him.
“I started this clusterfuck by changing my lecture, but you finished it, Julianne, and you finished it with the equivalent of a hydrogen bomb.
You are
Gabriel fixed her with an impassive look. “Come.” He pointed to a space on the carpet.
She took a few steps forward.
“Have you returned the bursary?”
“Not yet. The chair of Italian Studies has swine flu.”
“But you’ve made an appointment?”
“Yes.”
“So you made an appointment with him, but you didn’t have the courtesy to send me a two word text message when I was desperate to know how you were,” he growled.
Julia blinked.
“You’re going to cancel that appointment.”
“But I don’t want the money, and…”
“You will cancel the appointment, you will take the money, and you will keep your mouth shut. You’ve made the mess; I have to clean it up.”
He glared at her darkly. “Understood?”
Julia held her breath and nodded rather reluctantly.
“The e-mail you sent me was disgraceful, a real slap in the face after all the messages I left you. Did you even listen to my voice mails? Or did you just delete them?”
“I listened to them.”
“You listened to them, but you didn’t believe them. And you sure as hell didn’t answer them. You used the word
“Um — I don’t know.”
Gabriel closed the gap between them, standing only inches from her.
“It’s quite possible that your e-mail has been red-flagged by someone already.
Even if I erase that e-mail, and I did, someone could still find it. E-mails are forever, Julianne. You are never going to e-mail me again. Is that clear?”
“Yes.”
“You seem to be the only person capable of pushing all of my buttons, and I do mean all of them.”
Julia glanced over at the door, wishing she could fling it open and escape.
“Look at me,” he breathed.
When she met his eyes he continued. “I’m going to have to do some damage control. I just handled Christa, and now I’m going to have to deal with Paul, thanks to you. Christa is a menace, but Paul was a good research assistant.”
Was
“Please don’t fire Paul. It’s my fault he came to you. I’ll make sure he doesn’t say anything,” she pleaded.
“Is he who you want?” Gabriel’s tone grew glacial.
Julia fidgeted with her book bag.
“I tried.”
“And?”
“And nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing when I see you in his arms in front of the mailboxes. It doesn’t look like nothing when he knocks on my door, like a knight, ready to fight me to protect you. Why can’t you tell me what you want, Julianne? Or do you only answer to
Julia’s eyes widened in surprise, but she said nothing. She didn’t know what to say.
“Fine. I give up.” He waved his hand contemptuously at the door.
“Paul can have you.”
It took a moment for Julia’s brain to tell her feet to walk toward the door, but eventually it did. She walked with lowered head and hunched shoulders, looking remarkably like a butterfly that had had its wings torn off. But she’d kept her spot in his class, and she hadn’t been expelled. Small consolation for some of the other losses she had just suffered.
Gabriel stood motionless as she fumbled with the door. A whimper escaped her lips as she struggled with the lock. He stepped behind her and reached an arm around her waist to unlock the door, brushing against her left hip. When she didn’t flinch, he leaned closer, bringing his lips to her ear.
“So all of this agony was for nothing?”
She could feel the heat of his body behind her. It radiated from his chest to her shoulder blades. The silk of his bow tie brushed against her hair, penetrating it, until it grazed across the surface of her neck, causing it to explode into goose-pimples.
“You exposed us to malicious gossip for nothing?”
“You were cruel.”
“So were you.”
“You hurt me.”
“And you hurt me. Is revenge everything you dreamed it might be?”
Gabriel continued whispering, his warm breath huffing across her cheek.
“You’ve transformed from a rabbit into a furious kitten. Well, you scratched me deeply today, my kitten. You drew blood with every word. Are you happy now? Now that you’ve humiliated me in front of my students by reciting all my secret sins? It was a true bonfire of the vanities, with you lighting the flame.”
He brought his lips even closer to her ear, and the air from his mouth caused her to shiver.
“I am not a coward.”
“You’re the one who’s leaving.”
“You’re sending me to him.”
“Like hell I am! Do you do everything people tell you to do? Where’s my furious kitten now?”
“I’m just a student, Professor Emerson. You’re the one with all the power. You could — destroy me.”
“Bullshit. Is that what you think? That this is a power trip?” Gabriel pul ed her book bag from her tense and twisted fingers and cast it aside.
He spun her around and grasped her face, moving his hands to the curves of her cheeks. “You think I’d destroy you? After our history?”
“I’m not the one with the memory problem. You think I’m happy?
You think this is what I want? I’m
“You never gave me a chance. How the hell would I know what you want, Julianne, when you won’t fucking talk to me? You tell me nothing!”
“Shouting at me won’t persuade me to talk to you!”
His mouth collided with hers, passionately but briefly, until he tore himself from her lips to whisper in her ear. “Talk to me.” His lower lip trailed temptingly along her earlobe.
She was silent as she felt the energy between them shift, like a serpent circling back on itself, swallowing itself whole, anger and passion feeding off one another.
“Tell me that you want me, or get out.”
When she didn’t answer, Gabriel slowly withdrew. She felt ill from the loss of contact and didn’t even think about the words as they tumbled impetuously from her lips. “I never wanted anyone else.”
He stared into her eyes before he initiated the kiss. Lips met tightly, warm breath against warm breath,
