Embrace the Night

Page 72



then sat down on the opposite end of the settee.

"Is that why you came here, to marry me off to someone else?" "What do you mean?"

She lowered her gaze. "I've never stopped thinking of you, Gabriel. Every night, I hoped you would come to see me, that you were missing me, longing for me, as I have been longing for you."

She looked up at him, her gaze quietly pleading. "I know you thought I was just a child, that I was too young to know my own mind, my own heart, but I love you, Gabriel. I loved you then, and I love you now."

"Don't!"

"Why? Why can't I love you?"

She reached out to him, and he jerked away. The movement dislodged the hood, allowing her to see his face for the first time.

"Gabriel! What has happened?"

"Nothing," he said, replacing the hood. "An accident."
Before he could stop her, she sprang to her feet and lit the lamp.

"No!" He covered his face with his hands, only then realizing what a mistake it had been to come here. He cowered before her as she lowered the hood, then pulled his hands away so she could see his face.
"Oh, Gabriel," she murmured, her throat constricting with horror. "My poor angel."

He turned away, not wanting her to see the ruin of his face, not wanting to see the pity he knew would be reflected in her eyes.

A low groan, half pleasure, half pain, rumbled in his throat as Sara drew him into her arms, rocking him gently, as a mother would comfort a wounded child.

"Tell me what happened," she urged.

"I was burned…" His voice was low, muffled against her breasts.

"Burned!" A vivid image of the fire at the orphanage flashed through her mind, and with it, the memory of pain, horrible, excruciating pain. "Oh, Gabriel," she murmured, "I thought it was only a dream."

"A dream? What are you saying?"

"I dreamed of you, dreamed that you had been badly hurt. It was so real. I felt the heat burn my skin…"

She was examining his hands and arms as she spoke, her eyes filling with tears as she saw his burned flesh. "How did it happen?"