“That’s hard.”
“It comes with age. You’ll get the hang of it.” She handed Michelle a box of ornaments. “Be careful going down the steps.”
“Okay.”
* * *
They spent the afternoon decorating the tree. When they finally plugged in the beautiful, colored fairy lights, Michelle caught her breath.
“It’s the most breathtaking tree I’ve ever seen,” she enthused.
“It is lovely, isn’t it?” Sara asked. She fingered a branch. “We must keep it watered, so that it doesn’t die. When Christmas is over, I’ll have the men plant it near the front steps. I do so love white pines!”
“Do you ever miss Wyoming?” Michelle asked, a little worried because she knew Sara was only here so that Michelle could come home, so that she wouldn’t be alone with Gabriel.
Sara turned to her. “A little. I lived there because Gabriel bought the ranch and one of us needed to run it. But I had no real friends. I’m happier here.” Her dark eyes were soft. She smoothed over an ornament. “This belonged to my grandmother,” she said softly. It was a little house, made of logs, hanging from a red silk ribbon. “My grandfather whittled it for her, when they were dating.” She laughed. “Wherever I am, it always makes me feel at home when the holidays come.”
“Your mother’s parents?”
Sara’s face went hard. “No. My father’s.”
“I’m sorry.”
Sara turned back to her. In her lovely face, her dark eyes were sad. “I don’t speak of my mother, or her people. I’m sorry. It’s a sore spot with me.”
“I’ll remember,” Michelle said quietly. “It’s like my stepmother.”
“Exactly.”
Michelle didn’t betray her secret knowledge of Sara’s early life, of the tragedy she and Gabriel had lived through because of their mother’s passion for their stepfather. She changed the subject and asked about the other ornaments that Sara had placed on the tree.
But Sara wasn’t fooled. She was very quiet. Later, when they were sipping hot chocolate in the kitchen, her dark eyes pinned Michelle.
“How much did he tell you?” she asked suddenly.
In her hands, the mug jumped, almost enough to spill the hot liquid on her fingers.
“Careful, it’s hot,” Sara said. “Come on, Michelle. How much did Gabriel tell you?”
Michelle grimaced.
Sara took in a long breath. “I see.” She sipped the liquid gingerly. “He never speaks of it at all. Yet he told you.” Her soft eyes lifted to Michelle’s worried gray ones. “I’m not angry. I’m surprised.”
“That he told me?”
“Yes.” She smiled sadly. “He doesn’t warm to people. In fact, he’s cold and withdrawn with almost everyone. You can’t imagine how shocked I was when he phoned me and asked me to come down here because of a young girl he was going to get custody of.” She laughed, shaking her head. “I thought he was joking.”
“But he’s not. Cold and withdrawn, I mean.” Michelle faltered.
“Not with you.” She stared into Michelle’s eyes earnestly. “I haven’t heard Gabriel laugh in years,” she added softly. “But he does it all the time with you. I don’t understand it. But you give him peace, Michelle.”
“That would be nice, if it were true. I don’t know if it is,” Michelle replied.
“It’s fairly obvious what you feel for him.”
She flushed. She couldn’t lift her eyes.
“He won’t take advantage of it, don’t worry,” Sara added gently. “That’s why I’m here.” She laughed. “He’s taking no chances.”
“He doesn’t want to get involved with a child,” Michelle said heavily.
“You won’t be a child for much longer,” the other woman pointed out.
“I’m sure he meets beautiful women all the time,” Michelle said.
“I’m sure it doesn’t matter what they look like,” Sara replied. She smiled. “You’ll see.”
Michelle didn’t reply to that. She just sipped her hot chocolate and felt warm inside.
* * *
It was the week before Christmas, a Friday about lunchtime, when the women heard a truck pull up in the driveway.
Michelle, who was petting one of the horses in the corral, saw the truck and gasped and ran as fast as she could to the man getting out of it.
“Gabriel!” she cried.
He turned. His face lit up like floodlights. He held out his arms and waited until she ran into them to pick her up and whirl her around, holding her so close that she felt they were going to be joined together forever.
“Oh, I’ve missed you,” she choked.
“I’ve missed you.” His voice was deep at her ear. He lifted his head and set her on her feet. His black eyes were narrow, intent on her face. He touched her mouth with just the tip of his forefinger, teasing it apart. His eyes fell to it and lingered there while her heart threatened to jump right out of her throat.
