Free Forbidden by Amy Miles Page A

letting his eyes flicker south only for a moment.   Instantly he fixed his gaze on her face, refusing to linger on her stunning outfit.
    “It was really nice of you to invite Sadie,” Roseline returned his smile as he led the way into the foyer.   Her stiletto heels slipped on the newly waxed wood floor.   She reached out towards the wall to stop her fall, but Gabriel grabbed onto her first.  
    When her wide eyes met his she knew he felt the same electrical current that she did.   He cleared his throat and helped her across the hall towards the carpeted living room.   He dropped her arm as soon as they’d crossed the hazardous floor.   “This should be safer for you,” he grinned.  
    “Maybe not the best choice in shoes, huh?” Roseline grimaced.
    “Oh no,” Gabriel shook his head, risking a glance down at her shapely calves.   “They look great.”   Roseline flushed and lowered her gaze.   Realizing he’d just embarrassed her, Gabriel changed the subject.   “So do you like to dance?”
    Roseline shrugged.   “I think I might kill myself in these shoes.”
    Gabriel chuckled.   “Well if you change your mind, the dance floor is downstairs.   The snacks and drinks are in the kitchen and the back deck has some loungers if you need to cool off.   You’re free to roam the rest of the house, but I’d stay clear of the third door on the left upstairs.”
    Roseline’s brow crinkled.   Gabriel laughed.   “It’s my room.”
    “Ah,” she nodded.   “Afraid I might see you’re bed unmade?”
    “Nope,” Gabriel laughed.   “The last time I looked it’d been turned into the hook-up room.   Just trying to save you from walking in on something you really don’t want to see!”
    “Right.”   Roseline stood next to Gabriel, unsure of what else she should say.   The silence wasn’t uncomfortable but it was definitely awkward.
    “I should probably go,” he said wistfully, motioning towards the crowd.
    “Yeah, definitely,” Roseline nodded in agreement.   “I don’t want to steal away the host.”
    “I wish,” he muttered longingly, his words inaudible to the human ear.   Too bad for him Roseline wasn’t human.   “Well…see ya.”
    Roseline waved, watching as he disappeared into the crowded family room.   She snuck down the basement stairs, desperate to remain as far away from Gabriel as possible for the remainder of the night.   Downstairs, strobe lights danced over the heads of the throng of underage drinkers.   They ground against each other, moving in ways that Roseline had only ever seen at clubs back in Romania .   Not that she’d ever been allowed to dance!
    The heat and cloud of teen hormones drove Roseline back up the stairs.   She maneuvered her way through the packed kitchen, grabbed a soda and handful of chips and headed out onto the deck.   She sucked in a breath of fresh air.
    “It’s pretty intense in there isn’t it?”
    Whirling around, Roseline came face to face with Nicolae.   “What do you want?” she hissed.
    His eyes flitted back towards the house.   “I told you earlier.   I’m keeping an eye on you.”
    Roseline threw her hands up in the air in annoyance.   “Really?   You think I’m gonna do something with all of these kids around?”
    Nicolae’s intense green eyes appeared to ice over.   The corded muscles in his neck pulsated. “That’s what your kind does.”
    “My kind?” Roseline growled, baring her teeth as she confronted Nicolae.   “You know nothing about me.”
    “No?   I know more about you than you think, Roseline Enescue.”
    Roseline reared back as if his words had been a physical slap.   She quickly recovered.   “So you know my name…so what?”
    Nicolae advanced, back ram rod straight, face reddened with fury.   “I know what you and your precious family have done.   They will pay for their sins.”
    A chill raced down Roseline’s back.   Certainly her family deserved the vilest torture known to