Carpathian 08 - Dark Legend

still cannot believe I am here with you, sharing your life, sharing your body. You have no idea what you mean to me."
    She leaned up to capture his mouth with hers, merging her mind more fully, offering total acceptance of his wild nature, matching his fiery demands with her own. Long afterward they lay together, listening to their combined heartbeat, savoring the luxury of simply lying in each other's arms, in the differences of their bodies and their ability to be so entwined.
    "I love you, Francesca," Gabriel told her solemnly. "I cannot express in words what you are to me."
    She smiled up at him. "You do a fairly good job expressing yourself."
    His eyebrow shot up. "Fairly good?"
    "I think your ego is already far too large. I am not about to call you the greatest lover in the world."
    His hand cupped her soft breast, his thumb stroking small caresses over her taut nipple. "But you would if it were not for fear of my ego?"
    Each stroke of his thumb produced an answering rush of liquid heat and Francesca shifted, rising above him, flinging her abundance of hair over her shoulder as she slowly straddled him, lowering her body over his. He gasped aloud, his eyes closing for a moment in ecstasy, then opening to watch her body as she began to slowly move.
    "I booked Brice in at a medical clinic in Milan. I have friends there who will back up my story. I told them he was recovering from an addiction and we were helping him here. They owe me a favor or two," Francesca added when Gabriel frowned. He wasn't used to relying on humans for aid but Francesca slipped easily between the two worlds. She knew the value of money and social position. She knew medical clinics relied heavily on wealthy benefactors. She was very generous in that regard and rarely asked anything in return. If she wanted one of her friends, particularly a great physician, to be booked in as recovering from a violent flu, the clinic was more than happy to help. "And yes, I know you and Lucian will aid in destroying the vampire's hold on him. I read your mind easily, my love; nothing will harm our daughter. Either of our daughters. I will wait until Brice is free of all shadowing before I aid in his healing."

    "Yes, you will," he said softly, his hands going to her waist.
    She moved her body a little faster to accommodate the sudden erotic picture in his mind. Francesca smiled, a slow seductive smile as she sensed the fire building in his body.
    "You believe it is wise to involve another clinic?" Gabriel had to work at keeping his voice natural when she was tying him up in knots again. Her waist was so narrow and her breasts jutted so temptingly over him. "Surely he cannot simply pick up and leave his job when the whim comes upon him."
    "Of course not, but it wasn't too difficult to put in a phone call from the clinic inviting Brice to speak at a fictitious seminar. Brice often does such things. I had his secretary arrange for other doctors to take over his patients and then simply followed up with another phone call saying he had become ill but the clinic was taking good care of him. When we heal him, he will still be in good standing in the medical community." She was trying not to smile at his reaction to her body teasing his, at the way his eyes had gone smoky and glazed as he watched her so intently. He was striving desperately to follow the conversation, to maintain interest in it when his body was in ecstasy.
    "Do you fix everything for everyone so easily?" Gabriel asked her, bending his head forward to the temptation of her inviting nipple. He couldn't help himself. He had to touch her, to taste her. Her skin reminded him of warm honey. His hands caught her around the waist as she undulated her body, so beautiful she robbed him of the ability to think. He loved her face, her eyes, her lush mouth.
    Francesca tossed her head back as she began to move faster, her body hot and demanding, her breasts bare to his sight, while her hair spilled around them in dark silken clouds. She watched his breath shorten and she smiled, moving a little harder, her body tightening around his in response to his evident pleasure. "Actually, yes, I do," she answered slowly. "Particularly you. For instance, I know you like certain things."
    He could barely breathe, watching her ride him with that sexy little smile on her face. "What things?" he dared to ask.
    She leaned back, moving deeper, teasing him, enticing, watching him watch her. It was wildly exciting the way