Gabriel Is No Angel Page 16

  “Yeah, right.” She peeled a strip of pork out of her sandwich and held it up. “Is that what you want, you mooch?”

  It was. The meat vanished so fast she had to look to make sure her fingers were still there. Great. She’d soothed the savage beast, so to speak. With a sigh, she took another bite.

  And realized that those blue eyes had zeroed in again.

  “Hey,” she said, “you got some.”

  “Told you so,” Gabriel murmured.

  Rae nodded. “I get it now,” she said. “You’ve got to resist until the last bite, and only then offer the bribe.”

  He smiled. “That’s one way of looking at it.”

  Rae smiled back. Then she realized that it had happened again. She was having fun. With Gabriel MacLaren. Detective Gabriel MacLaren. This wouldn’t do, wouldn’t do at all.

  She peeled off another strip of pork. “Sit,” she said.

  Receiving only an ice blue stare for her trouble, she gently pushed the puppy’s behind to the floor. “Sit,” she said again. The moment she lifted her hand, however, Tom snatched the pork.

  “Hey!” she yelped.

  Gabriel’s deep laugh caught her somewhere in the midsection, taking her breath with it. Against her will, her gaze dropped to his mouth. She wanted to kiss him. Badly.

  “You ought to enroll in obedience classes,” MacLaren said.

  “His or mine?” Rae countered.

  “Obviously, he doesn’t need classes to train you.”

  “Very funny,” she retorted, rising to her feet, glass in hand. “I need a fill up. What about you?”

  Gabriel’s gaze traveled the length of her, beginning from her feet and ending at her eyes. It was worth the trip. His hands actually itched, he wanted to touch her so badly.

  “Sure,” he said, reaching blindly for his glass.

  Naturally, he knocked it across the coffee table. He lunged for it, grazed it, juggled it madly for a couple of seconds, then lost it again. It crashed to the floor, sending shards of glass spraying across the wood. Momentum carried his arm downward, and his palm landed squarely in the broken glass.

  “Oh, hell,” he growled.

  Rae reached for him. “Let me see.”

  He lifted his hand. For a moment, all Rae saw was blood. Her heart lurched crazily.

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  “Come here,” she ordered, grasping him by the wrist and hauling him toward the bathroom.

  She turned on the cold water and held his hand under it. Soon, the bleeding eased. He had several cuts on his palm, but none seemed to need stitches. Her heartbeat steadied.

  “It doesn’t look too bad,” she said, carefully extracting a small, wedge-shaped sliver of glass.

  He peered at the wounds. “I told you it was okay.”

  Reaction set in then. She let his hand go, not wanting him to feel the tremor that had begun in her arms. He’d really gotten to her. She’d never been a squeamish woman, but the thought of him getting hurt had truly upset her.

  She reached up to open the door of the medicine cabinet. “Let’s see what kind of disinfectant I have up here... Ah, here it is!” she said, spotting the hydrogen peroxide.

  “I’ll do it,” he said. “You’d better clean up that glass before the puppy gets into it.”

  That got her out into the living room at top speed. But she found that Tom the Dog hadn’t bothered with the glass. He had, however, polished off the remains of both sandwiches.

  “Everything okay out there?” Gabriel called.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  In one encompassing glance, she took in both the room and the situation. This was her chance. She needed space from Gabriel, time to get her emotions back into some sort of balance. If she stayed, if he looked at her, touched her...she’d be lost.

  This wasn’t rational, for she knew Gabriel would find her. But it was a powerful instinct, and she’d learned long ago to listen to such things. She picked the puppy up and tucked him under her arm like a football. Then, retrieving the leash and her purse, she slipped out of the apartment.

  “Let’s go for a walk, baby,” she crooned to the puppy.

  For once, luck was with her. The elevator was on the floor below, and headed up. She stabbed the Call button just in time.

  The doors opened, and she found herself face-to-face with her worst nightmare: Marlene Britton.

  “Rae, sweetie, how have you been?” Marlene gushed in her smarmiest voice as she stepped out.

