by Sharon Sala
"Sorry," he said, and calmly reached for another bowl instead.
Annie shivered. His touch had done something to her nervous system that she hadn't expected. For one heart-stopping moment she thought she remembered that same hand cupping her face as soft breath feathered across her cheeks. She inhaled and closed her eyes. Certain she had to be mistaken, she exhaled and opened them, calmly meeting his cool blue gaze.
"Did you get enough to eat?" she asked, ignoring the sexual tension she felt building between them. But the moment she'd said it, she realized she'd only added fuel to the fire.
He smiled. The ache in his body increased.
Oh, damn, I shouldn't be thinking this, Gabriel thought.
Annie forgot what she'd been about to say as she stared at that smile.
His mouth, the one that had been twisted in a wry, almost cruel smirk ever since they'd met, had turned into a thing of beauty. Gabe Donner's smile had turned his mouth into the most beautiful set of lips she'd ever seen.
"What a waste," she muttered under her breath.
"Not for long," he whispered, and moved—too quickly for her to react.
Gabriel captured her between the sink and his body then leaned down and pressed his lips against the shock of protest he saw coming.
He'd only meant to tease, but the intensity of their joining left him breathless. She tasted of the strawberries they'd had for dessert, and of passion too long denied. He palled back and stared long and hard into her face, missing nothing of the fact that her eyes had slipped shut and she was no longer pulling away from him. In fact, at that moment, if she hadn't opened her eyes and realized what had just happened, he knew damn well that she'd meant to slide her arms around his waist.
"Why did you do that?" she asked, trying to work up the good sense to tell herself that she'd asked for it by inviting a total stranger into her home.
"You said you wanted a taste," Gabe said, drawing a finger along the curve of her cheek. "I was just obliging."
"I did not!" she gasped. "I said—" she looked back at his mouth, remembering that only moments earlier it had been pressed against her own—"'what a waste.'"
"Oh," he said, and masked a grin. "My mistake."
"Good Lord," Annie muttered, thinking to herself how close it had come to being a mistake for both of them. She turned away from the table with a handful of dishes and headed for the sink.
"Forget it," she said, giving, him a warning look he couldn't miss.
Not on your life, Annie Laurie, he thought. But he shrugged and continued to clear the table.
"Why do those boys have it in for you?" Gabe asked as he carried the last of the bowls from the table to the sink.
Annie rinsed and loaded the dishwasher with absent skill as she thought about his question. Finally she could only shake her head.
"Honestly … I have no idea. It's been rough all year, but the last two months have been hell. Pure hell! I've been cornered in the halls, in the classroom, even in the parking lot at school. But today was the first time it happened off campus."
Gabe watched her lips tighten as a muscle jerked at her temple.
"Have you reported this to your … uh … whatever?"
"The administrator at my school? Yes."
"And…?"
She looked away. "He told me security would look into it … and to put up my hair and wear more sedate clothing in the classroom."
Gabe frowned. He might have been born in another time, but he was well aware of the implications of what she'd just said. His hand slid across her shoulder, then gently turned her face up to his.
"Are you telling me he was saying that you asked for what was happening? That it was your fault?"
"Not in so many words," she said. And then she turned in sudden anger and thumped her finger sharply against his chest. "But that's what he meant, damn it! Why do men do that?" she yelled, "What is it about the male sex that makes them blame a woman for everything they can't fix?"
Gabe caught her finger on the third jab. "Have a heart, Annie. It wasn't me." He grinned and gingerly rubbed the spot on his chest that she'd been attacking.
"Sorry," she said, and yanked her hand away, trying to forget the way his fingers had heated her skin as they'd curled around her hand.
"Why don't you go watch television or something?" she said, pointing toward the living room. "There's bound to be some sort of ball game on. All men like ball games. You're a man. Go watch one."
Oh, yes, Annie, I am a man. And, thanks to you, a very uncomfortable one.
She shrugged and turned away, mentally excusing herself for being rude. As far as she was concerned, after that kiss he'd stolen, manners were a thing of the past. And she needed him out of her space.
When her back was turned, Gabe leaned forward just enough to inhale a faint whiff of her perfume and considered the thought that he would rather watch her. But after the kiss he'd taken without asking, he didn't think she would appreciate knowing that. When she wasn't looking, he grinned and ambled out of the small kitchen.
Annie breathed a quick sigh of relief. He was so darned big that he swamped everything he came in contact with, including her. She'd never had claustrophobia in her life until he'd started helping her with the dishes. And after he'd kissed her and then turned away as if it was no big deal, it had been all she could do not to burst into tears.
And the strangest thing was, she didn't know why. Although she probably should, she didn't feel threatened by him. And if he did as he'd promised, he was going to make life a whole lot easier for her. She had absolutely nothing to cry about.
She grimaced and tossed the hand towel on the counter. If she looked at it another way, she had absolutely everything to cry about. She stomped into the living room, her posture ramrod-stiff and her expression furious.
"I'm going to bed," she said sharply. "Is there anything you need first?"
He stared long and hard at the anger on her face, wondering where the wall had come from that was suddenly standing between them.
