GABRIEL HAWK'S LADY

by Beverly Barton

  "No, I'm not going back in." Rorie lightly touched Murdock's arm. "Will you do something for me?"

  "Sure, if I can."

  "Keep an eye on him." Rorie wrung her hands together. "Just until he's recovered and back on his feet."

  "You're leaving?"

  "Yes, Frankie and I are going home to Chattanooga today."

  "You didn't tell him, did you?" Murdock asked.

  "Tell him what?"

  "That you still love him. That you want to be Gabriel Hawk's lady for the rest of your life."

  "Well, there was no point in telling him. He'd already made it perfectly clear that he only wanted two things from me—my forgiveness and my body." Rorie looked directly into Murdock's sad hazel eyes. "I've given him both. He doesn't want anything else."

  "What if you're wrong?"

  "He knows where I live. If he wants me, I won't be hard to find."

  * * *

  Rorie followed her mother and Frankie out of the church and down the front steps to the sidewalk. She breathed in the crisp, cool, November air. What a glorious Sunday morning! Her father's sermon had been about family. He had introduced his grandson to the congregation. Everyone had cried, including Frankie, who had clung to his grandmother's side. Rorie was so pleased that her little nephew had taken an instant liking to her mother. But then, she'd never known a child who didn't respond positively to Bettye Lou Dean's warm and gentle loving.

  "I've invited the Newberrys for Sunday dinner," Bettye Lou told Rorie. "They have twin boys the same age as Frankie."

  "That was a wonderful idea, Mama."

  "Are you all right, Rorie? You don't seem yourself lately." Bettye Lou patted her daughter's arm affectionately. "You've been back from San Miguel for over two weeks now and—"

  "I'll be all right, Mama. I just need time to…" To what? she asked herself. To recover from being madly in love with Gabriel? To stop dreaming about him every night and fantasizing about him all day long, every day? Or to pretend that the home pregnancy test she'd taken hadn't been positive?

  "What you need is a husband," Bettye Lou said. "You're going on thirty years old and—"

  The roar of a motorcycle engine drowned out the after-service chatter of the congregation gathered on the front lawn of the church.

  "What in the world is that awful noise?" Bettye Lou turned around and gaped at the big man riding the powerful Harley-Davidson. "Who is that?"

  Gabriel drove the Harley straight up the sidewalk, stopping at the edge of the crowd. Rorie's mouth opened wide in a shocked gasp. Her heartbeat accelerated, the sound thundering in her ears.

  "Gabriel." She whispered his name as her gaze devoured the very sight of him.

  "Gabriel who?" Bettye Lou asked. "Gabriel Hawk? You mean that's the man who helped you bring Frankie out of San Miguel? Oh, my goodness. He looks like a … a—"

  "Yes, I know, Mama. He looks like a big, beautiful mongrel-dog hoodlum, doesn't he?"

  Ignoring her mother's continuing questions and the curious stares and murmurs from the congregation, Rorie made her way through the crowd. She stopped several feet away from Gabriel's motorcycle.

  "Hey, lady, do you want to go for a ride?"

  That wonderful, wicked, heart-stopping grin spread across his face. Rorie could barely suppress the joy bursting inside her.

  "Where to?" she asked.

  He looked at her, everything he felt showing plainly in his dark eyes. "To 'forever after,' honey. To the rest of my life, if you'll go with me."

  When he held open his arms, Rorie flew into his welcoming embrace. He kissed her there, in front of her parents and her father's Sunday congregation, and before God. When he ended the kiss, she hopped on the back of his Harley and they rode off down the street.

  * * *

  Hawk slammed Rorie's apartment door closed and tossed the keys on the sofa. They clung to each other, their mouths mating, their hands seeking buttons and zippers. Dropping articles of clothing on their way, they hurried toward the bedroom. Hawk lifted Rorie onto the bed, then kicked off his shoes and came down on top of her. She kissed his shoulders, his chest, his belly. He stripped her naked, all the while his hands caressing and arousing, and his lips whispering erotic words of seduction.

