Fatal Wild Child (12 page)

Seth slid into her. She gasped at heat and thickness of him and the delight of being possessed by him. She wrapped her legs around him as her thoughts scattered under the building pleasure. Seth's hand slid under her bottom and cupped it, pressing her to him. The possessiveness of the gesture and the added pressure caught at her. Abruptly, her pleasure leapt, sweeping her up in the rhythm of this most ancient dance. She caught at Seth, her breath hitching, almost frightened by the intense feelings. "Seth!"

He kissed her throat. "Yes, come for me," he coaxed.

Her climax shattered over her, bright lights blossoming behind her eyes, arching her spine and making her heart stand still. She heard and felt Seth come too, straining against her, then they both fell against the mattress, their bodies inert for long moments.

Gabrielle could feel moisture gathering in the corners of her eyes. She wouldn't call them tears. That would be stupid.

"Hey, you okay?" Seth asked softly, his lips sliding over her cheek bones.

She nodded, afraid to use her voice.

"What is it?" he insisted.

"I've...never done that," she said carefully.

Seth propped his head up on one elbow. "You're going to have to be a bit more specific, because I know you're not a virgin," he said gently.

"Umm...climaxed," she said, and blushed.

"During intercourse?"

Her blush deepened. "At all," she said simply.

Seth brushed her hair from her forehead. "All those romantic box office boyfriends and not one of the bastards ever made sure you were taken care of in bed, Ellie?"

Gabrielle blinked.
Ellie
. He was calling her Ellie. She liked it.

Then she focused on Seth’s question and shook her head, her mortification complete.

"I'd like to kill 'em all," Seth muttered and gathered her up in his arms. He kissed her burning face. "Well, I have all night to make up for it."

And he did.

Chapter Nine

Gabrielle woke to daylight, which meant it was well past ten a.m. She lay on her stomach, one arm hanging over the side of the bed, the sheet somewhere south of her waist and the pillows nowhere to be found. Her hair was scattered across the mattress, it felt like. A director might well have posed her for a "morning after great sex" scene. She never thought she'd find herself naturally flung in such abandon.

She rolled over, feeling pleasantly used muscles protest.

"Good morning," Seth said.

Gabrielle cracked open one eye. "It is," she agreed. "I think."

He grinned. He was sitting on the chair next to the TV cabinet, wearing only his trousers, the button undone. The sight of his bare chest did interesting things to Gabrielle's pulse, even though she was still groggy with sleep. Scattered images of the previous night's activities popped into her mind, and memories of sensations like Seth's lips on her body, his hands stroking her back and gradually moving lower and lower until they were fluttering over her buttocks, making her wriggle and her thighs drift apart...the taste of Seth's flesh under her lips...the satiny softness and heat of the more sensitive parts of his anatomy against her tongue.

Gabrielle woke a little more.

"Hungry?" Seth asked.

"Starving!" she confessed.

"Breakfast is on its way," he told her. "I phoned down for some about forty minutes ago."

"Have you been watching me since then?"

"Not the whole forty minutes, but some," he said easily.

She could feel herself blushing again. "Lord, why?"

"You're beautiful," he said simply. "Especially when you're sleeping." He crossed over to the bed and sat next to her. "You talk in your sleep, Ms. Gabrielle Sherborne." And he kissed her.

Gabrielle wound her arms around his neck, quite willing to let the kiss proceed wherever it wanted to go, but then her cell phone started its heavy bass beat musical demand, the special heavy metal aria that was the signature call sign for one of her father's phone calls.

"My dad," she said. "Damn."

Seth picked up her bag, which she had dumped next to the chair he was sitting in, and carried it to her. "He'll want to know where you are. They'll know you're not in your cabin by now."

She sat up, pulling up the sheet and winding it around her and under her arms, and answered the phone. "Dad."

"You ran away last night, Gabrielle," her father said in his clipped speech.

"After yesterday's delightful lunch, Dad, do you blame me?"

"I thought you handled yourself rather well yesterday, for a change. Is Seth with you? Darlene says his cabin hasn't been used."

"That's none of your business, Dad," she said evenly.

"He must be, or you would have said no."

She winced. Damn.

"Well, that makes things easier," her father continued, sounding inordinately pleased. "We're all going skiing at Marmot today. I was looking for both of you to ask you if you wanted to come along."

"You know very well I hate skiing," she said evenly. "Why bother to ask me?"

"Because you'd tear strips off me if I didn't," he said.

True.

"And Seth may want to come along, which may change your mind about going," her father added deftly.

"I hate you," Gabrielle muttered. She lowered the phone, covered the pickup with her hand and looked at Seth. "My father wants to know if you'd like to go skiing with the family at Marmot Basin today."

He shook his head. "It's a security nightmare. All that open country and public spaces? No, I don't think so. And besides, you hate skiing." He shook his head with a smile. "I'll pass."

She flashed him a smile of pure gratitude and put the phone back to her ear. "He says no thanks, Dad."

"In that case," her father responded, not sounded at all put out, "You two might like to use the Jacuzzi in the main cabin here. I'll let the staff know you're expected. Have fun."

He disconnected before she could respond. She folded the phone closed with a snap and threw it back in her bag.

"His last comment annoyed you," Seth observed.

"He suggested we use the Jacuzzi in the main cabin today, while they're all out skiing. If his manipulations to get us married were any more obvious, he'd have to carry a harp and wear vine leaves in his hair like Cupid."

Seth picked up her hand and rubbed his thumb over her palm. "Have you asked yourself why he's doing it, Ellie? You know him better than I do."

