She gave him a faint smile. "You mean by shutting me up?"
"If need be. But I do not foresee a lot of that happening in the future."
"Just so you know, if you silence me I will retaliate."
He laughed softly. "I have no doubt of that, beloved." He smoothed his hand over her hair. "You need to go to sleep, Trixie. When you wake, you will be completely healed."
She cleared her throat and, for the first time, looked frightened. "Do I have to sleep in the ground?"
He wasn't going to lie to her, but he wished he could soften the blow. For humans, that was one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome. Sleeping in the ground, for them, was like being buried alive. He picked that thought from her mind. For her, it was worse than taking blood. She liked the taste of him.
"You will go to sleep and I will put us there together. The soil will heal your body. You will not wake until I bring you back to the surface."
"How can you be certain?"
"I am extremely powerful, Trixie, you have no need to worry. I will be with you, and eventually I will teach you to open the earth on your own."
Her gaze clung to his for a long time. Searching. Finally she nodded. Relief swept through him. He needed for her to stop hurting. He gave her the command and she slipped into a deep sleep. Only then did he open the earth and call the rich minerals to him to aid in her healing process.
16
The room at the inn was very small and crowded. Gabrielle tasted fear in her mouth but she had to try. Natalya would kill this man. This human being. Brent Barstow. He was so mixed up. One moment she was talking about stem cell research with Natalya and the next, Barstow was in the room, a gun to the innkeeper's head. The innkeeper's family was downstairs, kidnapped.
So fast. Life changed in an instant like that. She couldn't get enough air. Natalya was already losing it, so close to the edge, so ready to tear Barstow to pieces. Gabrielle tried her best to calm down the situation. That had always been her role, the peacemaker, the one who stepped between combatants and tried for sanity in an insane situation. Even after Barstow was disarmed, Natalya was ready to rip him to pieces.
Gabrielle did what she always did--she stepped between the two of them. She knew what was coming. She'd relived this moment a thousand times and still, she couldn't prevent herself from stepping in front of Barstow. In one more second she would feel the first slice of his knife into her kidney. Three. Four. Then he would stab her chest repeatedly. Over and over. The agony would begin all over again.
She felt heat at her back and she swung around because that had never happened. She'd always been ice-cold. It was her nightmare, reliving the attack over and over, and the scenario never deviated because it had happened. Now, when she turned, there was Aleksei standing between her and the knife. She knew he took the blade, those repeated slices into his body. His eyes were on her face. His hand came up and he gently swept the hair back from her face.
She could feel pain radiating through him, but he didn't flinch. He didn't look away from her. She felt him then, in her mind, filling her with his strength. He gathered her into his arms and lifted her, cradling her against his chest, and he took her right out of there, out of the horrible little room where she couldn't breathe. Where she couldn't stop the stupid, stupid action of stepping in front of a killer. Of the terrible agony of the knife going into her flesh.
You are safe, Gabrielle. Open your eyes. You are here with me and I will never allow harm to come to you.
She took a breath of fresh air. Still, she didn't open her eyes. She wanted to feel his arms around her. He made her feel safe. She'd never felt safer than when she was with him, which was insane, because he could terrify her with one look. Still, she snuggled closer to him. To his rock solid chest and his arms of steel. She wanted to stay right there and just dream sweet dreams of him.
She felt his mouth brush her temple. I have a mind to turn sweet to erotic.
That made her smile. She couldn't help it. Why am I not surprised? Still, she lifted her long lashes and stared into his brilliant green eyes. So piercing. So beautiful. So expressive. Right now, he looked at her almost tenderly, and she'd never seen that particular look on his face. Her stomach did a slow somersault and her heart shifted in her chest.
"How did you do that? How did you stop the nightmare?" She reached up to touch his face. It was daring; she'd never touched him on her own unless they were being fiercely intimate, and she couldn't help herself. Now she wanted to shape his face with her hands, to push the stubborn silky strand of hair falling around his face back.
"I told you, kessake, my woman cannot have nightmares. Not now. Not ever. Whatever upsets you must go away immediately."
She swept his hair back, loving the feel of the silken strands against her fingers. "Thank you. I know you felt the blade of the knife." She shuddered and snuggled closer to him. "I didn't want that for you."
