Tapestry of the Past (7 page)

Kalesia
started to unlock her legs from around his waist.

Son of a bitch, no! His hands shot to her hips, his fingers digging into the round fullness of her behind, holding her still. Although some said he’d already sold his soul to the devil and most times Gabriel wasn’t sure he disagreed, he knew he’d willingly do so now to sink inside her hot, snug channel. He sucked in a deep breath, searching for the control that should have been second nature. After a long minute, he found it.

“No. Stay. Put your arms around me and hold on tight.” Without question, she wrapped her arms around his neck. She didn’t look away. Using his grip on her fanny, he slid her up his cock. Her breath caught. He came damn near to choking on his at the intense pleasure that shot down his cock, straight to his balls.

On the second
downstroke
,
Kalesia
caught the rhythm.

Behind the fly of his jeans, his cock swelled impossibly further. A tingle started down low, at the base of his spine. He dropped his head to hers, clinging for dear life to his control. He’d be damned if he came before she did.

“That’s it,
darlin
’, ride me,” he encouraged hoarsely. Her breathing was as ragged and rough as his. He shifted his hands, sliding them until he was cupping both full cheeks of her bottom. He lifted her and dropped, letting her slide the full length of his cock.

Kalesia
twisted and moaned. She tightened her legs, pressing harder.

Over and over, he let her drop, driving her and himself, higher and higher. The soft sighs and demanding moans coming from her throat were driving him crazy. He didn’t know how much longer he could hang on.

He lifted her again, forced her even tighter against him, wedging the ridge of his cock between her pussy lips. The confined head of his cock rubbed hard over her clit when he dropped her this time.

“Gabriel!”

Every nerve stretching to the breaking point, her strangled scream shattered his control. Hands biting into her flesh, hips rocking with relentless need against hers, spurt after spurt of hot cum filled his jeans.

Gabriel forced his eyes open and leaned back so he could see
Kalesia’s
face. Lips parted as she panted softly, her eyes were squeezed closed. “Look at me.”

At the rasped command, she slowly lifted her lashes. Only a thin circle of vivid green surrounded the blown pupils. The sight punched him in the gut.

A man could get high on such honest passion.

The thought stopped him cold.

Kalesia
seemed to sense the change in him. The expression in those beautiful eyes sharpened, became wary. “Gabriel?”

When he didn’t answer right away, she unwound from around him, scooting back on the chair.

Gabriel was absurdly aware of the wet stickiness of his jeans and the smell of spent passion. Shit. He was a full-grown man. He shouldn’t feel awkward after making love to a woman.

Especially as they hadn’t even gotten naked together.

He clenched his left hand into a fist before straightening it, one finger at a time.

And they never would.

Tonight was a mistake. He’d lost his professionalism, his sense of detachment. Gabriel slanted a glance at
Kalesia
. She looked as uneasy and awkward as he felt.

For some reason, that stung.

Gabriel got to his feet, wincing as his knees protested the move. He’d have to see about getting carpet if he was going to act like a teenager very often.

Strike that. In the future, whether or not he softened the hardwood floors was not going to be an issue.

Kalesia
tucked a loosened swath of hair behind her ears. Then, as if she didn’t know what to do with her hands, tugged on the hem of her dress, pulling it down over her knees. Her hands shook, just the faintest tremor.

Gabriel winced. Not that she’d be coming back for seconds after his less-than-masterful performance. That damn cat of hers probably had slicker moves. Turning so the huge wet spot on his jeans wasn’t so obvious, he cleared his throat.

“Go to bed. We’ll start again in the morning.” He closed his eyes. Shit, he couldn’t even get that right. He sounded as if he were dismissing an errant employee.

Color crept up from the deep V of her dress until it painted her face. Before he could rectify the situation,
Kalesia
practically flew up the stairs.

A minute later, he heard the bedroom door next to his close.