“Ma belle,”
he whispered roughly.
He framed her oval face in his big hands and searched her eyes.
“Ma belle,”
he repeated. His eyes fell to her mouth. “It’s like falling into fire...”
As he spoke, his head started to bend. Michelle’s heart ran away. She could hear her own breathing, feel his breath going into her mouth, taste the coffee and the faint odor of tobacco that came from him, mingled with some masculine cologne that teased her senses.
“Gabriel,” she whispered, hanging at his mouth, aching to feel it come crashing down on her lips, crushing them, devouring him, easing the ache, the hunger that pulsed through her young, untried body...
“Gabriel!”
Sara’s joyful cry broke them apart just in the nick of time. Gabriel cleared his throat, turned to his sister and hugged her.
“It’s good to have you home,” Sara said against his chest.
“It’s good to be home.” He was struggling to sound normal. His mind was still on Michelle’s soft mouth and his hunger to break it open under his lips, back her into a wall and devour her.
“Have you eaten? I just made soup,” Sara added.
“No. I’m starved.” He made an attempt not to look at Michelle when he said that. He even smiled.
“I could eat, too,” Michelle said, trying to break the tension.
“Let’s go in.” Sara took his arm. “Where did you come from?”
“Dallas, this time,” he said. “I’ve been in the States for a couple of days, but I had business there before I could get home.” He hesitated. “I got tickets to the ballet in San Antonio when I came through there this morning.” He glanced at Michelle. “Want to go see
The Nutcracker
with me?” he added with a grin.
“Oh, I’d love to,” she said fervently. “What do we wear?”
“A very dressy evening outfit,” Sara said. “I bought you one once, and you never even wore it.”
Michelle grinned. “Well, I haven’t been anywhere I’d need to wear it,” she replied, not guessing what it told Gabriel, whose eyes twinkled brightly.
Michelle flushed and then grinned at him. “No, I’m not dating anybody at college,” she said. She shrugged. “I’m too busy studying.”
“Is that so?” Gabriel laughed, and was relieved.
“When are you leaving?” Sara asked.
“At six, and you’d better start dressing as well, because we’re all three going,” Gabriel added, and he exchanged a speaking look with Sara.
“All of us? Oh. Oh! That’s nice!” Michelle worked at sounding enthusiastic.
Sara just winked at her. “I’d better go through my closet.”
Gabriel looked down at Michelle with the Christmas tree bright and beautiful behind her. “I wouldn’t dare take you out alone,
ma belle,
” he said under his breath. “You know it. And you know why.”
Her eyes searched his hungrily. She knew. She’d felt it, when he held her beside the truck. She knew that he wanted her.
She’d had no idea what wanting really was, until Gabriel had come into her life. Now she was aware of a hunger that came around when he was close, that grew and surged in her when he looked at her, when he spoke to her, when he touched her....
“Yes, you know, don’t you?” he breathed, standing a little too close. He rubbed his thumb against her lips, hard enough to make her gasp and shiver with delight. His black eyes narrowed. “It’s too soon. You know that, too.”
She ground her teeth together as she looked at him. He was the most perfect thing in her life. He was preaching caution when all she wanted to do was push him down on the floor and spread her body over him and...
She didn’t know what would come next. She’d read books, but they were horribly lacking in preliminaries.
“What are you thinking about so hard?” he asked.
“About pushing you down on the floor,” she blurted out, and flushed. “But I don’t know what comes next, exactly...”
He burst out laughing.
“You stop that,” she muttered. “I’ll bet you weren’t born knowing what to do, either.”
“I wasn’t,” he confessed. He touched her nose with the tip of his finger. “It’s just as well that you don’t know. Yet. And we aren’t going to be alone. Yet.”
She drew in a long sigh and smiled. “Okay.”
He chuckled.
“I’ve never been to the ballet,” she confessed.
“High time you went,” he replied, and he laughed. “Go on.”
* * *
Sara had laid out the most beautiful black velvet dress Michelle had ever seen. It had a discreet rounded neckline and long sleeves, and it fell to the ankles, with only a slight tuck where the waistline was.
“It’s gorgeous!” Michelle enthused.
“And you’ll look gorgeous in it,” Sara replied. She hugged Michelle. “It’s yours. I have shoes and a purse to match it.”
“But, I have a dress,” Michelle began.
