Dark Legend (18 page)

Gabriel brushed her temple with his mouth, lingering for a moment against her pulse. "I want you, Francesca, I will not pretend that I do not, but I have told you I want us to be friends. I will be satisfied with holding you." He wanted the comfort of her arms, her closeness.

Francesca tightened her fingers in his. She was just as capable of reading his mind as he was at reading hers. He was determined to put aside his own needs and see to hers first. He wanted to give her as much time as she needed to accept his claim on her. Her heart gave a curious lurch at his consideration.

"How did you manage to walk in the sun at midday? Our ancients are unable to do such things, yet you managed to find the secret."

There was so much admiration in his voice, Francesca felt color steal into her face. "I knew the only way to avoid recognition by my own kind was to train myself to think like a human and walk and talk like a human at all times. When I reached the point where I wanted to be able to go out into the sun, I had already given up so many of our gifts, it seemed like a kind of return, a treasure. I had been researching why our women cannot usually conceive more than one child successfully. I came to the conclusion it was nature's way of balancing our population. Then I turned my attention to why we lose so many children during the first year of life. Our children are much like human children—they do not drink blood, their teeth are not developed, and they cannot go to ground, shape-shift, or do anything we can do as adults. Their parents, however, must rest during the daylight hours, and the children are certainly at risk without supervision because they must be above ground when their parents put them to sleep."

"That is very interesting, but it does not explain how you managed to go out in the sun." His chin rubbed the top of her hair in a little caress. Tendrils of her hair caught in the stubble on his jaw, tangling the two of them together with the silken strands.

She smiled up at him. "I theorized that if we could do so as children, then we could do it again. What changed us? Our body chemistry altered, and we required blood to sustain our lives and our gifts. Yet we could survive for long periods of time with transfusions and with animal blood. I experimented and eventually changed my actual body chemistry. I was weak and unable to shape-shift or do most of the things that are necessary to our species."

Beside her he stirred. She felt the sudden pounding of his heart. His lifemate had been alone, unprotected, performing dangerous experiments to enable her to walk in the sun. He was proud of her, but the thought frightened him. Francesca found herself a bit pleased at that reaction. She hid her smile as she moved the large bed with a command so that they could open the chamber below the ground.

The chamber was cool and welcoming, the darkened interior inviting. Francesca waved her hand and the earth opened to reveal the dark, rich soil. Gabriel glanced at the bed. The quilt was thick and soft with intricate swirls and ancient symbols. He slipped free of Francesca's fingers and went to examine the fine craftsmanship. Francesca had accomplished so much in her time on earth. "How did you change your body chemistry?" he asked. "It is a tremendous feat and one that might be very useful to our people."

Francesca shook her head regretfully. "I experimented over many years, Gabriel, but it was a trade, my gifts, for the sun. And I was very vulnerable. I found herbs and made them into soups and used different compounds in an effort to duplicate the metabolism our children have, not human yet not Carpathian. Just as they could spend time in the sun but could not go to ground, so it was with me. For Carpathians at the end of their days and wishing to try new things, it might be good, although the process is painful and very long. It requires nearly a hundred years. And my eyes really never got used to the sun. There was still some weakness. I recorded it carefully in our ancient tongue and would have sent the information to Gregori before I died."

She turned her head to study the glittering of his eyes. Dark. Dangerous. That was Gabriel, a legend come to life. He reached out, caught her wrist, and drew her to him. "I want you. All over again." He said it starkly, without embellishment. He brought her hand to his trousers, but the material was gone, sliding from his body in the way of their people so that her palm contacted the hard thick length of him. He was hot, throbbing with need.

She wrapped her fingers around him, simply holding him for a moment, and then her fingers began to move of their own accord, a small experiment as she watched his face intently, as her mind merged deeply with his to share what he felt. At once she was rewarded with the sheer pleasure etched into the lines of his face, in his mind. "The bed does have possibilities," she murmured softly.

"Undress for me, in the manner or humans," he said suddenly. His eyes had gone very black, burning with such intensity that she could feel tiny tongues of flame along her skin. "There is something very erotic in the way a woman removes her clothes."