Son of a bitch. He wished she had slammed it. He closed his hand into a fist, then slowly opened it. Gabriel turned on his heel and made his nightly round, the habit too deeply ingrained to ignore. After checking the doors and windows, he set the alarm. Only when satisfied all was secured, did he shut off the lights.

With an ease
Kalesia
would have found mystifying, Gabriel became one more shadow in a room full of shadows.

It had, he mused, proved a useful ability in the past. Yet, now, he found it vaguely disquieting. Pausing at the bottom of the stairs, one hand resting on the aged mahogany, he gazed at the ceiling.

What would it be like to live in the light?

Chapter Four

Okay, she could do this. After all, it wasn’t the first time she’d less than dazzled a man with her lovemaking skills.
Kalesia
placed her hand on the swinging door leading to the kitchen and pushed, only to slam to a halt. Her hand went to her stomach as nerves kicked up a mad dance in her stomach. Gabriel was standing at the stove in a faded denim shirt that clung to his broad shoulders and a pair of dark jeans. Faint traces of rich soil clung to the seat of his pants. It wasn’t the evidence that he’d already been hard at work that riveted her attention.

It was the way the denim hugged his rear in a way guaranteed to give a woman hot flashes. Painful heat crawled into her cheeks.

Unfortunately, she could personally attest to that.

What in the world had she been thinking? Well, that was a stupid question. Obviously, she hadn’t. She nearly groaned. Even after tossing all night, coming up with excuses and rationales for her behavior, she still couldn’t believe she’d behaved so wantonly with a man she barely knew. It was just so out of character. But,
dammit
, for the first time she’d felt so sexy, so powerful and it had gone straight to her head.

Too bad she lacked the necessary…ability to carry through on her implied promise of satisfaction. She’d never forget the way, the minute it was over, he told her to go to bed. He might as well have been speaking to a stranger on the street.

Humiliation settled in a hard knot in her stomach.

She wanted to run and hide.

Kalesia
pulled her thoughts up short. She was a
Brannigan
,
dammit
, and
Brannigans
never ran. Well, almost never, she amended, wincing as she remembered the way she had fled his presence last night.

Well, she’d refuse to discuss her lapse. That is, if he even brought it up. After all, she hadn’t exactly impressed him, had she? For the first time since she’d closed her bedroom door last night, a tiny ray of light brightened her mood. Why would Gabriel bring up what had happened? He’d probably forgotten all about it already. Feeling marginally better, she plastered a bright smile on her face and slid onto the white ladder-back chair.

Even though
Kalesia
didn’t think she made a sound, Gabriel turned and pinned her with that silver gaze.

The smile froze on her face.

“
Mornin
’.” He picked up two plates and brought them to the table.

“Good morning,” she managed to croak as he set a dish of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of her. Smile. She was supposed to smile.

“About last night,” he began, staring at his eggs.

“Let’s just admit last night was a mistake and forget about it.”
Kalesia
stabbed an innocent lump of egg with vengeance. She so did not want to dissect what went wrong last night. Been there, done that and it always turned out to be her fault.

Dead silence.

“I want to go over your visions again after breakfast. After that, I need to go through your files. There has to be a reason someone wants you dead. A tie, if you will, between you and the killer. Assuming it isn’t totally random, then either your business or one of your visions is the most likely reason.” Gabriel chose a gently steaming biscuit and split it with precision before buttering each half. Strong white teeth sank into one half as he met her gaze.

Kalesia
was somewhat taken aback by his ready agreement to forget last night and by his matter-of-fact return to the investigation. In fact, she felt a bit insulted. Was last night really that unimportant to him? She drummed her fingers on the white wooden table. His eyes flickered to the movement. She stilled the little, irritated gesture.

Damn. She’d wanted him to forget it. So why was she getting so upset?

Good lord, had a part of her actually hoped he would insist on discussing last night’s fiasco? Hoped that he’d declare it—she—meant more to him than a fleeting moment of passion?

If so, those hopes had taken a direct hit with his easy acceptance.

