Love Beyond Loyalty

  Christophe heard him walk away, and this time he didn't pause. With the sound of chanting in his ears, not something he could make sense of even if he'd had the time to stop and think about where the noise came from, he moved swiftly through the hall in the direction where it sounded like the creature took the woman.

  After he'd walked a few feet, he found himself in front of a door. He tried the door handle and found it wasn't locked. Shrugging at the indolence of the man who had stashed the woman inside, he turned the handle and opened the door.

  Behind him, he could hear three men shouting at one another, and he wondered if one of them was Leonardo. It was amazing how much his agenda shifted in just a few hours. When he'd arrived in New York, all he'd wanted was to find the man who probably hollered at the door right now.

  Instead, he'd all but fallen immediately in love with a woman named Ruby who taught history and didn't seem to notice him at all. Now, he was God-knew-where trying to rescue a brunette from something that was capable of using dark magic.

  Who would have thought it?

  The door opened to a wooden staircase. Closing it behind him so as to not draw attention to the fact that he'd gone in at all, he crept down the stairs not even turning on the light. It was dark, almost pitch black, with little to no light making its way through the slits in some windows found in the back of the room.

  "Who's there?"

  The woman must have heard him approach despite his efforts at quiet.

  "Do not be alarmed. My name is Dr. Christophe Roux. I mean you no harm. Through a strange set of circumstances I find myself at this house in a position to help you."

  He moved toward the side of the room where her voice sounded.

  "I'm Isabelle Listora, and I don't know what these circumstances are but I'm so unbelievably happy to see, well, hear you."

  "I need to hurry." He moved fast, finally finding his way to her. Reaching above his head, he turned on a light on the ceiling by pulling a lamp cord. Isabelle was sitting on top of a box.

  "I know." She raised her chained hands, which were attached to the ground, and then lifted her legs to show they were also secured. "It's pretty helpless. You're not getting me out of here. He has the keys. But maybe you could still help me. You could call someone. My husband, his name is Kal, he needs to know I'm okay."

  "If he is with Leonardo, then they arrived at the door a few minutes ago."

  The woman chewed on her lip. "Drat. He won't be any help since he's bound to be captured any second. Can you get out of here and call my friends? Their names are Gabriel Ward and Loraine Peacock." She proceeded to tell him a number to remember.

  It was a good thing he'd always had a brain that could store information easily.

  "I will call them."

  He looked down to see that his hands were starting to disappear.

  Isabelle's eyes got huge. "You're vanishing."

  "I told you, it's a strange set of circumstances."

  Gasping, Isabelle grinned. "You're one of us."

  He didn't have time to ask her what she meant by that. He'd be gone any second.

  "Where are we?"

  "Tell Gabe to come to Sebastian's house. Tell him I'm sorry."

  Chapter Thirteen

  Gabriel landed gently on the ground and lowered Loraine down so that she stayed pressed to his body. He wasn't ready to let go of her. Wouldn't be able to do that for hours, if he was lucky.

  "Where are we?"

  "The man who sold me my boat owns this place. He's gone up North to visit his son for three months."

  He started to move forward but stopped when Loraine pressed her hands to his chest. "Are you telling me we're going to break into this guy's house to…?"

  Grinning, he kissed the end of her nose. "To make love, yes. Come on, he won't mind. He's a buddy of mine."

  "Still, how is he going to feel about us breaking in?"

  He could have laughed at his soul mate's indignation. Someday, maybe, he'd tell her all about his upbringing and why breaking into a friend's house would be last on his list of lifetime offenses.

  For now, however, he could make her feel better. "It's not breaking in. He likes me to occasionally check on things. I have the key."

  His statement seemed to temporarily mollify her; although he could see from the way her gaze darted back and forth that she was still nervous and uncomfortable. That wasn't exactly the way he'd pictured making love to her for the first time.

