Chapter Two
Gabe
Walking behind Leo wasn’t a hardship. His cheap-looking winter coat might be covering his ass now, but I’d already gotten a glimpse in the office when he made my coffee. The full curve shape, high and tight, hugged his pants exactly the way I liked.
His wide shoulders filled out his jacket nicely too, stretching the bright-red material across his shoulder blades and broad back. He must work out a fair amount to get the definition he had, so he had stamina, another thing I liked in my men. Paired with his long muscular legs and, yep, totally hot.
He was also interested in more than this deal. That, I could always tell.
Always.
Blonds weren’t normally my thing, but for him, yeah, I’d make an exception. The question now was how long I expected the talks to take, before I had him under me, or over me as I fucked into him—either way appealed.
He glanced over his shoulder and tentatively smiled, his body language betraying his nervousness. Good. Negotiations were so much easier if you kept your opponent off guard, and if the experienced lawyer appeared nervous, the client, Mitchell Houghton, would be a pushover.
Yep. Get the deal wrapped up this afternoon, and I’d be wrapped up with Luscious Leo before the night ended.
We stopped beside his faded red Jeep, obviously his color of choice, in the small parking lot behind his office, and I stared in surprise. His vehicle must have been a good ten years old and had a fair few dings and scrapes, showing how well it’d been used. I cast Leo a quick look, wondering about his circumstances, as any lawyer I’d ever met had always driven around in an expensive luxury car. Maybe he wasn't great at his job, which would be another advantage for me.
While I’m sure the vehicle could get us where we wanted to go, I had my doubts whether or not we’d get there in one piece. The locks clicked open, and I hopped inside. While the interior had seen better days, I had to admit he kept the seats and floor space way neater and cleaner than I expected. Settling myself in, I buckled up and waited in silence as Leo climbed in and we headed west. The tactic always worked. People were never able to stand the quiet for too long and had a deep-seated need to fill the emptiness with idle chitchat. It was simply a matter of—
“Is this your first time in Melrose Bay?”
Bingo. Time.
Leo’s voice, low and gentle as he asked his question, had me wondering, for an instant, if he’d sound the same first thing in the morning as we lay together in bed, which unsettled me. The idea of him spending the night and us waking up together the day after wasn’t something I took part in anymore, and certainly not with the men I hooked up with to scratch one of my many itches.
“I have a house here,” I answered. He looked my way, eyes widening, momentarily distracting me with their deep cornflower blue coloring. The typical blond-haired, blue-eyed boy, I bet he played everything by the book. Good grades in school. Popular with the girls and the boys. Hell, I bet he’d been captain of his high school football team before getting a place at Harvard or some other prestigious law school. Though, if that were the case, why would he be practicing in a small seaside town and not for some fancy law firm in Boston or New York?
Again, he had me wondering about him, which wasn’t like me at all. My trivial musings didn’t matter anyway, as my real interest lay in closing out this deal. Having him in my bed would be an added bonus, nothing more.
“On the beach.” I tacked on, because why not? I pictured my home sitting on the bluff with its own wooden-stepped access down to the beach. I’d bought the place at the lowest point in my life, and the purchase had been the best decision I’d ever made.
“Impressive,” he murmured, his focus on the road again, affording me the opportunity to subtly check out his profile. Short, wheat-blond hair, longer on top and perfectly styled. Square jaw. Nice, high cheekbones and his nose, though now corrected, must have been broken at some point in the past.
Striking wasn’t a term I would ordinarily use, but the phrase suited him. I let my gaze drop to his lips the exact same time his tongue slid out to moisten them, the action sending a kick to my gut I wasn’t prepared for. My cock instantly woke as saliva coated his lips making them glisten in the snow’s reflection. Visions of my precum coating them instead, as I stroked my dick along his seam, before pushing inside his mouth flashed in front of my eyes.
He was the best type of a turn-on. Sexy, but didn’t know it. My cock thickened, tightening my pants as the idea of getting him naked became even more of an interesting possibility. Making him lose his cool would be fun, and once the lid came off, I’d bet he’d be all kinds of amazing in the sack.
My instincts about people were hardly ever wrong. Only the one time, or two, depending on how you viewed the situation. And I’d certainly paid a heavy price for that mother of all fuckups.
