she didn’t move, Gabriel sighed. “Come on, I’ll help you.”
As he grabbed her upper arm, Megan flinched. His gaze narrowed as she went to her feet.
“Take off your shirt,” he ordered.
A violent trembling seized her. This was it, then. After all she’d gone through, constantly moving to avoid the sexual threats, keeping herself pure because she had vowed never to give herself to a man unless it was done with love, it came down to this.
“Do you always molest your captives?” she bit out.
He was far stronger and bigger, but she’d go down kicking and screaming. And biting.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, more gently this time. “Take off your shirt.”
Color flooded her cheeks. She struggled to lift the threadbare green polo shirt over her head. He helped.
In her faded bra, she hugged herself, feeling cold and exposed and vulnerable. But anger, not lust, glinted his dark eyes. His mouth compressed to a thin slash as he traced one of the purpling bruises on her arms.
“Who did this?”
“I fell down the stairs.”
“Megan, who hit you?”
Rather than have him yank it from her mind, she settled for the truth. “The fisherman on the boat that smuggled us to the Bahamas. Said he’d heard Shadow females were incredible in bed, and he planned to find out. He beat me and threatened to hit the girls unless I cooperated.”
Gabriel’s breath eased out in a violent hiss.
“I made a deal with him. Said sex was better when Shadows weren’t in physical form. If he could catch me while I was in shadow, I was all his. He liked the chase.”
“That’s why you were low on energy. You were invisible the entire trip to the Bahamas.”
“I escaped at a cost. I thought I could make up for it by catching fish when we landed at the Bahamas, but the fishing was lousy and the girls were hungry. In addition to trying to molest me, the fisherman fed us only scraps.”
“You haven’t eaten properly for five days. Damn,” he muttered.
Suddenly she felt drained beyond words. “Is show and tell over with now? Can I get dressed?”
Gabriel didn’t say anything. He continued tracing the ugly bruises on her arms. His touch was gentle and oddly soothing, as if he wanted to erase her pain.
“What’s his name?” His gaze was hard, but his voice was as soft as his touch.
She saw no reason to protect the man, since he was taking advantage of helpless Shadows. “He calls himself Devin Andrews, but we know him as Grouper. He likes deep-sea fishing, and uses that as his cover. His boat name, too.”
“Good.” He jerked his hand away, as if touching her scorched him. Gabriel turned his back. “Take your shower, and after, I have liniment for those bruises to help them heal faster. You’re still too weak for your body to effectively heal itself.”
“Is this your modus operandi?”
A half smile touched his full mouth as he glanced at her over his shoulder. “My what?”
“Being solicitous toward your victims before you kill them and collect the bounty on their heads.”
Gabriel’s expression softened. “I won’t hurt you, chère.”
Right. She wouldn’t gamble on that.
“I do have a few rules. Just as I told the twins. Any problems or concerns, you bring them directly to me. You can’t escape this island, so forget trying. You will eat and you will maintain your energy. No one will hurt you here, you’re perfectly safe. But you aren’t leaving.”
Feeling his gaze burn into her back, Megan opened the door and walked into the bathroom. She closed the door firmly and found a fluffy white robe hanging on a peg behind it. She carefully shrugged into it.
The bathroom was larger than her bedroom at home, and the opulence made her feel shabby in comparison. Lilac rugs scattered over gleaming white marble floors. Wrinkling her nose at the color, she sidestepped them. In the corner was a glass shower with a window overlooking the beach.
Curious, she pulled open a cabinet drawer. Inside was an assortment of child’s bath toys, including a well-worn rubber duck. A reluctant smile touched her face as she took out the duck and closed the drawer. Gabriel’s guests included children. Nieces and nephews?
What was it like to be indulged, spoiled and pampered by a male as powerful as Gabriel? To have everything you wanted to eat, pretty dresses to wear and all the knowledge at the tip of your fingers instead of having to hide books and wear ugly dark grape clothing? Her smile faded as she dropped the duck by a stack of towels on the counter. She grabbed a washcloth and soap, stared in bemusement at the twin shower heads and the strange fixtures.
Torn between pride and longing, she set down the washcloth and soap and returned to the bedroom.
Gabriel sat on her bed, touching her pillow with a thoughtful look. His cowboy hat was on the nightstand. He glanced up.
“I don’t, the shower, the faucets …” Her voiced trailed off and she felt very stupid.
A wide grin tugged his full mouth upward. “Oh yeah. I got confused the first time the plumber installed the new fixtures. Shoulda heard me yell when I got cold water instead of hot.”
He sprang off the bed, all grace and smoothness. Inside the shower, he worked the faucets, careful to step out of the way as he demonstrated the spray.
Gabriel stepped outside the shower. Megan gave him the first real smile she’d felt in days.
“Thanks. I thought I might need an engineering degree just to take a shower.”
He tipped back his head and gave a deep, throaty laugh. Her heart skipped at the delight-ful sound. Surely anyone who laughed like that couldn’t be as evil as they said.
“I like how you laugh. You’re not what I thought.”
Startled, she realized she’d spoken aloud. Gabriel stopped laughing. Megan shivered again, but this time from a deeper, more intense need.
A predatory look crossed his face. When he grasped her shoulders in the gentlest touch, she felt drawn toward him. His gaze fell on her mouth. Amber flashed in his eyes as she moistened her lips and parted them. Megan took a step forward, captivated by the smoldering hunger in his gaze. Her body yearned, her hands reached out to touch him in turn. She could almost feel his lips against hers, warm, authoritative, demanding….
Just as quickly, he stepped back, dropped his arms. “Go take that shower, and I’ll find the clothing and liniment.”
The door slammed behind him with a violence that shook the hinges.
After her shower, Megan used the liniment