  "I love you, Rorie. I love you!"

  "Oh, Gabriel, I love you, too. I love you so very much."

  He lowered his head and took her mouth, possessing it with a hungry fury. She responded with equal fervor. The passion between them grew and expanded and consumed them completely.

  He licked and suckled her breasts, tormenting them until Rorie begged for mercy. With swift, unerring accuracy, he checked her readiness with his fingers. She closed her thighs around his hand, trapping him.

  "I want you," he said as he spread her legs apart and sought entrance to her body.

  "Make love to me, Gabriel." She gave herself to him, yielding to the powerful force within her that demanded satisfaction.

  He thrust into her. She arched her body, inviting his invasion, and tilted her head back into the pillow. He was hard and strong inside her as he thrust himself deeper and deeper. She moaned with pleasure.

  Fast and furious, he stroked in and out, taking all that she gave. She tightened around him, then cried out as fulfillment claimed her. While she spiraled out of control, intense pleasure shooting through her body, he hammered into her, his own release coming quickly. He groaned like a wild beast in the throes of passion.

  They lay in each other's arms, sated and happy beyond all reason. Gabriel caressed her hip. She snuggled against him.

  The afternoon sunlight shimmered through the lace curtains in Rorie's bedroom, casting a golden glow over the bed. Gabriel lifted a strand of her hair and brought it to his lips.

  "Mia dama dorado," he whispered against her cheek. "My golden lady."

  Rorie sighed with contentment. She had never known such happiness.

  Gabriel ran his hand from her shoulder to her hip. "You're getting too skinny, honey. You feel like you've lost more weight."

  Lifting herself up on one elbow, she leaned over him. Her hair fell over her shoulders, covering the tips of her breasts. "I've lost twenty pounds since I met you, but if you prefer me plump, just hang around a few months and I'll put those twenty pounds back on, plus some."

  "Are you trying to tell me that I'm going to have a fat wife?" he asked teasingly.

  "I'm trying to tell you that you're going to have a— Wife? Did you say wife?"

  "You are going to marry me, aren't you, Rorie?" He pulled her over and on top of him.

  "Yes, of course. I just didn't… I wasn't sure you'd… Oh, Gabriel, we're going to be so happy. You and me and our baby."

  His body tensed instantly. He grabbed the back of her head and forced her to face him. "Baby? What baby?"

  "The baby we created the night we made love in the ancient temple."

  "My God! Are you sure?"

  "I'm sure. I took a home pregnancy test, and those things are very accurate these days."

  He eased Rorie down on the bed and ran his hand across her stomach. "My baby." Tears welled up in his eyes. "Lady, you're incredible."

  "You're pretty incredible yourself, Gabriel Hawk."

  "Don't ever leave me, Rorie. Please." He held her close, burying his face in her hair. "And don't ever stop loving me."

  She soothed him with her touch. "I'll never leave you, Gabriel. And I'll love you forever."

  * * *

  Epilogue

  « ^

  Gabriel glanced down at Rorie and smiled. Holding her arms open, she motioned for him to come to her. He knelt beside the chaise longue and laid his hand on her protruding belly. "He loves the music," Rorie said, nodding toward the radio on the round glass table near the pool. "Ever since I turned on the radio, he's been moving constantly."

  Gabriel rubbed his palm over the fluttering movements inside Rorie. "Hey, boy, what are you doing in there? Dancing?"

  A shrill, happy squeal came from
the little girl cavorting in the pool with Frankie and Ronald Dean. Water splashed out onto Bettye Lou, who sat on the edge of the pool, her feet dangling off the side.

  "Y'all are getting too rambunctious," Bettye Lou scolded her husband and grandchildren.

  "I think our son is eager to come out and play with his big sister." Gabriel patted Rorie's tummy. "Have you noticed how he reacts every time he hears Gabi's voice?"

  "Well, he'll just have to wait another couple of months." Rorie grabbed Gabriel's arm. "Help me get up, will you, honey? I think I'll go back to our room and take a nap before dinner." She winked at her husband. "Don't you need a nap, too?"