Not letting myself get lost down that particular rabbit hole, I concentrated on the road in front of me instead. Hmmm, perhaps Leo had been right, after all. The snow sat piled high on either side of us and a thick covering lay on the concrete road surface. We’d not long passed the sign for Melrose Pines, the trailer park the town tried to hide from the tourists, when Leo indicated right for a turn between a gap in the fenceposts I barely saw through all the deep white. The one saving grace was the outline of two parallel tire tracks we neatly slotted into that would presumably lead us directly to our destination.
I’d scoped out the place in the summer when I’d come here to check on Mason while he’d been recuperating at my beach house after his assault. Trying to get hold of the owner had proved nigh on impossible, so I’d hired someone to fly a drone over the property for me to get a feel for the place before drafting the deal. My reasons for buying the cabin and land weren’t entirely altruistic, of course. As well as making good business sense and bringing in a lot of extra cash and employment to the townsfolk, this new investment would very likely push up the property prices, and I was all for making a few extra bucks on my beach house.
My excitement started to build, thinking about how our guests would feel when driving along the compacted dirt road with the towering pines enclosing them on all sides as they headed toward the exclusive eco cabins and cozy lodges Mason would eventually build.
The vehicle jolted as we hit a dip, pulling me out of my reverie in time for me to grab the side bar with one hand and the seat with the other, as Leo slowed abruptly, our journey almost grinding to a halt at the need to reduce our speed to a snail-like pace as we crossed over an old bridge that looked like the whole thing might collapse at any minute. I held my breath as we rumbled over the wooden slats, peering over the side at the fast-running stream just below us, and only letting it out once we’d crossed to the other side and were on solid ground.
After a further ten or so minutes, and a torturous ascent up the long mountain track, we leveled out, enabling me to relax enough to release my death grip on the edges of the seat, as rounding a bend, our destination came into view. The huge pine trees we’d passed on our way in, their branches bowing under the heavy weight of snow, grudgingly gave way to a big open yard composed mostly of mud and slush.
Leo parked in front of a dilapidated barn, switched off the engine, and turned to me. “I’ve yet to meet Mr. Houghton in person.” I expressed my surprise at his statement, making him hastily continue. “He’s something of a recluse and rarely ventures off the property, so all our discussions about your proposal have been conducted over the phone.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t sure what else he wanted me to say. I’d had to deal with all sorts of people since the four of us started the company over ten years ago. If the guy was an introvert and didn’t like being around other people, I’d adapt accordingly.
Despite the rough outlook, the place appeared well organized, with cut firewood stacked neatly in the open barn alongside a whole host of equipment I had no clue what to do with lined up against the rear wall. In another barn, I caught sight of bales of hay or possibly straw or both—I had no clue of the difference—uniformly stacked and easy to reach. The main cabin, appearing homey, although not large, nestled along the tree line. At first glance, the massive log walls, stone chimney, and wide, covered porch looked like an image from a postcard, but on closer inspection, I easily spotted the rotting wood sides, and a few missing railing posts. I’d also lay odds the roof would need to be replaced too, but I couldn’t tell for sure with it currently under a thick layer of snow. Rustic was far too optimistic a word for its current state. The only buildings looking reasonably well maintained were the stables, which wasn’t saying much at all.
A distinct air of sadness and neglect permeated the whole place. I imagined a lot of work would need to be done to bring the cabin up to code, and to be honest, it would be less expensive to level the entire site and start over.
I opened the car door and took a deep breath, letting the fresh, clean air and strong smell of pine trees fill my lungs. The forest seemed to go on forever, and I was too distracted by the ancient splendor as I climbed out of the vehicle to look down. Landing in a deep brown puddle of icy water, I instantly cursed my forgetfulness at leaving my boots in my SUV and was already mourning the handmade Italian leather shoes I currently wore. They’d be ruined before I made it more than a couple of feet.
It took Leo somewhat longer to get out of his side, and I suspected he’d be changing into the boots I’d spied on the floor behind the driver’s seat. Irritated, I waited for him to reach me, and we carefully made our way toward the cabin, stopping immediately halfway there at the sight of the man already waiting for us on the porch.
The scene was reminiscent of something out of a horror movie. The ones where they repeatedly tell you not to go into the woods, and in no uncertain terms, never go to the cabin in the woods. I suddenly understood how they felt.