"I know, but I am your lifemate, Gabrielle, and you are always in my care. No harm touches you, not even in your dreams." He turned his head and pulled her finger into his mouth. His eyes held hers. "No one makes you afraid, not ever again, not even your own mother. I will always stand between you and anything that makes you uncomfortable."
Her heart beat wildly. Everything he said held a ring of truth, a stark, raw honesty that couldn't be denied. He meant what he said. She made a mental note to keep him away from her mother. Gabrielle loved her mother, but there was no doubt she was the queen of drama and tantrums. Her family had always allowed her to get away with it, but Gabrielle knew immediately, Aleksei wouldn't.
Looking into his eyes, her breasts suddenly ached and she felt a damp heat between her legs. His eyes were hooded. Sexy. Filled with hunger for her. She loved that. Everything he did seemed entirely sensual. Erotic just came natural to him. She touched her tongue to her lips.
Hunger beat at her. She wanted to lean forward and sink her teeth right into the pulse that beat so strongly in his neck. More, she wanted to crawl over him and taste every inch of his body. She wished she were brave enough to do it, but she could only look at him a little helplessly.
His hand stroked down the length of her hair. His fingers sifted through the strands. He scraped his teeth against the pad of her finger, sending little sparks shooting through her bloodstream.
"Gabrielle, do you have any idea how much you please me? I have claimed you, every single inch of you, for my own. When I want to kiss you, or touch you, or eat you, or be inside you, however, whenever I want that, I expect to have it. Why should your needs be any less than mine? I belong to you. That means you claim every single inch of me for your own. Not just my body, kessake, but my mind and heart and soul. If I expect you to give me those things, you should have those same expectations."
She liked that a lot. She liked that he wanted that for her. She was going slowly with him, feeling her way because she'd screwed up so badly when she'd realized she had a lifemate. She was shy with him, mostly because he was smoldering hot and she didn't know what to do with that. Mostly because he was dangerous and his temper burned as fiercely hot as his sexual needs.
"Did I not tell you I could have handled things better? We will look forward, not backward. You are not to blame for anything. I should have looked into your mind. I would have seen what happened, and I would have known you were an innocent. If there is forgiveness that must be had, you need to do the forgiving of my sins."
She didn't like that at all. Aleksei was an ancient and he had more than paid his dues. He had fought for centuries in darkness. She might not have known him, but once she was Carpathian and the possibility that he was out there somewhere was a reality, she should have taken better care.
"I have nothing to forgive you for, Aleksei," she stated firmly. "Nothing at all, and please, for me, don't ever say that again. I see you. What's inside you. You're not only a good man, you're an exceptionally great man. You deserve the best."
She saw that he would have protested, fr
owning, so she leaned close and took his mouth. It was daring. Scary. Thrilling. She pressed her lips to his, running her tongue along the seam there, just as he often did to her. At once he opened his mouth to her and she slipped her tongue inside, stroking caresses, building the heat. Even with her initiating the kiss, it was hot and a little wild.
Aleksei took over and the kiss went from hot and a little wild to totally out of control and scorching. She poured herself into him, uncaring how much she was giving away. She had to let Gary go, let go of being human and give herself totally to this man. In doing that, she accepted what he gave her. Accepted him. He wasn't perfect, but then neither was she. He made mistakes, so did she. They fit. She didn't know why, when he was so terrifying, she felt safe with him, but she did.
This was her way of telling him she was fully committed. Fully in his world. Fully trusting him. She kissed him over and over, her tongue matching his every stroke, her heart matching the rhythm of his--and it was perfect. She loved his mouth and the way he could use it. She loved his hands, cupping her breasts, caressing her nipples and then unexpectedly rolling and tugging, even pinching so that fire shot through her.
He seemed to know what her body craved and he gave her that. Still, she wanted to be the aggressor, to have him her way. She knew he wouldn't give her a lot of time. He took charge when it came to sex, but she liked that and he knew it. He'd given her every indication that he was willing for her to take the lead and she wanted it. She used the flat of her palms to push him down, realizing for the first time that she was in a bed with him--the bed he'd given her--in their beautiful room--the room he'd created for her.
She lifted her head just inches, framing his face, sprawled out over him, her body pinning his beneath her. She felt his cock, thick and hard against her stomach, and part of her wanted to go there immediately, but not yet. Not before she took every inch of him for her own.