“Well…yes. But not only don’t I have Sinclair’s fortune, but I don’t have his polish or sophistication either. At heart, I’m an ex-soldier, special ops. I’m a blunt instrument to Sinclair’s fine Toledo blade.”
“I think you’re underestimating her,” Ash insisted. “And isn’t it because she’s trying to divorce the fine Toledo blade that this situation occurred at all?”
“Yes…”
Ash straightened to give Gabriel a heavy slap on the back. “If you want the girl, then you have to grow a pair, bro.”
“You have such a way with words!”
“What I have is my girl, and if you want Angel to be yours, then you need to do what it takes to get her.”
Easier said than done when everything Gabriel did, even if it was for the right reasons, seemed to push Angel further away from him.
Chapter 7
“Is this bedroom okay for you?”
Angel turned in answer to Ethan’s query from the 180-degree nighttime view of the Mediterranean. She was feeling less tense in the knowledge Daniel was only a couple of miles away on Clive’s closely guarded estate.
The flight to Majorca had been uneventful. They had even eaten dinner on board. “They” being six men dressed in black, Gabriel having introduced them as more employees of Knight Security before he disappeared into the cockpit.
Minutes later, the plane had begun to taxi toward the runway of the private airfield and then taken off, with Gabriel as the pilot.
Which was when Jack Kramer, tied up and strapped into a seat at the back of the sleek, compact jet, already furious at being tricked into believing Angel was dead, had begun to shout his objections at being taken to Majorca. One of the men moved to sit beside him, talking softly for several minutes before Kramer went suddenly silent.
After that, Angel slept for much of the flight. She had managed to eat a little of the food, and quite frankly was exhausted from the events of the day.
The drive up into the mountains, made in the two black SUVs that had been waiting for them at the airport, had been a familiar one to Angel. They had even driven past the entrance to the long driveway to Clive’s estate. Angel had been hidden behind the smoke-glass windows and easily recognized the two guards patrolling up and down inside the gate as being part of Clive’s personal security team.
The private villa Ethan had found for them was perched on the side of one of the mountains, looking out over Banyalbufar and the beautiful blue-green sea beneath the terraced village. The villa itself was huge, with its own private swimming pool and enough bedrooms to accommodate all the men from Knight Security if they doubled up.
In fact, all would have been perfect if Angel had Daniel with her.
“It’s lovely, thank you,” she finally answered Ethan. “Does the owner of this villa actually know we’re here?” she prompted suspiciously.
He grimaced. “Not exactly. But we’ll make sure it’s all good before we leave,” he added hastily as her eyes widened.
Zander had introduced the two of them on their arrival at the villa. Ethan seemed far more laid-back than his twin, Caleb. Ethan also had flirtatious hazel-green eyes rather than his twin’s pale green and enigmatic ones.
“Anything I can get you?” He quickly changed the subject. “Drink? Something to eat?”
“No, I ate and drank on the plane, thank you.” She frowned slightly. “Where’s Gabriel?” He hadn’t traveled in the same SUV as her and had disappeared as soon as they reached the villa. At the time, she had presumed he had gone to talk to Ethan about the security he had put in place in the surrounding grounds. Except Ethan was here with her…
“He had some stuff to do—”
“Ethan.”
“—and asked me to—”
“Ethan.”
“Yes?” He eyed her guardedly.
“I asked where Gabriel is. And don’t tell me again how busy he is,” she added firmly as she guessed he was about to do exactly that. “Is the wound on his side bothering him?”
“What wound?” Ethan looked genuinely puzzled.
“Men!” She breathed exasperatedly, not in the least surprised Ethan had no idea his brother had been injured in the shooting this morning. “Tell me where Gabriel is. Now.”
“Whoa, you’re quite scary when you want to be, aren’t you?” He grinned his appreciation.
“Terrifying.” She didn’t even attempt to hide her sarcasm. All the Knight brothers were at least a foot taller and probably weighed twice as much as her.