  Rae hustled onto the elevator and hit the Lobby button. “Got to run, Marlene.” Sudden inspiration hit then, and she held the dopr to keep it from closing. “Oh, by the way, I left Detective MacLaren all alone at my place. You wouldn’t mind looking in on him for me, would you?”

  “Not at all.” Marlene preened like a cockatiel.

  “Thank you so much,” Rae. cooed. “Bye, now.”

  She didn’t start smiling until the elevator doors were safely closed. Oh, this was good! On a scale of ten, it had to be at least a twelve and a half.

  “Mommy’s good,” she told the puppy. “Mommy’s very good.”

  She took the summons out of her purse and slipped it into her pants pocket. The address it gave was only a few blocks from here, so she thought she’d mosey over and see about serving it.

  Quickly, she hooked the leash onto Tom’s collar. He instantly darted out to the extreme end of the lead, tugging against the restraint. Since he took the direction she wanted to take anyway, she let him pull her along.

  “Looks like I’m going to have to consider getting a pair of Rollerblades, huh?” she asked. Then, as he stopped to investigate a nearby tree, she amended. “Or maybe not.”

  In the end, she carried him. Every bush, every tree, was a distraction. So were lampposts, parking meters, benches, street signs and, most especially, garbage cans. Tomorrow was trash pickup day, so there were a lot of garbage cans.

  Finally, however, she reached her destination. Perhaps as consolation for the vagaries of the trip over, she arrived just as her quarry pulled up in his driveway. This was too good. Rae walked right up to him as he got out of his car. “Mr. Dillard, I’ve got some legal papers for you,” she said, thrusting them into his hands.

  With a curse, he tossed the summons onto the driveway. Then he took a swing at her. Rae ducked, actually feeling a breeze as his fist just missed her face.

  “Hey, if you’ve got a problem, take it up with the judge,” she said.

  His face creased with fury, and he cocked his fist again. Rae backpedaled, shielding the puppy with her body. She was willing to forgive and forget, but also willing to kick Dillard’s kneecap into the next universe if he kept coming.

  Suddenly, Gabriel appeared out of nowhere. Slamming into the man, he bore him backward against the car. “Police,” he snarled. “Put your hands on the back of your neck. Now!”

  Dillard slowly raised his hands and clasped them on the back of his neck. Gabriel slapped handcuffs on him. Once the man was immobilized, Gabriel glanced over his shoulder at Rae. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  Tom the Dog growled, and Rae realized he’d been growling since Dillard had first thrown the papers. She lifted the puppy up to comfort him. Tom, however, wasn’t upset. He was mad. The hair on his back stood straight up, making him look twice his size, and those ice blue eyes were fixed on Dillard’s throat.

  Actually, now that she’d noticed, the dog’s expression was awfully similar to Gabriel’s. She’d better get them both out of here before something happened to Dillard.

  “I’m not going to press charges,” she said.

  Gabriel struggled to contain his anger. Something had clicked in him when he’d seen the guy take a swing at her, something powerful and very uncivilized. Simply, he’d wanted to tear the other man’s arms out of the sockets.

  “Are you sure you want to let this go?” he asked.

  “It goes with the job,” she said.

  A muscl
e jumped spasmodically in his jaw. He made a very dark and brooding guardian angel, she thought, but he’d certainly been that tonight. She went to him, laying one hand on his forearm. It was iron hard beneath her palm, every muscle taut and ready.

  “Let it go, Gabriel,” she said.

  He let his breath out in a long sigh. “All right,” he growled. “But only because you asked. If I had my druthers, I’d use his face to put a nice shine on that car.”

  Sheesh, Rae thought. Men! Get that testosterone pumping, and they reverted to regular caveman status. She rolled her eyes. Now that she’d served Dillard his summons, he was no longer her concern. And she wasn’t interested in dealing with primitive male posturing and chest beating.

  Gabriel took the handcuffs off Dillard. He didn’t want to. He wanted Dillard to pay for trying to hurt Rae, and he wanted to be the one to collect the debt. Because of the extreme violence of his emotions, he sternly controlled his temper.

