"Yes."
She snickered and kept walking, but Francis felt the air thicken with the unspoken threat. And lust. And passion. He loved all of it, sorry to say.
"You must be out of your fucking mind to think I'd marry you. What planet do you hail from? Not this one, that's for damn sure." She snorted, seeming to get more pissed by the second. "The last time a man who tried to make me do anything for what I wanted lost quite a few limbs. And all the blood in his body." She stopped a few feet from him. "After I took his heart."
Ruby flooded Francis' muscles at the look in her eyes. She launched at him and there was two options. Jump out of the way, or catch her. He caught her.
Tragic mistake.
Her legs wrapped him hard and her lips were on his with say no and I'll bite it off persuasion. Desire and shock hit him in lethal amounts and his hands set out to remove her but ended up devouring her instead.
"Francis." She moaned. "I need you."
Francis was doomed. Lost in the feel of muscle and soft skin, in the feel of her aggressive tongue along his, in the firm grip of her fingers along his face. Those ideas he'd burned with lit him on fire and his body began to engage, fingers latching into her hair tight.
When she gasped into his mouth, he knew his studies were on target. He pulled her head back and opened his mouth to devour that lovely neck.
His salvation came with the soft knock at the door. His body swore and his mind rejoiced as he helped her down.
Winded, she grabbed his painful erection and stroked him. The groan he heard didn't sound anything like him. "You are so easy," she whispered.
Francis suddenly felt like the most incompetent, depraved being alive. He'd just done exactly as she was accustomed to men doing. Way to show her he was different and that she was special to him. That was the whole problem. She was everything to him. "It won't happen again."
"Yes it will." She glided toward the door.
"Aren't you getting dressed?" The idea of another male seeing her turned his ruby up to an eye gouging volume.
Her hand on the first lock, she stared at him over her shoulder like he were out of his mind. Then she gave a slight smile. "You're right. This isn't very modest." She slid her finger along the back edge of her lace panties and tugged a little. "There."
Francis muscles tensed as she unlocked the door. It wasn't until she was on the last lock that he sensed it.
So did Abigail. She spun with wide eyes and ran toward him, horror in her face. Time seemed to slow to a third its speed as the air rocked with an explosion, sending Abigail slamming into his body and throwing both of them.
Oh God. She lay limp on top of him against the far wall, the weight of a dead doll. Gunfire erupted and he threw up a ruby wall and encased her with a protective covering of it. He quickly checked for life at her vital points. None.
Panic exploded through him, sending his sanity through the roof along with his ruby power. Max, Max! Robert! Peggy!
Francis didn't think about the racket created in the spiritual realm as he stood and slammed his palms together. A wave of ruby power shot forth and obliterated the wall where the danger originated.
The innocent.
He threw up his hands and froze the explosion at the adjoining walls then spun for Abigail. He scooped her up, flashed her to the compound and gave the order for Max and Robert to clean his mess.
The second he landed, he yelled like a mad man. "Farechtera! Farechtera!"
The doctor appeared and rushed to him. "A human? Status."
"She's-she's not breathing. I can't find a pulse. She's not breathing."
The doctor slid his hands over her body rapidly. "Primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary injuries." He looked at Francis. "What did this?"
"Gunpowder. Explosive forms, can you help her?"
"I can. But the question is, am I supposed to? Where is her angel?"
Francis drew a solid blank.
"He's outside the compound perimeters." Maxwell appeared and knelt at his side. "Following the no entry rules."
Francis shook his head staring at Abigail's soft skin that seemed to be turning paler. Dead. She was dead.
"I need to act quickly if I am going to resuscitate." The doc's movements over her continued, swift and terse. "Find him. Find out what her spiritual status is, how much mercy is left, faith levels, family, every detail. Now."
Maxwell flashed out without a word and Francis pulled her into his arms and held her while praying. Please hurry.
When his brother returned, Francis stomach tightened at the grave twist in his handsome face. "She's running on fumes. But the last good deed she did saved her ass."
Hope filled him. That's right. "She saved the boy."