Villain

When there was only silence, she insisted, “I asked you a question.”

He treated her to a hard, uncompromising stare, and then began to head toward the cave. Stella had never seen someone so determined to get away from her.

Feeling desperate herself, Stella ran after him, putting her hand over his arm to stop him. “You say you have nothing to give, no heart, no soul, but please…”

He turned around, the expression on his face vicious, the slits of his eyes glimmering menacingly, and yet it didn’t deter her.

“I have one request of you, and then I promise I won’t ask for anything else.”

He stared at her. She could feel his powerful gaze wandering inside her, and she had the strange feeling he could reach inside her mind, into her thoughts.

Lord knows what ideas he found there.

She wanted no misunderstandings, so she drew in a deep breath and said, “Give me your body.”

There was a nearly imperceptible widening of his eyes.

“That’s all I ask of you,” she said simply.

His face didn’t betray a single emotion, making her wonder if he was even capable of feeling anything, or if he’d buried it all along with Faith Harrison as well.

I told you not to come here.

She heard the words clearly, and yet—call her imaginative—his mouth hadn’t moved.

Nervously licking her lips, she lifted a tender hand to his jaw, but he quickly took a step back. She dropped her hand, her words filled with conviction. “If you give me your body, I will give you mine.”

He was so still she thought he might not even be breathing. “No.”

That sharp retort hurt more than a measly little word like that should have. “Am I the only one of us that feels this…this…burning?” Everything, including her voice, shook with want. Her muscles felt languid; need spread throughout her body like a firestorm. If he thought her horny or easy, she was beyond caring. “It’s only me, then, who feels this horrible, wrenching…need of you.”

One side of his eye quivered, fingers curling into fists at his sides before he whirled around and started for the cave. “Go, woman.”

“My name is Stella!” She followed him, flexing her own fingers at her sides out of sheer desperation. “And I will not leave!”

Then I will make you leave. Leave and never return.

She pushed that thought—his thought—away and followed him through the wide opening in the cave, stepping around the coiled ropes until she reached the far end. Flickering torchlight blazed against the walls, the flames casting shadows upon the rocky, jagged edges. She was surprised to find blankets strewn around one corner, as well as clothes, books.

A big book, as black as his eyes and far older than his years, jutted out from the top of a stack, and she could make out the unmistakable pentagram on its cover.

The Book of Shadows.

It wasn’t his voice she heard, but a woman’s, Faith’s voice, now so familiar Stella was not even alarmed to hear it. Faith Harrison seemed now as much a part of Stella as her stomach, her hands, her lungs.

Gabriel was toiling around one corner, but his shoulders were tense, giving her the unmistakable impression that he was as keenly aware of her as she was of him.

“I know you want this too,” she said softly, eagerly.

He stiffened, his hand pausing over a pile of neatly folded clothes; his rough-hewn voice reached her. “Take off your clothes.”

Just to hear those words aroused her. Her legs felt loose and heavy as she undressed, her eyes not once straying from his back as he removed his dirty linen shirt only to slip on a clean one. She swallowed at the sight of rippling muscles, and then wondered why he would want her naked if he was not undressing himself. Oh, but she wanted to be naked. It felt so good to stand here, with the air around her, and be seen. For once, she was not invisible, not covered for the sake of others.

When he slowly turned and set his eyes on her, she was not even ashamed. Modesty had no place here.

His face was partly shadowed so that she could barely make out his features, but even without the benefit of light, she could discern the unearthly glow of his eyes. He was very still for a moment, and she inwardly feared he might not be pleased with what he saw. Then he slowly advanced toward her. Her breasts rose and fell, every step of his somehow making her more and more breathless.

He paused only a few feet away from her. His eyes felt like brandings on her flesh.