  He wondered if he'd already blown the mood so badly that his sexual plans for the evening should be called off. They walked together up the stairs to the house. Gabriel groaned. Frank, his friend whose house he was 'borrowing' for the evening, had reinforced his support beams with the same wood Gabriel had been attempting to use just days earlier when Sebastian tried to drown him.

  Now, he didn't have a house, but he had a soul mate. All things considered, he'd come out on top. Still, it might be nice to have his own bed to take her to. Not to mention, he'd like to beat the shit out Sebastian until he was dead.

  If that was possible.

  Putting the key in the slot, he pushed open the door. The lights were all off, and he was sure there was nothing in the fridge, but at least it was civilized.

  Loraine walked a few steps in front of him. She looked up at the ceiling. Following her gaze, he saw three skylights illuminating the room with moonlight. Gabe could remember putting in the original windows, and then replacing them when they'd started to leak. They were pretty but a pain in the ass.

  He noticed Loraine staring at him with one eyebrow raised.

  "What?" Why did she stare at him?

  "You were remembering something funny just then, weren't you?"

  He nodded. "I was thinking about skylight repair. Why? How did you know?"

  "Honestly, you had the strangest expression. I knew you had to be remembering something interesting. Frankly, I had no idea you'd be thinking about house repairs."

  Gabe felt his cheeks heat up. "I really like building things with my hands or fixing things that are broken. I always have."

  "Wow, you're going to prove to be a useful person to have around, aren't you?"

  He rubbed his hands together. "Here's the thing."

  He took a deep breath knowing he had to say this, had to get it off his chest before he exploded from the need to do so. "I'm not stupid."

  She nodded. "I never thought you were. Have I given you the impression that I thought you were dumb?"

  Her tone was, at best, condescending, and, at worst, down right hostile. Wow, he'd bumbled that. It had never been his intention to make her mad.

  "No, please, hear me out. Okay?"

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she bit down on her lip. "Okay."

  "I didn't finish school. The only full year I completed was fifth grade. Otherwise, I went sometimes and other times I didn't, depending on the day, my mood, my situation, Alexa. You get the idea."

  Loraine sighed and dropped her defensive pose. She walked forward. "That's not your fault. Someone should have been doing a better job of watching what you did and did not do."

  "Un-adopted foster children are not overly protected. At least they weren't back then. Maybe things are better now."

  "I doubt it."

  He did too. "Anyway, I guess I have a chip on my shoulder about it, and somehow you, being a teacher, get my back up without you having to say a word."

  She touched his arm. "Are you under the impression that I somehow judge you based on your education or lack thereof?"

  "Maybe I judge myself." He shrugged to cover up just how comfortable the fact that he had to have this conversation made him. "In any case, I just want you to know that I recognize I haven't done everything I should have done. I know we're not exactly on equal footing."

  Loraine shoved him—hard. He stumbled backwards due more to his surprise than any real hurt she inflicted. Cocking his head to the side, he had to admit he was stunned.

  "You listen to m
e, Gabriel Ward, and you listen well."

  "Ah… okay." Gone was the condescending teacher voice or the patient, understanding lady. The tone Loraine had now was pure fury. Her cheeks were red, her eyes huge. In short, she was pissed.

  "This is your issue, not mine. Do you think I'm so incredibly insensitive that I have no idea what you've been through?"

  He started to interrupt, but she wouldn't let him. She raised a hand and jabbed in him the chest. "We were all dumped all over the world. I'm still not sure exactly why, but I somehow ended up with a kind elderly woman who told me she was my grandmother and raised me with love and compassion. You ended up in an orphanage responsible for another of our kind even as a baby."

  That was true. "Still, the fact remains that at some point you're going to realize I haven't read the same books you have, or that I have a whole slew of knowledge missing from my life."

