GABRIEL (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 4) Read online

  He was one giant icicle. Though her extremities had almost no feeling in them, she pressed her feet to his and rubbed her hands up and down his upper arms. Her efforts finally paid off after what seemed like an eternity. The numbness left her body and his shivering lessened to an occasional spasm.

  As his skin took on a more normal warmth, he moved his hands from where they had been sandwiched between their chests and massaged her back, returning the favor of getting her blood circulating.

  At least that's what she thought he was doing. But what began as a vigorous rubdown changed to a light skimming over the flesh from her neck to her thighs. Another shiver passed through her, but this one had nothing to do with the cold.

  "Professor, I—"

  "Don't you think you could call me Gabriel, under the circumstances?" His hand cupped her bottom as he said it.

  She kept her head against his shoulder to keep him from seeing her flushed cheeks. "I suppose so... Gabriel. Are you warm enough now?"

  "I still can't feel my toes. Can you?" He sucked in his breath as her hips and thighs shifted to enable her toes to search out his.

  "No wonder you can't feel them. They're like ice. But the rest of you feels... normal again, so—"

  He stopped her from squirming upward to get out of the pouch. "You don't want to do that yet," he said, keeping his arms wrapped snugly around her. "You may feel comfortable in here, but the heater hasn't raised the overall temperature by more than a few degrees so far. Give it a little more time."

  Shara inched back down to her previous position but she was no longer as concerned about freezing to death as she was about incinerating. His muscular body felt too good beneath hers and his fingers were awakening all the nerve endings in her skin. Suddenly she felt a movement between her thighs and realized her nerves weren't the only things standing at attention.

  Since there was nowhere for her to run at the moment, she opted for conversation. "I've never seen anything killed before. Did it bother you to do that?"

  His lips brushed across her forehead. "When I first started journeying, I tried to abide by the nonviolent doctrines I'd been raised with. But I soon learned that civilized ethics don't always have a place in primitive cultures. Sometimes survival has to take priority."

  "It never occurred to me to bring a weapon. If I had been alone, I'd be dead now."

  He pressed a light kiss on her temple. "You can't know that for sure. You might have found some way to frighten them away."

  She grimaced. "Then I just would have frozen to death slowly, instead of being devoured instantly."

  "There's also the possibility that the security team would have stopped you from hopping at all."

  Even though he had to realize she was no longer chilled, his hands continued to stroke her. Since it would be ludicrous to order him to remove his hands from her while she was lying naked on top of him, she continued to pretend that she didn't notice how sensual his touch was... or that he was aroused.

  She rose on one elbow to meet his eyes for what she knew had to be said. "At any rate, I'm aware that I owe you an apology. Two, actually."

  "Oh?" By lifting her upper body, she partially revealed the full breasts he had only gotten a brief glimpse of earlier, when he was too cold to care. He knew it was rather primitive of him, but he really appreciated a woman with a well-developed figure. He forced his gaze back to her face and worked to keep it there.

  When he had lowered his eyes, Shara wondered if he might be nodding off, but when he looked at her again, she was immediately aware that sleep was the last thing on his mind. "Um, yes, an apology. I, uh, was wrong to try to leave without you. I am very obviously not prepared for this journey. Thank you for preventing me from making a terrible mistake. And thank you for helping me to avoid the security team." His hands eased slowly up and down her ribs as she gave her little speech, and on each upward stroke, his thumbs skimmed the sides of her breasts.

  He watched the irises of her eyes change to chocolate brown and fought the smile that threatened to give away his thoughts. "And the second apology?"

  She swallowed hard, finding it more difficult by the second to ignore how he was making her feel. "I was very rude yesterday and said things I didn't mean."

  "Which things?" he murmured as he rolled the two of them onto their sides.

  "It's nice of you to act as though you've forgotten my insults but I haven't. You trusted me with sensitive information about yourself and I behaved abominably. You had a right to be furious and insult me in return." She wasn't quite sure how he managed it so smoothly in such a confined space, but their positions were now almost reversed. She was lying on her back and his body partially covered hers as he smiled down at her.

  "I don't think two wrongs make a right," he said, his gaze drifting lower. Her breasts were even more beautiful than he'd guessed and her eye color had confirmed the fact that the contracted nipples weren't entirely caused by the cold. "I owe you an apology also." He had thought seeing would be enough, but the need to touch every part of her was overruling all else. His fingers trickled over her stomach and crept upward. "My throwing your heritage back at you was completely unreasonable. My only excuse is that I was confused."

  "I'm sorry about that," Shara said, trying not to think about her racing pulse. "But I'm afraid you confused me as well. I don't usually... forget myself so easily."

  His hand had finally reached the swell of her breast and, with great effort, he stopped himself from proceeding further. "I can't say that I understand your attitude though. I know you were enjoying our kisses as much as I was." He watched her gaze move to his mouth while her tongue sneaked out to moisten her lips. "In fact, I think you're wondering the same thing I am right now. Was it really that good?" Her sharp intake of breath was her verification of his guess.

  "I don't want to take any of your gifts, Shara. I want to give you some."

