Just take care of Caleb,” Gabriel’s voice carried. “And don’t come back until this is over.”
“Done.” Duncan’s tone was as grim and tight as Gabriel’s. For a second Eden thought, how silly of Gabriel not to want his brother here with him where it is safe. And then she remembered what MacBain had told her at breakfast.
When the brothers were together they canceled out all but each other’s most basic powers.
“I could take her—”
Gabriel cut off his brother. “My responsibility.”
“Christ,” Duncan said grimly. “To quote Alexander Stone: Thisis a clusterfuck. Watch your back, big brother. I’m out of here. Nice meeting you, Doctor,” Duncan called out, lifting an elegant hand in farewell.
What an oddly prosaic comment. Eden collected herself. “Um—sure—”
One minute he was there. Then he wasn’t.
She shook her head. “I’m never going to get used to that.”
“You don’t have to,” Gabriel told her shortly, flipping off the lamp on the desk as he passed. Naturally he didn’t do anything as mundane as touch the switch. Just a glance did the job.
“Why not?”
He turned off the floor lamp, and another table lamp. “You won’t be around us long enough for that to happen.”
Eden’s heart skipped a beat. And then another. “Are you telling me that you can’t protect me?”
His eyebrow lifted. “What gave you that idea?”
“You said I won’t be here long enough for that to happen. That means either I’ll be dead or somewhere else. Dead is bad. And I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here. With you.”
“There is nowhere safer for you to be right now than here. With me.”
Thank God.“And don’t you sound happy about it.” Eden kicked the light blanket off her feet and stood. Only the table lamp near the door was on, leaving the large, book-lined room dimly lit and shadowy. And a lot more atmospheric than she’d like. She already had the über heebie-jeebies.
“I don’t have to be happy about something to do my job.”
She started to fold the blanket, but her hands shook so badly she finally just tossed it back on the sofa in a heap. “Well, you’re falling a little short on that count, Gabriel. He got to me once,” she said flatly, proud that her voice didn’t break with the very real fear that was making her almost hyperventilate. She wrapped her arms about her own waist. “He’ll try again. Won’t he?”
“There’s a protective spell over the castle. Come on.”
“Come on—where?” she asked blankly. “Wait a minute. There was a protective spell over the castle before. He still got in. He still got his hands around my throat. I’d like some sort of assurance that that can’t happen again.” Eden started across the room to where he was waiting, impatience in his dark eyes.
“I amped up the protection, and got a little juice from the others. Nobody can get inside unless I let them in. And I’m not lettingyou out of my sight. That’s a promise,” he told her grimly. “I’m sticking to you like a wet tongue on dry ice for the duration.”
The wet tongue statement gave her pause, or was her heart racing again because she was so close to him? Either. Both. “Where are we going?” She looked at her watch. NineP.M. It felt like midnight.
“Bed.”
“Together?”
He glanced at the lamp and the room plunged into semidarkness. “I have a big bed.”
She remembered. “I know this isn’t the best time to ask this—but would you hold me for a few minutes?” She hated,hated being that needy, especially since he hadn’t touched her in what felt like hours. But a good solid hug would go a long way in reassuring her that she wasn’t as alone as she felt.
His eyes were shadowed and his jaw tightened. With annoyance? With the strength of his restraint? “No. You’re a big girl, Doctor. You don’t need to be held. You have to beprotected. To do that we have to stay in close proximity. No physical contact is necessary.” He stepped out into the hallway where the lights had been dimmed for the night. “Come on.”
“Doctor?”She narrowed her eyes, and stopped mid-step. “Excuse me?” she said carefully when he glanced around to see where she was. “Aren’t you the man who was fondling my hair not an hour ago?” She didn’t feel the need to add what they’d been doingthree hours ago.
“Jesus, Eden,” he said tightly. “What the hell do you want from me?” Looking tortured, he turned and resumed walking across the dimly lit entry hall, his shoulders stiff. Their steps sounded spooky in the silence of the vast open space.
“Consistent freaking behavior would be nice,” she told him coolly, following him across the entry hall toward the sweeping staircase that would lead them to his big bed.
