Edge of Danger (25 page)

 
Setting down the two glasses, Eden grabbed her shoes, and with a smile sat down to put them on as she watched him go. “What a funny, dear old guy.”

 
“Eighty-three isna old!” MacBain shouted from the other side of the room without turning. He disappeared from view behind a giant broad-leafed tree in a terra-cotta pot the size of a small car.

 
She grinned as a door slammed shut out of sight. “And he has ears like a bat.”

 
Shoes on, she rose, picked up the glasses of juice and headed to the library to tell Gabriel that as long as he could assure her of two things, she’d agree to work with him on Rex 2. One: She wanted assurances and confirmation from Homeland Security that he was who he claimed to be. Two: Once Rex 2 found Rex 1, both bots would be destroyed. This time she’d build in a self-destruct mechanism to the bot. She didn’t want one particle of them to remain.

 
As she came to the slightly ajar door of the library, she noticed that the front doors were still standing wide open.

 
Turn left. Talk to Gabriel.

 
Run like hell, and go through those doors. Possibly to freedom.

 
Decisions. Decisions. Life-altering decisions.

 
“I have her,” Gabriel said quietly from inside the room. He was on the phone.

 
“I agree. Whatever it takes.” His cold grim voice sounded impersonal. Businesslike. Matter-of-fact. “No. As I suspected, nothing useful on the hard drive. I took care of the little I did find. Yeah. I used mumbo-jumbo,” he responded dryly.

 
“She has a photographic memory for Christ’s sake. I guarantee you. The second she fucking-well gives up the data, she’ll be dead—” He stopped speaking and she knew he’d heard her outside the door. Heart hammering, she froze.

 
“Just a second—Eden?” he called out.

 
The drinks slipped from her nerveless fingers.

 
Glass shattered, spraying orange juice over her feet and the stone floor.

 
She ran.

 
By the time Gabriel raced out of the library she was already halfway across the entry hall. The little fool was running flat out in high-heeled sandals on the uneven stone floor. “Eden!”

 
She didn’t so much as hesitate as he yelled her name again. She was going to break her damned neck.

 
He slammed the front doors shut before she could reach them. The sound reverberated through the cavernous room like a pistol shot. Damn it to hell, how much had she heard? He kept advancing on her, but she didn’t appear to give a damn.

 
Using both hands, she grabbed one of the enormous wrought-iron handles, putting her entire body weight into pulling on it.

 
“It’s not going to open,” he said quietly, not daring to get any closer. He stopped where he was, torn. The pull he felt for her was profound, even at twenty paces.

 
Beneath the short sleeves of her T-shirt her muscles flexed, and her knuckles were turning white as she strained to pull the door open using every ounce of strength she had.

 
“Eden—”

 
For a moment she stopped, her hands still gripping the handle. Her cheeks were stained, more due to fury, he suspected, than anything else. The sight of tears running unchecked down her face speared him like a knife to the gut.

 
“Either open this f-fucking door
right now,
Gabriel Edge, or kill me.” She punctuated the words with aggressive yanks on the door handle.

 
“Jesus. This isn’t a soap opera, for God’s sake. Stop hauling at that damn handle before you hurt yourself. It’s not going to open.”

 
“You killed Theo, you lying son of a bitch.” Her voice rose with every word as she spun around, blood in her eye.

 
Gabriel wasn’t prepared for her to charge him like a bull at a red cape. “No, I swear I—”

 
His heart slammed up into his throat and he attempted to shimmer out. But she got to him a split second before he could get the hell out of her way.

 
She slapped a hand on his chest as they collided, and a shower of brilliant white sparks like the aurora borealis shot out in an arc around them, temporarily blinding him.

 
At Eden’s touch, a blaze of heat, just this side of pain, surged through Gabriel’s body, shocking him with its intensity. The torrent of passion and hunger blindsided him. The pleasure was so sharp he cried out at the same time as she drew in a startled gasp and her eyes went wide.

 
Ah, Jesus! Too late.

 
His tenuous hold on his control snapped.

 
He captured her head in his hands, burying his fingers in her silken curls as he drew her up and in, tight against his body. The fear and anger in her expressive eyes suddenly changed to startled awareness and she parted her lips and arched against him. His entire body burned with undiluted lust.

 
Savagely Gabriel crushed his mouth down on hers with a raw hunger impossible to deny for one more second. She tasted of sun-warmed oranges, underpinned by tears, and an answering heat that fed his own desire like gasoline on an open flame.

 
Wrapping her arms about his neck, Eden shivered violently beneath the hot spear of his tongue, denying him nothing. He thrust deeply into her mouth, trembling with the greed in which their mouths joined. He took what she offered with a hunger that was uncontrolled.

 
He had to stop. Had. To. Stop.

 
Feeling like he was ripping off his own skin, Gabriel tore his mouth from hers. “No more.”

