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Back Rituals Save as PDF
Chapters (65)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CAPRICIOUS
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. IN THE CARDS
  20. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. LOVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  38. PHONE ISSUES
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY
  40. BONDING
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  48. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  49. SACRILEGE
  50. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  57. DEATH BY HELL-BIRD
  58. THE DARKNESS
  59. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  60. FINALLY
  61. THE PACT
  62. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  63. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  64. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  65. About the Author

We kissed, me straddling him as he leaned back against the sofa. We kept it slow as I enjoyed this, just this, feeling his hands in my hair, feeling his heartbeat. Reveling in a moment of being close to someone I never thought I could ever be close to. Being intimate with someone I never thought would allow that intimacy.

So we took our time. There were breaks, for that necessary little thing called oxygen, and even then there was nuzzling and kissing, as if the goal was to touch as much of each other as we could, to get as close to each other as we could.

Even when it went further, it wasn’t obvious at first. It was his hands circling my waist under my shirt. It was my hands pushing up his shirt. It was shirts off and more kissing, skin to skin. His hands on the sides of my breasts and then his hands wedged between us, cupping my breasts, and my hands on him, everywhere on him.

More kissing. More touching. More exploring. And then, finally, down onto the blankets and the pillows, belts and buttons undone and zippers pulled and trousers pushed over hips. More touching. More exploring. That last bit of clothing following the rest. Soft sighs and whispers turning to moans and gasps, and occasionally a hand on another hand, no words spoken but the meaning clear. Slower, just a little slower. I want this to last. Even that seemed to stretch to infinity, the tease and the exploration and those hands of wordless warning.

Then came the point where slower was pointless. Where even a touch was too much, and I arched back with, “Gabriel, oh God, Gabriel,” and I was still riding those waves when he pushed into me, and that was…

Beyond words. Beyond thought. Beyond everything.

LOVE

Gabriel was dreaming. Perhaps that is not entirely accurate. It was certainly nothing like the bizarre landscape he’d seen in the mind of the condemned man. Nor was it even what Olivia said dreams were, the mind conjuring up places and people and events that never existed. This was, instead, a swirl of memories, his own interwoven with Gwynn’s.

He started by replaying those hours downstairs in the parlor. Feeling Olivia’s fingertips on his skin. Hearing the sigh of her breath against his cheek. The arch of her body under his hands. The way she said his name. And how he’d felt—that most of all, the indescribable way he’d felt at having won her. Torn between “Why the hell didn’t I make a move sooner?” and knowing that it had proceeded at exactly the pace it had needed to proceed.