Just Believe (15 page)

"What was that?"

"What?"

"Didn't you hear it? It was like a
breeze blowing."

Gaelen smiled. He still had it. After
years of shunning his fairy nature, he still had the gift. He
strutted a bit as he sought out Linette Duncan.

Scanning around for signs of her
passing, he picked up a sense that she was straight ahead. He
followed his feelings and stopped before the door marked
"Women--Staff Showers."

With a smile and a rising sense of
anticipation, Gaelen pushed the door open and walked in.

Heads turned, though not one expression
showed any alarm.

"Close that door!"

"Jeez, Louise! Were you born in a
barn?"

"I didn't open it!"

Gaelen stepped out of the way as a
tall, lean blonde wearing only a towel around her waist nearly
knocked him over.

He snapped his gaping mouth shut,
stifled a whistle, and sought his target.

The fiery red mop atop Linette's head
betrayed her. She stood at an open locker, still drying off.
Several other women stood in the same aisle. Gaelen came up behind
her and ran his fingertip up her spine.

Her yelp rang through the shower
room.

"What's your problem, Doc?" one of the
women shouted. "There're are no ghosts in here, are
there?"

Linette swung around, bumping into
Gaelen's large frame.

"Gaelen," she whispered, wrapping her
towel around her.

"Yes, darlin', 'tis I. Your once
beloved Gaelen."

"What are you doin' here? Get out!" She
more mouthed the words than actually spoke them. Grabbing his
sleeve, she dragged him behind the lockers and shoved as hard as
she could.

Gaelen laughed. "Such a feisty, wee
thing. I used to appreciate that aspect of your character,
Linette."

"Hey, Doc, are you all
right?"

"I'm fine." Her lips snapped shut like
a turtle.

"It's probably better if you don't
talk, Linette. Wouldn't want the doctor to be admitted to the ward,
would we?"

She looked ready to skewer him on a
rusty spit.

"Now," Gaelen continued, "about Erin
Tinker."

The only response he got was a pair of
burning green eyes promising pain and death.

Ignoring her silent threats, Gaelen
went on, "I don't know exactly what you're planning to do with that
girl, but you're going to cancel your plans right now. You'll
release her tomorrow and then, my dear Linette, you will remove
yourself from the affairs of the fairies for good."

His eyes strayed, following a
well-formed brunette with the most exquisite...

"And, what's more, you'll stay away
from Annabelle Tinker."

"That's what this is really all about,
isn't it?" Linette asked, oblivious to the stares of the woman
drying off next to her. "That woman has bewitched you, and now
you're thinking of flaunting the law just as your brother
did."

"What I do is my concern, and none of
yours."

A different expression crossed the
pixie features. "When did you become so interested in anybody
else's troubles?"

Gaelen ignored the jibe. "Just pay
attention, Linette. Release Erin tomorrow." In the ultimate last
word, Gaelen squooshed and flew out of the shower room.

Linette seethed. How dare the man tell
her how to do her business? She'd never tell him how to do his job.
First, he dumped her, for no reason she could ever see. Now he's
become infatuated with a plain Jane mortal woman. Not only that,
but a woman with the power to destroy them all because of her
profession as a journalist.

She shook her head at the stupidity of
men. Why they couldn't be happy with their own kind, she didn't
know. She accepted that the men of Faerie lusted after mortal
women; she just didn't understand it.

More, though, she'd been hoping somehow
to reconcile with Gaelen. He was the one she'd never gotten over.
Now, this Annabelle Tinker had bewitched him, and her stupid sister
and Lucas, the criminal, had created a situation putting Gaelen and
Linette on opposite sides.

Well, they won't get away with
it.

Linette jerked on jeans and a sweater
and slipped on her espadrilles. She stopped by the nurse's station
to make sure Erin Tinker was well sedated, and then she went
looking for the Brute Squad. She'd need some help--some fairy
help--to pull this one off.

Chapter Nine

"Annabelle, sweetling."

She met his sky-blue eyes.

He was here.

"Gaelen."

"May I stay?"

She smiled. "You have to ask?" She
reached for him and he came to her, encircling her in his
arms.

He nuzzled the side of her neck. She
yearned for his kiss, though, and captured his face between her
hands, bringing his lips to hers. They melded in perfection, sweet
and gentle.

"Open to me, Annabelle."

She obeyed him willingly, parting her
lips and welcoming the thrust of his tongue. He swept her, tasting
her.

"Ah, like candy you are, girl." His
smile warmed her all the way to her toes. "But we need some
illumination here. Candles, I think."

She frowned. "I don't know where Mom
keeps her candles."

His grinned and raised his beautiful
hand and snapped his fingers.

Instantly, a buttery glow warmed every
corner of her room. She glanced around.

A gasp escaped her lips as she took in
the candles which had appeared on her dresser, bookcase, and both
nightstands, already lit. Her gaze flew to his face. He looked like
this was normal, when all she could feel was wonder.

"How did you do that?"

He kissed the tip of her nose. "Have
you no idea at all, love?" He slipped from her arms and stood
beside the bed. Ever so slowly, his fingers loosened the tie around
his neck and pulled it out, tantalizing inch by tantalizing
inch.

He shrugged his wide shoulders and his
jacket fell to the floor. Then he unbuttoned his shirt, top to
bottom, pushing each button free from its hole with exquisite
slowness.

As the shirt slipped from his
shoulders, her tongue darted out to moisten her suddenly dry
lips.

