Bluntly, Erin overrode his confession. “Get over yourself. Yes, you push, but if you’ve noticed, I push back. Yes, a madman is focused on me. He knows my past and wants me to solve his ghoulish puzzles. If he wins, I’m the prize. Not you.” Her voice shook over the last, but she resisted the fear. She’d spent too much of her life avoiding reality, hidden away. Gabriel helped her emerge from the shadows, and for that alone she could have loved him. It amazed her that he couldn’t see it. Copying his earlier gesture, she caressed his chin where stubble shaded the copper tones. “This has to end, whether you write the story or not. But I’m glad you’re a part of it.”

“Then why do you cringe when I come too close?” Gabriel tore away from her. “My God, even now, I can’t stop crowding you.” He put more distance between them, certain in a moment he would beg. When the width of the room separated them, he sighed. “Please, Erin. Take Sebastian and go.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Determined, she followed him, forced his back to the door. “I’m not afraid anymore. Not of Nathan or a killer or myself.”

Gabriel clutched her shoulders, reckless enough to believe. “You should be. You should run away from here, Erin. Away from all of this.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Gabriel.” She traced the hollow of his cheek, the strong line of his nose. This face belonged to her. He belonged to her. “Not without you.”

Chapter 25

“Erin.” Gabriel captured her hand where it singed his cheek. He thought to pull it away, but somehow the fragile skin grazed lips hungry for the taste of her. There, where her pulse beat madly, strongly, the scent of jasmine wafted up to him, and he breathed deep. Control remained by the sheer will. Want had never been so immediate. Visions of them together, satiated, clouded before him, and desire raked him with erotic claws.

But the part of him that remembered a frightened young woman finding herself refused to take in heat what no other had. With a ragged plea, he entreated, “Go. You don’t know what you’re asking.”

In silent response, Erin moved impossibly closer. Power, feminine and timeless, filled her. For the first time in her life, she knew exactly what she was doing. What she wanted. Gabriel was hers. And, whether he knew it or not, she belonged to him. With him.

For nearly thirty years, decisions had been made for her. Well meaning, ill intentioned, they wove together in a pattern of supplication that shamed her. But not any longer. Tonight she would seek and take for herself. Tonight she would offer and give of herself. Not from fear or obligation or timidity. From strength.

“Make love with me.”