“Why didn’t you say you were teaching her mind control?”

“Because you didn’t let me get a word in edgewise.”

Gabriel ran his fingers through his hair and let out a ragged breath. “It’s driving me crazy. When I’m not with her, I worry. Do you understand that?”

Thomas only shook his head. “You’ve got it bad. But if you don’t let go, you’re gonna lose her. She’s a strong woman.”

“Hell, what do I know about relationships? All I know is that I have to protect her. The rogue’s still out there.” Apart from his short-lived marriage to Jane, he’d never had a relationship with a woman that didn’t involve an exchange of money for services. Was he supposed to go to her and apologize, and if yes, when? Or was he supposed to wait until she gave him a sign of when she was ready to talk?

How the hell would he know! He couldn’t very well ask anybody.

“Protect her, but don’t suffocate her.”

Gabriel stared at his colleague. Had he really been too heavy-handed? All he was trying to do was to protect her from danger. He’d protected others all his life in his capacity as a bodyguard, so why would this be any different? “It seems that I don’t know the difference.”

“Then you’d better learn it fast. Maya is unique—she won’t take any crap from anybody. And by the way, she won’t learn mind control.”

“What?”

Even Eddie gasped at the news. Mind control was an essential tool to any vampire, as important as his fangs were for feeding.

“I tried to teach her, but she can’t influence any human. Now, inanimate objects—that’s another story,” Thomas baited him.

“Explain.”

“She can move objects with her mind. Maya tried to plant suggestions in people’s minds, but instead she moved things. Glasses. Chairs. She has a unique gift.”

“But what will she do without mind control?” Eddie interrupted.

Thomas shrugged. “We’ll have to see how things develop. She might be able to compensate somehow.”

Gabriel felt worry course through him. Without mind control, she had no protection against the human world. If anything, he had to step up his efforts to protect her, not loosen the reins like Thomas had suggested. “Compensate how?”

Thomas smiled. “She needs somebody she can trust. And not a bull in a china shop who orders her around. This woman—” he pointed to the second floor. “—doesn’t like to be told what to do. If you want to remain in her good graces, I suggest you see her for what she is: an independent and strong woman. She doesn’t want a babysitter or a bodyguard.”

Gabriel nodded. Maya had been through enough. She was faced with too many changes right now. Her whole life had been uprooted and her identity put in question. What was she without her devotion to her profession, her friends, her family? He’d assumed that just because she’d responded to him with such abandon, that he would be enough for her. He’d thought that she would simply accept his help and his judgment and fall in step with him.

He’d forgotten that she was an individual, who needed to make her own decisions. And if he wanted to keep her, he had to give her that freedom. As hard as this was for him.

Gabriel remembered when he’d held her in his arms and pleasured her—not when she’d been delirious, but later, when she’d been awake and fully aware of what he was doing. She’d responded to him, looked at him with such desire in her eyes that he couldn’t think even for one second that she hadn’t wanted him then.

Maybe once he truly laid claim to her, once he was able to really make love to her, then things would be different. But he hadn’t been able to do that so far, and even if he followed her now and apologized for his gruffness, he couldn’t take her to bed like a man should. He couldn’t allow her to see him naked. She would recoil from him, and then he would lose her forever. No, he had to give her and himself the time to sort out the obstacles between them. She needed time to calm down and see his reaction for what it truly was: a move to protect her rather than control her. And he needed time to take care of his problem.

Eddie’s cell phone suddenly pinged. Gabriel turned his head and watched him open it and read the alert. “Excellent, AT&T’s servers are back up.”

Gabriel felt relief wash through him at the news. “Go, both of you, and get me the data. Just fax the phone list over once you have it. Oh, and call Yvette on your way to ask her to take over for you here.”