Robin Schone by Gabriel's Woman (10 ebook reader TXT) 📕

protected me. I am certain my uncle

derived no end of enjoyment through your nobility and my ignorance.” Brief irony colored Michael’s voice,

instantly faded. “Just as I’m certain that he would have taken great pleasure in arranging your death in the

event of his own. For no other reason than to make me suffer. And I assure you, Gabriel, I would suffer if

you died.”

“So you think that your uncle left instructions for the second man to kill me in the event that he himself

was killed”—Gabriel spoke around the ball of chocolate-scented breath lodged inside his throat—”in order

to cause you pain?”

“That is exactly what he did, Gabriel,” Michael said unshakably.

“If that were the case, Michael, then were I you, I would not leave Anne unprotected. Her death would

cause you far greater suffering than that of my own.” An image of the earl rose before Gabriel, legs

twisted, faded violet eyes malevolent with hatred. “And I assure you, your uncle was very aware of that

fact.”

Doubt flickered inside Michael’s gaze, disappeared. “Anne is not alone. I have guards watching her in

addition to the men you’ve posted.”

Gabriel’s men were professionals: professional whores, professional thieves, professional cutthroats.

They should have been more efficient at concealing their presence.

“Guards can be bribed,” Gabriel said.

As could doormen.

“You won’t let anything happen to Anne.”

Michael spoke with soft assurance.

Three hours earlier Gabriel had possessed that same assurance.

That had been three hours ago.

He had thought the second man would kill a dark-haired angel, but he hadn’t. Instead he had sent a

fair-haired angel a woman.

A leading actress who was armed with neither weapons nor knowledge nor malice. And Gabriel did not

know why.

“I may not be able to stop him,” Gabriel said truthfully.

“And the woman can?” Michael asked alertly.

“I don’t know.”

“What will you do with her?”

What would Gabriel do with a woman who desired him—a woman who accepted him?

A woman whom he desired?

“I don’t know.”

“Will you fuck her?”

How do you want to be tak en, mademoiselle?

I want to be tak en with respect. . . because I am a woman.

The pulsating throb traveled up Gabriel’s arms, settled in his chest, his groin, his testicles.

“Will you kill her, Gabriel?” Michael deliberately persisted.

Burning wood collapsed in the fireplace, reality turning into ashes.

Michael had been burned by fire, but he still had not learned .. .

The pulsing increased until Gabriel did not know where it stopped or where it had begun. With a

thirteen-year-old boy or with a thirty-four-year-old woman.

“Which would you prefer that I do, Michael?” Gabriel asked tautly. “Fuck her or kill her?”

Michael’s pupils dilated until all Gabriel could see inside his eyes was a ring of violet circling a halo of

silver hair. “Six months earlier you wanted to help me.”

“I did the best that I could.”

Another lie cocooned in truth. Gabriel should have killed the first man outright instead of playing his

game.

“Let me take the woman.”

Six months earlier Gabriel had offered to take Michael’s woman. To save her from the first man.

History repeating itself.

“I can’t do that, mon vieux.” There was no regret in Gabriel’s voice, any more than there had been in

Michael’s voice when he had rejected Gabriel’s offer six months past. “She was sent to me, not to you.”

A woman for the untouchable angel.

“You’ve seen this game played out before, Gabriel.”

But he hadn’t seen this game played out before ...

“Do you think your uncle arranged a woman to be sent to me in order to lure me to my death?” Gabriel

taunted.

It was possible.

The first man could have arranged for Victoria to be dismissed from her position.

He had killed every person Michael had ever loved. Destroying one more life would not matter to a

dead man.

“I think you are far more vulnerable than you want to think you are.” Violet fire glittered inside Michael’

s eyes. “And yes, I believe my uncle knew that.”

Gabriel did not doubt it in the least.

“Sex was your pleasure, Michael, not mine,” he said flatly.

“You’re lying, Gabriel.”

Gabriel stiffened. It had been a long time since any one had called him a liar to his face.

“I do not advise you to call a man a liar when he has in his possession a gun and a knife,” Gabriel said

softly, “both of which he is proficient at using.”

There was no fear inside Michael’s eyes. “Then tell me you don’t want, Gabriel.”

“I don’t want this, Michael.” Truth vibrated in Gabriel’s voice.

“Tell me you don’t remember what it’s like to taste a woman. To touch a woman’s flesh,” Michael said

unflinchingly. Still unafraid. But he should be. “Tell me you don’t want to lose yourself inside a woman’s

pleasure.”

The distant bong of Big Ben penetrated wood and glass.

Gabriel remembered ... the men he had taken for money. The women he had taken for recompense.

“Tell me you don’t want a woman, Gabriel.” Gabriel’s pain flared in Michael’s eyes. “Say it, and make

me believe it.”

Gabriel couldn’t deny it.

But neither could he admit it.

I don’t want to want.. .

“Go home, Michael,” Gabriel said. Leave before the memories of pleasure overcome the memories of

pain. “Go home to Anne.”

Anne with the pale brown hair and pale blue eyes.

Anne who had wished him a woman. To mak e up for everything he endured.

“Why?” Michael challenged.

Prepared to stay. Prepared to die.

All for the love of a man who had twice aimed a pistol