Page 11 of Protected by the Fallen
My heart is pounding in my chest. Everything about this feels so right, and that baffles me. Hadn’t I just experienced something similar with Adrian? I still can’t believe that I’m able to have equally intense and all-consuming feelings for four different men. But it’s true, and there is no denying it. Not now that I know they feel the same way about me. I curl my fingers and grip Gabe’s shirt.
Again, he swallows. In a strained voice, he asks, “What are you doing?”
Am I imagining it, or do I detect desire?
Unsure how to verbalize all I’m feeling, I simply shrug. Then, I lean forward and rest my forehead against his sternum. I inhale deeply, allowing my senses to drown in the smell of sunshine and fresh cut grass. Gabe’s always reminded me of a warm spring day.
Gabe’s breath blows against my hair as he bends down to place an all-too-brief kiss on my head. He turns and rests his cheek against the top of my head, and he places a hand on my waist.
“I could get use to this,” he murmurs. I smile.
“Me too.”
We stay like that for another minute. Then, Gabe lifts his head. I look up at him, but instead of meeting his eyes, my gaze locks on his lips. They are full and bordered by laugh lines.
I lift on my tiptoes, pulse pounding in my ears, as I continue to stare at his lips.
Gabe is still as stone. Letting my instincts guide me, I begin to lean forward. I am less than a centimeter from pressing my lips to his when a barely-audible tap raps against the front door.
Gabe springs into action. He grabs onto my shoulders and spins me around until I am lying flat on the couch, his body covering mine.
“Wha—”
Gabe covers my mouth, cutting off my question. He leans down until his lips brush my ear, giving me goosebumps. “Someone is here.”
I want to point out he and Joseph had knocked a few minutes ago, and that the newcomer could be Zeke or Adrian, but I realize that is unlikely. The Dark Fallen would walk into the flat without preamble. Remembering the Fallen’s fear that the attack on the Light Council had been a distraction, I pinch my lips together.
Gabe tilts his head to the side, as if he’s listening to something. I try to stretch my hearing across the flat, and I think I pick up Joseph’s tentative footsteps.
The following seconds are painfully long. My heart is racing for a completely different reason, and I am contemplating a plan of escape for me and the Light Fallen when Joseph walks back into the parlor. Gabe extends his arms on the cushion beside my arms and lifts himself off me in one fluid motion. He holds out a hand. I take it. He swings me to my feet with ease.
I turn to Joseph, and I zero in on folded piece of paper in his hands.
Dread swims through my veins. “What is that?”
Joseph’s knuckles are white, gripping the paper with fury. “A warning.”
Gabe places his body between me and the paper, as if he can protect me from it. “A warning about what?”
A muscle in Joseph’s cheek jumps. “For Veronica.”
I step around Gabe and hold out my hand. “Let me see.”
Joseph lifts his arm, and I grab the edge of the paper. But he doesn’t let go.
I look into his eyes and whisper, “Please.”
Reluctantly, he lets go. I read the warning:
I know what you are.
If you want your secret to remain so, you will not try to stop The Darkness.
Heed this warning or suffer the consequences.
Five
I’mon a beach facing the English Channel, unable to enjoy the soothing sound of the waves crashing against the rocky beach. I can’t even take solace in the fact Zeke and Adrian are back and unharmed. All four Fallen have reunited, and they are either pacing behind me or standing stoically, lost in their own thoughts, trying to figure out how to handle our current predicament.