His grin deepened. “I’m really surprised Gabriel didn’t hang on to you when he had the chance.”
Angel stiffened at this reference to the past. “Maybe he didn’t have a choice.”
Ethan’s eyes widened. “You turned him down?”
“He didn’t ask.”
“Oh.”
She smiled tightly. “Now could you tell me where he is?”
“Last bedroom on the right at the top of the stairs.”
At the complete opposite end from Angel’s bedroom, which was the last bedroom on the left at the top of the stairs. Coincidence? Angel didn’t think so. For some reason, Gabriel had been avoiding her since they left England. And she intended finding out why.
“What on earth are you doing?”
Gabriel tensed at the sound of Angel speaking but continued reapplying the new dressing to his wound. “What does it look like I’m doing?” His snarled comment was less that inviting.
“Making a mess of things,” she answered bluntly as she stepped into the bathroom adjoining his bedroom and pushed his hands and the new dressing out of the way so she could look at the wound. “This is infected.”
“It’ll calm down in a couple of hours. I’ve injected an anti-inflammatory drug into the wound—”
“You injected yourself?”
He raised dark brows. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“Well, of course I— Never mind.” Angel’s impatience was barely leashed as she shook her head. “I’m guessing treating yourself is another part of your special ops training.”
“Part of, yes. What the hell…!” Gabriel hissed as she accidentally touched the swollen and inflamed wound on his side. “That hurt, damn it.”
“Don’t be such a baby.” She quickly and efficiently applied the fresh dressing before looking up at him with dark gray eyes. “Why are you avoiding me?”
He frowned his irritation. “I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Okay, I am,” he conceded. “I thought it was what you wanted.”
“What I wanted?”
He shrugged. “My method of questioning Kramer earlier obviously upset you.”
“The situation, the relief of knowing where Daniel is upset me. Realizing there are so many parts of you I don’t know upset me. But not the way you dealt with Kramer.”
“Oh.”
Angel gave a tired sigh. “We’re still not communicating very well, are we?”
“Not verbally, no,” he conceded huskily, totally aware of how alone they were in his private bathroom, and that he, at least, was completely bare above the waist.
Instead of stepping away as Gabriel had expected her to, Angel moved closer to him. “How’s your side now?”
“Fine,” he answered slowly.
“Then I think there are enough complications without the two of us continuing to misunderstand each other. For instance.” She placed her cooler hands against the heat of Gabriel’s chest. “What’s your guess as to what I’m thinking right now?”
Gabriel remained silent, knowing what he wanted it to be. He just didn’t want to cause further friction between the two of them by making assumptions. Angel could just be in need of a reassuring cuddle rather than full-blown lovemaking.
“Now?” She stepped even closer before tilting her head back and trailing the softness of her lips along his clenched jawline. “Or now?” Gabriel held his breath as the heat of her lips traveled down the length of his th
roat before her tongue dipped into the hollow at its base. “How about now?” She moved lower, the moist rasp of her tongue sweeping across the tautness of his nipple, savoring, tasting, before showing its twin the same attention.
Gabriel drew in a sharp breath as the pleasure and blood shot straight to his cock, causing it to rise and engorge. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Angel.”
She glanced up at him beneath silky lashes. “I’m a little rusty, if you want to help me out?”
“You seem to be managing to communicate just fine without any help from me.” His jaw was clenched so tightly, he could barely speak, his need and hunger for Angel’s touch making it impossible to think, to feel anything but the moist sweep of her tongue against his sensitized flesh.
She smiled at him as she ran the tips of her fingers across his tautly roused nipples. “I do, don’t I?” she murmured with satisfaction, those fingertips now trailing down the silky dark hair veeing down his abdomen to the waistband of his denims. “Still think I want to avoid being with you?” she teased.
“I’m a little less convinced of it,” he conceded dryly.
Angel chuckled, the warmth of her breath a sensual caress.
