“I apologize, my lord. I had no right to shout as I just did,” Celia replied woodenly. The urge to cry was welling up inside her, and at any minute, the dam would break. It would spill everywhere. All the ugliness. The shame. The fear. It would destroy and taint everything.

Gabriel stood up from his own chair and approached Celia where she sat. Then, with a heavy sigh, he knelt before her, taking both of her hands within his. Raising them to his lips, he pressed a gentle kiss upon her knuckles while staring into her eyes.

“I know something is wrong, Celia. Damned if I can figure it out, however. I will not willingly leave you. I only thought it might help… Fuck,” he cursed, his head lowering in defeat. “I don’t know what to do. Tell me what to do, sugarplum.”

Silence stretched between them as Gabriel remained on his knees before her. His broad shoulders slumped as he rubbed a thumb over her knuckles in a soothing manner.

“Make love to me, Gabriel,” Celia whispered, her demand snapping Gabriel’s head back up. He pinned her with a steely glare as if what she asked was too great a price to pay. He’d not touched her in that way since the morning she’d pleasured him in his study. She thought back to that morning now, clenching her thighs together at the memory of Gabriel’s hands holding her head steady while he thrust up into her mouth. The way he’d thrown his head against the high back of his leather chair, emitting a low roar of satisfaction when he exploded into her mouth. She wanted that assurance now. To know that he loved her and needed her as she loved and needed him.

“I cannot. Not when you’ve suffered some sort of setback at my hands,” he said in a tortured voice. “It isn’t healthy to revisit such methods.”

“It is what I want. It’s what I need. Only you can help me, Gabriel. Please.” Celia was resolute. She was sure Gabriel’s touch could erase the demons chasing her. Her husband could expunge those nightmares as he’d done once before. She needed him to do as she asked because it would give her the strength to face Bryan the next time. “Take me to bed and make love to me. I-I need you inside me.”

She knew the instant she broke down his resistance. His eyes darkened and she knew he would do as she asked because he craved her, too.

Much later, after Gabriel held her down and plunged into her body over and over, his hands squeezing her throat to the point she nearly fainted, his melodic voice crooning in her ear to come for him again and again, Celia lay beside him in the dark and wept against his shoulder.

When he folded her tighter against his body and whispered everything would be all right, Celia realized what she must do to end this nightmare.