Embrace the Night

Page 199



"Gabriel…"

She murmured his name aloud as she pillowed her head on her arm, rubbing her cheek against the velvet of the gown.

"Gabriel…"

Her eyelids fluttered down, and for the first time in six months, she didn't cry herself to sleep.

Filled with an overpowering restlessness, he walked through the spacious rooms of the mansion, imagining Sarah sitting in front of the fireplace in the parlor, bathing in the pale pink tub, sleeping in the bed, reading a book in the library, watering the plants in the garden by the light of the moon, lying naked in his arms…

He pushed the thought aside, remembering the terror he had seen in her eyes the night before. If she looked at him like that now, when she hardly knew him, he could only imagine the horror he would read in her eyes if she discovered what he was. But that would never happen. Never again would he become involved with a mortal woman.

And yet, like it or not, he was already involved. He had been able to think of nothing else since the first night he had seen her sitting on the bench in the park, looking lost and forlorn, her eyes damp with tears.

Except for the color of her hair, there was little physical resemblance to Sara Jayne, and yet there was something about this Sarah that called to him, that begged his attention.

Muttering an oath, he left the house. For a moment, he stood outside, breathing in the cool night air, and then he made his way to the corral, whistling for the stallion.

The big black horse trotted up to him, blowing softly as he nuzzled Gabriel's chest.

Opening the corral gate, Gabriel swung onto the stallion's bare back. He had no need of bridle or bit to control the horse, only the sound of his voice and the pressure of his knees. He patted the horse's neck, then rode out of the yard, heading for the hills behind the mansion.

He rode for an hour, his inner turmoil soothed by the motion of the horse, the wind in his face. He refused to think of the past. He was uneasy with the present; the future was a door that even he couldn't open.

Sounds and sights and smells surrounded him and he sorted them without conscious thought: the distant screech of brakes, the growl of a dog, the soft whirring of wings as an owl hunted the night. He saw the yellow eyes of a cat watching him as he passed by; he caught the combined aroma of cigarettes and perfume and lust as he rode by a parked car. It took little imagination to guess what was going on behind the steamy windows, and he felt a sudden ache in his loins, a need to be held. Sara…

He remembered the night he had knelt at her feet, his head pillowed in her lap, as he begged her to hold him. How long ago that had been!

Heavy-hearted, he turned the black toward home.