Rider chuckled and sighed, allowing his hand to glide over the swell of her na**d hip. "I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, giving Bobby a onetime taste of female affection. Now that he's no longer a virgin, the poor kid is really bouncing off the walls. But, Dan, God bless him, is gonna have an aneurysm if I don't bring him to see one of your girls again soon." So much was changing, just like his beloved New Orleans. He just prayed Gabrielle would be a constant for a little longer.
She shook her head, her eyes holding a warning. "Don't. He's young, doesn't need to be corrupted, and my establishments are too dangerous--and I can't afford to lose another initiate right now." She tried to soften her warning with a smile. "If I let him have Heather, then where would this witch be? No virgin initiates to appease the beast. I don't want Dan or any of you guys fooling around with anything in my establishment that might bear fangs... or a human female that's got a negative aura, especially not your young guys. Not now."
Rider looked at her and stopped the lazy caress up and down her hip. "Okay... but he's also male, young, and a Guardian, and the Light doesn't exactly move at the speed of light. That kid could be left hanging for a very long time, Gabby. I won't let anything happen to him."
"I know," she said, gathering the sheet around herself and standing. Rider watched her cross the room.
"Okay, at the risk of divulging sensitive client information, er, uh, did one of my guys upset one of your ladies or something? Bobby being banned from your houses I can understand. Can't have your nephew thinking a certain way about his aunt--some things are just not done, and I'm glad he still hasn't put it together that where I took him that one time was under your management. But Dan... jeez. For crying out loud, he'll be a basket case if several years go by before he gets laid again."
Rider pushed back with his spine pressed to the headboard and a wry smile tugging on his face. "Give the kid a break, Gabby. I had to get Dan out of the house when your niece turned eighteen a few weeks back. After the little fracas the brothers had in Arizona over her, Dan's frame of mind was damned near suicidal when J.L. gave her his little jade Buddha amulet and her dad finally let the two of them supposedly go have a private lunch after we cut the cake."
"But--"
"You shoulda seen it," Rider said, grinning wide and cutting her off. "The girl clutched the amulet to her chest like J.L. had given her a diamond ring, and then the two of 'em went all googly-eyed to the point where her own father gave up the battle. So, if Dan came into your L.A. joint on his own and momentarily lost his mind--"
"No, no, no, it wasn't like that," she said, smiling despite the circumstances. "He didn't offend, even though from what I hear, he definitely lost his mind for a few hours."
Rider closed his eyes laughing and slapped his forehead. "My nose is never wrong. Jose and Carlos told me the same thing--the three of us got bloodhound in us, hon. That kid was so torn up by your niece, he still has to do his own laundry. Don't banish him right now," Rider pleaded with a mischievous grin as he opened his eyes. "He's a tactical, and suffering... your niece is flitting around the house wide-open, new sexual experience flushed on her pretty face, looking like the blond cheerleader of Dan's wet dreams and getting laid by a Kung Fu master, who just so happens to room down the hall from him. Gabrielle, you just don't know the house dynamics we have to cope with!"
She shook her head and fought a smile. "But I just feel that it's too dangerous. He's still impressionable, like Bobby. I allowed him to visit once after New Orleans, and then I told him that was it." She threw up her hands when Rider laughed harder. "The girls in L.A. are... oh, I don't know."
"'Spectacular' comes to mind," he said with a droll wink. "That's why I took the puppy out and let him get a good hard run on. At his age, realistically, he could go three times a day, seven days a week. It was only once after New Orleans. But you know what they say, Gabby, once is never enough."
"That's the last time, Rider," she warned, still smiling and folding her arms over her br**sts. "I'm glad you left him at the house today. And I don't know what you're gonna do about Bobby."
"Don't tell me, you want him to find a nice wholesome girl and settle down?" Rider slapped his forehead. "Jesus, you sound like Marj." Gabrielle laughed. "Yes, I do, Jack Rider. I want that for both Dan and Bobby."
"All right, all right, all right." Rider stood with a grunt and crossed the room to pin her against the dresser with his body. "But for those of us already corrupted and no longer impressionable, please don't put us on newbie rations," he said, delivering a burning kiss to her neck. "Been there. Did my time. We Guardian brothers don't get out much. Just tell me we're not banned and cut off from the most basic pleasures in life?"
"Because I love you, after today, you are," she said, stroking his shoulders.
He pulled back from Her to look at her. "You're serious, aren't you?"
She nodded as sudden tears filled her eyes. "I love you, Rider. I'm not supposed to fall in love with a client, much less a Guardian."
"So, now I'm just a client, huh?" There was no anger in his tone as his thumbs caught the tears that spilled down her cheeks. "I thought we were friends with a very definite understanding."
"No, you've become more than that, that's the problem," she whispered. "You were never a client, and are my friend. You just became something beyond that, is all."
He nodded and kissed her softly. "I know... same here. When did that happen?"
They both laughed sadly.
"That first time," she said in a far-off voice.
"Yep," he murmured against her forehead. "It's always the first time that gets you, isn't it?"
"Go home, Rider. Keep the family safe. Keep yourself safe by staying away from me until things settle down."
"The Chairman is dead, hon, last I checked. So is his replacement. Rivera took his head off with Damali's Isis. Lilith bought it on the side of a mountain in Tibet--saw it with my own eyes. Cold-seeking missiles got her and started an avalanche that I'm lucky to be here to tell you about. Our two Neterus are in union bliss, probably off somewhere as we speak knocking boots. So, what's to settle down?"
"I don't know... call it female intuition. Just go with me on it for now. Maybe it's nothing, but if it is, I'd rest easier knowing you and especially the younger males on your team aren't anywhere near a place that has... different energy. All right?" She stared up at his handsome face and set her mouth hard, resolute.
He gathered her in his arms and released a long, soulful breath. "And how am I supposed to rest easy knowing that someone very important to me is out there all by herself, dealing with the unknown? Like you said, we're friends."
She held this man who'd recently stopped drinking and smoking... this man who'd begun to heal in her care. His tall, muscular frame made her feel safe against everything deadly in the world. The last thing she'd do is put him at risk, yet she wondered how she'd ever get him out of her system when the time came that she'd have to.
"If it will make you feel any better," she finally said, trying to make him laugh, "I'll be on rations, too."