The guy was about the same build as Leo, but on steroids. Feet planted solidly on the deck, his jeans stretched to breaking point as they wrapped around his big calves and thick thighs. Muscled arms crossed defiantly over his chest had his biceps trying to fight their way out of his flannel shirt. Flannel shirt , for crying out loud.
I could almost hear the movie theater audience screaming for me to run.
Trucker cap pulled low over his eyes, all I saw of his face was his deep-chestnut-brown hair curling out from underneath the edges, and his beard. Not too bushy, but long enough to feel good as the short wiry strands scraped over my bare skin.
What the fuck? This was so not the time to be thinking of being naked with a Sasquatch. But now the image had fixed itself in my brain, I easily pictured the weight of his larger body holding me down as he did whatever the hell he wanted to me.
The guy, clearly braced for a confrontation, with the two massive bloodhounds standing guard either side of him, wasn’t fucking around, so why the hell was I thinking about doing exactly that with him?
“I’ve changed my mind,” he said glaring at Leo, his deep timbre a lot quieter than I expected but still loud enough to carry across the yard and send ripples of awareness along my skin.
“Mr. Houghton,” Leo placated, “we talked about this, remember? You agreed to at least listen to what the potential buyers had to say before making a final decision.”
Houghton’s lips curled in disgust as he studied us. “I changed my mind, so talking won’t make any difference.” His gaze finally stopped on me. “The deal is off.”
“What’s he talking about?” I asked, my voice low so my question wouldn’t carry in the unearthly quiet of our surroundings. “I thought he wanted to sell this dump.”
“Um.”
Fucking um?
“I’m not signing any papers.” He threw the screwed-up ball of what I presumed were the sale documents our company had drawn up into the mud between us. “My brother and I are not selling the cabin.”
Oh, shit he doesn’t know .
I groaned inwardly. This situation was going to turn ugly, real soon.
Giving myself a mental shake and squaring my shoulders for the inevitable, I stepped forward into the firing line. “Mr. Houghton, I’m Gabriel Sanchez from Skyscraper Construction. Perhaps we can go inside out of the cold and discuss the sale some more?”
He didn’t move. “I know who you are,” he growled, sending goose bumps prickling over my body. So not the time, Sanchez. So not the time.
“Okay.” I could have sent any representative from the company for the negotiations, so for him to recognize me specifically told me he’d done his research. He might look like a serial killer, but at least he was an intelligent one. Sensing we weren't going to be allowed inside anytime soon, I reached inside my coat pocket and reluctantly pulled out the document guaranteed to push him over the edge. “I was under the impression from your lawyer and your brother you were willing to sell the remaining half of the property to us.”
Mitchell Houghton screwed up his mouth as if chewing an angry wasp. “My brother?” he barked. “Remaining half?”
I gestured to the papers in my hand. “If you’d take a look at this document, you’ll see it confirms Jared Houghton signed his half of the estate over to my company.” I braced for his response. “And we now own fifty percent of the property and all its land.”
Leo’s sharp intake of breath should have felt good. He obviously didn’t know about this development, and if I’d learned anything in business, keeping your opponent off-balance ensured they wouldn’t get the chance to do the same to you. His chagrin should have made me feel better, knowing I had the upper hand in our discussion, but for some reason I didn’t want to question too closely, it didn’t.
Complete and utter silence stretched between the three of us as they both stared at me, sending tension stretching along my nerves, pulling them tighter and tighter until the pressure became too much and, annoyingly, I broke first.
“If you’d like to take a look,” I repeated calmly, as if trying to soothe a wounded animal, and again held up the offending document currently searing the skin off my fingers. Leo moved first and practically ripped the papers out of my hand.
“A heads-up would have been nice,” he snapped, and for the first time since we’d met, steel flashed in his eyes, and my body instantly reacted to the change in his demeanor, a pulse of awareness arrowing to my groin.
What the hell was wrong with me today? Focus. Fucking focus.
Leo scanned the contents and, with a scowl aimed at me, stalked over to Mitchell Houghton and handed the papers to him. Standing side by side they couldn’t be more different. Leo in a smart navy suit and winter jacket. Mitchell in shirt and jeans. Wheat-blond hair versus dark chestnut. They shouldn’t go, shouldn’t match in any way, yet looking at them, heads bowed as they both studied the paperwork, they absolutely did.
Something began to flutter deep in my belly and swirl around my body, spreading to every part of me, a sensation I refused to name and certainly didn’t want to understand.
I stamped the emotion down. Hard.
