across the marble and onto the plush carpeting. “Not only is she taking more time with you than
was agreed, she has also tried to seduce Cleopha’s husband and Deborah’s as well.”
For a minute, jealousy flared within him, but he tucked it into the back of his mind. He would
deal with Lucille and her flirtatious ways at a later time. He grabbed Jean and pulled her down with
him, saying, “I’ll speak with her again.”
The moment his gaze shifted from her eyes to her lips, she shook him off, closing her robe to
signal she was nowhere near done. “Every time you ‘speak with her,’ she ends up screaming. And
not from pain.”
Gabriel inhaled a calming breath, finally becoming resigned to the fact that enjoying his wife
would come after she spoke her piece. He could practically strangle Lucille.
“Since you can’t keep her in line,” she began, “the rest of the women will join me in giving her
what she so richly deserves. I’m just letting you know where we stand.”
“We are not to hit or harm any woman. You know that.”
“The men aren’t allowed to hit the women,” Jean said slyly, locking an icy glare with him. “But
we don’t have those kind of restrictions.”
Gabriel’s body went taut at the mere suggestion of that violence—and the fact that Jean had said
“we” was not lost on him either. He searched her face for a moment and was amazed at the hard
glare in her usually soft eyes.
All thoughts of a pleasant evening with his wife disappeared. She swiftly covered the length of
her chamber, the living area and library, the dressing room and bathing pool, then paused at the
glass separating her quarters from a private solarium and outer balcony.
“So you want me to stop sleeping with her?” he ventured warily. The thought alarmed him in
ways he was ashamed to admit. “Lucille hasn’t given us any daughters.”
“She has two sons. That will have to be enough.” She moved out of his reach. Then a dark
shadow came over her honeyed, heart-shaped face, and for a moment, he almost didn’t recognize
her. “And there’s something not quite right about her first born. He’s evil.”
Angered at the insinuation that his eldest child was less than perfect, he covered the distance
between them in a series of angry steps, and grabbed her hips, stilling her attempts to keep some
space between them. “This bitterness isn’t like you.”
“He’s already tried to kill May’s youngest boy,” Jean spat. “Just pushed him down the stairs
after a minor disagreement. The other children are afraid of him.”
“It was an accident,” Gabriel protested, though inwardly he had doubts of his own. Phillip did
have a mean streak, but it was nothing they couldn’t handle. The boy was beautiful and super
intelligent—nearly a clone of Gabriel.
“And it was an accident when he tried to mate with Dinah’s daughter? Was it also an accident
when you found him hiding in the wardrobe, watching as you made love to his mother?”
58 | NKLC Magazine