Hours later, Gabe left his office and made his way downstairs and into his kitchen. Aurora wasn’t there, but the silver frame she’d brought with her was propped up on his worktop. He stared at it for a couple of seconds, not sure why it held his attention. It was just a flower. But a reluctant compulsion made him pick the frame up and examine it.
Spectral fingers glided along his spine. He’d never seen anything like this before, and not just on Earth.
Anywhere.
It was fragile and beautiful, but something was … wrong. He didn’t know what.
Get your fucking shit together. He replaced the frame and turned his back. There was nothing uncanny about it.
Where was she?
When she’d followed him upstairs earlier, he’d been convinced it was because she wanted him. The heat in her eyes, the warmth of her smile, and the sultry note in her voice hadn’t been a figment of his imagination.
But once again she hadn’t fallen under his archangelic spell. All she had wanted from him were more answers.
To questions he didn’t have the damn answers for.
He dragged his fingers through his hair and cursed under his breath. His vow not to seduce her unless she begged, mocked him, since it was becoming increasingly obvious that was never going to happen.
Grimly, he made his way to the living room at the end of the villa. As he reached the half-open door, the sharp tang of fear spiced the air.
Aurora.
He slammed open the door, and although the room was in shadows, he saw her easily enough, curled up on a sofa and clutching a cushion.
“What’s the matter?” His voice was harsher than he intended. What the hell had happened? She’d been fine the last time they’d spoken.
She clutched the pillow tighter. “Where am I?”
That was the reason she was so terrified? It seemed an extreme reaction. Although considering how well she’d taken everything so far, he guessed this delayed response was inevitable.
He shouldn’t have left her alone for so long.
I was only upstairs, for fuck’s sake.
He took her hand. His knuckles pressed against the cushion, and she gripped his fingers as though her life depended on it. It was oddly touching.
I did not just think that.
There was no reason for her not to know where they were. It wasn’t as though she’d ever be able to find her way back here, once she left.
No mortal could.
“You’d never find my island on any map, but it’s in the region you call the Bermuda Triangle.”
“Okay,” she whispered, and the fear that had drenched the air moments ago faded. Her thumb caressed his knuckles, a featherlight touch that shouldn’t feel half as good as it did.
He cradled her face. Her uneven breath dusted his jaw and need glowed in her eyes. When had he moved so close to her?
Why did that even matter?
Temptation and lust thudded an erratic tattoo in his blood. Reason splintered, and only the need to possess this exasperating, enchanting, woman made any sense. He could almost taste her surrender, inhale her desire, and a tortured groan vibrated along his throat.
Her lips parted, a seductive invitation. It was all he needed.
She hitched in a ragged breath. “Are you some kind of crazy scientist?”
“What?” The word shot from him, unbidden, as frustrated need mangled his brain. “Do I look like a crazy scientist?”
Why was she speaking? How could she speak? They were about to kiss. She should be incapable of any coherent thought at all.
Like I am.
Their lips were almost touching. Her elusive scent of strawberry shampoo, with tantalizing hints of aroused woman, bewitched his bemused senses. She should be falling into his arms, not questioning his existence.
“What are you?”
She still had no idea. A warped part of him liked the fact she was so oblivious. Maybe that was the reason he found her so irresistible. Whatever, the moment to tell her his true identity had passed. It wasn’t like it would make any difference to her situation.
Not that he was going to lie to her.
He forked his fingers into her hair, and her curls tumbled over his wrist. “I’m a mercenary.”
“What have you done to your security system here?”
He was in danger of combusting and she wanted to know about his security system?
She wouldn’t understand the extent of the security around his island even if he explained it to her. Humans’ conception of physics was limited in the extreme. And nothing in the universe would ever compel him to admit that even he couldn’t fully comprehend the reverse science involved.
But he had to tell her something.
“The island is protected by an energy field.”
“I’ve never encountered anything like it. It’s unnatural.”
She had no idea how close to the truth she was, with it being alien to all known laws of the universe.
“It’s the only thing keeping the Guardians out. They can’t see this island.”
Her eyes were dark pools of desire and need pulsed from her with every heightened heartbeat. All he needed was one taste of her tempting lips, and all her questions would incinerate.
He barely managed to swallow his groan at the visceral image. His chest was constricted, his skin on fire, and his cock was hard as iron. I’ve never craved a kiss so badly.
“You said they’re aliens? ” Her voice was hushed, and he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his forehead against hers. His breath rasped against her face, and he couldn’t control it. Couldn’t mask how much he wanted her, or how fucking hard it was to not just kiss her senseless until she couldn’t even recall her own name.
He could hardly remember his own.
“Yeah.” He ground out the word. “About as alien as you can get.”
She shuddered, but he didn’t trust himself to toss away the cushion and pull her fully into his arms. That cushion was his last line of defense.
This is crazy. He was an archangel. She was a human. This shouldn’t be happening.
“Gabe.” She breathed his name in a seductive sigh. It was the sexiest damn thing he’d heard in years. Her breath caressed his jaw, and he couldn’t ignore it, no matter how hard he tried. “I need to contact my parents. To let them know I’m okay.”
