Dark Refuge (6 page)

Gabe had to consciously shut his mouth. “Okay? You’re serious?”

She blinked. “Yeah. Weren’t you?”

He stood and walked around the table, took both her hands in his—they were ice cold—and smiled down at her. She was such a tiny thing. “I’m dead serious, Em. I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.”

“C’mon, then. My room’s on this level.” She held on to his left hand and tugged him after her. Bemused, Gabe followed, but he made a point of leaving his mobile phone on the table. The last thing he wanted when he was finally buried deep inside Ms. Emeline was a phone call.

• • •

Okay. She could do this. Maybe. Who the hell was she kidding? Gabe’s hand was so big, his fingers curled all the way around her hand, and while she knew that a Chanku bitch could take a very large man, Em hadn’t. She’d had sex, but only with human men, and never with a man who was so, so . . . Goddess, there were no words to describe Gabriel Cheval, especially when he was wearing nothing but a worn pair of sweatpants. His chest was bare, dark toffee skin, all sleek and smooth and rippling with muscle, so beautiful she couldn’t find the words.

Even though she’d been describing him in her dreams for years. Imagining just this scenario, leading Gabe to her bedroom, knowing they were going to have sex, that he would think she was really beautiful, that he’d profess his undying love for her.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen. Yeah, he thought she was hot, but he was a guy. Anything with two legs and a crotch was hot to a Chanku male. She wanted Gabe to be special, but she had the terrible feeling she was getting herself in way too deep with a very nice guy who just wanted to fuck whatever woman was handy.

“That’s not fair, Em. And it’s not true.” He tugged her hand, pulled her to a stop outside her bedroom door and then held her in place with both hands on her shoulders.

“Huh?”

“You’re broadcasting. I don’t think you want me to know what you’re thinking, but I’m glad you gave up those thoughts. I don’t want to fuck whoever or whatever’s available. I really want to make love with you. You, Em. Not just anyone with two legs and a crotch.”

“Oh, Goddess.” She covered her face with both hands and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Heat and cold shot through her; embarrassment heated her face while absolute horror chilled her from the inside out. “I am so sorry, Gabe. I didn’t . . .”

“I know you didn’t, but I’m glad you did.” He choked off a bitter-sounding laugh. “I was thinking you were giving me a pity fuck.”

“What? Good Goddess, Gabe. How could you possibly think that?” Flustered, she raised her head and glared at him.

“Em, you’re gorgeous. You’re smart. You travel all over the world with your job, speak way too many different languages, handle an important part of the company. You protect our workers all over the world through your oversight. I’m a marketing geek. I do most of my work from my office. I’m thirty years old and I’ve never had a serious relationship. I have no idea where my life is going. And then here you are. The little girl who used to drive me nuts is all grown up, and damn did she grow up good. C’mon. If you’ll still have me, I want to find out a little more about Emeline Isobelle.”

Still flushed with embarrassment, she nodded, opened the door to her room and stepped inside. The bed was still rumpled and unmade, but at least she’d changed the sheets yesterday, and wasn’t that a stupid thing to worry about. She turned her head to gaze over her shoulder, and Gabe was standing there, staring at her with a silly smile on his face.

“What’s the matter?”

“I want to take those clothes off you, but I’m not sure where to start. Actually, I’m not sure how to start. I’ve never done this before.”

She laughed so hard she snorted, and it took a minute to get herself under control. “You’re trying to tell me you’ve never had sex?”

“Oh, Goddess, no!” He laughed and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m just saying I’ve never had sex with someone I’ve known as a little kid but not as an adult. You’re a totally different person than that pesky little EmyIzzy, so it’s not at all hard to think of you as Em or Emeline.”

“You called me Emy yesterday.” She liked the way his arms felt, holding her so comfortably. “I actually like that. It’s that Izzy part that drives me nuts.”

“I like Emy, too.” He leaned close and kissed her, and then lifted his head. His eyes practically sparkled when he added, “I like Emy a hell of a lot.” Then he kissed her again.