His thumb was creating little circles in her palm that were sending sizzling signals back along her nerves. Gabrielle had a hard time concentrating on anything else. "Because he wants me off his hands," she murmured. "I'm Gabi-hell, remember?"

"Not to me, you're not," Seth said, his voice rumbling. His finger slid between her first and second finger, lightly tracing the flesh on the inside of her fingers. She shuddered at the delicious sensations he created.

Ellie. He'd called her Ellie through the night, his voice thick with longing.

Gabrielle hooked her fingers over the unfastened opening of his trousers and lifted the zipper tab with her other hand. The heat of his flesh against the back of her knuckles sizzled along her nerves and made her heart flutter. This close, she could smell Seth. He was clean, fresh, male and spicy.

She gave into impulse and leaned forward to lick his stomach and felt it quiver under her lips.

He hissed and his hand thrust into her hair. "What about breakfast?" he asked. His voice was thick with arousal.

Gabrielle let the sheet drop from around her and drew down the zipper on his trousers. "It can wait," she told him. "I can't."

* * * * *

"Your suit at least looks like day wear," Gabrielle complained. "While I look like I'm still wearing last night's clothes. I'm going to have to go back to my cabin for fresh clothes."

Seth considered for a moment before nodding. "We're relatively safe inside the lodge grounds. I'll let Tyler know." He pulled his phone out of his jacket and turned away.

Gabrielle stared at Seth's broad back, as a dozen different little facts joined together: Seth's reluctance to talk about himself, to reveal anything about his career and his risky business. The conversation last night at the dinner table, and his comment, 'he's wearing an awful dark brown jacket I keep telling him to get rid of', Seth's rescue of her camera and laptop from the icy bottom of the river, and the need for technical help to save the data on both, the way she had forced an introduction with Sam in the washroom last night, and the flicker of admiration in the woman's eyes when they had parted...it all merged into a cohesive whole, startling idea that took her breath away. She considered it from every angle, her heart skittering. Did she dare?

Then she remembered who she was. Her father's daughter.

And she thought of the prize. It was worth it.

When Seth turned back around, she had control of her face once more.

Seth put the phone away. "Ready to go?"

She picked up her coat and nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be."

Seth picked up his and they slipped out of the room and headed for the foyer.

"Where did Tyler and Sam spend the night?" Gabrielle asked.

"They got rooms here, too."

"They're not...together, then?"

"No. They didn't even know each other until last night."

"Your group is that big?" Gabrielle asked.

"Sam is that new."

"I see." A horrible thought occurred to her. "She isn't replacing someone who is..."

"Someone transferred out," Seth said, with a smile.

"Oh, good," Gabrielle said, with a sigh. "How long have you known Tyler then?"

"About eight years."

"That's a pretty long time, in your world, isn't it?"

"A very long time," Seth agreed.

"Is he a very good friend?"

"He wouldn't be best man at my wedding," Seth said easily, "That spot is reserved for my friend Jack. You'll get to meet him, one day, I hope. But I would trust Tyler with my life. I would trust anyone in the group with my life."

"Is Jack in the group, too?"

Seth's smile grew warmer. "Yes, which drives my CO mad."

"Jack lives here in Alberta, too?"

"When he can. He's on duty elsewhere right now."

The natural evasion seemed to come so easily to him.
Elsewhere
. No country was mentioned. Even American soldiers were permitted to say "Afghanistan" or "Somalia". No wonder Seth's ex-girlfriends had given up on him. She could see how such a vacuum of information could quickly grow to be a problem.

They stepped out of the elevator and turned to the lobby. There were more people milling about the lobby today, now the snowfall had ended and the sun was out again. Gabrielle could feel herself going into defensive mode and even Seth shortened his step and came alongside her. "Change sides," he murmured, putting her on his left.

Tyler and Sam were picking out postcards from the rotating racks and didn't even turn their heads, but Gabrielle saw Sam's eyes in the cheap mirror over the top of the sunglass rack next to her. She'd picked her position well.

They moved through the lobby without problem and used their keycards to open the door that let them out into the private cabin area beyond. Gabrielle could feel Seth relax.

"You relax, yet you said that even out here, there's bug and sightlines. So someone with a good rifle could still pick me off, even here."

"But out here, I've got you covered," Seth said.

"I don't—" she began, then stopped as she realized what he meant. He could use his body as a shield out here.

Suddenly, she wanted to sprint for her cabin, at mach 10.

Seth chuckled. "Tyler walked the boundary this morning with dogs. No one's been near the place on foot. If I thought for a moment that a sniper was in the area, I'd have both of us in Kevlar so fast your head would spin. There's no need to look so stricken." He stopped and kissed her forehead.

She forced her shaking legs into walking again, and slapped his shoulder. "Don't
do
that, Seth! Not even as a joke! It's not funny."

"Yeah, it is," he said over his shoulder. "Just a bit. Mostly watching the steam coming out your ears. And in about five seconds, the way you stomp your foot on the path."

She curled her hands into fists and gritted her jaw, because he was right. She wanted to stomp her foot. She walked stiffly after him, aware that she was stamping her feet with extra heaviness and hating that he was probably laughing silently as he heard each heavy step.

Gabrielle remembered her plan and fell into step next to him. "When you're on duty, is there anything that says that you and your back-up can't talk to each other?"

Seth glanced at her. "Why?"

"You carefully didn't speak to Tyler last night at the restaurant. Didn't even acknowledge him."

"General principle says it's better not to tip your hand early and let the bad guy know who your back-up is."