  The only response she could manage was to furrow her brow.

  "The first gift I'd like to give you is satisfaction... of your curiosity."

  She knew this was a mistake. She should get out of the pouch, stop the velvety touches clouding her mind while seducing her body and, above all, avoid kissing him.

  Her lips parted to deny him and he lowered his head.

  How could an act so simple as two mouths making contact tip the world off its axis? His tongue teased hers and she had the answer. This was no simple act. The tender caress he started to give her instantly turned demanding and all she could do was respond to that demand with her own shocking need.

  He gave up the fight to keep his hand from capturing her breast. When she covered that hand with hers and encouraged him to squeeze harder, his erection stretched to its limit against her hip.

  Gabriel had never known such uncontrollable desire but now was not the time to analyze it. His body demanded that he seek immediate relief and he moved over her. Yet, in spite of the fact that she spread her thighs to cradle him and her hands urged him to complete the union, the recollection of what she had accused him of before gave him the willpower to hold back.

  "I think our mutual curiosity is satisfied," he murmured against her mouth. Sliding his aching shaft up and down over her nerve center, he kissed her again then said, "I would like to give you another gift, but you'll have to tell me you want it. The pleasure is yours for the taking, Shara. Will you accept it?"

  There was no doubt in her mind. If she didn't take it in the next few seconds, she would go up in flames. "Yes. Please." He entered her so quickly, she gasped, but her body had been well prepared and welcomed his with a shudder of relief.

  Her body had previously welcomed two other men but now she realized they had merely taken from her without giving anything in return. Gabriel's body was doing things to hers that she hadn't known were possible. There was a harmony to their movements and every stroke, every touch, made her more aware of how much she could take from him... if she just reached out for it. If she could only quiet the whispers o
f uncertainty in her mind.

  His intention had been to please her first then satisfy himself at a leisurely pace. That was the way it had been in every encounter he had previously had. But this wasn't like anything in his previous experience. Being inside her increased his passion tenfold. He couldn't seem to control his body's powerful thrusts. Raging need hammered at him until he could only drive forward.

  Harder.

  Faster.

  He heard her pleading with him but couldn't sort out the words. He needed more and nothing would stop him from having it all. The level of pleasure at which he normally peaked had passed and still his body strained higher. When the shattering release finally came, he felt as though he had gone through another time-hop. He was breathless and dizzy. His head throbbed and his body felt battered.

  And he wondered how long it would be before he could do it again.

  His selfish thought replayed in his head and awoke his conscience. What had come over him? It was almost as if he'd completely lost his sanity for a few minutes.

  Shara gave him a nudge. "Please. You're very heavy."

  As soon as he shifted them onto their sides, she shimmied upward and out of the pouch. He watched her pull a long-sleeved bodysuit out of her bag and slip it on. What had happened to him was so unusual, he didn't know quite what to say.

  Had he pleased her at all? She wasn't acting like a sated woman. Had he left her unsatisfied, then? Perhaps he had even hurt her in his energetic pursuit of his own elusive release. He instantly rejected that possibility. He had been with females who were too small for him and it had been noticeably uncomfortable for both of them. Shara had effortlessly taken in every inch he had to give and enveloped him as if nature had created their body parts from one mold.

  Why the drek had she been in such a hurry to get away from him? How could he have been so strongly affected and she remain so aloof?

  Perhaps her Terran genes did make her different. He had always heard that Terrans were excessively emotional, sometimes volatile people, and he had assumed their sexual passion would be heightened as well, but that didn't seem to be true in Shara's case. He told himself to let it go. Her lack of response was her problem, not his. And yet his ego refused to accept the fact that she hadn't enjoyed their coupling in the least.

  He couldn't see her eye color the way her lashes were lowered and she was obviously not planning to offer him any insight, since she sat down and began reading some papers she'd pulled out of her bag. His fingers touched the jammer on his ear. For the first time in years, he was tempted to remove it to hear her thoughts rather than any words she might choose to say if he asked for them. He knew that invasion of privacy was unnecessary, however, when all he had to do was make her look at him to learn the truth.

  Sitting up in the sleeping pouch, he considered the best way to approach the problem and decided to follow her lead by getting dressed.

  Shara concentrated on steadying her hands and her breathing as she stared at the papers in front of her. Too bewildered to rationalize what had just happened, she tried to block it out with cold, logical work—something she had had a lot of practice doing over the years.

  She forced herself to break the tense silence. "If I had any idea what year we arrived, I might be able to figure out what I did wrong."

  "I think I can help with that," Gabriel said, sitting down in front of her. "Assuming we didn't change locations, the last time this section of Norona was this cold and covered in snow and ice was during the Frozen Era. Besides that, those animals I killed were wartbulls, a vicious species of carnivores that became extinct about one million years ago."

  "A million? I was trying for twelve thousand." She picked up the tempometer belt, opened the crystal and peered at the workings as if it might tell her the answer. "And why couldn't I reverse the time-hop?" she asked herself aloud.

  "The cold?" Gabriel suggested.

  "I suppose that's a possibility. Lantana made no mention of external temperatures having an effect, but he also never performed any actual tests on the device."

