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

in her tonight, John.”

John did not respond. Leaning forward, he pushed open the cab door and stood up.

Back bowed, he abruptly spoke: “It is said you have not had a woman in almost fifteen years.”

“So it is said,” Gabriel agreed.

A brief smile quirked his lips. What did his employees think now that Victoria had requested a tin of

condoms?

“Who will you take comfort in tonight, Gabriel?” John asked.

Gabriel could not block the images of Victoria that flashed before his eyes. Victoria watching the male

whore and the woman through the transparent mirror. Victoria offering to let Gabriel touch her.

Victoria’s breasts flushed with pleasure as her stomach tightened in preparation for orgasm and her

splayed legs pushed up for more: more fingers, more Gabriel.

“There is no comfort for some men,” he said shortly.

Yet Gabriel had been comforted.

The thought of the second man sent a chill down his spine. If he touched him now ...

“I did what I did tonight willingly, Gabriel.” Flickering gaslight silhouetted John’s head. “Do not blame

yourself.”

Gabriel wondered exactly how far John had gone to help him. He offered the only solace he could. “I

will increase your salary.”

“There’s no need.” Gabriel could not see John’s expression; he did not need to. “When you have the

man you seek, I’m buying a farm. I discovered tonight that in the last ten years you gave me back my

humanity. For that, I thank you.”

And for asking him to pose as the whore he used to be inside the club he used to work, John would

never forgive Gabriel.

Gabriel had given John his humanity back, only to snatch it away.

The cab dipped; the door closed.

Gabriel was alone, as he preferred to be alone. There was no reason for the darkness to press on his

chest.

There was no reason to feel the loss of an employee.

Gabriel purposefully helped men and women who had no other choice but to steal or whore to find

occupations better suited to their needs. He would promote another man from within his ranks and hire a

replacement.

He should be glad at John’s departure: Gabriel wasn’t.

The second man was systematically destroying Gabriel’s new life, just as he had destroyed his old one.

But he had given him a woman. And Gabriel still did not know why.

Chapter

18

Victoria blindly watched Gabriel open the armoire, seeing in her mind’s eye what she heard. Silence

popped inside her ears. A drawer opened, closed. A second drawer opened, closed. A third drawer

opened.

She envisioned the contents of each drawer.

She had seen his underclothes, touched his wool drawers—fine wool as soft as silk—watched a gun and

a knife sink into his pile of starched white linen shirts.

The third drawer closed.

Victoria saw Gabriel leave in the whispered closure of a door.

She wondered what time it was.

She wondered when Gabriel would forgive her. And instantly realized he would not forgive her until he

forgave himself.

Victoria had wondered what she would feel like after losing her virginity; now she knew. She felt empty.

She opened her eyes and stared at the black pit that was the ceiling: in her mind’s eye she saw again the

brilliance of white enameled paint and the sweat that had poured down Gabriel’s face like tears.

Victoria had known Gabriel’s touch. She would never be complete without it.

Swinging her legs over the bed, she sat up.

She winced.

It felt like she had been reamed out with a stovepipe.

It felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest.

She had not asked for this . . . the letters. The pain.

The pleasure.

Victoria stepped into the bathroom. And remembered ...

I’m cold. I don’t think I’ll ever be warm again.

Gabriel had warmed her, first with a robe, and then with his finger, his lips, his tongue, his bitte.

Victoria stepped into the copper tub. And remembered ...

The Liver Spray . .. It is not positioned to message the liver.

No.

Is the spray stimulating for men?

Not to the extent that it is for women.

Victoria showered in stinging hot water. And remembered ...

I remember the first time I saw a woman lik e this.

What did you think , when you saw her?. . .

I thought that if a man had a soul, it existed inside a woman.

Victoria soaped herself. And remembered ... every place Gabriel had touched her. Her lips. Her tongue.

Her cheek. Her breasts.

Her clitoris ...

Victoria’s clitoris throbbed in memory.

Did Gabriel throb in memory?

Her vulva was swollen; it radiated heat. He had called her vagina a portail.

I lik e the way you say my name.

How is that?

As if I have a soul.

Victoria quickly rinsed the soap away and toweled herself dry.

Gabriel’s brush possessed neither dark nor pale hair. All evidence of their joining destroyed.

His toothbrush was damp. Averting her gaze from the dark-haired woman in the mirror, she brushed her

teeth.

Victoria still had no clothes.

The silk robe was in the bedroom, on the floor where she had dropped it. Feeling unexpectedly shy,

Victoria wrapped the damp bath towel about her body.

She should not have been surprised to find that Gabriel’s bedchamber was occupied: she was.

Victoria clutched the knotted towel between her breasts. At the same time, a brown-haired man looked

up. He