Gabriel's Hope (#1, Rhyn Eternal) (7 page)

“I got time. You got a one night stand on your bucket list?”

Her breath caught in her chest.

“You can be on top,” he added. “Once. There’s a few other things I have I mind.”

Deidre laughed, uncertain what else to do. This was too crazy, even for her, and yet she
wanted
to unwrap the mysterious man before her and experience his heat, his strength. She wanted to feel his large hands on her body and to find out what it was about him that made her feel like he was the only real person she’d ever met.

“You’ll face down death but not spend the night with me?” he teased.

She kissed him. His response was hungrier, deeper. He opened to her, and she was thrilled to find he tasted as good as he smelled. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into his body. Deidre yielded, alarmed but yearning. The desire lighting her body was hot and aching, as if her body innately knew how well he’d satisfy her.

She was lost in a haze of heat and dark spices, of his hot kisses and solid strength, until his touch left her. Dazed, she was surprised to find they were standing in the bedroom of the bungalow. She didn’t remember walking there. Moonlight streamed through one window while the rest of the house was dark. Before she could ponder how they’d gotten there, she felt his heat again. Deidre touched him tentatively, awed by his size and the gentleness of his touch.

His large hands slid down her bare arms and settled on her hips, drawing her against his body. She shuddered, enthralled by the sensations running through her. She didn’t even reach his chin. It was like being drunk, but on a person, not alcohol.

“Okay?” he asked again.

She tilted her head back to meet his gaze and smiled. “You’re not backing out, are you?”

He chuckled. “Oh, no. You’re mine tonight.”

There was something primal in his low growl that made her body boil. She felt delicate and feminine in his arms. This was the way it was supposed to be.
He
was the way it was supposed to be.

His next kiss was consuming, hungry yet sweet, teasing her with a hint of promise and driving her body to new heights of awareness. She needed to feel his bare body against hers, ached for his hot hands to brand her as his. She wanted to wake up with his scent ingrained in her skin.

Lost to him already, Deidre sank into his world, not caring if it was the last night of her life, if she spent it with him.

Chapter Four

Mid-morning sun warmed Gabriel’s face, drawing him out of the deepest slumber he’d experienced in years. He didn’t push himself awake but let his senses register the world slowly. The satiny sheets of the bed smelled of the woman he’d made love to for hours last night. The ocean breeze cooled his back, and his heartbeat was synced to the movement of the tide. The restlessness was gone from his blood, his body relaxed in a way he couldn’t remember feeling.

Past-Death took him to her bed most nights for thousands of years, and he’d never woken this sated and centered. He knew why: every night was a test. Every night, he had to be better than the night before: More creative, more sensitive to her body. He’d loved her every way he could, knowing the night she was dissatisfied with him, she’d replace him. She never lost control of herself or failed to remind him that it wasn’t her fate at risk each night.

Last night was different in too many ways for him to count. This woman had been wild, uninhibited. She’d held no part of herself back from him and surrendered in a way that made him want to memorize each sigh, the softness of her skin, her silky depths and the way her blue eyes grew dark with desire. She hadn’t judged him or restrained him. She touched him everywhere, hungry to consume him. She’d wanted him in a way the other women in his life never had. When her body ceased convulsing from an orgasm, she’d kissed him with tenderness and asked him how she could make him as happy.

He had
fun.
Gabe snorted at the simple thought. She’d teased and flirted with him, adventurous one minute and submissive the next in a way that made him burn hotter for her. He experienced none of the awkwardness he did with Harmony. Though he intended to make the night about the dying woman, he found it was as much about him.

It was one night he wanted to enjoy. His guard hadn’t lowered; it crashed as he let himself experience every part of her body, her cries and the passionate spirit that held him captive on the beach. She’d ensnared him with her laughter and touched him with her words about Death.

About him. What he should be. What he used to be, before the events of the past year. He’d once done what she did: faced Death and refused to cower, instead deciding to live on his own terms.

Aroused again, he reached over but didn’t feel her body. Gabe twisted his head to see the bed empty. The shower was on, and she was singing. His eyes went to the bathroom door, and he considered joining her. He’d fulfilled his end of the bargain and crossed quite a few things off her bucket list last night.

Gabe roused himself and sat. One night stand. That’s all this was. This was a good opportunity to leave. He had a ton of work to do and was no closer to fixing any part of his underworld. He came back to search the body of Logan Myers and figure out what it was that Rhyn wanted him to know. He found a strange woman with pink hair and a blue face, sprawled on the beach, staring at the sky with a childlike fascination. He really thought her some sort of underworldly creature that somehow ended up washed up on the beach.

Last night was an oasis, a slip. It was probably a mistake, but he truly admired her spirit. He’d never been guilty in his role as an assassin or as Death, until sitting with her on the beach. He’d wanted to make it up to her for her life ending too soon. Or maybe, he wanted to get rid of his own regret at the idea of taking such a sweet soul, someone who might’ve been a kindred spirit in a different time and place. He saw himself with a mate like her, one who was able to remind him what it was like to feel human.

It was one night. He had work to do. He’d see her soul soon in the underworld.

Gabe got dressed, tying one boot as the sound of the shower stopped. He braced himself to tell her thanks for the night and farewell. Hopefully there were no tears, and he was able to walk out instead of tumbling into bed with her like he wanted to.

“Can I ask you something?” she called through the door, an odd note in her voice that made him pause as he pulled on the other boot.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Are you one of those serial killers who marks their victims?”

He chuckled. He’d never considered Death a serial killer, but he did kind of fit the bill.

“Like with a tattoo or something? I’m not mad. Curious. Or whatever,” she paused, as if waiting for his response, before continuing. “It’s pretty. Love the color and the swirlies, like Celtic designs around it. I saw on TV that some serial killers are possessive and do these sorts of things.”