"Go to sleep, Annie Laurie," he said quietly. "I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself."
As if I hadn't noticed, she thought as she walked down the hallway toward her bedroom. She couldn't forget the way that wall of man and muscle had pinned her against her own kitchen sink with so little effort.
Therein lay part of her problem. Annie O'Brien had done two stupid things today. She'd hired a total stranger to be her bodyguard. And it wasn't enough that she didn't know him. He had to be a biker … riding the biggest, blackest Harley she'd ever seen. To top that off, she'd taken him home with her like some stray animal and let him kiss her.
And therein lay the root of Annie's problem. She was way too interested for her own good in the male animal she'd brought home. The last thought she had before she finally drifted off to sleep was that he didn't look the least bit domesticated. In fact, if she wasn't careful, he might turn into some wild thing and eat her alive.
"Oh no!"
Annie's quiet dismay as she walked out of the apartment ahead of him sent Gabe bolting out the front door, expecting to have to rescue her again. Unfortunately for Annie, they'd already come and gone.
Her nearly new red Caprice had been vandalized to the point of being totaled. Three separate colors of paint had been sprayed in graffiti-like fashion all over it. All the windows were shattered, the hubcaps were missing, and the tires looked as if someone had taken a chain saw to them. The seat covers had been slashed, and a offensive odor emanated from inside the vehicle.
Gabe stared. The anger that surged through him made him shake. How had this world gotten so rotten? He had a sudden notion that he would have no regrets when it finally came time for him to leave it.
"Call the police," Gabe told her. When he saw indecision sweeping across her face, his voice grew harsh "Do it Annie! Now!"
She swung around and headed back to her apartment, her posture a vivid statement of her anger at the vandalism, as well as his bossy dem
and.
After a second brief phone call, this one to the school to let them know she would be delayed, they waited. Several minutes later, a squad car pulled up. The officer's gaze went from the biker who was leaning against the vandalized car to the big black Harley parked beside it.
Gabe had traded his leather pants for jeans, and, in honor of the presence of a lady, he had put on a long-sleeved shirt beneath his leather vest, but it didn't help disguise his go-to-hell attitude, the mirrored sunglasses or the old silver spurs on his well-worn boots. The officer came out of the car with his hand on his gun.
Gabe sighed. One of these days he was going to have to make a change in his appearance, if only to alleviate some of this crap.
"Put your hands in the air," the officer shouted as he slid into a half crouch behind the open door of his car, aiming his revolver at Gabe.
Annie had had enough. "It wasn't him, for God's sake!" she shouted, slamming her briefcase down on the sidewalk as she swept over to the two men. "If it was, do you think he'd be standing there waiting to be arrested? He's with me," she said, and then buried her face in her hands.
Gabe's fingers slid up the back of her neck in a gentle, reassuring squeeze.
"It's okay, Annie." he said quietly. "It's happened before."
The officer made no apology for his misunderstanding as he bolstered his gun.
Less than thirty minutes later the report had been made. They watched as the officer drove away with their meager information in his possession. What they had was a vandalized car and a lot of suspicions. But as he'd told them, in his business, you couldn't take suspicion to court.
"I'll have to call a cab," she said, eyeing the ruined car and then her watch.
Gabe shook his head and pointed at her skirt. "Not if you're willing to change your clothes." Her eyebrows arched as his suggestion sank in. "Put on some pants, Annie O'Brien, and I'll get you to work on time."
Just thinking about what her superintendent would say when she arrived at work on the back of a Harley made her nervous, and then a determined glint came in her eyes, changing them to a darker shade of jade.
"Why not?" she muttered, and ran to change.
Gabe smiled. He was beginning to like Annie O'Brien more and more. She was his kind of woman. And then the smile slid off his face. He didn't have women … of any kind. It didn't pay to care when you knew you couldn't stay.
* * *
"Wow! Would you look at that?" one of the students shouted, pointing toward the motorcycle and its riders as they turned into the staff parking lot.
Allen Baker, the administrator in charge of the high school, frowned. "They can't park there," he muttered, and stomped toward the bike.
The first bell was ringing as Annie swung her leg over and dismounted. She could hear the bell's shrill peal through the helmet Gabe had made her wear.
I can just imagine what my hair's going to look like, she thought, then looked up in time to see her boss heading toward her. She grimaced. Perfect timing!
She ran her hands through her hair and sighed. It was hopeless. Settling for a redo of her outfit, she began to tuck the tail of her blue silk blouse back into the waistband of her navy linen slacks.
Late-arriving students were making a mad dash across the parking lot. Teachers were strolling through the doors on their way to their classrooms. But Gabe Donner's instincts homed in on the tall, overweight man in a plaid sports coat and navy slacks who was lumbering across the pavement toward them.
"A friend of yours?" Gabe asked, readjusting his sunglasses, then nonchalantly using his fingers for a comb as he thrust them through his wind-blown hair with casual abandon.
"My boss," Annie said, and sighed as she handed him his helmet.
"I say," Allen Baker began. "You can't park here. This is reserved for—" A stunned expression crossed his face as he recognized the face that had emerged from under the shiny black helmet. "Miss O'Brien! What on earth do you mean by arriving in such a…?"
