Tempt Me (5 page)

Shit. If Little Miss Hot Coed was so clever, she should be smart enough to stay far away from him.

“Keep going,” Emmanuel taunted, reminding Gabriel of his presence. “Your obvious charm is sure to win her over. The cleavage leering is really working, too. I know
my
heart’s all atwitter.”

Gabriel gritted his teeth, trying not to look at the tall man lounging, unseen, beside Angelique. Emmanuel had barely left him alone since he’d woken up with a hangover and a swollen jaw in his mother’s house.

He wouldn’t admit this to anyone, and he still wasn’t planning on thanking Emmanuel anytime soon, but in a way it had been a relief. The protections his priestess mother had insulated her home with had offered him some respite. Peace of a kind he hadn’t felt since he’d left a year ago.

There was no darkness under the Mambo’s roof. It was a fact that didn’t soothe him as much as he thought it would. It meant he wasn’t crazy. It meant there really was something out there. That it hadn’t all been in his mind. Had the
djab
escaped his prison and come after him again? Did it want to finish the job? Or was it something more dangerous?

Maybe he should listen to what Emmanuel had been trying to tell him. Maybe he should follow his advice and tell his mother about his experiences this past year. But he hadn’t yet. Mainly because he just didn’t want to give the irritating bastard the satisfaction.

Instead he was walking around like a bear with a thorn in his paw and no information . . . but at least he had his pride.

And his impeccable sense of sarcasm.

Not knowing was one of the reasons he hadn’t wanted to come here tonight. To go out in the world where the shadows dwelt among humanity. Heading back here of all places; the old mansion he and Ben and Michelle used to play behind. The house where they met the youthful specter who, it seemed, had grown up to become a serious pain in his ass.

But he’d had no choice. The Mamas had taken turns glaring and giving him sorrowful looks until he’d agreed to play nice and go spend time with his sister and the rest of the brood. They were argumentative and affectionate. Irreverent and loving. A family. He felt like a fraud among them, like he didn’t belong. Their closeness, their obvious warmth for one another, was alien. Strange. He didn’t fit, and he was in no shape to carry on a civilized conversation. Especially when the young beauty had turned the conversation to spirit possession as he sat beside his sister and BD, the two people who had seen him at his weakest moment . . . who’d saved him.

He’d come out to the backyard to get away from Celestin’s feisty sister, almost daring himself to see something in the darkness. A test, he assured himself. If only to remind him that sparring with a beautiful woman wasn’t for someone like him. Not anymore. It was an action Emmanuel had been questioning when Angelique had come upon them.

“I apologize, Angelique. Again. One of the reasons I came out here was to be alone.” He eyed Emmanuel meaningfully. “I’m not exactly fit for polite company.”

“Hey, progress. You used her name.” Emmanuel chuckled.

Her full lips quirked and she shrugged, drawing his gaze back to her silky bare shoulder. He wanted to press his lips against it. He needed help.

“Maybe not. But at least you used my name. Progress.”

Emmanuel sent her an odd look as she repeated his sentence nearly word for word. He disappeared suddenly, leaving Gabriel alone with the stubborn Angelique.

Why was she still here? She wasn’t getting his hints. Wasn’t moving away from him and going back inside. What was her game?

“I know why I had to come, but why are you wasting your evening? You should be out with friends, getting into trouble, enjoying your freedom. Not surrounded by old married couples and a charity case.”

She rolled her eyes. “ ’ Bout done with those age references? It’s getting a little stale. Of course, I can wait if you need to get a few more out of your system. Try something about playing in the kiddie pool or grounding me.” She pressed her lips together and hummed. “Hmmm. Am I young enough to get a spanking for having such a smart mouth? You could always give that a shot.”

He couldn’t help it. He smiled. He wasn’t used to this kind of banter. She was brazen. Funny. Fearless. None of the socialites or businesswomen in his old circles had her kind of confidence. That special something that shone like a light around her.

And none of them had ever made him this hard.

His smile disappeared and he stepped in close. Close enough to smell her unique scent. It was intoxicating. A small voice in his head reminded him that she was Rousseau’s little sister. The Rousseau who was married to
his
sister’s best friend. Add more than a decade of difference between their ages and his current mental state, and there was nothing right in what he was thinking.

But that didn’t stop him from thinking it.

“Don’t tempt me.”

Angelique licked her lips, and that quickly, Gabriel couldn’t tear his gaze away from her mouth. It curved, gleaming pink and damp and framed by those riveting dimples.

“Do you ever notice how the more people tell you not to do something, the more you want to do it?” she asked.

All the damn time.
Her breath skimmed his lips, and he realized she was still leaning back against the tree. He was the one who had moved closer, instinctively. Drawn to her, as he had been from the instant he first saw her.

One taste. Surely that wouldn’t damn him any more than he already was. It wouldn’t even be the worst thing he’d ever done. But he couldn’t give in without trying one more time to do the right thing.

“Feeling rebellious? Bored? You think I’m safe to play at being a bad girl with, here within view of your family and mine. I’d be curious to see how much you think I’ll let you tease me. How much I’ll let you get away with before I take your dare.”

Her response was a low chuckle. A rich, musical sound he wanted to capture. Wanted to hear again. He stilled when she reached up and laid her palm on his chest. Through the linen of his shirt, he could feel her heat. Feel the warmth of her send sharp ripples of desire through his limbs.

It had been a long time since he’d felt like this. Since desire didn’t come from desperation. From the need to escape into a willing body. Any willing body. A simple touch and all his attention, all his passion, found a single focus.

Angelique.

And from the twinkle in her doe-brown eyes, she knew it.

