Spell Bound (Darkly Enchanted) (43 page)

She couldn’t help it. She choked back a laugh as Gabriel’s mouth twitched. He looked to her for guidance and she shook her head. “You’re doing fine, big guy. Go for it.”

Instead, Gabriel asked, “How do you know that?”

“I see it in my head when I pet him. He’s so soft. Can I have fur when I get bigger?”

Shea thought her head should spin at the speed Leo switched subjects. Since Leo had rediscovered his desire to talk in the past few days, he seemed to be making up for lost time.

“No,” Gabriel said. “You’re not going to have fur when you get bigger. So you want to watch some movies before bed? I think Serena has more movies than a video store.”

Effectively sidetracked, Leo bounced off his chair, ready to go and, intrigued, Shea followed Gabriel through the house by way of another hallway that led to a stairs leading down.

“Wow,” Leo said as he got a look at the room. “Does Serena play with all this stuff?”

Gabriel grinned as Leo walked over to the pool table and ran his fingers along the carved wood before he headed for the DVDs flanking the huge television that covered almost half the wall.

“She can beat me in pool nearly every time but I remain the all-time pinball champ.”

Shea smiled at the image of a young Gabriel spending hours at the pinball machine. But just as quickly, that image was replaced by one of a teenage Gabriel standing over his dead father.

So much pain.

Standing to the side, Shea watched Gabriel help Leo pick age-appropriate movies. Leo looked like a kid in a candy store. They’d seen one movie in the past year in a movie theater, a Disney release. So, of course, Leo chose “Monsters,” “The Jungle Book” and “Peter Pan.”

Then they settled on the curved couch, Leo between them, as Gabriel fiddled with a remote that looked like it could control the space shuttle. A second later, several pieces of equipment blinked to life on the cabinet below the television. He pushed another button and the lights dimmed.

And finally the movie started.

In the flickering light from the screen, Shea watched Leo’s eyes widen in wonder. Lifting her arm, she settled it around his shoulders, drawing his warm little body into her side. He snuggled in without taking his eyes from the screen.

So small. So not fair.

“Shea.” Gabriel sat on the other side of Leo, watching her. Their gazes met and held. “You want popcorn?”

Her lips curved into a grin even as her mouth began to water. And not just for popcorn. “Sure. Lots of butter.”

“Only way to eat it.”

* * *

Serena knew where she’d find Quinn.

In the one room of the house he knew she wouldn’t go.

Unfortunately for Quinn, she’d decided it’d been way too long since she’d confronted this particular demon.

She hadn’t opened the door to Nino’s room since his death. The pain in her heart had subsided in recent years, but not enough. It would never be enough. Still, the situation with Quinn had reached its breaking point.

Down the south hall, past the secondary altar room, through the entrance to the west rooms.

The door was closed, but she knew exactly how the room would look. Exactly the way Nino had left it the last time he’d been here.

It took her nearly a minute to grab the doorknob.

She tried to prepare herself for the despair to hit her, the gnawing pain that lives with you when you lose a child. Gabriel had been her first in all the centuries since the curse. She’d loved him with the passion of a new mother, despite the circumstances of his birth.

Nino had been a joyful surprise. Where her daughters and Gabriel had been solemn children, as if they’d always known the weight of the world was on their shoulders, Nino had woken every day with a smile on his face. Davis’ influence, she was sure.

Davis…

No, she couldn’t think about Davis, not now. She had to concentrate on Quinn. And how best to break the hold she had on his heart.

She took a deep breath, twisted the knob and opened the door.

Quinn sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor as he meditated, looking so incongruous on the carpet printed to resemble a small town. Nino had played on that carpet for hours.

She took a deep breath and ignored the bed where Nino had slept, still made up with his Thomas the Tank Engine sheets and the toy truck in the corner, laying on its side, exactly how he’d left it.

“We need to talk,” she said, her voice sounding horribly loud in the quiet space. “This has gone on long enough.”

He didn’t acknowledge her immediately, but after a few seconds, his eyelids fluttered and he lifted his mesmerizing blue gaze to meet hers. Those eyes always reminded her of the warm Mediterranean. But his mouth was set in a cool, straight line, only the muscle jumping in his cheek gave away his anger.

“Are you ready to admit you’re wrong?”