A deliciously wicked smile curved his
mouth. His fingers went to his belt and trousers. They fell to the
floor, revealing his exquisite body.

All broad shoulders and narrow waist
and...

Oh, my, my.

Her breath came faster as he leaned
over the bed where she lay...

Naked.

How had that happened? Somehow it was
fine for him to be in her bedroom, fine that he was even now
bringing his beautiful naked body to her, but it jarred her that
she couldn't remember taking off the St. Mary's nightshirt she had
slept in for years.

This was a dream? Wasn't it?

She risked a glance back at him. He
certainly looked real enough.

Enough for what?

She grabbed for the sheet.

"No, no. Don't cover what is so
beautiful." He took her hands in his own and urged her to lay back
on the bed. He stretched out beside her and traced her face with
his finger, ending with her chin. He tipped her mouth up to meet
his.

"Annabelle, I've wanted you since the
first moment I saw you." His whispered confession stirred her deep
inside. "Don't leave me, please."

"Where would I go? This is my room,
isn't it?"

He chuckled. "Yes, of course. You did
bid me stay?"

He'd asked it as a question, as though
giving her another chance to say no.

"Stay." Her voice was a croaked
whisper.

A smile broke over his face, just
before his mouth slanted over hers, capturing her
breath.

With one hand, he gently held both of
hers prisoner above her head against the headboard. She arched
against the restraint, offering him her breasts.

Wheat-gold hair brushed her skin as he
nuzzled her, his tongue teasing her nipples to tight pebbled
need.

"More, Gaelen, please, more." Her moan
lingered in the air around them like incense.

"Ah, my sweet, yes, much mor-r-r-re."
His lightly accented voice, deep and rumbling, whipped through her
body, rippling in wave after wave and increasing her longing and
want.

Keeping his word, he wrapped his long
strong fingers around her breast. His thumb flicked her tight
nipple, sending a charge of lust through her body. She tightened in
anticipation, and sighed as a sudden gush wet her, her body's cry
of desire.

She was hot and ready and so, so,
willing.

Her legs splayed open. Cool air stroked
and soothed the hot emptiness, begging to be filled with his hard
flesh.

"Now, Gaelen." Her voice was a
growl.

"Not yet, sweet Annabelle. Not yet." He
growled too.

Annabelle jerked her hands free and
reached for him, encircling his maleness. She rubbed her thumb over
his tip and was rewarded with a single droplet of his wetness. With
her fingertip she drew small circles over his moistened
crown.

"Ah, sweet, stop."

"I can't stop." Her fingers swept up
and down, under and around, all over him.

Gaelen held himself above her, his
sky-blue eyes staring into hers.

"Then let's not stop," he said and
moved between her open thighs.

He settled into the cradle of her body.
Annabelle again encircled him and guided him home.

Gaelen entered her, easily sheathing
his whole length inside her.

"Ah, darlin', sweet..."

Annabelle felt him clear up to her
heart. She felt her whole self being filled by him.

"Gaelen," she whispered into the
charged air.

He thrust and withdrew, then again. Her
inner muscles held him tight, caressing him, squeezing him, within
her. She pulsed as the delight spread through her body. She closed
her eyes.

The delicious pressure built, twining,
twisting, coiling, ready to spring.

"Oh, Gaelen, yes. Yes."

"Yes, sweet."

The pleasure tightened, tightened,
tightened, then snapped as she climaxed.

"Gaelen!" she cried out.

He thrust once more, his expression one
of exquisite pain, as he filled her to the hilt and
came.

"Annabelle..."

Sweetly dancing colors suddenly
appeared behind his shoulders, red and blue and green and gold. She
reached for them.

"Damn!" He shook with a huge shudder
that echoed through her.

Then he disappeared.

"Gaelen!" Annabelle sat up with a jerk,
not believing what she'd seen with her own eyes.

Cold fear replaced the heat of
lovemaking, chilling her to the bone.

The buttery candlelight had
disappeared. She glanced down.

She was wearing her St. Mary's
nightshirt.

Her heart sank. It had only been a
dream.But she could still feel the moisture between her
legs.

* * * *

Gaelen's first realization was that he
was flying, unable to stop. His mind, fogged by sexual satisfaction
he'd never known, refused to be focused.

His brain cleared a little and he
figured out where he was. Half-way to the moon.

"A sex bounce. Damn!"

A man his age should be able to control
himself better.

How could he have been so stupid? To go
to Annabelle in the Dream Realm like that, where she had no control
or ability to refuse.

And yet, he had asked her. He clearly
remembered that. He'd asked her twice. She had bid him
stay.

Bridget! What was wrong with
him?

Where would he end up this time? His
brain was starting to clear and he began putting on the brakes
before he ended up freezing his ass off on Jupiter
again.

He slowed enough to swing around Mars
and head home. Even a fairy at top speed needed time to make a
hundred million mile trip, so he had time to think.

It had been wonderful. Even though he'd
touched her only in the Dream Realm, he could still feel the
softness of her skin, the crispness of the curls guarding her
womanhood rasping against him, smell the musk of her
response

He could see the warmth of her smile
and the gentleness in her shining brown eyes.

His heart clenched. He was falling in
love.

The clench morphed to shock. Love. With
a human woman.

Fear moved in. He'd put her in danger.
Just like Lucas had done to her sister.

"Stupid, Gaelen. Stupid."

Did Dream Realm sex count? Maybe he
hadn't yet crossed the line. She didn't know what he
was.