  Gabriel helped her to her feet, then drew her into his arms. Nuzzling her nose, he whispered, "Do you suppose we can persuade your parents to take Gabi back to see Mickey Mouse this afternoon? Remember, we told her she could go into the park again before dinner."

  "I'll see what MaMa says." Rorie waddled across the hotel patio. "MaMa?"

  Hawk watched his wife—his beautiful, very pregnant wife—and his heart filled with love. Rorie had given him a life he'd never dreamed possible. She had cleansed his soul with her pure love and given him the family he had always wanted.

  "No, Mommy! No!" Four-year-old Gabriella Hawk climbed out of the shallow end of the pool and stomped her little foot. "I want you and Daddy to take me to see Mickey, not MaMa and PaPa."

  "Gabi, your mommy and daddy spent the entire morning with you in the park," Bettye Lou told her granddaughter. "Mommy's tired and needs to take a nap, so PaPa and I will take you and Frankie back to the park and afterward we'll get ice cream."

  "Hey, Gabi, I'll take your picture with Mickey Mouse," Frankie said.

  Gabi stomped her little foot again. "No, dammit! I want my daddy and mommy."

  Bettye Lou gasped. Ronald Dean grinned. Frankie laughed.

  Rorie placed her hand on her hip, turned around and glared at Gabriel. "When she acts like that, she's your daughter, Mr. Hawk. I've warned you about using bad language in front of her. She repeats everything she hears."

  Gabriel swooped his little girl up in his arms, tossing her over his head and then catching her. Gabi squealed with childish delight. Gabriel placed her on his hip, then kissed her forehead.

  "You've heard me use that ugly word, haven't you, Gabi? It was wrong for me to say it and it's wrong for you to say it. Do you understand?"

  Lowering her eyelids until her long black eyelashes fluttered against her cheeks, Gabi laid her dark head on her father's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Daddy. Mommy doesn't like that word, does she?"

  "No, darling, Mommy doesn't like that word, so I want you to promise me that you'll never use it again."

  "I promise," she said sweetly, then lifted her head and smiled. "Can we go see Mickey now?"

  "MaMa and PaPa are going to take you and Frankie back to the park—" when Gabi opened her mouth to protest, Gabriel placed his index finger across her lips "—and if you go with them and let Mommy rest, I'll forget I heard you say that ugly word. Do we have a deal?"

  "Okay, Daddy. We got a deal."

  Gabriel handed his daughter over to her grandmother and waved goodbye, then slipped his arm around Rorie and whispered in her ear. She giggled.

  "You certainly know how to handle her," Rorie told him as they walked back toward the hotel. "But then you should. You two are just alike."

  "And you, Mrs. Hawk, know how to handle me." He pulled her into the waiting elevator.

  Once the doors closed, he drew her into his arms and kissed her passionately. Rorie clung to him, loving the way he made her feel.

  "Have I thanked you today?" he asked.

  "No, but—"

  "Then let me thank you."

  "Gabriel, just how long are you going to keep thanking me every day for marrying you and—"

  "And making me the happiest man in the world," he finished for her. "How about every day for the rest of our lives?"

  "It really isn't necessary, you know. You've made me the happiest woman in the world, so I'd say we're even."

  The elevator doors opened. Gabriel lifted Rorie into his arms and carried her down the hall and into their room.

  "Carrying around a load like me could injure your back, you know," she said teasingly, then patted her tummy. "After all, I'm even heavier than usual, now."

  "Lady, I've been carrying you around for nearly five years and a few extra pounds don't make that much difference. Besides, I'm a big, strong man. Remember?"

  He laid her on the bed and came down beside her. "Maybe you'd better refresh my memory." She draped her arms around his neck.

  "It would be my pleasure, mi dama dorado," he said.

  And in the quiet stillness of their vacation room, Gabriel made slow, sweet love to his wife, the mother of his daughter and unborn son, the woman who had cleansed his soul, and filled his heart with joy and his life with happiness.

  * * * * *