She glared at his broad back. The damn man moved with the stealthy grace of a cat. And he was just as disinterested, damn him. Would it have killed him to hold her one more damn minute? She shot him a fulminating look. For all the good it did her.
She shouldn’t be this emotional. She knew she shouldn’t. Worse, she knew she was being unreasonable. She wanted him to…pet her when he had enormous responsibilities and concerns.
But just because she knew she was being unreasonable, didn’t mean he was right either.
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She increased her speed to catch up with him, reaching out her hand to grab his arm to get his attention. He moved out of her way like greased lightning.
“No touching.” His voice was barely more than a rasp. He took another step back, and Eden thought,Well, shit. Here we go again.
“I’m dead serious. Don’t touch me right now. Understand?”
She opened her mouth to tell the infuriating man that no, she didn’t understand. Not him. Not this castle. Not the meeting she’d just witnessed. Instead she snapped her mouth closed, striding ahead of him to start up the stairs.
She didn’t understand any of this. And she was a woman who needed to know everything there was to know about her physical surroundings. Knowledge had always been her power. She wanted to know how, and what, made things work and why. It was how she ordered her life and controlled her environment. So this…this nonsensical world of his was making her nuts.
The last two days had taken her ordinary world and spun it on its axis.
Nothing was explainable. Nothing was normal.
Least of all could she explain herown feelings and behavior.
And everything about Gabriel Edge was a deep, darkfreaking mystery.
Other than the occasional tap of her heels, the silence was thick and impenetrable, dark and ripe with sexual heat whether he wanted to admit it or not.
“You have interesting co-workers.” Eden gripped the banister at the bottom of the stairs.
“Yeah. I do.”
She had a hundred questions about what had been said in the meeting she’d just witnessed, but one look at Gabriel’s face and she decided to keep them to herself. The carpeted staircase was at least fifteen feet wide. She walked on the far left, he walked on the far right, slightly behind her. Eden took the stairs two at a time, getting more and more irritated as she climbed.
“Do you have any idea,” she snarled, realizing that she’d been thinking about this subconsciously forhours, “how insulting it is to the woman you’ve slept with when you won’t come near her afterward? Exactly what is your problem?”
“Myproblem is that I get hard just looking at you. And I’m already hard enough to pole vault to Scotland!That’s my fucking problem.”
Well, ask a direct question and get a direct answer. Normally she would have been impressed, but not this time. Not when it hurt to hear the self-loathing in his tone. Heart doing its usual hop, skip, and jump when she was around him, Eden stopped walking, turned to look at him, and tightly gripped the ornate banister.
“You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”
Three steps below her, he stopped too. He seemed to be gathering himself before turning his head to make eye contact. “If I came any closer,” he said thickly, “I’d have your jeans off and your ankles around my shoulders in about thirty seconds flat. Haven’t you got it yet that when we touch each other all hell breaks loose?”
She searched his harsh expression even though his admission inspired a surge of white heat inside her. His skin was tightly drawn over his flushed cheekbones. She couldn’t miss the turmoil she read in the inky depths of his dark glittering eyes.
Turmoil, but also raw hunger.
That look made her wonder what sex on the stairs would be like. She didn’t take the time to talk herself out of it, didn’t bother evaluating the pros and cons. She wanted, and so she acted. Holding his gaze, Eden kicked off her sandals. They tumbled down the steps—thump, thump, thump—ignored. She didn’t know what she’d do if he turned away from her now. Reaching down, she undid the button on her jeans with fingers that shook.
He closed his eyes. “Don’t.” His voice was guttural, and he flinched as if struck when she eased the zipper down, the sound loud in the throbbing silence. She could hear her pulse pounding in her ears as it started its manic race through her veins, pausing to throb and pulse strategically.
His eyes opened. Navy black. Hot. Searing. His gaze touched the V of bare skin she’d exposed. “You want me to take you here on the stairs?”
Eden licked her dry lips. “I don’t care if you take me here, or I take you. As long as you’re inside me in ten seconds or less.” She was unprepared for Gabriel’s blurring speed as he moved from there to her in a blink.