Gabe rose and swirled on his trench coat. There was genuine uneasiness in her voice that drew his interest. His movements stilled as he listened.

“Is your name Gabriel by chance?” she ventured.

He froze. His heart stopped in his chest, and for a long moment, he couldn’t breathe.

“Show me,” he managed at last.

“It’s okay. I think I’ll stay in here.”

He strode to the door. It was locked. Gabe snapped the doorknob with ease. She jumped from her place before the mirror. A towel was wrapped around her and her pink hair clipped on top of her head. Written across the top of her back was his name and the geometric Immortal script marking her as his mate by Immortal law. She faced him, her pink face scrubbed clean.

Immortal Code, Rule 973: An Immortal mate of human origin is marked with its Immortal’s name so that other Immortals know to protect and welcome the human into the Immortal society.

“Deidre,” he whispered.

She nodded uncertainly.

Deidre. The name past-Death adopted when she took on a human form in her underworld before she quit. Though her hair was pink, there was no mistaking the delicate facial features, porcelain skin and large eyes of the woman who tormented him his entire life then dumped the underworld on him. The eyes that once turned from black to white to every color in between were now blue-green in color, and her face held a human flush enhanced by his lovemaking. Her lips were plump and red from their night.

She was scared, probably because he was a second away from killing her.

Gabe took a step back. His body tensed to the point of snapping. He whirled, called for a portal and left his betrayer, his former lover, the woman who had been his world, until she snatched it from him.

His
mate
by Immortal law!

She’d tricked, cornered and beaten him one last time.

Thousands of years of repressed fury bubbled within him. He was too angry to see where he went as he crossed through the shadow realm. After awakening feeling at peace, he was close to pulling a Rhyn and decimating the world around him in an explosion of raw fury.

Gabe was halfway across the gym where the Immortal foot soldiers were training before he knew where he was. Sensing the pulse of power, Rhyn whirled from the far side. He issued a quick order Gabe couldn’t hear through the blood pounding in his head.

“How fucking long did you know?” he roared.

The Immortals scattered while Rhyn remained.

“I’m not going to-“ Rhyn started, hands up.

Gabriel smashed into him, picked him up and threw him. Rhyn slammed into the wall above the doors the Immortals were fleeing through. Gabe saw the half-demon’s eyes flare silver and pursued, wanting …
needing
a fight.

“How long, Rhyn?” he demanded again.

This time, Rhyn didn’t back down. Gabe drew sword and dagger and unleashed on the half-demon, whose demon magic and quick reflexes responded with power that’d overwhelm anyone but Death himself. Gabe fought, not caring what happened. They smashed the gym around them, two titans dueling.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity lost in his fury, a dagger sliced his forearm. The physical pain penetrated his mental anguish, and he lowered his weapons. Gabe threw his head back, breathing hard and sweating.

“You … good?” Rhyn panted.

“Define
good
.”

“I figured you’d be by yesterday.” Rhyn tossed his weapons. “We’ve known for a little over a week.”

“About the time everything started going to shit with the underworld.”

Anger rose, but Gabe reined it in, exhausted. He flung away the weapons and the trench coat. His clothes were strangling him in heat after the match. He pulled off his sweater then dropped back onto the sparring mat, focusing hard on calming himself down. Unfazed by Gabe’s attempt to hack him into pieces, Rhyn sat beside him.

“Rhyn?” One of the half-demon’s brothers called from the doorway.

“Bring it.”

Gabe twisted his head to watch Kiki, Rhyn’s right hand and the most dependable of the brothers, walk into the gym. He looked around in disapproval at the disaster that remained of the new gym. Gabe sat up as Kiki approached, and the tall Immortal paused, critical gaze taking in both of them.

“It’s Gabe, Kiki. He’s not gonna kill you,” Rhyn said.

“Yet,” Gabe added.

“Neither of you are funny,” Kiki replied. He set the iPad he carried on a totaled machine a few feet away without coming closer. “Rhyn, a reminder that Gabriel is a deity or at least, a human-turned-immortal-turned-deity, which means you must use-“

“-discretion,” Rhyn finished through clenched teeth.

“Exactly. The first page has the talking points outlining what you can share,” Kiki said before addressing Gabriel. “Do you have any idea how much this gym cost to set up?”

Practical and detail-oriented, Kiki was well-dressed and lean. Like all the brothers on the Council That Was Seven, he had the same father and a different mother. His Oriental features were chiseled, his turquoise eyes bright. He’d lived in Tokyo before Rhyn dragged him to the castle as his charge d’affairs.

“Send me the bill,” Gabe said drily.

Kiki was unimpressed. “Discretion, Rhyn.” He turned and walked out. Rhyn stood and crossed to the iPad, reading quietly.

Gabe heard the voice of Rhyn’s mate, Katie, from the direction of the hallway as she greeted Kiki on her way in. Her blue eyes lit up when she saw him. Curly brown hair was pulled into a ponytail, and she wore jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt that was tight over her swollen belly. The last of Gabe’s anger slid away at her glowing smile.

Rhyn glanced up, gaze lingering on his mate, then shook his head.

“Hasn’t hatched yet?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes at him. Gabe watched as she crossed the gym to give her mate a kiss on the cheek. The tension in Rhyn’s body doubled. Gabe cleared his throat, amused at seeing the half-demon putting so much effort into restraining himself.

“Good to see you, Gabe,” she said, moving to stand near him. Rhyn trailed, never farther than arms reach when she was around.

“You, too, Katie,” Gabriel replied. He reached out to rest a hand on her belly, as he did every time they met the past few months. The life within always greeted him.