Oh no. She so refused to explore that path. With the strength of will that had allowed her to recover after the disaster three years ago, she turned her attention to his statement that he wanted to go through her files. “Look, I’ve got to tell you. I am very uncomfortable letting you see my clients’ files. I have an obligation to keep their information confidential. They trust me.”

Gabriel stopped chewing. “That’s the real problem, isn’t it? You don’t trust me.”

Appalled that he’d misunderstood her, she protested, “That’s not it! It’s not a matter of not trusting you. Exactly,” she tacked on as it dawned on her that, in a way, he was right. She kept watch over her clients’ files the way a broody hen watched her nest.

“Yes, it is,” he said. “It is exactly a matter of trust.”

The intensity in his eyes refused to allow her to prevaricate.
Kalesia
knew what she said next was very important. And not just in the obvious way. “I don’t know you. How can I trust you with my files?”

“You’re trusting me with your life.”

“That’s different,” she defended, then shut her mouth with an inaudible groan. Really, could she sound any more stupid? “Major Harley said you could help.”

Well, hell. Obviously, she could.

To her chagrin, he didn’t say anything, just looked at her.

“Well, he’s a sheriff’s officer! He wouldn’t have sent me here if he had doubts about your ability.”
Let’s just see how deep we can dig the hole,
Brannigan
. If the man didn’t think you crazy before, he would now.

He lifted a brow.

It was time to call it quits. She was being ridiculous and they both knew it. Besides, she did trust him. Had from the moment she’d met his haunted gaze. It was just that when it came to her files she was like an overprotective mother. It was hard to give them into someone else’s keeping. Even temporarily. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t trust you in some way,” she muttered. The narrowing of his eyes said he was aware that she was hedging. It wasn’t rational and she couldn’t explain it but
Kalesia
couldn’t ignore the tiny whisper that warned against admitting out loud the depths of her trust. A therapist would have a field day with her. “You can see them but I want to be there when you do.”

He pushed his plate away and pulled a yellow legal pad closer. “You said the vision of your death is your first precognitive one?”

Appetite abruptly gone,
Kalesia
dropped a half-eaten biscuit and shoved her plate to the side. “Yes.”

Gabriel made a note on his pad. “Is this the first vision you’ve had that pertains to you?”

She nodded. “I don’t get visions about winning the lottery, about how to avoid an accident. I get visions about murder after the fact. Death. Violence. Believe me. I wish it was different.”

“Any idea why it was this time?”

Kalesia
lifted both shoulders in a helpless shrug, at a total loss to explain. Always she got a vision of murder after the fact. Those visions were disturbing enough but if her ability was growing, was beginning to latch onto the violence before the event occurred,
Kalesia
truly thought she might go insane.

“None. I can’t even begin to explain why I have visions.”

“According to what you told me last night, there have been nine men, six women and two children. We’ll start with the children. Tell me about those visions.”

Kalesia
winced. After the visions of the children’s violent deaths, she’d been physically ill for several days. The unfairness of their deaths, the fact that a child’s life could be quenched without a second thought, hit her like the pain of a broken bone. Only this pain refused to heal and go away.

She rubbed sweaty palms on the thighs of her jeans, wishing she could rub the guilt away as easily. Although she knew the children were already beyond help by the time she saw their broken little bodies, she couldn’t rid herself of the notion she had not done enough. She began.

By the time lunch had come and gone, a vicious pain throbbed behind her right eye. Each memory Gabriel pulled from her, some she’d thought impossible to remember after so many years, became a shard of glass in her skull. By the time late afternoon was throwing long shadows on the immaculate lawn,
Kalesia
was certain she was going to throw up. Bile burned the back of her throat.

Gabriel Steele had to be the most insensitive, unfeeling man she’d ever had the misfortune to meet. Like his name, the man had a heart of steel. He didn’t seem to care that these were real people, dead, their murders all but forgotten. He prodded, he poked, his tone so damned dispassionate.

“Did you keep track of the outcome of the murders?”

A serrated edge of anguish knifed through her. “Yes, I did.” She hugged her stomach. “All but four were solved.”