He gripped her upper arms and brought her body colliding with his. Their faces were level as his mouth came down, hot and ravaging. Blindly Eden freed herself, and reached for him, wrapping her arms about his neck, kissing him back with everything that was in her.
He drew back. “Bedroom,” he said thickly.
“Here.”She raked her teeth against his lip and thrilled to his shudder. He kissed her again with bruising force, his mouth a furnace. Her heart swelled and expanded. He was out of control. The knowledge that she was capable of making that happen filled her with awe and just a hint of arrogance. She’d unleashed a panther and there was no going back. Not that she wanted to.
He supported her in his arms as he lowered her to the carpeted stairs, still kissing her, and brought his hips into the juncture of her thighs. Heat and longing twisted inside her in a molten river as he ran his fingers across the hollow of her throat, then across her collarbone while he kissed her.
Her hungry mouth clung to his as he bunched her T-shirt and started yanking it up. The feel of his hand on her bare skin made Eden twist for better contact.
“Faster. Faster. Faster.Do something! Use magic, damn it. I have. To. Feel. Skin.”
“There’s more than one kind of magic, Eden. But damn it—Iwant to rip your clothes off you. I want to hear you gasp and see you shudder.”
“I’ll gasp and shudder—later. After…ward.” All her internal muscles were tightening unbearably. If she didn’t find release soon she’d explode. “Oh, God, Gabriel. Please. Hurry.”
He levered his body off hers. Kneeling on a lower step, he shifted so he could draw down her jeans and panties. Eden shuddered. She lifted her hips to help him. He yanked the fabric down her legs and tossed the garments aside. Her breath strangled in her lungs seeing his expression.
She never in her life had a man look at her as Gabriel did now. As if he’d die if he didn’t have her.
“This what you want?” His face was taut, primitive, as he positioned himself between her spread knees. With a whimper, she reached for him.
“Y-yes. Now.”
But Gabriel had other ideas.
With a low, growling noise in the back of his throat, one of sheer animal arousal, tightly leashed, he bent his head, and pressed his open mouth against her stomach. Her muscles jumped at the contact. She speared her fingers through his hair. The strands felt cool and silky, his scalp hot. She cupped the back of his head, wanting him to return to kissing her mouth. Instead he lifted his head, his breath hot and moist on her skin.
“Take off your shirt,” he instructed thickly.
Obediently, willingly, she yanked her T-shirt over her head, then reached for the front closure on her bra. He lifted his head, eyes burning.
“I’ll do it.” He brushed her hands aside, unfastened the closure of her bra, then dropped his head and drew her nipple deep into the hot wet cavern of his mouth.
Eden’s back arched off the step as the suction of his mouth on her breast seemed to have a direct correlation to the pull in her womb. The coiling ache deep inside her was unbearable. She sank her short nails into his broad shoulders as he transferred his mouth to the other nipple and grasped her damp breast, running his thumb back and forth across the ultrahard point.
“Satin,” he murmured raggedly before lowering his mouth again. His lips moved south, and he tongued her navel, making Eden’s hips arch and twist.
“Please.” She begged for relief. For mercy. For less. For more. For everything.
His hand moved down, spreading her legs farther apart. He stroked a finger in her damp curls making her moan in torment. She was swollen and ultrasensitive already, and gasped when he pushed two fingers inside her. Her head tossed restlessly on the step as he work
ed them deep inside her, pressing upward. God. The man knew his way around her body, Eden thought frantically, as he kept her just this side of mindless release.
He rasped his thumb over her clitoris until she bucked and screamed his name. Liquid heat poured through her and her hips lifted off the stair beneath her. “For God’s sake. Gabriel! Do. S-something!”
Slipping his slick fingers out of her, he caught her hips in both large hands, sliding his palms around to grasp each cheek. She gripped his shoulders for purchase. His head lowered, the width of his shoulders spread her knees achingly wide. Exposed. Vulnerable. She squeezed her eyes shut, whimpering as he brought her to his mouth.