“I know.” He had promised her, and he would keep his promise. But it wasn’t that straightforward. First, he had to get her a laptop and then configure it so it could penetrate the energy field. The way his did.
She could use mine.
Not happening. No one touched his laptop but him.
He released her and shoved himself to his feet. She gazed up at him, looking so sweet and vulnerable he nearly lost it. It took more willpower than he’d ever admit, but he backed up a couple of steps and dragged in a lungful of oxygen.
She wanted him, but she never lost sight of her primary goal. Her ability to resist him fascinated and frustrated in equal measure. If he didn’t get away from her, he was going to beg.
And that was unthinkable.
Gabe leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling of his office. The newly acquired laptop was on his desk, and once Aurora had finished in the shower, he could activate it for her use. Before leaving the island, he’d directed her to his bathroom, since it was the only one in the villa, and left one of his shirts out for her.
Don’t imagine her under the spray.
Too late.
He stifled a groan and forced his mind back to business.
After shifting through the intel on the disc Jaylar had given him, he’d sent a telepathic message informing him he would take the case.
Like there had ever been any doubt of that.
The holographic images of the dark-haired young girl imprinted on his brain, but no matter how hard he tried, it churned up memories of another small girl. A child who had once cradled his heart in her tiny hands.
His hands fisted and he bowed his head, forcing the ancient memory back into the shadowy corners of his shredded soul. My precious Helena. He would never forget, and he would never forgive. But vengeance had corroded him long ago, and now there was nothing left but an echo of guilt and loss, and an elusive whisper of the love that had once embraced his life.
Slowly he flexed his fingers and forced open his eyes. The interminability of his existence stretched out before him, a bleak desert of fleeting interactions. Without his missions to give him focus, he would have sunk into madness long ago.
Long ago, I once did. He’d crawled out of the pit. Eventually.
The silence wrapped around him, a soothing cocoon. Brooding, he stared through the window as the moonlight turned the forest into a silvery mirage. He’d spent nights without number doing just this.
But tonight, the solitude only served to remind him that he wasn’t alone.
He’d never had a problem ignoring a minor irritation before. And that’s all she was. He could only hope the Guardians lost interest in her sooner rather than later, so he could return her home and forget she even existed.
In the window’s reflection he saw Aurora appear at the door to his office. She didn’t say anything and didn’t attempt to enter the room. She was obviously waiting for him to acknowledge her.
Let her wait.
The seconds stretched into eternity. Anticipation sizzled through his blood, and in the end, it was he who could wait no longer.
He swung around in his chair and self-derision burned his chest. Had he done it deliberately? The shirt he’d left out for her was blue, a perfect match for her eyes. She’d rolled up the sleeves to her elbows, and the shirt almost reached her knees. Her damp hair curled into enticing tendrils over her shoulders, and there was no hellish way she should look so utterly bewitching.
Cut the bullshit. He’d known exactly how she would look, dressed in his shirt.
His throat was dry, mouth parched. It was contemptible that merely the sight of her could affect him so profoundly.
There was only one thing for it. He’d have to keep away from her.
Banished from my own island. For helping a human.
“Is there anything to eat?” Her soft question punched through his grim thoughts, and he frowned.
“There’s plenty of food in the kitchen.” Not fresh stuff, admittedly, but only because he’d been away for weeks. The walk-in pantry was stocked to overflowing. “Help yourself to whatever you want.”
“Thank you.” Her smile was oddly touching. “And tomorrow we’ll work out a plan on how we can beat the Guardians?” There was a hopeful note in her voice, and he couldn’t bring himself to tell her there was no way for mortals to beat the Guardians. They just had to evade their radar.
He was too tired to have that conversation tonight. And damn it, he didn’t want to shatter that thread of hope she was still clinging onto.
Which was crazy, because that was exactly what he had to do.
Tomorrow.
“Sure. Whatever.” Side-stepping her question wasn’t as easy as it should have been. Move on. “You can sleep in my bed.” Since I won’t be here.
More to the point, it was the only upstairs room, besides his office, he’d bothered to furnish.
A delicate blush heated her cheeks, and he couldn’t drag his spellbound gaze away.
“I’m not going to share your bed.”
The spell shattered. Did she seriously assume he wanted sex as payment for rescuing her?
He’d been accused of countless things in the past. Most of them justified. But he’d never demanded sex in payment for anything, and the fact Aurora so easily jumped to that conclusion burned like acid.
He shoved back his chair and prowled toward her. To her credit, she didn’t run screaming from the room. Then again, she never behaved the way other mortals would in her position.
“Let’s get one thing straight.” Why was he standing so close to her? It was hard holding onto his justified disdain when all he wanted to do was scoop her into his arms and march into his bedroom. And damn it, before he’d ripped one button from that shirt, she’d be begging him not to leave her alone in his bed. Frustration roared through him. Get out of here now. “You’re not as irresistible as you think you are.”