“A summer dress,” Sara said patiently, and smiled. “This one is more suitable for winter. I have one similar to it that I’m wearing. We’ll look like twins.” She grinned.
“Okay, then. And thank you!” Michelle said heartily.
“You’re very welcome.”
Ten
G
abriel wore a dress jacket with dark slacks and a black turtleneck sweater. He looked classy and elegant. Sara wore a simple sheath of navy blue velvet with an expensive gold necklace and earrings and looked exquisite, with her silky black hair loose almost to her waist and her big, dark eyes soft in her beautiful face.
Michelle in her black velvet dress felt like royalty. The trio drew eyes as they filed into the auditorium where the ballet was being performed.
Up front, in the orchestra pit, the musicians were tuning up their instruments. Gabriel found their seats and let the women go in first before he took his place on the aisle.
“There’s quite a crowd,” Michelle remarked as more people filed in.
“Oh, dear.” Sara’s voice was full of consternation.
Before Michelle could ask what was wrong, she saw it for herself. Wofford Patterson, in a dinner jacket with a white tie and black slacks was escorting a beautiful blonde, in an elegant green velvet gown, down the aisle—directly to the seats beside Sara.
“Mr. Brandon,” Wolf said, nodding. “This is Elise Jorgansen. Elise, Gabriel Brandon. That’s his sister, Sara. And that’s his ward, Michelle.”
“Nice to meet you,” Elise said, and smiled at them all with genuine warmth.
“I believe our seats are right there,” Wolf told the pretty woman. He escorted her past Gabriel and the women with apologies, because it was a tight squeeze. He sat next to Sara, with Elise on his other side.
Sara tensed and glared straight ahead. Wolf grinned.
“I didn’t know that you liked the ballet, Miss Brandon,” Wolf said politely.
“I like this one. It’s
The Nutcracker,
” she added with a venomous look at the man beside her.
He pursed his lips. “Left the flying monkeys at home, did we?”
“I’d love to drop a house on you, dear man,” she said under her breath.
“Now, now, it’s the ballet,” he pointed out. “We must behave like civilized people.”
“You’d need so much instruction for that, Mr. Patterson,” Sara said, her voice dripping honey.
“Isn’t the music lovely?” Michelle broke in.
The music was the instruments being tuned, but it shattered the tension and everyone laughed.
“Behave,” Gabriel whispered to his sister.
She gave him an irritated look, but she kept her hands in her lap and sat quietly as the ballerinas came onstage one by one and the performance began, to Michelle’s utter fascination and delight. She’d never seen a live performance of the ballet, which was her favorite.
At intermission, Sara excused herself and left the row.
“I’m not getting up,” Wolf said. “I’d never get back in here.”
“Neither am I,” Gabriel mused. “It’s quite a crowd.”
“You seem to be enjoying the music, Miss Godfrey,” Wolf said politely.
“I’ve never been to a ballet before,” she replied, laughing. “It’s so beautiful!”
“You should see it in New York City, at the American Ballet Company,” Gabriel said gently.
“They do an excellent performance,” Wolf agreed. “Have you seen it at the Bolshoi?” he added.
“Yes,” Gabriel agreed. “Theirs is unbelievably beautiful.”
“That’s in Russia, isn’t it?” Michelle asked, wide-eyed.
“Yes,” Gabriel said. He smiled down at her. “One day, Sara and I will have to take you traveling.”
“You should see the world,” Elise agreed, from beside Wolf. “Or at least, some of it. Travel broadens your world.”
“I can’t think of anything I’d love more,” Michelle replied, smiling back at the woman.
“Elise studied ballet when she was still in school,” Wolf said. “She was in line to be a prima ballerina with the company she played with in New York.”
“Don’t,” Elise said gently.
“Sorry,” Wolf said, patting her hand. “Bad memories. I won’t mention it again.”
“That life is long over,” she replied. “But I still love going to see the ballet and the theater and opera. We have such a rich cultural heritage here in San Antonio.”
“We do, indeed,” Gabriel agreed.
The musicians began tuning their instruments again, just as Sara came back down the aisle, so graceful and poised that she drew male eyes all the way.
“Your sister has an elegance of carriage that is quite rare,” Elise said to Gabriel as she approached.
“She also studied ballet,” Gabriel replied quietly. “But the stress of dancing and trying to get through college became too much. She gave up ballet and got her degree in languages.” He laughed. “She still dances, though,” he added. “She just doesn’t put on a tutu first.”
