Reunion by Sharon Sala Read Free Book Online Page B

seems to think you walk on water, so do your stuff.”
    She smiled. “Your uncle is charming, but slightly misled. I do not walk on water, I sink, just like everyone else. However, if there are sharks lurking about below, I just might be able to warn you ahead of time not to step in.”
    He grinned. “Fair enough. Now, is there anything you need before you retire for the night?”
    “Just a place to lay my head.”
    He had an instant vision of her head nestled on his chest just below his chin and forgot what he’d been going to say. In the following moments, as she walked up the stairs toward the room she’d been given earlier, he kept struggling to remember his manners. Finally he regained his sense enough to call up to her.
    “Miss Dane?”
    She paused and turned. “Laura.”
    “Then good night and sleep well…Laura.”
    A long moment of silence passed between them. Finally she nodded and smiled.
    “Good night to you, too.”
    Only after she had disappeared did Gabriel realize he’d been holding his breath.
     
    The bedroom she had been given was beautiful. He’d told her it had been his mother’s favorite. The wallpaper design was a thick, rich cream with tiny pink roses flocked in random order across the surface. The matching bedspread covered a four-poster bed made from dark cherry wood and shined to a high gloss. The carpet was a pale, delicate pink, like the color of a fading rose. It was a woman’s room, and in a way Laura felt protected, as if no man could endure within the confines of such fragile surroundings. She wondered if Gabriel had done this purposefully and then shrugged off the thought. Probably not. She had yet to meet a man who was that insightful.
    In spite of her exhaustion, sleep eluded her. The fabric of her nightgown was sticking to her body. In a fit of frustration, she yanked it over her head and tossed it aside. At once her body felt cooler. She stretched and then yawned, reveling in the feel of cool sheets against her skin, and in that same moment she could feel Gabriel’s weight upon her body and the thrust of his manhood hammering between her thighs.
    She groaned and rolled out of bed, moving toward the window, searching for something else to occupy her mind. That was a thought she wasn’t ready to handle. It was unsettling enough just knowing it would come.

Four
    G abriel slept, and for the time being, the woman who’d intruded upon his life was forgotten. He lay belly down across his bed, pillowing one arm beneath his cheek, the other dangling off the side. His legs were sprawled and tangled within the sheet covering the lower half of his body. Every now and then the central air-conditioning would kick in and a burst of cool air would circulate throughout the room. Other than the occasional involuntary twitch of a muscle, he hadn’t moved in hours.
    Outside, a light rain began to fall, freckling the flagstones on the patio below his windows. Within minutes, the shower had turned to a slow, steady downpour. Somewhere inside his mind, the peace that had taken him into sleep was being moved aside for a darker, more intense emotion.
     
    Rain came without warning. It blew first in his face, then onto his clothes. Before long, the place in which he’d been lying was ankle deep with running water. Confused and miserable, he staggered to his feet, clutching a bouquet of limp, wilting roses and shivering with cold. Another gust of rain-laden wind blew into the tunnel in which he was standing. He picked up his bag and took a defensive step backward. His belly rumbled with hunger as he peered out. Somewhere out there he would find food, but not until this storm had passed. Thunder belched. Bile rose in his throat. He was afraid. So afraid.
    Clutching his flowers a littler tighter, he turned toward the darkness and began to walk toward it, wincing as water squished between his toes. His socks were wet. Worse yet, he was walking in water. He wasn’t supposed to walk in