  "If you think I'm going to care that you can't name verbatim the periodic table of elements or tell me what year the Magna Carta was written, you are greatly mistaken. None of that matters." She poked him in the chest again. "What matters is in here. How do you feel about me, Gabriel? Because when I look at you all I see is goodness, light, strength, and ability. Do you see someone who would judge you when you look at me?"

  Touching both of her cheeks, he felt a pang of regret form in his stomach caused by the pain he hadn't realized his words would inflict on her. "No, what I see is a beautiful woman who doesn't know all the ways she moves my heart."

  She pushed against him, and he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. "Did it ever occur to you that in this fight for the existence of mankind your skill set is going to prove to be more important than the fact that I joined the Cardinal Key Club in college or that once upon a time I took French?"

  He laughed. "All right, I'll get over it. I won't bring it up again."

  "I don't want you not to bring it up again. I want you not to feel it at all."

  "That might take a little bit more time."

  She sniffed dramatically. "Fine, I can wait."

  "You might be able to, but I can't."

  He leaned down and kissed her, amazed at how soft her lips were beneath his. Her curves pressed against him, and he thrilled in the fact that Loraine was soft in all the right places.

  She sighed and pulled her mouth back. "I want to feel your skin against mine."

  His heart rate sped up. He sputtered more than spoke. "Really? I kind of thought the mood had been ruined a couple of times now."

  "No." She shook her head. "You think you can be all turned on out there by that tree and then heat up my blood by making me angry without paying the piper, so to speak?"

  Wow, she was really amazing. He grinned from ear to ear then tried to contain it to look a little more sophisticated. Realizing it was futile; he decided Loraine probably wouldn't care if he wasn't smooth in his approach.

  "If my girl wants to make love, then that is what we will do."

  Picking her up in his arms, he rushed to the bedroom. Swinging open the door with a frantic kick, the door banged against the wall making a large whacking noise. In two steps, he reached the bed and settled Loraine gently on top of it. The bed squeaked like it needed a new mattress, but Gabriel couldn't care less. She was there, looking beautiful, innocent, sexy, and all his. They were alone in the house. They could make as much noise as they wanted to.

  He leaned over Loraine, kissing her, pressing his body snugly to hers. Using his elbows, he kept his weight from completely crushing her.

  "Skin, Gabriel, I want skin."

  He grinned. "Pushy woman."

  "I never would have thought I was, but apparently I am."

  "Works for me."

  They kissed, his tongue dancing with hers, hers thrusting against his, each stroke making him harder. Finally, he sat up on his knees, pulling his shirt over his head. She smiled, her mouth already slightly swollen from their kisses. It appealed to him on a primal level. He'd done that to her, and she'd loved every second of it. When he was done, he would claim more than just her mouth as his own.

  He watched as she unbuttoned her shirt, pulling it off to expose a bra that looked soft to the touch. It had a floral design. Yellow, pink, and purple petals decorated the device that held her heavenly looking breasts.

  "You said skin, right?"

  She nodded. "I did."

  "Great, so the bra is coming off." He unhooked the front clasp of her bra. Finally, she helped him by slipping it off her arms.

  "You did that smoothly, Gabriel."

  Trying not to laugh, he did his best imitation of a 1950's movie star. "That's me, I'm Mister Smooth."

  "Are you ticklish?" She poked at his stomach, and he lurched backwards.

  "Not particularly, but I'd really rather not find out if you can locate my sensitive spot."

  She laughed. "Ooh, you have a ticklish, sensitive spot? Where is it?"

  "No." He shook his head. "I'm not telling you."

  He kissed her again to distract her. She moaned against his mouth and he shivered. Wow, Loraine was hot. There was just no other way to describe her. Even touching her skin made him warmer.

  Reaching down, he finally got to pay attention to the boobs he'd longed to see. Loraine had full breasts. Under her clothes, her curves had taunted him. Now undressed, she was a vixen to behold.

  Sucking gently on her pink nipple, he moaned. He was so hard against his pants he might do something really humiliating like spill himself before she even touched his cock. He'd never been this hard this fast before.

