The monster who’d tried to save her from herself.
“Gabriel,” she breathed, and a new fire rose inside her, a fury that had nothing to do with dead mages and everything to do with his hands. His mouth.
She tore open his wet shirt and ran her hands up his chest, then brought her mouth to his smooth skin, licking his nipple, tasting the salt of the sea. Gabriel shivered, his dick growing hard, his breath turning ragged.
He lifted her off her feet, and in another dizzying blur, he pushed her against the wall, pinning her with his muscled body, heat cresting between them.
He shoved the dress up around her waist, and she wrapped her legs around his hips, his wet pants cold against her bare thighs. She gripped his shoulders and held on, her heart beating so loudly for his touch, it finally drowned out the memory of the pounding surf.
Gabriel fisted her hair, his chest pinning her in place, his other hand sliding between her thighs, fingers seeking her wet heat.
Mouth hot and close to her ear, he growled another warning. “Noone touches you but me. Monster, mage, or man, I will bleed and burn themallfor you, Jacinda Colburn.”
He kissed her neck, her jaw, dragging his lips to hers, and for a minute she thought he might finally kiss her, despite all her earlier refusals. But then he lowered his mouth to her throat instead, her skin searing beneath his ravenous kisses.
Gabriel freed his cock from his pants, shoved aside her underwear, and thrust inside her, filling her, claiming her, stealing her back from the sea that had tried to take her, his touch so hot and fierce and alive it made her weep.
Jaci rode him hard as he held her close, the rain crashing down all around them—the whole damnworldcrashing down. Her back rubbed against the rotten wood, shoulder blades scraped raw from the force of his wild thrusts, the salt of the ocean filling her mouth and nose, mixing with his evergreens-in-winter scent until she felt the rest of the world evaporate, leaving her alone in the wild with her vampire, no secrets between them, no lies, no wars or alliances. Only heat. Only passion. Only fire.
It felt as if hours had passed, Gabriel plunging into her again and again, bringing her back, marking her, owning her. But when she finally came, it happened in a sudden gasp, a burst of light and heat that snuck up on her, exploding in a storm of chaos. She cried out for him, fingernails digging into his shoulders, and when she drew back and looked into his eyes, in their stormy green depths she saw her nightmares, the darkest monsters that haunted her steps. Whether it was a mirror or a premonition or a glimpse into his own private hell, she couldn’t tell, but it bound them in a way she couldn’t describe, a way she knew they both recognized but would never speak of.
The moment passed. Gabriel’s thrusts intensified, and then he came inside her, trembling and hot, slamming her against the wall, holding her so tight she feared death had finally come for her after all.
Chapter Thirty-Two
They left the boathouse in silence. The ocean murmured softly now, like a petulant child who’d worn herself out with a tantrum. Jaci understood the feeling.
The vampire walked a few paces ahead, Jaci’s footing uneven on the cold sand, one foot bare, the other aching in the shoe that had somehow survived the storm.
Gabriel stopped. Turned around and looked at her. Turned back and stared out across the sea, as if the tumble and roil held the answers he sought.
Jaci couldn’t even imagine what he was thinking. Other than a few spells and the time she’d killed those grays near the hospital, she hadn’t shown him a whisper of her real magic. Of the darkness that churned inside her. The power.
He’d never even asked. For all the time they’d spent together, all the hours he’d stalked her every move, when it came to her witchcraft—the very magic that made her tick—he’d only everdemanded.
Tell me about the grays, witch. Find the source of this curse, witch. Don’t get emotional, witch. Don’t forget who owns you, witch.
Even now, when she caught up to him on the shore and he spoke the first words he’d uttered since the boathouse, he said only, “Duchanes.”
The name burned through his lips, burned into her chest like an accusation.
She shook her head, and he turned back toward the sea, pacing the shoreline once more, back and forth, back and forth, muttering to himself. To her. To the sky.
“What thefuckwas that?” he asked. “The mage… He touched you, and the chanting… The blood and the salt… There was a storm, and you… You just…” He shoved a hand through his wet hair. When he finally stopped pacing, he glared at her, his face tight with confusion and dread.
“What the fuck was that?” he repeated. This time, it was only a whisper, but it burned her just the same.
Jaci closed her eyes, the tears already stinging. But what did she expect? Gabriel was a vampire prince, brother to the king she’d helped to poison, the family she’d been working against… He didn’t care about her. Why would he?
No one touches you but me. Monster, mage, or man, I will bleed and burn themallfor you, Jacinda Colburn…
That’s all it was to him. He’d slaughtered a dozen mages all because they’d touched his property. All because he needed to send another fucking message.
The fact that he’d saved her life? That he’d brought her back from the darkness? She was a fool to think it had anything to do with her.
“I botched the Duchanes intel,” she answered, as if that it explained it all.
Gabriel shook his head and sighed, his eyes veiled. “And the storm? The wave?”