Her eyebrow shot up. "I thought there was something erotic in the way your clothes melted away and left me to explore where I wanted." Her voice teased him, was sultry with invitation. She stepped away from him, her arm dropping slowly to her side, her fingers brushing the hard length of him as she did so. Francesca tilted her head so that her long hair slid in a silky black curtain over her shoulder. Her hands went to the small pearl buttons on her sweater. She eased each through its button hole so that the edges began to gape open to reveal the satin swell of her breasts. Deliberately her hands traced the path of the opening, pushing the sweater slowly from her shoulders and allowing it to fall on the floor unheeded. She was rewarded with the darkening of his eyes, the swelling of his body to alarming proportions.

She eased her slacks from her hips to reveal her silken panties, a scrap of fabric that barely covered her tight black curls. She kicked off her sandals as, she stepped out of the slacks and stood for a moment in her underwear. Her nipples were already hard in anticipation, pushing at the lace of her bra, adding friction to sensitize her further. With a slow, unhurried movement she released the catch and dropped it aside. "I ache for you," she said softly, cupping her breasts as an offering. "I want you suckling me. Your mouth is always so hot, Gabriel." Her hands traced a path down her flat stomach to strip the panties away.

His eyes blazed with desire. "Are you wet and slick with wanting me, Francesca?" His voice was husky, his eyes raking her body possessively.

Her hand slipped between her legs, sampled the moisture there, and held it out to him. His eyes on her face, he stepped forward and deliberately sucked her fingers. At once Francesca's legs went weak. He melted her. Anything and everything was beautiful with Gabriel. She loved how he wanted her.

His arm circled her waist, dragged her close to kiss her, devouring her mouth. "You taste so sexy, Francesca, I want to feed on you for eternity," he whispered into her open mouth. "Taste yourself, sweetheart, feel what it is like for me when I have you. When you take me in your mouth and suck on me, hot and tight, when I am deep inside your body. Whatever we choose to express how we feel, it is so beautiful." His mouth wandered to her breast, his
hand kneading
her buttocks, pushing her deliberately against his arousal.

Francesca cradled his head to her, giving herself up to the shared ecstasy. Gabriel pushed her down on the bed, dragged her to the edge. "What do you want, my love?"

She didn't hesitate. Why should she? She was his lifemate and there should only be pleasure between them. She had every right to total fulfillment and she wanted it. She opened her legs wide, her hand going to the hot wet core of her. Once more she brought her fingers to his mouth. "I want to feed you for eternity. Make me come, Gabriel, long and forever. I want you buried deep inside me and I want to wake the same way."

He lifted her legs to his shoulders and bent his dark head, his tongue stroking, caressing, and probing until she was writhing on the bed, unable to hold still. His fingers inspected, explored, probed deep, only to be replaced by his tongue. She cried out then, shuddering with pleasure, closing her eyes as he lowered her body to his hips and surged forward, taking her, filling her as she fragmented, catching her at her most sensitive.

He plunged into her hard and fast, as hungry and ferocious as she was for their joining. He wanted her like this, craving him, needing him, her body glowing with pleasure, her sheath a tight hot home for his own engorged body, relieving the ever-present raging need in him. He wanted it to last forever, riding her hard, her hips rising to meet his, his body and hers coming together in perfect union, her breasts full and firm and quivering with each hard thrust, her hair spread out around her, and her eyes fixed on them. Together. As they should be.

When the release came it swept both of them up into the flames, hard and long, an endless spiral, an earthquake with strong aftershocks. They lay in each other's arms, kissing, their mouths melding together, expressing a fierce need and hunger they couldn't seem to assuage. It was Gabriel who floated them to earth, still entangled together, his mouth dominating hers, his hands holding her close.

