Free Gabriel's Inferno 01 - Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard

wounded puppy that was dragging a broken paw.
    “Stop! For God’s sake, woman, stop . You’ll shred yourself to ribbons.” Gabriel towered menacingly, his anger descending on her from on high like the wrath of God.
    He pulled her to her feet by her shoulders and forced her to dump the glass from her hands into a bowl on the countertop, before guiding her down the hall and into the guest washroom.
    “Sit,” he ordered.
    Julia sat on the top of the closed toilet and heaved a subdued but shuddering sob.
    “Hold out your hands.”
    Her hands were stained with red wine and some small trickles of blood. A few crystals of glass sparkled on her palm amongst the cuts. Gabriel cursed a few times and shook his head as he opened the medicine cabinet. “You don’t listen very well, do you?”
    Julia blinked at her tears, sorry that she couldn’t wipe them away with her hands.
    “And you don’t do what you’re told.” He looked over at her and abruptly stopped.
    He didn’t know why he stopped, and if you had asked him why afterward, he would have shrugged and given you no explanation. But once he stopped what he was doing and saw the poor little creature that was huddled in a corner crying, he felt…something. Something other than annoyance or anger or guilt or sexual arousal. He felt compassion for her. And he felt sorry that he’d made her cry.
    He leaned over and began to wipe her tears away very tenderly with his fingertips. He noticed the hum that came from her mouth as soon as he touched her, and he noticed once again that her skin felt very familiar. And when he’d wiped away her tears, he cupped her pale face in his hands, tilting her chin upward…then retreated quickly and began cleaning her wounds.
    “Thank you,” she murmured, noting the care with which he removed the glass from her hands. He used tweezers, meticulously searching out even the smallest fragment from her skin.
    “Don’t mention it.”
    When all the glass had been removed, he poured iodine onto some cotton balls.
    “This is going to sting.”
    He watched as she steeled herself for his touch, and he winced slightly. He did not relish the thought of hurting her. And she was so soft and so fragile. It took him a full minute and a half to work up the courage to put the iodine on her cuts, and all the time she was sitting there, wide-eyed and biting her lip, waiting for him to just do it already.
    “There,” he said gruffly, as he wiped away the last of the blood. “You’re all better.”
    “I’m sorry I broke your glass. I know it was crystal.” Her soft voice interrupted his reverie as he returned his first-aid implements to the medicine cabinet.
    He waved a hand at her. “I have dozens. There’s a crystal shop downstairs. I’ll pick up another if I need it.”
    “I’d like to replace it.”
    “You couldn’t afford it.” The words escaped his mouth without him realizing it. He watched in horror as Julia’s face first reddened then grew pale. Her head went down, of course, and she started chewing at the inside of her cheek.
    “Miss Mitchell, I wouldn’t dream of taking your money. It would violate the rules of hospitality.”
    And we couldn’t have that, thought Julia.
    “But I’ve stained your shirt. Please let me pay for the dry cleaning.”
    Gabriel stared down at his lovely but obviously ruined white shirt and cursed inside his head. He’d liked this shirt. Paulina had bought it for him in London. And there was no way Julia’s spittle mingled with Chianti would ever come out.
    “I have several of these as well,” he lied smoothly. “And I’m sure the stains will come out. Rachel will help me.”
    Julia raked her upper teeth across her lower lip back and forth and back and forth.
    Gabriel saw the movement, and it made him rather queasy, like a kind of seasickness, but her lips were so red and inviting he couldn’t look away. It was a bit like watching a car wreck while standing on the deck of a ship.
    He leaned over