  “This is your lucky night, pal,” he growled.

  “Go to hell,” Dillard snarled.

  MacLaren reached for him. Rae smoothly stepped between them, easing Dillard back with a deft bump of her hip. If she didn’t get these two apart, there’d be a fistfight for sure.

  “Forget it,” she said, stiff-arming Gabriel toward the road.

  “I don’t want to forget it.”

  “Look—”

  “You look,” he snapped. “I see that bastard take a swing at you and you expect me to be Mr. Sweetness and Light?”

  She scowled, her own temper flaming to high. “I expect you to let me mind my own business. Before you came in, flexing your muscles and beating your chest, I had things under control—”

  “Under control?” he echoed incredulously.

  “Yes, under control,” she retorted. “I’d already done what I needed to do here. I’m not some hormone-laden male who thinks it’s fun to get dragged into a fight by some two-bit jerk—”

  “Right,” he growled. “But you think it’s fun to sic that razor-clawed female on me—”

  “Oh. so that’s what’s really bugging you,” she said.

  His eyes narrowed. “You conned me.”

  “Did I promise not to leave?” she countered. “Did I promise you a cozy night watching sitcoms?”

  An engine roared to life behind them. Rae got one pulse-thumping glance at two glaring red taillights hurtling toward her. Then Gabriel flung her out of the way. She clutched the puppy to her chest as she reeled, off balance, then went down backward over a nearby trash can.

  Tires screeched and squealed. Then she heard the sickening crunch of metal as the car hit something.

  “Gabriel!” she shrieked.

  Chapter 12

  Still clutching the puppy to her chest, Rae leapt to her feet. Terror ran in icy torrents through her veins. There was only one thought in her mind, one concern: Gabriel. If anything had happened to him, she’d...she’d...

  Dillard had backed his car into the lamppost opposite his driveway. Even as she registered that, the man smoked his tires as he slammed the car into Drive and took off down the street. The open trunk lid flapped with every bump, looking for all the world like a wide-open, laughing mouth. There was no sign of Gabriel.

  “MacLaren,” Rae screamed. “Gabriel!”

  A dark silhouette darted out from the bushes across the street, and her heart gave a huge leap. Gabriel. Light glinted off the gun in his hand. But Dillard was already fishtailing around the corner, and a moment later disappeared.

  Rae’s breath went out all at once. He was all right. Oh, God, he was all right.

  He worked the slide on his gun, ejecting the chambered round, and catching it in midair with a deftness that spoke of long practice. Watching him, so big and lean and capable, Rae was possessed by a wash of joy almost too big for her to contain. She took a deep breath, then another. She had to get this under control. But it grew bigger and more powerful with every beat of her heart, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. It shook her, possessed her, made her tremble.

  She loved him. So much, so much.

  He turned to look at her. Their gazes locked for a long, frozen moment, and she found herself trapped in his eyes. Those pale blue depths burned with anger, frustration, concern... and something else, something that made her legs turn weak.

  Then he strode toward her. Her heart twisted from side to side as though it wanted to tear free of its moorings. He stopped in front of her, running his hands along her shoulders and down her arms as though to reassure himself she was really there. Rae understood. Adrenaline raced in hot spurts through her body, reaction to the danger, or perhaps only to the man.

  “You’re all right?” he asked.

  She nodded. “You?”

  “Yeah. I tore my shirt jumping into the bushes, though.”

  Smiling crookedly, he hooked one finger into a triangular tear right over his breastbone. Rae’s nostrils flared. She didn’t know what came over her then. It was reckless and stupid, and would surely cost her dearly. But she had no choice. She slid two fingers into the tear and laid them on his chest. His skin was hot. The heavy thump of his heart seemed to enter her through her fingertips, and her own pulse rate quickened to match his.

  Even in this tricky light, she saw his pupils dilate. Heat licked along her limbs, pooled deep in her body. A now-familiar ache settled at her core, an ache she knew he could ease.

  “Rae,” he said, “I don’t know what this is between us, but I’m upside down and dizzy with it. I can’t get my balance.”

