Challenging Gabriel (Knight Security 2) by Carole Mortimer Read Free Book Online Page B

evidence to how dangerous this man was.
    How could she have forgotten how dangerous Gabriel was?
    She knew she hadn’t. She had just been so desperate to get Daniel and Lena back, she hadn’t been able to think beyond that.
    “Now you.”
    That emerald glitter remained fixated on her, as with only the briefest of hesitations, she slowly grasped the bottom of her T-shirt and began to pull it upward. There was no point in fighting this—and she wasn’t sure she wanted to—knowing Gabriel wasn’t going to take no for an answer, that he was beyond being reasoned with.
    Had he ever been reasonable? Not that she could remember. From the very start, Gabriel had been forceful and demanding, sweeping her off her feet and into his bed.
    Even so, Angel felt self-conscious as she dropped her T-shirt to the carpet beside his and now stood in front of him wearing only her bra and jeans.
    Gabriel hid the flare of desire in his eyes beneath hooded lids as his gaze swept over her slowly. Angel’s breasts were smaller than they used to be, but just as delicious as they swelled against her bra. Her waist was slimmer, and just above the waistband of her jeans, he could see a silver tracery of lines from where she had carried his baby.
    He glanced up at her. “I thought rich women like you did everything they could to ensure those didn’t happen?”
    “I… Clive didn’t want me to do anything to hide… When I wore a bikini, he liked people to see—” She broke off to bite her bottom lip between her teeth.
    “The bastard liked others to see you had supposedly carried his child.”
    “Yes.”
    Gabriel liked seeing those silvery lines too, to show Angel had carried his baby. If anything, it made her even more desirable in his eyes, not less.
    He stepped forward to reach out and follow the tracery of those silver lines with his fingertips, glancing up as Angel flinched. “You don’t need to hide these from me.” His voice was gruff. “They’re your war wounds.”
    She gave a choked laugh. “Pregnancy isn’t a war.”
    His mouth twisted. “According to my sister, Lily, it is— She and her husband, Jonas, have a six-month-old daughter. Amelia.”
    Angel could hear the deep affection in Gabriel’s voice as he spoke of the other couple and their baby daughter.
    The same way he had once spoken to her.
    Before he left her to disappear on some mission he couldn’t talk to her about and never came back. Gabriel had told her almost from the start what it was he did. Oh, not the details, because he wasn’t allowed to do that, but he’d had to give some sort of explanation for the numerous scars on his body.
    When Gabriel didn’t come back Angel had been worried at first, that he might have received a killing blow or shot. She had been so worried about him, she’d even called the base where he’d been stationed. The person on the other end of the phone had informed her that Gabriel Knight was currently on leave and not expected back for several weeks. Gabriel was home but hadn’t come to see her. After that, Angel had been left with no alternative but to accept Gabriel had never had any intention of coming back to her, that the mission might even have been an excuse to end things between them.
    Gabriel had been ten years older than her, far more experienced, and with an aversion to forming any emotional ties that would hold him back from doing his job. Angel had been left with no choice but to accept whatever had been between them was over, in Gabriel’s eyes at least.
    She had been the one literally left holding the baby.
    Clive Sinclair had kept a casual eye on Angel after her father died of cancer. When he became aware of her condition, he had offered her marriage. Alone and pregnant, her heart aching for Gabriel and what her baby’s future would be without a father, Angel had accepted Clive’s marriage proposal.
    She wasn’t in love with Clive, any more than he was in love with her, but the arrangement had suited them