She wasn’t expecting it, the soft flow of his lips over hers, the tentative exploration of his tongue against her mouth, tracing the seam between her lips. She opened for him, welcomed him in, tasting coffee and man, a taste that had to be all Gabe. He pulled her closer against him, so close she felt the heat from his chest and the steady thump of his heart. And something she couldn’t ignore—the long, thick length of his erection trapped between them, pressing against her belly.

Something about that hot pressure against her midsection left her feeling like warm wax, all hot and soft and ready for him. She’d never had that overwhelming need for sex that everyone else in the pack seemed to experience. For her it had been the occasional itch she had to scratch, something easier dealt with at home with her favorite toys.

She’d never actually run with the pack. Not since she was a kid. It was difficult, staying away from home, but she’d had a few runs here when the Chanku working in the city had gathered at Mount Tam and run over the forested flanks of the big mountain. When the others had elected to head back to their rooms and screw themselves silly, she’d always avoided that. For whatever reason, it hadn’t felt right.

But everything Gabe did felt more than right. It felt wonderful. His hands were under her top, caressing her back, her shoulders, the sides of her breasts. He slipped her T-shirt over her head and they were chest to chest, skin to skin, and her tightly beaded nipples rubbed over the broad expanse of his smooth, muscular chest.

Her breath caught in her throat and it was hard to breathe, hard to absorb all the impressions battering her senses—the sound of each breath rasping in her ear, the air rushing in and out of his lungs as his arousal increased, his heat radiating off his body and the pounding thunder of his heart, the smoothness of his chest and the coarse hair on his arms, the soft glide of his lips and the fierce thrust of his tongue, the sense that he couldn’t get enough of her.

That she’d never get enough of him.

Still kissing him, her fingers fluttered over his chest, along the smooth lines of his ribs beneath taut muscle and sleek skin. She’d never explored a man’s body before, never imagined that the first one she’d actually touch this intimately would be the man she’d fantasized about since she was a teen. She rasped her thumbs over his nipples, surprised when they beaded up beneath her touch. She was about to do it again when he dipped lower, his arms went under her back and her thighs and he lifted her, still kissing her, holding her against him briefly before carefully laying her on the bed atop the rumpled covers. She’d slept here alone, touching herself, thinking of Gabe. Wondering what it would be like to make love with him. To feel him deep inside, thrusting hard and fast, filling her. Loving her.

She wanted so much. To taste, to experience what every other young woman in the pack already knew—what it was like to make love with one of their own kind.

He wouldn’t know he was her first. He couldn’t know. It was too embarrassing, and she wasn’t about to tell him. He already thought she was different. She could tell by the way he looked at her sometimes, that he just didn’t understand why she said what she said, did what she did.

The last thing she wanted to do was give him more reasons to think she was weird, that she wasn’t like other women, that . . .

“Okay, Em. What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”

Blinking, she frowned. “What do you mean?”

He grinned at her, or maybe he was just laughing at her. “I mean that all of a sudden, you’re a million miles away. Everything was fine, and I thought you were having a good time, but then you sort of went away.” He kissed her, but he was too quick for her to kiss him back. “We don’t have to do this if you’re not comfortable having sex with me. I don’t want to push you. I’ll never do that.”

He brushed her hair back from her face and looked at her with nothing but understanding. How could he be so calm when he was hard as a rock against her thigh? When he’d practically been panting with need mere seconds ago. She’d felt his need, his desire, but now? Now he was all kindness and understanding. He should be more interested in getting inside her, not trying to figure out why she wasn’t into whatever he was doing.

And why wasn’t she? Goddess, this was so humiliating. She felt the tears filling her eyes, spilling over, and she turned her head away. She couldn’t look at him. Didn’t want him to see her like this. She was Chanku. They were all supposed to be running around, constantly aroused, always wanting sex, but she wasn’t like that. For whatever reason, she’d never been like that. But why?

She’d never enjoyed sex with the human men she’d been with, but she’d always figured that was because they were human and she needed to be with her own kind, but none of the guys here ever interested her at all. None but Gabe, and she couldn’t count the nights she’d brought herself off just thinking about him. Imagining him like this, in bed with her, making love to her.

Only, in her dreams he kept going. He wanted her and she wanted him. Without reservations, without any hesitation at all.

And now he was here, and she’d checked out. What the fuck was wrong with her?