“It wouldn’t go with the broom,” Sara said to Wolf, and smiled coldly as she sat down.
“Broom?” Elise asked, curious.
“Never mind. I’ll explain it to you later,” Wolf replied.
Sara gave him a look that might have curdled milk and turned her attention to the stage as the curtain began to rise.
* * *
“Well, it was a wonderful evening,” Michelle said dreamily as she followed them out to the car. “Thank you so much for taking us,” she added to Gabriel.
He studied her in the lovely dress, smiling. “It was my pleasure. We’ll have to do this more often.”
“Expose you to culture, he means,” Sara said in a stage whisper. “It’s good for you.”
“I really had a good time.”
“I would have, except for the company,” Sara muttered. She flushed. “Not you two,” she said hastily when they gaped at her. “That...man! And his date.”
“I thought Elise was very nice,” Michelle ventured.
Sara clammed up.
Gabriel just chuckled.
* * *
Christmas Eve was magical. They sat around the Christmas tree, watching a program of Christmas music on television, sipping hot chocolate and making s’mores in the fireplace, where a sleepy fire flamed every now and then.
In all her life, Michelle couldn’t remember being so happy. Her eyes kept darting to Gabriel, when she thought he wasn’t looking. Even in jeans and a flannel shirt, he was the stuff of dreams. It was so hard not to appear starstruck.
They opened presents that night instead of the next morning, because Sara announced that she wasn’t getting up at dawn to see what Santa had left.
She gave Michelle a beautiful scarf of many colors, a designer one. Michelle draped it around her neck and raved over it. Then she opened Gabriel’s gift. It was pearls, a soft off-white set in a red leather box. They were Japanese. He’d brought them home from his last trip and hidden them to give at Christmas. The necklace was accompanied by matching drop earrings.
“I was right,” he mused as Michelle tried them on enthusiastically. “They’re just the right shade.”
“They are, indeed. And thank you for mine, also, my sweet.” Sara kissed his tan cheek, holding a strand of white ones in her hand. They suited her delicate coloring just as the off-white ones suited Michelle’s.
“I like mine, too.” He held up a collection of DVDs of shows he particularly liked from Michelle and a black designer turtleneck from Sara.
Sara loved her handmade scarf from Michelle. It was crocheted and had taken an age to finish. It was the softest white knit, with tassels. “I’ll wear it all winter,” she promised Michelle, and kissed her, too.
Michelle had hung mistletoe in strategic places, but she hadn’t counted on Gabriel’s determined reticence. He kissed her on the cheek, smiled and wished her the happiest of Christmases and New Years. She pretended that it didn’t matter that he didn’t drag her into an empty room and kiss her half to death. He was determined not to treat her as an adult. It was painful. But in some sense, she did understand.
* * *
So three years went by, more quickly than Michelle had dreamed they would. She got a job part-time with a daily newspaper in San Antonio and did political pieces for it while she got through her core courses and into serious journalism in college.
She went to class during summer to speed up her degree program, although she came home for the holidays. Gabriel was almost always away now. Sara was there, although she spent most of her time in Wyoming at the ranch she and Gabriel owned. Michelle had gone up there with her one summer for a couple of weeks during her vacation. It was a beautiful place. Sara was different somehow. Something had happened between her and Wofford Patterson. She wouldn’t talk about it, but she knew that it had changed Sara. Gabriel had mentioned something about Sara going back into therapy and there had been an argument in French that Michelle couldn’t follow.
Wofford Patterson had also moved up to Catelow, Wyoming. He bought a huge ranch there near Sara’s. He kept his place in Comanche Wells, but he put in a foreman to manage it for him. He had business interests in Wyoming that took up much of his time, he said, and it was hard to commute. Sara didn’t admit that she was glad to have him as a neighbor. But Michelle suspected that she did.
Sara was still playing her online game with her friend, and they fought battles together late into the night. She still didn’t know who he really was, either. Gabriel had made sure of it.
“He’s such a gentleman,” Sara mused over coffee one morning, her face bright with pleasure. “He wants to meet me in person.” She hesitated. “I’m not sure about that.”
“Why not, if you like him?” Michelle asked innocently, although she didn’t dare let on that she knew exactly who Sara’s friend was, and she knew that Sara would have a stroke if she saw him in person. It would be the end of a lovely online relationship.
“People aren’t what they seem,” Sara replied, and pain was in her eyes. “If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.”
