Beauty and the Beastmaster - Linda Winstead Jones Page 0,38
needed it. The rest of the world faded away as she savored that sensation, the comfort and pleasure of simply having this man hold her.
Silas was everywhere. His hands, his mouth, the way he held her. She could stay here. She could disappear…
Without warning an unwanted image flashed in her mind. Blake’s face as he walked through the unlocked door of her new apartment, in a place where she’d thought she was safe. The evil grin on his face. The sound of his voice. I’ll kill you and take my baby. No one leaves me. No one takes what’s mine.
Gabi gasped and pushed at Silas’s chest. In an instant a sensation that had been so beautiful became terrifying. She scrambled away from him and rolled out of the bed, curling into a ball on the floor, sitting with her back to the bed and her head down. Her breath wouldn’t come. Her heart wouldn’t stop pounding.
Damn it, how much was that asshole going to take from her? Her name, her peace of mind, her chance to live a somewhat normal life…
Silas slipped out of the bed and sat beside her. Naked, aroused, hard as a rock from head to toe, he was smart enough not to touch her. If he pressed her, if he tried to pick up where they’d left off, she’d panic. How did he know?
“What’s wrong?” he whispered.
She shook her head, keeping her gaze fixed on the floor. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Maybe not,” he said, his voice calm, gentle. “Then again, you won’t know if you don’t try me.”
It was cold, sitting naked on the floor. She instinctively rolled into Silas. For the warmth, she told herself. For the body heat. Her head fit nicely in the crook of his shoulder. “I’m sorry. A bad memory came out of nowhere,” she said.
“Must’ve been a doozy. Want to tell me about it?”
“No.” He found me. I moved again, and again he found me. If a neighbor hadn’t heard the commotion and interrupted him, I’d be dead and he’d have Mia. I can’t allow that to happen, not ever. She couldn’t tell Silas what Blake had done to her, couldn’t make him understand.
Because he wasn’t like her ex-husband.
She gathered the courage to tilt her head back and look up. Silas was beautiful, by the moonlight coming through the window. Hard, yes, but also beautiful. If he was angry or frustrated that she’d pulled away, it didn’t show. Not in his face, not in his voice.
She didn’t want Blake to have the power to rob her of even the simplest pleasures of life. A man in her bed. Human contact. And yes, a damned, long overdue orgasm. “Can we try again?”
Chapter 9
Silas still didn’t know what had brought Gabi to Mystic Springs, what would make a beautiful young woman live the way she did. She’d been here a year, and in all that time he’d never even wondered why. Obviously she was hiding from something. The dried mud on her license plate confirmed it. Could be legal trouble, but he didn’t think so. Judging by her reaction in bed a man had done this to her. He didn’t get angry often, but that did it.
Anything that happened between them tonight would be on her terms. Even if that anything turned out to be nothing.
There were a hundred ways for him to chase Gabi out of town. Some would be easy; others pretty damn tough. None of them would be pleasant. Catching that word — mine — from Mia had made him question everything for a while. Tonight Mia had just been a baby, with no hint that she might have Springer blood. Then again, tonight she’d been happy and well-fed, with Judge at her side. When she and the bloodhound had first claimed one another and she’d believed her new friend was going to be taken away, the child had been in deep distress. That emotion might’ve triggered the aberration.
Even if Mia did have Springer blood, she might not display any indication again until she reached puberty. There were thousands of people out in the world who had descended from one Springer family or another and were ignorant of that fact. He didn’t worry about them, why should he get obsessed with one kid?
Silas dismissed all thoughts of babies and Brigadoon. Whatever had brought him to this moment, he liked it. He liked being here, in this place and time, more than he should.