Empowered [Sexual Magic 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Jennifer August Read Free Book Online Page B

into the bathroom, and she closed the door, leaned against the cool panel, and exhaled a grateful breath. Hopefully her teasing would help sort his mood out.
    She started the shower, inhaling the misting steam as it billowed into the room. Noah had always been protective, but since the incident with Krista, he’d become smothering at times. Despite their cases since then, he’d rarely let up. Or perhaps, because of them. The people they’d helped in the intervening years were nice enough if a bit regular. Just your normal subs and Doms.
    She giggled at the thought. Normal and BDSM were usually never used in the same context.
    Gabriel .
    His name flittered through her mind, and she gasped, insides reeling as though dealt a physical blow.
    She lathered her skin, rinsed, and stepped from the shower. A quick, mostly useless rubdown and she opened the door.
    Noah sat in front of the TV, remote in hand, but staring at a blank screen.
    “You’re still rushing, darlin’,” he said without turning.
    “I know,” she replied and dashed across the room. She yanked open a drawer and pulled out underwear, jeans, and a red T-shirt. “He calls to me, Noah. I don’t know why but we need to track him down. Now.”
    The big man rose and set the remote on the lacquered coffee table. As she stepped into her clothes, she studied him. His tension seemed to have eased.
    “Better, then?”
    “Yeah.” Noah shoved his fingers into his pockets. “I’m sorry, love. I’ll try to reel it in. It’s just being here bugs me. Sets me on edge.”
    She zipped her jeans and tugged the shirt over her head. “I know. Perhaps when we are done this time, we will ask Clarissa to keep us away.”
    “Good idea.”
    She smiled. “Ready?”
    “I guess so.”
    Slipping her arm through his, she snagged her purse from the closet doorknob. “Let’s go find him, chéri .”
     
    * * * *
     
    Noah led her from the hotel room and down the long corridor. He’d be damned if he would admit it out loud, but finding Gabriel had weighed heavily on his mind the entire time Madelyn was in the shower.
    When he was alone and allowed logic to seep back into his brain, he knew he owed the other man an apology. And a real lesson in using whips, not just some by-the-pants overview. He would make sure no one, especially Madelyn, was around during the training, either. No sense tempting ill fate.
    Again.
    They rounded the curve into the elevator hallway, and he pressed the down button. A sharp blast like the tingle of an old-fashioned hand buzzer zipped up his arm, and he frowned.
    Is there a short in the system? He eyed the elevator warily as the chrome doors slid open.
    “Noah?”
    “Why don’t we take the stairs?”
    She rolled her eyes. “Now you’re developing claustrophobia? Besides, we’re ten floors up. Come on.” She stepped into the car and placed her hand over the doors.
    “Fine,” he muttered and followed her in. Nothing happened. The elevator was perfectly sound, mirrors and lights all perfectly in working order. He propped his shoulder on the back wall. “Let’s go.”
    She gave him a questioning look, which he ignored.
    The trip down was absolutely uneventful. Maybe his finger had been slick or something. The sensation had been a little jolt like when someone licked the end of a battery.
    The rotunda housing the various elevators was abuzz with activity. People in all sorts of dress—and undress—bustled around. He nodded to the couple from the bar who’d given Gabriel his spanking show. She looked replete and her Dom smug.
    All in a good day’s work.
    “It’s likely he will not be in the bar,” Madelyn said. She moved to the glass doors that fronted the beach and pushed them open. “I think he would have left the hotel entirely.”
    “Yeah. I suspect he’s at one of the other buildings.” Noah studied a large standing map like the ones which graced amusement parks and malls across the nation. He found the requisite “you are here”