Gabriel made no attempt to touch her, holding himself back rather than risk breaking whatever spell they were both under. Angel had come to him. Was touching him. Surely that had to mean something? That she felt something for him, even if it was only lust, an adrenaline high much like the one he had felt earlier?
Gabriel wasn’t proud. He’d take what he could get.
“I don’t like this distance between us, Gabriel,” she murmured.
“I don’t like any distance between us!”
“There doesn’t have to be any…”
One of his arms snaked about Angel’s slender waist, his other hand moving to cup her chin as he tilted her face up toward his. He saw an answering desire in the dark depths of her gray eyes. “I’m too hyped up to be gentle with you,” he warned.
“I’m not asking you to be,” she assured him.
He gave a low groan as his head lowered and he captured her parted lips with his own, the kiss quickly deepening as he thrust his tongue into the wet heat of her mouth. Angel answered that intimacy by stroking her own tongue along his, adding fuel to the fire, until it raged out of control and threatened to consume them both.
“Maybe we should move out of the bathroom?” Angel teased as Gabriel helped her to take off her T-shirt, chuckling as Gabriel seemed surprised by their surroundings. “You’re injured, Gabriel!” she protested as he swung her up into his arms and strode out of the bathroom.
He glanced down at her. “Compared to other injuries I’ve had in the past, it really is no more than a scratch, and if I don’t get inside you soon, I’m going to hurt someone.”
Angel felt the same way. Their gazes locked as Gabriel put her down, and they quickly took each other’s clothes off.
Gabriel lay down beside her on the bed once they were both naked and slowly began to kiss his way down over her breasts and her flat abdomen. “These really are beautiful.” He moved to lie between her parted legs as he kissed each and every silvery line. “So fucking beautiful.” He glanced up at her. “I wish I could have seen you when you were pregnant with Daniel.”
“I looked like a waddling duck in the ninth month.”
“You looked beautiful,” he stated with certainty. “And sexy.”
Like a lot of pregnant women, Angel’s hair had become glossier, her skin smoother, eyes glowing with contentment, as if to compensate for the other bodily discomforts of pregnancy. So yes, maybe in that way, she had looked beautiful. She certainly hadn’t looked in the least sexy, though.
But if Gabriel thought she had…
Every thought flew out of her head as Gabriel moved lower still, and she felt his fingertips parting the folds between her thighs, his hands moving to grasp the cheeks of her bottom, holding her in place, as she felt the sweep of his hot breath against her sensitized flesh.
“God, I’ve missed this,” he rasped. “For the smell of you.” He breathed her in. “The taste of you.”
His words alone were enough to cause the juices to flow more readily, her nether lips swelling, the walls of her channel relaxing in welcome. She groaned, her hips lifting as she felt the first swipe of his tongue lapping up those juices.
Clive had hated the intimacy of oral sex—
Gabriel growled, looking up at her, eyes dark and stormy. “I told you never to think of him when the two of us are together.”
There was no comparison between these two men. She only had to look at Gabriel to become aroused, felt on the edge of release every time he touched her. She’d never had a single orgasm with Clive, in eight years of marriage. He and those years were already forgotten. Gabriel had wiped them from her memory as if they had never been.
“I want you, Gabriel.” She threaded her fingers in the dark thickness of his hair. “Only you. Please… Yes!” she cried out as Gabriel’s tongue pierced the slick, wet heat of her channel.
His groan reverberated through her, causing the juices to flow even more copiously, to be lapped up and swallowed greedily.
His tongue became an instrument of torture. Hot and firm, stroking, licking, before plunging hard and deep into her throbbing channel. Each time taking her to the very edge of release before retreating, his caresses soothing, before he started that pleasurable torture all over again.
Angel was awash with sensations. Heat surged in her veins. Hot pleasure coursed through her body. So many sensations, so much pleasure, she felt as if she would shatter into a million pieces when—if—Gabriel ever allowed her release.