They settled to earth and still couldn't stop. He took her a second time, harder and faster than the first, and even then he couldn't quite let go. He lay beside her for a long time, his hands in her hair, his mouth at her breast. They lay together until the light in the sky made it impossible to stay awake. Reluctantly, Gabriel set the safeguards on their chamber and covered their resting place. Their bodies needed the rejuvenating sleep of the earth during daylight hours. Sometimes they slept in chambers above ground, but they needed the benefits of the healing soil for rejuvenation.

She curled up in his arms, feeling secure and protected. Feeling as if she was not alone anymore. Francesca snuggled closer, breathing in his masculine scent. His body was made for hers. Perfect. The way she fit against him, the way he seemed to shelter her, making her feel so much a part of him. Inside her was their child, living, growing, developing, warm and safe, a gift from her lifemate so precious, no treasure could ever surpass it.

"Sleep, my beautiful lifemate, rest while you can," Gabriel said softly. She felt his mouth brush a kiss in her hair. His arms tightened around her and they both allowed the breath to leave their bodies and their hearts to cease beating.

Chapter Eight

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When Francesca pushed open the door to Skyler's room, she was carrying the package of clothes and the stuffed animal, the blue-eyed wolf she'd bought the night before. The teenager was lying on her back staring up at the ceiling. Her long lashes fluttered once in acknowledgment that she was no longer alone, but she didn't turn her head. Francesca could see that her small, battered body had tensed. The child's fear permeated the room.

"Skyler." Purposely Francesca used her softest, gentlest voice. "Do you remember me?"

The girl's head turned slowly, and her large soft gray eyes fixed on Francesca's face as if she were clutching at a lifeline. "I could never forget you." Like Francesca, Skyler spoke in French, yet Francesca had the feeling it wasn't her first language. There were several heartbeats of silence before the girl forced herself to continue. "Is it true? Is he really dead?"

Francesca glided across the room, her movements as fluid and graceful as those of a ballet dancer. There were no sharp edges to Francesca, only a whisper of sound as she moved. She dropped the package of clothes on the end of the bed. More carefully, she tucked the stuffed animal close beside the girl and took Skyler's hand in her own. Gently. Lovingly. "Yes, my dear, he has passed from this life and can no longer touch you. I am hoping you will want to come and live with me." With her free hand she stroked back Skyler's wild hair. "I very much want you to live with me." There was a trace of compulsion in the silvery purity of her voice.

To her astonishment, Skyler's steady gaze wavered. She closed her eyes, the long lashes sweeping down so they lay like two thick black crescents against her pale skin. "I felt you inside me, reaching out to me. I know you aren't like most people." Her voice was so soft it was a mere thread of sound. "I know things I'm not supposed to know about people. When I touch them, I know things. You do, too. You know what he did to me, the things he let his friends do to me. You want to make it all better, but even if you could take away the memories, you can never make me innocent and good again."

"You don't believe that, Skyler. You're smarter than that. They may have touched your body, but not your soul. They could have destroyed your body, but never your soul. You are already good and innocent. You have always been that. The things done to you cannot change your basic nature. They can shape you, make you stronger. You know that you're strong, don't you? You found a way to survive what would have destroyed others."

Skyler's small teeth touched her lower lip in agitation but she didn't answer.

Francesca smiled at her, a gentle smile of commitment to Skyler's healing. "You're right about me. I am different, just as you are different. Perhaps the world around us can shape us, but we are strong inside. You are whole. There is no stain on your soul to cause you to be afraid to be with me. I shared everything with you, your pain, the degradation, the beatings, the fear, all of it. I want you with me where I can shelter you, offer you the things you should have had, things you truly deserve. You're holding my hand, you know the things I am saying are true."

"There were others with you when you were sharing my memories. I felt them, two men with us."

"There was only one man," Francesca corrected gently. "Gabriel. He is a very powerful man. Under his protection there is no one who can harm you."

Skyler looked puzzled. "There was another. I am sure of it. There was one staying very quiet, lending his strength to you and to me. But the other remained passive while you were here with me. After you left, I remember him holding me, yet he wasn't touching me at all. His arms were strong and felt very different than any other's. He wanted nothing from me, only to comfort and help. Who is he?"