  She smiled up at him. There was nothing complicated in her feelings just now, nor was there any confusion. She’d almost lost him tonight. No loss, no pain, could possibly be worse. And at least for now, nothing less frightened her.

  For once, everything seemed simple. She wanted him. Needed him. Tomorrow would come soon enough. But tonight, she wasn’t going to think about anything but touching him and being touched.

  “Please,” she whispered. “Hold me.”

  He gathered her in, shifting the puppy so that he wouldn’t be squashed between them. Rae leaned into Gabriel’s hard strength, absorbing his warmth, letting herself be comforted by the strong, steady beat of his heart against her cheek. For the first time, she didn’t feel as though she’d be giving up something of herself in order to be with him. Simply, this was the man she loved. In the aftermath of almost losing him, nothing else seemed to matter.

  “Gabriel...” She let her voice trail away, not knowing quite what she wanted to say. Maybe the right words didn’t exist.

  “What?” he murmured, his breath hot against her temple.

  “I...” Still unable to find the right words, she leaned her forehead against his chest. His skin smelled of soap and musk, an excitingly male aura that was uniquely MacLaren. She knew that scent, reacted to it as though it had become imprinted in every cell in her body.

  Gabriel gently combed his hand through her hair. Whatever else she might be, Rae Ann Boudreau was unique. From the moment he’d met her, he’d been an emotional spinning top. Desire and fury, tenderness and frustration... She’d wound him up, whirled him around, and he didn’t think he’d ever be the same again.

  Even when he’d been angriest at her, during that black moment when she’d conned him into bed to distract him from Peter Smithfield, he hadn’t been able to keep from admiring her spirit. All right, he amended, sheer gall.

  He’d been so mad at her for setting him up like that. And he would have done exactly the same had he been in her shoes. He couldn’t laugh then. But he could now, and did.

  “What’s so funny?” she demanded.

  Still chuckling, Gabriel let his hand drift along the line of her jaw. She tried to be so tough, but a moment ago, her eyes had held such emotion that it had stunned him. He tilted her chin up so that her face was turned more fully into the light.

  “You know, I haven’t been afraid for a long time,” he said, curving his hand around the smooth column
of her neck. “But tonight, when I thought you might get hurt, I learned what it was like to be frightened again.”

  Rae closed her eyes against a sudden upwelling of tears. A day ago, an hour ago, she wouldn’t have been able to admit those feelings. But he’d had the courage to face it, and to tell her.

  And because of that, she found the courage to do the same.

  “I was afraid, too,” she whispered. “I ah, I...”

  “Say it,” he said. “I need to hear it from you.”

  She opened her eyes. There, in the face of his honesty, she could hold nothing back. “I was afraid for you. If anything had happened to you, I...I don’t know what I would have done.”

  There. She’d said it. She’d laid herself bare, and in doing so had given him a power over her she’d never given another human being. It frightened her, but it also set her free. It was a reckless sort of freedom, but infinitely exciting.

  “Come home with me,” he said.

  There was such need in his eyes. Open, honest, naked. Desire so deep and hot it made her tremble inside. “Yes.”

  Nothing more needed to be said. He put his arm around her waist and turned her toward home. She let Tom the Dog investigate anything that interested him, since Gabriel tended to kiss her during any pause in their walk.

  Finally, they reached her street. Rae picked the puppy up and ruffled his ears. “I hate to leave him alone again—”

  “So bring him along,” Gabriel said. “Anybody who growls at...what was that guy’s name?”

  “Dillard. Stanley Dillard.”

  Gabriel’s brows went up. “Stanley? Well, anyway, Tom showed remarkable good judgment in wanting to bite that bastard, and I consider him a friend for it. The dog, not the bastard.”

  “He’s not exactly housebroken—”

  “I don’t care. I want you, I want you now. No, I want you ten minutes ago, and I’m gonna die if I don’t get you alone soon.”

  “Are you sure—?”

  “Get in the car, Rae.”

  She gazed up at him through her eyelashes. “You know, this conversation is beginning to sound awfully familiar—”

  “Get in the car.”