"Mr. Baker. I'd like you to meet Gabriel Donner. He'll be accompanying me to class for the remainder of the school year. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to hurry or I'll be late."
Allen Baker turned pasty white. He wanted to argue. But nothing more than a gasp slid past his lips as he grabbed her arm, stopping her progress, then stared fearfully at the tall, ominous-looking man who stepped between them.
"What do you mean, he'll be accompanying you to class? We don't allow people to monitor classes without special permission from—"
"I'm not monitoring anything but Annie's welfare," Gabe said quietly, gently removing Allen Baker's hand from her arm.
Baker shuddered as the big man's gaze warned him to look but not touch. As much as he would have liked to, he didn't have the guts to refuse someone who looked as if he'd climbed up from Hell to spend the day on earth.
"I don't understand," Baker said.
"I hired him," Annie said.
"Hired him for what?" Baker asked, wondering what on earth this biker could possibly do that was worthy of a pay-check.
"Bodyguard," Gabe said, daring the man to argue.
Allen Baker had a mental flash of an earlier meeting with Annie O'Brien. He remembered her complaints about student harassment and vaguely remembered telling her to change her style of dress. He looked from her to the bike and back again in panic. This wasn't what he'd had in mind.
"You can't have a personal bodyguard," Allen Baker argued. "Whatever protection a teacher needs is furnished by the district."
"Then why didn't she get it?" Gabe asked. "Why was this woman left to deal with her problem on her own?"
Gabe didn't get an answer to his question, nor had he expected one. They left Allen Baker standing in the breezeway with his mouth agape as Annie hurried away with Gabriel Donner only a half step behind.
"The superintendent's not going to like this," Baker said, as he finally came to his senses and headed for his office.
"He's not going to like this at all." And then he frowned and shuddered. "And God help us if the media gets wind of the fact that a teacher in this system felt compelled to actually hire her own security."
He began to run.
The closer Gabe and Annie got to her classroom, the louder the noise level became. Annie gave him a nervous glance over her shoulder as she started inside.
"I'm right behind you," Gabe said quietly.
The deep, level tone of his voice, as well as the reassuring touch of his hand on her shoulder, did what he'd intended.
Her stomach settled, her heart rate decreased, and a calm expression spread across her face. She opened the door and walked into the room.
Damon Tuttle's hand slid up her arm, and in spite of the fact that she'd been braced to fight, she found herself being thrust against the blackboard behind her. His pale face, rank odor, red-rimmed eyes and cold stare told her more than she wanted to know. Even if he wasn't high now, he'd obviously spent most of the night that way.
"Take your seat, Damon," Annie said firmly, pushing him away from her.
He grinned and let his gaze rake her body from head to toe in a rude, sexual manner.
"I'm a little surprised to see you, Annie-Annie. Thought you might chicken…"
The sneer slid off of Damon Turtle's face as his gaze went from Annie's nervous expression to the man who'd walked up behind her.
"Now, why would you think something like that?" Annie asked. "I haven't missed a day of school this year."
Damon flushed and looked nervously away as the big biker from yesterday pulled off his sunglasses and started toward him. In spite of his determination to remain belligerent, he felt himself backing away.
"Hey, boy," Gabe said softly, for Damon's ears alone. "I thought we settled all of this yesterday."
Damon tried to bluster his way out of the fact that, step-by-step, the biker was backing him all the way down the aisle to his seat, but it was no use. The obvious fact was that he was scared out of his mind.
; "What's he doing here?" Damon asked loudly, and pointed toward Gabe, who refused to budge from his personal space.
"Who? Oh! You must mean Mr. Donner," Annie said in an offhand manner. "Just pretend he's not here," she said, quickly taking charge of her class. "Students, please take your seats."
Gabe grinned at Damon, and the boy shuddered at the feral gleam in the big man's eyes.
"She's right," Gabe said. Sweeping his hand out to encompass the class of gaping students who'd suddenly realized he was there to stay. "You won't even know I'm around."
And then he stunned the entire class as his whispered warning swept across the room. "But so help me, if one of you has one cross word to say to her … or looks at Miss O'Brien with anything other than a question about school on your mind, I'll take care of you myself." There was a long pause before he finished. "Have I made myself clear?"
They nodded as one, while silently absorbing the fact that their teacher had obviously hired herself a big gun. And then a tall, skinny youth at the back of the room stood up, making a subtle but daring move as he shoved his hands in his pockets while waiting for permission to speak.
Gabe's gaze swept over the young black man, and then he nodded. "You have something you need to say to me?" he asked softly.
"All I'm saying is … Miss O'Brien is one fine lookin' lady … if you know what I mean. So if you see me lookin' at her and you don't like the way I'm doin' it … then you just better bust my chops now, man, cause I can't help admiring the obvious."
Gabe chuckled, ignoring the flush that swept up Annie's face. "Yeah, man. I know what you mean, she is pretty. But the deal is to respect her, not take her apart … if you know what I mean."
The young man nodded and shrugged, then grinned and sat back down. A sprinkling of soft laughter flowed from one end of the room to the other, setting the mood for the rest of the class.