Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno #1)(69)

She stared at his neck, the muscles in his shoulders and the tops of his arms, his collarbone, and the tops of his pectorals. If he had been pale, he would have looked like a Roman statue carved in cold, white marble.

But the merest hint of a tan left over from the summer made his skin glow almost gold in the lamplight.

Julia pressed a kiss against two of her fingers and placed those fingers tenderly against his slightly parted lips. “Ti amo, Dante. Eccomi Beatrice. I love you, Dante. Here I am, Beatrice.”

Just then, Gabriel’s telephone rang.

She jumped in surprise. The phone was ringing very loudly. Gabriel was beginning to move, the horrible noise piercing his rest. So Julia answered it.

“Hello?”

“Who the hell is this?” a woman’s voice, shocked and shrill, demanded.

“This is Gabriel Emerson’s residence. Who is this?”

“This is Paulina. Put Gabriel on the phone!”

Julia’s heart thudded twice and skipped a beat before beginning to race. She stood up, taking the cordless receiver with her, and walked into the bathroom, closing the door.

“He can’t come to the phone right now. Is it an emergency?”

“What do you mean he can’t?  Tell him it’s Paulina and I want to speak to him.”

“Um, he’s indisposed.”

“Indisposed? Listen, you little slut, roll Gabriel over and put the phone in his hand. I’m calling from the — ”

“He can’t talk to you right now. Please call back tomorrow.” Julia pressed the end  button, interrupting Paulina’s torrent of furious words, feeling thoroughly disgusted.

She’s more demanding than a casual lover. She must be his mistress — and she’s going to be pissed that I answered the phone. Maybe she’ll be so pissed she’ll break up with him.

Julia cringed at her continued misfortune and removed the towel from her hair, hanging it up to dry. She returned to the bedroom and placed the telephone on its cradle. She intended to leave Gabriel to his dreams and sleep in the guest room, because she’d promised that she wouldn’t abandon him.

Suddenly, two blue eyes opened wide and began to stare right through her.

“Beatrice,” he whispered, reaching out his hand.

Julia shuddered convulsively.

“Beatrice,”  he whispered again, gazing into her eyes with unblinking recognition.

“Gabriel?” She stifled a sob.

Chapter 14

His eyes closed, but only for a second, and a slow, sweet smile spread across his face. His eyes grew soft and very warm. “You found me.”

Julia chewed at the inside of her cheek, willing herself not to burst into tears at the sound of his voice. This was the voice she remembered.

And she’d waited to hear it for so long. She had waited for him to return to her for so, so long.

“Beatrice.” He clasped her wrist, pulling her toward him. He shifted slightly on the bed to accommodate her, enveloping her in his arms as she rested her head on his naked chest. “I thought you’d forgotten me.”

“Never,” she choked out as the tears began to flow uncontrollably. “I thought of you every day.”

“Don’t cry. You found me.”

Gabriel closed his eyes and turned his head, his breathing beginning to regulate again. Julia lay very still, not wanting her sobs to disturb him, trying desperately not to shake the bed as she let her grief and relief wash over her. Tears traveled in small rivers down her pale cheeks and onto the expanse of tanned and tattooed skin that lay beneath her head.

Her Gabriel had remembered her. Her Gabriel had finally returned.

“Beatrice,” his arm tightened around her waist as he moved to whisper against her hair, still damp from the shower. “Don’t cry.” With his brilliant blue eyes closed, Gabriel pressed his lips to her forehead, once, twice, thrice.

“I missed you. So much,” she whispered, her lips moving against his tattoo.

“You found me,” he murmured. “I should have waited. I love you.”

Now Julia wept harder, clinging to him as if she were drowning and he was her savior. She kissed the skin of his chest lightly and ran her fingers up and down his abdomen.

In response, Gabriel’s fingertips traced the goose-pimpled flesh of her arms before slipping under the loose fabric of her t-shirt. He feathered his fingers across her skin until his hand finally stilled against her lower back.

He sighed deeply and seemed to pass into his dreamland once again.

“I love you, Gabriel. So much it hurts,” she said, her hand coming to rest over his gently beating heart. She whispered Dante’s own words back to him, somewhat changed:

Love hath so long possess’d me for his own And made his lordship so familiar

That he, who at first irk’d me, is now grown Unto my heart as its best secrets are.

And thus, when he in such sore wise doth mar My life that all its strength seems gone from it.

Mine inmost being then feels thoroughly quit Of anguish, and all evil keeps afar.

Love also gathers to such power in me

That my sighs speak, each one a grievous thing.

Always soliciting

My Gabriel’s salutation piteously.

Whenever he beholds me, it is so,

Who is more sweet than any words can show.