“He might be a knight in shining armor,” Michelle teased. “You should find out.”
“He might be an ogre who lives in a cave with bats, too.” Sara chuckled. “No. I like things the way they are. I really don’t want to try to have a relationship with a man in real life.” Her face tensed. “I never wanted to.”
Michelle grimaced. “Sara, you’re so beautiful...”
“Beautiful!” She laughed coldly. “I wish I’d been born ugly. It would have made my life so much easier. You don’t know...” She drew in a harsh breath. “Well, actually, you do know.” She managed a soft smile. “We’re all prisoners of our childhoods, Michelle. Mine was particularly horrible. It warped me.”
“You should have been in therapy,” Michelle said gently.
“I tried therapy. It only made things worse. I can’t talk to total strangers.”
“Maybe you just talked to the wrong person.”
Sara’s eyes were suddenly soft and dreamy and she flushed. “I think I did. So much has changed,” she added softly.
Michelle, who had a good idea what was going on up in Wyoming, just grinned.
Sara’s eyes took on an odd, shimmering softness. “Life is so much sweeter than I dreamed it could be.” She smiled to herself and looked at her watch. “I have some phone calls to make. I love having you around.” She added, “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For caring,” Sara said simply.
* * *
Michelle was looking forward to her last Christmas in college. She got talked into a blind date with Darla’s boyfriend’s friend. He turned out to be a slightly haughty man who worked as a stockbroker and never stopped talking on his cell phone for five seconds. He was at it all through dinner. Bob, Darla’s boyfriend, looked very uncomfortable and apologetic.
“Bob feels awful,” Darla whispered to Michelle in the restroom after they’d finished eating. “Larry seemed to be a normal guy.”
“He just lives and breathes his job. Besides,” she added, “you know there’s only one man who interests me at all. And it’s never going to be someone like Larry.”
“Having seen your Mr. Brandon, I totally understand.” Darla giggled. She shook her head. “He is a dreamboat.”
“I think so.”
“Well, we’ll stop by the bar for a nightcap and go home. Maybe we can pry Larry away from his phone long enough to say good-night.”
“I wish I was riding with you and Bob,” Michelle sighed. “At least he stops talking while he’s driving.”
“Curious, that he didn’t want to ride with Bob,” Darla said. “Well, that’s just men, I guess.”
* * *
But Larry had an agenda that the girls weren’t aware of. He knew that Bob and Darla were going dancing and wouldn’t be home soon. So when he walked Michelle to the door of the apartment she and Darla shared, he pushed his way in and took off his jacket.
“Finally, alone together,” he enthused, and reached for her. “Now, sweetie, let’s have a little payback for the meal and the drinks...”
“Are you out of your mind?” she gasped, avoiding his grasping arms.
“I paid for the food,” he said, almost snarling. “You owe me!”
“I owe you? Like hell I owe you!” She got to the door and opened it. “I’ll send you a check for my part of the meal! Get out!”
“I’m not leaving. You just want to play hard to get.” He started to push the door closed. And connected with a steely big hand that caught him by the arm, turned him around and booted him out into the night.
“Gabriel!” Michelle gasped.
“You can’t do that to me...!” Larry said angrily, getting to his feet.
Gabriel fell into a fighting stance. “Come on,” he said softly. “I could use the exercise.”
Larry came to his senses. He glanced at Michelle. She went back inside, got his jacket, and threw it at him.
“Dinner doesn’t come with bed,” she told him icily.
Larry started to make a reply, but Gabriel’s expression was a little too unsettling. He muttered something under his breath, turned, slammed into his car and roared away.
Gabriel went inside with Michelle, who was tearing up now that the drama had played itself out.
“Ah, no,
ma belle,
” he whispered. “There’s no need for tears.” He pulled her into his arms, bent his head, and kissed her so hungrily that she forgot to breathe.
He lifted his head. His black eyes were smoldering, so full of desire that they mesmerized Michelle. She tasted him on her mouth, felt the heavy throb of his heart under her hands.
“Finally,” he breathed, pulling her close. He brushed his lips over her soft mouth. “Finally!”
She opened her mouth to ask what he meant, and the kiss knocked her so off balance that she couldn’t manage a single word in reply. She held on with all her might, clung to him, pushed her body into his so that she could feel every movement of his powerful body against her. He was aroused, very quickly, and even that didn’t intimidate her. She moaned. Which only made matters worse.