Free Robin Schone by Gabriel's Woman Page A

Michael’s eyes; he sat the earthenware pot of chocolate down on the silver tray.
    Pain sliced through Gabriel.
    It was inevitable that Michael eventually put together the pieces.
    And Gabriel wished he could spare him that, too.
    The soft click of glass impacting metal sounded over the drumming of his heart.
    Slowly Michael raised his eyelashes, violet pinning silver. “But I was wrong, was I not, mon frere?
    “None of us escape the past, Michael,” Gabriel said truthfully.
    And waited. Knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop the coming sequence of events.
    Michael soundlessly slid off the desk, violet eyes intent, the scar edging his cheek white with tension.
    He took one step forward ...
    “Why did the woman auction off her body inside your house, Gabriel?”
    Two steps. . .
    “Why does anyone sell their body, Michael?” Gabriel asked ironically.
    His heartbeat accelerated.
    He wondered how far Michael would push Gabriel in his quest for the truth. He wondered how far the
    second man would push him in this game of death.
    He wondered what he would do if Victoria tried to seduce him.

    Three steps . . .
    “You never before allowed auctions, mon ami,” Michael challenged.
    Four steps .. .
    “Tonight is the grand reopening of my house,” Gabriel returned calmly. Choosing the truth and the lies
    with equal care. “I thought it appropriate.”
    Five steps .. .
    Michael raised an ironical brow. “And did you think it appropriate for the proprietor to outbid his patrons,
    Gabriel?”
    Six steps. . .
    “Perhaps I got lonely, Michael,” he said quietly. “Perhaps I wanted a woman of my own.”
    Gabriel did not know if he lied or not.
    Seven steps . . .
    “And the second man, did he also get lonely?” Michael caustically rejoined, violet eyes implacable in his
    quest for the truth. “Is that why he bid twice on your woman?”
    Your woman rebounded off the white enameled ceiling.
    Black, masculine hair turned into dark feminine hair. Victoria’s voice rang inside his ears: I am afraid of
    being touched by a man .. . I am afraid that I will lik e being touched by a man . .. I am afraid that I
    am a whore in fact as well as in deed.
    Instantly, Victoria’s dark hair turned into Michael’s black hair, a woman’s nakedness into a scarred
    angel’s determination.
    Gabriel felt the heat of Michael’s body, too close. He forced himself not to back away from his
    approach. Just as he had forced himself not to bolt earlier when Victoria had approached him one step at a
    time, pelvis jutting, hips swaying, breasts bouncing.
    She had almost touched him. And for one heart-stopping moment he had almost let her.
    Victoria had not known the consequences of touching him; Gabriel did.
    Michael did.
    “Perhaps,” Gabriel said easily, every muscle inside his body throbbing with awareness.
    If Michael did not stop ...
    Eight steps ...
    Gabriel stiffened, left palm molding the hilt of the knife, right middle finger curving to cradle a trigger.
    Michael halted. Chocolate-scented breath caressed Gabriel’s cheek.
    Two angels stood eye to eye, one dark-haired, one fair-haired. One trained to please women, the other
    trained to please men.
    “Why didn’t you kill him, Gabriel?” Silver eyes reflected inside violet, violet inside silver, two men
    trapped in a past neither had chosen. “I know he was here. You were prepared to shoot the woman; why
    not the second man?”
    So Michael had seen the blue-plated pistol.
    Did he know how close he had come to death?
    Did he know how close he now was to death?
    “Did you see him, Michael?” Gabriel returned evenly.
    “No, I didn’t see him, but you were standing over us, Gabriel. It would have been impossible for you not
    tohave seen him.”
    Gabriel concentrated on the moist scent of chocolate instead of the violet eyes that sucked at his soul
    and his fingers that independently tightened to protect himself. “Perhaps I do not see as clearly as I would
    like to believe I