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I gestured to his drawings of me. “What questions were you working through when you drew these?”
He was silent for so long, I almost thought he’d gone. When I tore my eyes away from the drawings, I found him looking at me with concern in his eyes.
“I was working through…” he turned back to the drawings and pressed a hand to the armoire, “…questions about you, I guess. I drew this one the first day I saw you in the woods. The way you stared at me, it was like you could see right through me. Part of me thought you were a deceiver, but in my soul I knew that wasn’t true. Drawing you helped me figure that out.”
My eyes followed his lips as he talked. He looked back at me and his eyes trailed the spray of blood down my shirt.
“What happened tonight?”
My stomach hardened. I wasn’t ready to talk about that just yet.
“And the drawing about the pyre, what was that about?” The question tumbled out of my mouth in one jumbled breath.
Gabe’s eyes narrowed and he moved closer until only inches separated our bodies. His arm bumped up against mine, sending a thrill through me.
“I was trying to understand what made me turn around that night.” His voice was raspy and full of emotion. “I’d already made it halfway to the manor when I got the feeling you were in trouble. If I’d waited another minute, you would’ve been taken by the demon.”
He turned and took my shoulders in his hands. “Tell me what happened tonight. Why are you soaked in blood?”
“Ashley…” I took a shuddering breath and bit my lip to keep the tears from coming. “Adam and I went ahead with the plan, using me as bait. We went into the woods to look for the demon. Ashley, Adam, and me.”
He cursed and his grip tightened on my shoulders. “I’m going to kill Adam.”
I shook my head. “Please don’t be mad at him. We were all stupid. We went out there and Margaret did come. She tried to take me. Ashley and Adam fought her off, but Ashley got hurt.”
My voice broke and I hung my head. So much for no one else getting hurt. We’d taken things into our own hands and still made a mess.
Gabe’s voice softened. “Is she okay?”
“Yeah, they said she’d be okay eventually.”
I turned my face away and stared at the last drawing – the close up of my face. Gabe’s hands fell to his side, but I could still feel him watching me.
“Tell me about this last drawing.”
He shifted his weight and drew in a long breath.
“This was from the meeting with the board.”
That night had been such a shock for me. I was surprised to see his drawing didn’t show a deer-in-the-headlights expression on my face. Instead, he’d given me a soft smile that lit up my eyes.
“And what did you learn?”
He cupped my chin with the palm of his hand, sending a shiver down my spine. I turned my head to look at him and found myself staring into his smoldering green eyes. He had the same dangerous look on his face as he had in the training facility this morning. It was the kind of look that made heat rise in my belly.
His thumb caressed the corner of my mouth before he whispered, “I learned that I wanted to do this.”
Leaning into me, he pressed his lips softly against mine. It only took me a second to get over the shock. My body reacted to his, my mouth meeting his with a hunger that threatened to drive me mad. I parted my lips and gasped as his tongue entered my mouth. He tasted like sweet wine and mint.
Running my hands up his neck, I pulled him closer, our kisses growing more urgent. He obliged with a moan and pressed me hard against the armoire. My mind ran wild with desire. I pictured him planting kisses down my body and touching me in every place imaginable. I wanted to taste the salty skin of his abdomen, discover every plane of his beautiful body with my tongue.
As if he could read my mind, his hands moved to my buttocks and he lifted me so that I could wrap my legs tight around his torso. He pulled me away from the armoire and carried me to the unmade bed on the other side of the room. We landed hard on the mattress and he tore at my shirt, yanking it over my head in one smooth motion.
I moaned as his kisses trailed along my jawline and moved to my earlobe. He didn’t stay there long. Continuing down my neck and to my collarbone, he finally paused above my bra. The wait was torture. I dug my nails into his back and willed him to keep going.
“Don’t stop,” I panted.
He gave a helpless sigh and then pressed his lips to the crest of my breasts. I arched my back to meet him, giving him all of me. I suddenly realized this is what I’d so desperately wanted to do with him since I first saw him in the forest. He was the only one that could put out this fire that had built up inside me.
