"You had tens of thousands of millennia to ask!" She jabbed him in the chest.
"Then tell me now!"
"I ..." She blew out a breath. "I can't. Darkyn took most of my memories."
Gabriel growled at her, the brief touch enough to stir desire. His blood was already humming with desire; he forgot how much of a turn on arguing with her was.
"You are this close from me kissing you," he said and held up his index finger and thumb an inch apart.
"That reminds me. Don't touch me without permission." She whirled away.
"Oh, fuck no. We're not going back to that." Gabriel took her arm and spun her back. She glared up at him.
He kissed her. He expected her to push him away and slap him, and he was prepared to leave and remain furious at her for the next week or two.
She froze as their lips met. When she didn't reject him, Gabriel deepened the kiss, nibbling at her full lower lip. Deidre responded timidly at first then leaned into him. Gabriel's arms went around her. She tasted sweet and saucy, like the woman herself, her heat, scent and silky skin filling his senses in a way that left him wanting more of her. All of her. Her lips were soft and warm, her body molded against his. She'd gone from defiant to yielding in the space of a single kiss.
Gabriel. Landon's summons irritated him.
Gabriel trailed kisses down her jaw line and to the sensitive skin of her neck. She gasped.
"You don't get to tell me what to do anymore," he whispered against her ear. "I'll touch and kiss you whenever I feel like it."
Assuming she's not still dying of a tumor. Gabriel almost groaned. The whole reason he'd avoided her was because of Wynn's warning - pleasure kills - a reminder that Deidre's tumor was connected to her emotions. Happiness and pleasure caused it to grow faster.
He kissed her again, slow and deep, savoring her flavor, then pulled his head away. Deidre was breathless, her eyes glazed. He loved that look, where her lips were plump from kissing and her cheeks flushed. She wanted him; he saw it on her face.
"I like you this way," he baited her. "Not pissing me off."
Her face flushed the way he knew it would. Gabriel chuckled and kissed her quickly again before she was able to object. He released her and left.
Landon was in the bottom floor of the fortress, waiting with a familiar face in the study. Andre, the eldest brother of the Council That Was Seven, had been recently reincarnated by Gabriel to help in the search for demons. Able to manipulate minds, Andre was also the much-needed calming force on Rhyn and the other high-spirited members of the Council. A diplomat by nature, he had long served in the peacekeeping capacity among his brothers, before he was rendered dead-dead seven months before.