  Gabriel's eyes widened. "You mean it was all theory before today?"

  Shara frowned. "Not entirely. He did make it back to us."

  "Great," he said with a smirk. Since it was too late to change his mind about accompanying her, there wasn't much to be gained by sarcasm. "So how can I help?"

  "I've spent the last few weeks studying these notes and schematics but you're welcome to go over them. Maybe, between the two of us, we'll get it right on the next hop."

  He nodded and took several sheets of paper from her. After scanning the pages quickly to get an idea of the information covered, he went back to the beginning and started reading, but his mind and his gaze kept wandering to Shara. Although he believed he was doing a fine job of hiding it, his body was still vibrating with the aftereffects of the most incredible climax he'd ever experienced. She, on the other hand, seemed totally engrossed in comparing the inside of the tempometer to one of the Lantana's drawings. Was she truly unaffected by what they had shared or was she also hiding her feelings?

  Again he was tempted to remove his earcuff, but he was now close enough to analyze her eye color, so he felt obliged to try that method of reading her first.

  "Shara?" She glanced up at him. Her eyes were hazel, but more brown than green. As her basic hazel color was more green, he wondered if some traces of desire might still be lingering. "Do I owe you another apology?"

  She returned her gaze to the tempometer. "Of course not."

  "I can't explain what happened. I really meant to please you."

  "I'd rather you forget about it."

  Gabriel took the tempometer out of her hands and set it aside. "I can't forget about it. Did I hurt you?"

  She cocked her head at him. "Not at all."

  "Were you left unsatisfied? I'm not normally so inconsiderate—"

  "What is this? A test?" Shara shed her cool façade. "I'm trying to be casual, the way I might have reacted if I hadn't been raised by a Terran mother. But I can't sit here and dissect our coupling as if I do that sort of thing with strange men all the time. I don't! I have been with exactly two men, both of whom I thought I had an emotional bond with. And neither of whom ever caused me to behave the way I just did with you. I don't understand what happens when you touch me but I don't seem to have much control over my... my... biological urges once you do. And that does not please me in the slightest!"

  The thought crossed her mind that he possessed a power he had denied having but this time she held her tongue. "Now, I accept this incident as being partially my fault but in the future, I'd appreciate it if you did not take advantage of my weakness."

  Gabriel tried to sort out everything she'd just confessed and correlate it with her eye color. If she had been lying, the color would have been drab olive rather than hazel. Thus, he deduced she was being honest but the truth embarrassed her. She reached for the tempometer and he moved it behind him. "You didn't answer my question."

  Looking down at a drawing, she murmured, "Which question?"

  He leaned closer and touched her chin with his forefinger. "Look at me." She frowned but raised her lashes. "Were you left unsatisfied?" He watched with fascination as her eye color altered to a rich, warm brown.

  "Why is it so important?" she asked in a breathy voice.

  "I don't know," he admitted. "I'm just trying to understand what happened to me. I offered you a gift of pleasure and it was very ungentlemanly of me not to be certain you received it. Shara, you're not the only one in this tent having trouble controlling your behavior. You say my touch disturbs you, yet I can't seem to keep my hands off you. I have coupled with enough females that I can't claim inexperience, as you have. And yet I don't remember ever losing myself so completely in the act that I didn't know if I satisfied my partner."

  She turned her head away. There was no way she could admit that, even unsatisfied, he had given her the most moving physical experience she'd ever had.

>   He stroked her flushed cheek and urged her to face him again. "I could do better... whenever you wish." He closed the slight gap between their mouths.

  "No!" Shara exclaimed, scooting backward. "You're doing it to me again. What happened between us isn't some mystery that you have to work to understand. It's called lust—a strong chemical attraction—and that is not something I want in my life. Giving in to it is against everything I believe in. We are not going to do any more kissing and that's my last word on the subject. Now, if you don't want to help, at least don't hinder me. I want to get out of this time while that heater still has energy in it."

  He didn't agree to her declaration but he accepted the subject change for the moment. "It's solar. Unless there's an extended eclipse, we'll stay comfortable enough. Also, the ice and snow should provide us with plenty of water.

  "Food could be a problem, however. I only brought enough compressed meals to last a week for two people. I have a protective suit for poisonous atmospheres, but it wasn't meant to protect against cold this extreme. Nor do I have anything else that would allow me to remain outside long enough to hunt for fresh game. The wartbulls have probably been devoured by other animals, so we can forget that. Unfortunately, one of the reasons they and other creatures faced extinction at this time was an extreme shortage of food."

  Once again Shara was relieved that he had forced his company on her. She hadn't thought to bring food, had nothing in her bag that offered protection from the raw elements they had encountered and even if she had brought a weapon, she wasn't sure she could kill anything, even if it meant her survival. Dealing with adverse situations was apparently part of his normal routine. For his experience, she was grateful enough to forgive him for almost everything else.

  To herself, she admitted that concern for their wellbeing was not the primary reason she wanted out of that time. She was anxious to escape to a time where she could keep a safe distance from him—a time with lots of open, warm space and plenty of people.