Chapter 4

Gabe eavesdropped on Em’s private thoughts without any shame at all. Something was horribly wrong, and he didn’t have a clue what it was. She wanted him, wanted to make love with him, and it sounded as if she’d at least had a crush on him for a long time, but he’d felt the shift in her arousal, picked up the change in her scent. When they’d gotten to her room, she’d been more than ready. When he picked her up, placed her on the bed, her mind had locked up for the briefest moment, and then her thoughts had gone off into another place altogether.

“Sweetheart?” He settled himself between her thighs and cupped her face in his hands. She wasn’t afraid of him, but for whatever reason, her need, any hint of arousal, had totally disappeared. He sensed nothing from her beyond despair, but why? He nuzzled the soft skin beneath her ear, inhaled the citrusy scent of her shampoo. “I can feel your misery. It’s practically radiating from your body, from your mind. Do you have any idea what’s wrong? Why you feel this way?”

She shook her head. He knew she wasn’t afraid of him, but her lips trembled and he really didn’t want to make her cry. He didn’t want to force himself on her, so he started to push himself away.

“No!” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Please, Gabe. Don’t give up on me. I don’t know why I’m like this. It’s never been this bad before, but I want to know what pleasure is. I want to feel what everyone else feels.”

“Are you sure?” He kissed her. Just a feather kiss against closed lips, and he pulled away before she had a chance to open to him. “I don’t want you to feel pressured into this.”

“Well, I’m not going to beg, if that’s what you want.” She went to push him away, but he grabbed her and rolled to his back with Em astride him. She struggled for a moment, but he held her close and focused on her breasts.

“I will, if that’s what it’s going to take. Goddess, Em. I never dreamed that pudgy little twerp who used to drive me and the other guys crazy would grow up to be . . . oh, man. He raised his upper body and latched on to her left nipple, sucking and nipping at it, swirling his tongue around the tip.

Arching her back, she cried out. Gabe scooted up against the headboard with Em shivering in his arms, and managed to slip out of his loose sweatpants in the process. He shoved them the rest of the way down with one hand, holding on to Em with the other, his lips still wrapped around her nipple.

He gave it a final lick and went to work on her right breast, sucking, pressing with the flat of his tongue, scraping the sensitive tip with his teeth. Moaning, she thrust against his mouth and lifted up on her knees. He scooted her yoga pants down over her butt and she managed to lift first one leg and then the other out of the loose pants. Gabe tossed them aside.

She was slick and hot against the length of his erection and her fingers fluttered over his chest, but he wasn’t ready yet. Not until he was absolutely sure Em wouldn’t freak out when he entered her. He flipped her over on her back and knelt between her thighs, but he didn’t turn loose of her breast.

She was whimpering now, finally displaying the signs of arousal he’d expected earlier, and there was no way she was faking. Moisture glistened in the dark thatch of hair between her thighs. Her eyes were tightly closed, her full lips curled in a rictus of pain that could only be pleasure. He licked her breast, teasing the nipple before releasing it, but she didn’t have time to react before he changed his focus. Gently he stroked between her legs, running his middle finger between her engorged labia, lightly pressing circles against the slick walls of her vagina. She tightened around him, a reflexive action that had him thrusting deeper, a couple of times before dragging his finger free of her silken walls and then circling her clit, barely making contact with that taut little bundle of nerves, his fingertip gliding on a slick layer of her fluids.

He scooted down, kissing her belly, nuzzling the dark hair covering her pubic mound. So many women shaved, but he’d always preferred the more natural, womanly look. Just as he knew how appealing a truly strong woman could be. He sensed that strength in Emeline. For whatever reason, she dealt with ghosts that even she didn’t understand, but she wasn’t letting them stop her. They weren’t stopping Gabe, either. Not if he could help it.

He parted her legs, gently spreading her knees apart, and planted soft kisses against the softer skin of her inner thighs. First the left, then the right. Then back to the left, only higher this time, and again on the right. She was shivering, trembling and clutching at the rumpled sheets when he finally reached his goal. He ran his tongue from her perineum to her vaginal opening, curling the tip against her soft inner walls. The slick tissues actually fluttered against his tongue, so responsive to his touch, rewarding him with more of the taste of her, an undeniable symbol of her arousal.