Her fingers traced the line of buttons down his shirt to his waist. He lowered his lids, staring at her through his lashes, unwilling to blink. Each muscle in his body was strung tight, waiting to see what she would do next.

She gripped his belt and tugged lightly, bringing him just close enough that he could feel the hardened tips of her full breasts scraping his chest.

“Is this bad girl enough for you? Or should I go on?”

“Jesus.” He gripped her wrist and pulled her flush against him, pressing his lips to hers. He couldn’t help himself. A saint would have had a difficult time resisting her offer, never mind a man who was used to taking what he wanted and damn the consequences.

Her mouth softened, opened willingly beneath his, and he growled. Her flavor burst on his tongue like summer strawberries. Bright and rich with passion, sweet and delicious. Fucking poetry. But he didn’t care. He needed more.

As their tongues tangled, Gabriel dropped her wrist and cupped the voluptuous denim-encased cheeks of her ass. He lifted her up and pressed her against the tree, cradling his cock between her thighs. Heaven.

She wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms curving around his neck, and Gabriel shuddered. There was no hesitance in her embrace. She made no secret of her desire for him. Her fingers twined through the curls at his nape and tugged. Her teeth bit down on his lip, making him moan. She was like living fire in his arms.

The pure, raw honesty of the moment scorched him. Made him want to drink her in. To fill himself up with her until there was no separation. No escape. Until there was no more darkness.

He ground his hips against hers, loving the scrape of the fabric against his flesh. The heat of her. He gripped the elastic fabric of her burgundy top and tugged until the flexible material slipped beneath her breasts, exposing them to his gaze. “I can see the flush on your skin, the nipples that are begging for my touch. My mouth. God, they’re perfect, Angelique. Do they taste as good as they look?”

She groaned in response, her head rolling back against the tree as he pressed his lips to one full, creamy breast. His mouth opened wide over the feast, his only thought to taste as much, to take as much, as he could. Sweet and spicy, the hardened nipple tempted him to flick his tongue across it, a temptation he gave in to. His cheeks hollowed as he sucked, the intensity of his need increasing with each thrust of his hips, each tug on her flesh.

She was whimpering when he moved to offer the same treatment to her other breast. He wrapped his lips around her without mercy at the same moment something caught his eye.

Someone.

Emmanuel stood off to the side, gaze locked not on Gabriel, but on Angelique’s bare skin. His blue eyes were dark with surprise and unmistakable lust.

In the months since Emmanuel’s arrival in his life, the unusual creature had disappeared whenever Gabriel took a woman to his hotel. Why was he here now?

A feeling of possessiveness crashed through him. This was his. This moment. This woman. But that sensation was overcome by the need to make Emmanuel squirm. That, and the fact that he knew he couldn’t make himself stop touching Angelique. No matter who was watching.

Gabriel dropped to his knees, taking the breathless Angelique with him, down to the grass behind the large tree that hid them from human eyes.

“What are you doing to me, Gabriel?”

God, he loved the way her voice caught. She was lost in it, already so close to coming her body was quivering beneath his.

She lay on her back, her curls spread out, her blouse at her waist, with the sleeves gathered at her wrists. An offering. A banquet. All for him.

Gabriel glanced up at Emmanuel and smiled before unsnapping Angelique’s jeans slowly, tauntingly. “I’m giving you what you wanted when you came out here to look for me. I’m showing you how much better it is to be bad.”

He jerked his chin toward the house. “And you are being bad, aren’t you, Angelique? That house full of people would never guess in a million years how bad you want to be. That you let me do this—” His breath came out in a low, shaky prayer as he tugged the denim down over her bent knees, revealing the lacy red thong barely covering her sex. “Oh, that’s pretty. That you’d let me do more than this. Anything. Because you crave it as much as I do, don’t you?”

Angelique’s eyes were wide, her teeth digging into her lower lip as she stared at him. Gabriel knew Emmanuel had fallen to his knees as well, as caught up as he was in the sensual vision on the grass.

When she didn’t answer, Gabriel slid one hand between her legs, his trembling fingers tracing the damp lace, loving how wet she was.

“I think you do, Angelique. You crave the risk. The excitement. I think you were one of those girls who sat next to a boy in the dark movie theater, your thighs pressing together as you imagined him touching you, slipping his hand up your dress and down your pretty panties. Fucking you with his fingers while the people around you stared at the screen, oblivious. But that would have been the most exciting part, wouldn’t it? The fact that they could look up at any moment and see you, your legs spread, your hips thrusting...”

Gabriel’s voice was guttural, his throat tight, as he echoed his words with his fingers. They were inside her. She was tight. So hot she soaked him as he pushed one, then two, of his thick, callused fingers inside her velvet sheath.

His cock was so hard it hurt. And he felt it again. Like he needed more of her. More of her light. More of her passion. He wanted to drown in her. What was it about this woman that worked him into this kind of frenzy?

She lifted her hips, forcing his fingers deep, and he heard Emmanuel’s heartfelt groan. “God help me.”

Gabriel could have echoed the sentiment. Only he knew it would have been a hollow prayer. He could pretend all he liked . . . but he didn’t want to escape. Not from this.

The thought should have sent him far away. Instead, he lifted her legs and bent down until his teeth were snagging on the ruby-red lace that concealed her. The shredding sound as the weblike underwear dissolved made him smile.

She wasn’t the only one who could be bad. Hell, Gabriel had written the book on it.

WHAT IN THE NAME OF SWEET HOLY HEAVEN HAD SHE GOT
TEN herself into? Talk about the kiddie pool. She’d just jumped into the deep end without knowing how to swim.

She’d known pleasure. She’d known passion. But it was like comparing a firecracker to a nuclear explosion. Angelique realized as soon as Gabriel started kissing her that she was way out of her league.