  Forcing himself to let go of her breast, he felt desperate to tell her how incredible she was. "You're like a movie star. I mean it. I used to stay up late at night when I lived in a place that had a television, and the women in the old movies, the black and white ones, they had these amazing figures. I used to think that they were the most beautiful women in the world. But your body, you put them to shame. Loraine…"

  She placed her hand over his mouth. "I don't take compliments well."

  "What does that mean?"

  He still wanted to shout to the heavens how beautiful he found her body.

  "It means that I get uncomfortable."

  That didn't make any sense. "Fine. If I have to work on my insecurities, you have to work on yours."

  "Fair enough." She reached up and pulled him tighter on her. "Right now is not the time."

  "You're right, of course."

  She smiled. "You're easily distractible."

  "Not really." He pulled her hand to his aching groin to show her just how incredibly with her he really was.

  "Should we do something about that?'

  He nodded. "Eventually."

  First, there were more things to do with her breasts. Kneading the other one with his left hand, he sucked on the right one. He loved the little sounds she made and the way she squirmed.

  Using his tongue, he traced his way down from her breasts to her belly button. Her stomach was flat, her abs well defined and he wondered if it was a natural thing or if she worked at it. In any case, he'd never seen such a delectable sight in his life.

  "I'm not allowed to tell you how hot you are?"

  She shook her head as she gasped, her hands pulling at the back of hair. "Absolutely not."

  Gabe unhooked the button of her jeans. Doing that, he unzipped the zipper and tugged her pants twice until they were off. Positioning himself between her legs, he ran his hands from her knees up her perfectly rounded thighs and felt her shiver.

  "Your underwear matches your bra."

  She sucked in breath. "It does."

  "Do you always wear matching?"

  She widened her eyes. "You're really into details aren't you?"

  He had no idea. She still hadn't answered his question. "Well, do you?"

  "It looks like the only way you will get to know the answer to that question is to take my clothes off a lot and find out. For all you know, I don't wear any underwear most of the t
ime."

  The thought of Loraine going commando intrigued the hell out of him. Would there be a way to know? Would she go all day, walking around, with him thinking of nothing else except getting her naked to find out? The idea held merit.

  Loraine tugged at his pants, and finally he pulled them off. His length strained against his boxers, the tip of his penis pointing out of the buttonhole in the front.

  She smiled and touched the head of his cock. He could feel a small amount of pre-cum escape, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Desperate for control, he pushed her hand away even though it felt as if he'd been asked to cut off his left hand to make her do so.

  "Not time yet?"

  Through gritted teeth he spoke. "No."

  "You're certainly sure of the order of these things."

  "Just this once, Loraine. I'm so hard I might come any second if we're not careful, and I swear by all things holy, that this time—your first time—is going to be so fantastic you'll never forget it."

  She stroked his cheek. "Oh, Gabriel, just being with you makes it exceptional."

  Gabe pulled her panties down her legs. With a shaking hand, he stroked her inner warmth, thrilled to find out she was already wet. As he touched her, Loraine gasped, throwing her head against the pillow and closing her eyes.

  "Oh, Gabriel."

  He loved how she always called him by his full name. He loved how she sounded. He loved the way she chose her words. And, most of all, he loved how she seemed to have forgotten all of her decorum right now.

  With his thumb, he found her small bundle of nerves that he knew would make her crazy.

  Her eyes opened. "What?"

  "It's your sweet spot, darling, and I'm going to love playing with it."

  He stroked her gently, using the little noises she made as clues. When she bit down on her lip to stop herself from screaming, he knew he'd found the right amount of pressure, the right sequence of movements.

  Loraine came fast. It was a magnificent sight to behold. Her hands clenched at her sides as her back arched off the bed. The inner walls of her vagina clenching around his fingers and he was desperate to be inside of her. Dying to feel her clench around his cock.