Sweet heaven, he was gorgeous when he was pissed off. She wanted to smile at his youthful fire, but she knew it would only anger him more. And make her want him more.

She already wanted him more than she wanted to breathe.

To steady herself, she let her gaze roam around the room. To remind herself why she couldn’t let herself love him.

“I’m not wrong, Quinn. I’m not going to change my mind. Find someone else. Take another lover.” Just don’t ever tell me. “Don’t wait for me because it will not—”

He rose with a speed and agility she should have expected but hadn’t. He had her up against the wall before she knew what he intended, mouth crushed against hers, kissing her with more passion than skill.

His lips forced hers open, his tongue stabbing into her, gliding against her tongue. The taste of him, unfamiliar and heady, made her moan.

She wanted to push him away but her body knew her mate, knew this was the only man for her. And had decided it’d been denied long enough.

Her knees weakened but his hands caught her under her arms, lifting her until her feet left the floor and she had to grip his shoulders to maintain her balance.

Balance she didn’t have without her blood-bound mate in her life.

When he drew back, her stomach rolled at the frustration-love-hope-despair she saw in his face.

She couldn’t stop herself. Her hands lifted to cup his tense jaw, letting the warmth of him soak into her skin. His eyelids flickered but didn’t fall, lips parting to draw in air but he didn’t move.

Touching her lips to the corner of his mouth, she drew in his musky scent, let it seep into her soul. Where it belonged. The rough stubble against her skin made her heart ache. She wanted him to rub his chin against her breasts, her stomach. Wanted him to brush it against the inside of her thighs when he put his mouth on her sex.

Her body shook with the strength of that image, just as it did when she dreamed in the middle of the night. Those dreams taunted her with what she couldn’t have.

She shut her eyes.

“No,” Quinn growled, shaking her just a little. “No, don’t you dare close your eyes. God damn it, Serena, you look at me. How can you live without this? Without me?”

She didn’t live. Not really. She existed. And not well. But if she allowed herself to look at him now, she’d be lost.

As lost as she’d been at Nino’s death.

Despair, black and bitter and choking, bubbled up from her gut, from the hole she’d buried it in. It leaked from her body in her tears, silent and pouring down her face now.

“I can’t.” She couldn’t breathe but that wasn’t what she meant. “I can’t. Quinn. So sorry. It hurts.”

The tears she hadn’t shed so many years ago rose like a hurricane-fueled wave, pouring from beneath her closed lids, drenching her face. She couldn’t stop them, any more than she could force the grief and anger and dread back into the whole.

This is what she’d tried to avoid all these years. And all it had taken was one kiss.

She wept, her body wracked by sobs. Quinn swore, something foul and directed at himself, and wrapped her against his body. Which just made her cry harder.

She wanted him so badly, her body ached with it.

But, just as she couldn’t bring back her beautiful Nino, she couldn’t have Quinn. She didn’t deserve him and he deserved better. Better than a woman who had failed so many, who had let down her
boschetta
by not being the leader they needed. By having another child when she knew how much danger he would be subjected to all his life.

She didn’t know how long she cried or when Quinn carried her out of the room. It took all of her dubious control to rein in her tears, to push back the grief enough to move on. But when she finally got herself under control, she realized she was sitting on Quinn’s lap on another bed in another room.

His arms wrapped around her shoulders, hers wrapped around his waist. Her tears soaked his skin, now sticky and damp.

For a few brief seconds, as sanity returned, she rested her cheek against his chest, heard his heart beating steadily beneath her ear.

Then she forced herself to push away. To get to her feet and meet his sorrowful blue eyes.

“Don’t you see, Quinn? It’s for the best.”

Then she turned and walked away.

* * *

Gabriel didn’t watch the movie.

He watched Shea.

Watched her eat popcorn and suck the butter off her fingers. Had to stomp down the urge to do it for her.

Got a hard-on watching her lick the salt off her lips.

And lost it as he watched her watch Leo with such fear on her face he almost howled in frustration.

He almost got caught watching her when the first film ended, and they both looked at him to switch the film. And when the next one started, he went back to watching her.

And thinking. Tonight. He had to have her tonight. So he could get this lust, this burn, out of his system. He had to be sharp, and he couldn’t be sharp when he wanted her this badly.