His tongue was now a torturous lash against the throbbing of her clit, one moment velvet soft, the next hard and demanding, causing that bud to pulsate, hunger, as Angel hungered.
“Gabriel, please!” Her cry was one of desperation now. She needed that release as much as she needed her next breath. “Stop tormenting me!”
He glanced up at her, his eyes dark, lips wet with her juices. “Tell me what you want.” His fingers were gripping her flesh so tightly, they were sure to leave bruises. “Do you want my tongue inside you again? My fingers? My cock?”
“All of them. I want all of you. Please, Gabriel…” She sobbed with that need as her head thrashed from side to side on the pillow beneath her.
His eyes glittered his satisfaction before his head swooped back down, tongue lashing against her aroused clit, before the heat of his mouth closed over it fully, suckling deeply at the same time as he thrust two fingers deep inside her slick pussy. He set an uncompromising rhythm that quickly had Angel crying out as the climax ripped through her body, tearing her apart before all the pieces fell back together again. That first climax was followed by another. And then another.
Gabriel was remorseless, taking her higher with each climax, his fingers digging into her flesh as he held her up to him as if she were a feast to gorge himself on.
“I can’t get enough of the sweet taste of you.” Gabriel lapped up and swallowed down each rush of Angel’s juices as they flowed over his fingers and trickled down to moisten that second opening.
He wanted to take her there too. To claim and possess every part of her. He wanted to brand her, mark her, so she would never again doubt who she belonged to. Angel was his, damn it. His. Every glorious, fucking inch of her.
“You belong to me.” He moved up her body, pushing her legs wider apart as his hips came level with hers. “Me, do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“No one else.” His head swooped, and his teeth sank into her shoulder, sucking on the creamy flesh as she cried out, bruising her as he left his mark where only he would see it. “Mine.”
“Yours,” she acknowledged breathily, her fingers gripping the hair at his nape.
Gabriel claimed her lips, tongue sliding into her mouth and becoming entangled with hers as he lifted his hips and then thrust forward, burying hi
s cock deep into the heat of her pussy. He thrust so deeply, the sensitive tip hit the opening of her womb, instantly sending her into another climax and threatening to take him with her as the walls of her channel contracted and squeezed his cock.
“Not yet, damn it,” he groaned. He hadn’t had nearly enough of her yet.
He moved up onto his elbows so he could hold her gaze with his as he thrust into her slowly and deeply, pushing her up the bed a little with each powerful plunge, before his hips moved back and he surged deep inside her again.
Angel’s breath became a shallow sob as Gabriel’s thrusts turned to a fast, driving rhythm, his cock so big, it possessed her totally, stretching her, touching every nerve ending, the sensation so intensely pleasurable, it became almost unbearable. The approaching climax built higher and higher, one she was sure she wouldn’t recover from as the pleasure exploded in a shower of color and light, followed by a wave of darkness she only just drew back from.
And still Gabriel continued those relentless thrusts, as if he were punishing her. For ever doubting him. For leaving him. For marrying another man.
Angel took that punishment and returned it with some of her own. For leaving her. For not coming back. For giving her no choice but to marry another man.
She deliberately tightened her inner muscles so she could hear his groans of pleasure as he fought to hang on to his control. Her fingernails dug into the flesh of his shoulders, and then into his back as she arched up to meet his remorseless thrusts.
And all the time, their gazes remained locked on each other. Fierce. Glittering. Challenging.
Until Gabriel gave a low groan, lids squeezing shut, expression fierce, and he cried out as his cock began to pulse inside her and the searing jets of his release sent Angel into yet another heated climax.
Her muscles tightened about him repeatedly, drawing every last hot and pulsing ejaculation from him.
He rested his head weakly against her shoulder. “Jesus,” he groaned.
She laughed softly, feeling too satiated to make a coherent reply.
Challenging Gabriel (Knight Security 2) Page 10