 
She whimpered in protest, tightening her arms about his neck, holding on. Not waiting for his compliance, Eden stood on her toes, and reclaimed his mouth. She bit at his lower lip, hard enough for the sharp pain to sting. The sensation ratcheted up his lust another impossible notch.

 
His heart lunged in his chest as he realized that Eden was just as out of control as he was. His body tightened like a drawn bow as he went back to ravaging her willing mouth.

 
As he kissed her, his arms tightened around her slender body. He raked his hands down her back to grip her bottom. She gave a huff of air as he crushed her hips hard against the painful ridge of his erection. Mouth avaricious and unrelenting in return, Eden tightened her arms around his neck, rubbing her hips in a maddening dance against him. Moaning deep in her throat, she angled his head as it suited her and plunged the slick heat of her tongue over his, returning the bruising force of his kiss with every ounce of her strength.

 
She wrapped a leg around his, pulling him closer against her heat, body strained against his, her soft breasts crushed against the hard plane of his chest.

 
The intense pleasure he felt just kissing this woman was like nothing Gabriel had ever experienced before. He needed to touch her skin. Burned to feel the weight and texture of her breast in his hand. Ached to taste her nipples, and drink from a far more intimate moist heat.

 
Vaguely he was aware that they were still standing in the vast entry hall when he needed for them to be horizontal.
Now.

 
Imitating the act he craved with his tongue, Gabriel shimmered them to his bedroom where sunlight was flooding his large unmade bed.

 
He wanted more than to kiss this woman, but when he tried to drag his lips from her mouth he found himself drawn back for one more taste.

 
The fragrance of her skin, the silken texture of her hair, the moist clinging heat of her mouth gave him a surge of power he’d never felt before. She was addictive, and he gave up any pretense that he could resist her.

 
The thought that their clothing was an annoyance barely registered before they were both naked. She gave a small cry of satisfaction without opening her eyes. The smooth brush of Eden’s pale skin against his hardness made Gabriel shudder.

 
Lowering her to the sun-warmed sheets, he linked his fingers with hers, drawing her hands above her head as he settled into the cradle of her thighs.

 
He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was perfection. She arched her back, presenting him with her creamy breasts, tipped with pale coral nipples.

 
She opened eyes heavy with passion, and glittering feverishly between her thick dark lashes. “Swear to me that you had nothing to do with Theo’s death.”

 
“I swear.”

 
“Thank God,” she whispered fervently and kissed him again. They parted, each dragging in a breath. “Magic.” Her soft voice was filled with awe, and Gabriel knew she wasn’t referring to the mode of transportation or the loss of their clothes. He knew exactly what she meant. It was as though their very DNA knew the other. Loving Eden was as natural as breathing. No wonder she’d been impossible to resist.

 
“Yeah,” he breathed against her warm jasmine-scented skin. “Magic.”

 
God help them both.
Yes.

 
Bombarded by intense physical desire, he had to remain perfectly still for a moment or explode. He dropped his forehead to hers, hearing their syncopated breathing as he held her tightly in his arms. “You are so damn beautiful,” he whispered brokenly, using his utmost control to remain perfectly still. “And you
smell—
you smell like Heaven. God. The fragrance of your skin drives me insane. Woman drenched in flowers. Doesn’t matter which of those perfumes you put on. Any of them, combined with the fragrance of your skin, makes me drunk with wanting you. When you walk into a room, I smell you. And I get so hard I’m in pain.”

 
Her legs moved restlessly against his and she smiled up at him, her face luminous. “I’ve wanted to touch you. Forever.” Her fingers flexed in his hold and he shifted his hips carefully, just enough to anchor her legs with one of his. Gritting his teeth against the sweet agony, he said thickly, “Give me a minute.”

 
He was pressed intimately between her thighs and felt the hot moist center of her pulse against his hardness. Teeth clenched, he struggled for some semblance of control when all he felt was an all-encompassing gnawing hunger.

 
His craving for her was raw and untamed, and for the first time in his life his control was shot to hell. To be stopped he’d have to be stabbed in the heart a couple of times. Or Eden had to say no.

 
Her avid mouth said yes. Yes. Yes.

 
There was no stopping now.

 
Dragging his mouth from hers, he bit down gently on the sensitive skin where her neck curved into her shoulder. Her body bowed as he knew it would. She was ultrasensitive right there. He’d noticed the night he’d made love to her from a distance. Then he’d thought he’d shatter, he’d been so hard. But it had been nothing,
nothing
like this.

 
If he slipped inside her now, he’d come in two seconds flat. Would that be so bad? It was a desperate question, and he knew the answer. Even if Eden didn’t climax, the damage would still be done. And if he didn’t plunge inside her wet heat, soon, he wouldn’t shatter. He’d die.

 
“I want you too much,” he admitted, barely recognizing his own voice. Nothing mattered now but the fire consuming his body and mind. He was burning alive, and the small sounds of need Eden was making beneath him ratcheted up his tension, torquing his need.