“Get off my land,” Mitchell roared suddenly, making us both jump and the dogs stand to attention and instantly bark, followed by a deep growling that raised the hackles on the back of my neck. He stepped forward off the porch, walking over until he stood a few feet away and, holding the papers in front of me, ripped them in two before discarding them in the mud. “I said, get off my land,” he repeated darkly, and as he stared into my face, the sarcastic retort I’d been about to give to correct his error caught in my throat. Despite the intense anger radiating from his every pore, I finally saw into his hazel eyes, and they were filled with so much pain and betrayal, such profound loss, it pierced deep into my soul.
“Mr. Houghton, please,” Leo tried.
Michell stiffened and, ignoring Leo’s plea, turned on his heel and stalked inside his home, dogs obediently at his heels. The slamming of the front door was deafening in the eerie quiet of the forest surrounding us, and awfully final.
“Shit,” I cursed. “That went well.” The look Leo threw my way should have skewered me to the nearest pine tree.
Way to fucking go, Sanchez, I admonished myself. I’d always been proud of my negotiation skills and the ability to handle any situation at any time with tact and decorum so was at a loss as to how I’d fucked this up so badly. I possibly shouldn’t have mentioned his brother signing over his half of the cabin until I’d had a chance to go over my proposal in more detail, show him how beneficial the deal could be for him. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut and let him vent.
Maybe.
I’d dealt with all sorts of people in the past. People way more savvy, conniving, and dishonest than Mitchell Houghton, so what the hell was going on? Perhaps that’s the problem. I’d gotten so used to people being underhanded, expecting them to be cautious and on guard, trying any angle to get the deal they thought they deserved, when finally confronted by someone who acted the complete opposite, I didn’t know how to handle the situation. Whatever the reason, I’d analyze my unsuccessful approach later at my beach house to figure out how to proceed for next time. One thing, for sure, I’d completely screwed up and misread the signals today, and I couldn’t afford to make the same mistake in any future negotiations.
Leaving the porch, Leo strode past me. “Get in the car,” he ordered, and with a heavy sigh, I turned around. The day was not turning out how I imagined at all. Deflated and pissed at myself, I did as he demanded and climbed in the vehicle as the engine revved to life and we took off down the narrow road.
The car heater pumped out hot air at full blast, but the atmosphere inside the cab felt a hundred degrees colder than outside. Leo didn’t speak, didn’t even acknowledge my presence, and his blatant dismissal grated on my nerves. It didn’t help he traveled a lot faster on the route back as his anger got the better of him.
I turned to look at him. His brow deeply furrowed, jaw clenched, chin thrust forward, body rigid, hands gripping the wheel so hard his fingers had lost all their color. “Do you want to slow down some?” I suggested mildly, not wanting to anger him any further and risk him driving us into the bank.
“Don’t,” he snapped. “You don’t get to speak.” He glanced over at me, his eyes glittering ice, as his gaze dropped to my lips for a split second before he went back to concentrating on the road. “Your mouth has done more than enough damage for one day.”
“Look,” I began.
“What part of don’t speak do you not understa—” His eyes went as wide as saucers, and I snapped my head forward to see why. “Shit,” he shouted as he jammed on the brakes, his right arm swinging out instinctively across my chest to protect me as the vehicle came to a sliding halt a few feet from the edge of empty space. Where the bridge we’d crossed on the way in should have been, there was now only open air in front of us for the next fifteen or so feet where a chunk had disappeared. Remnants of its splintered wood littered the snow in front of us, along with debris from a huge pine tree that lay half in the water. What surprised me most was that, despite the amount of damage sustained, the remaining two thirds of the structure hadn’t gone with it—the rest intact and more solidly built than I’d given it credit for.
We both sat there silently staring across the gap, breathing heavily for a couple of minutes as the initial shock wore off. The low idle of the engine and the noisy blast of the heaters were the only sounds.
“You okay?” Leo eventually asked, his voice shaky.
“I think I almost had a coronary,” I croaked out, my body shaking like a leaf.
He huffed out a sigh of relief. “Okay. Good. We’re fine.”
I stared at him like he’d lost the plot. “We are not fucking good, and we are not fucking fine. We almost drove into the stream, for fuck’s sake. And how the hell are we meant to get over there,” I jabbed a finger at the other side of the bank. “With part of the damn bridge gone?”
Leo roughly scrubbed at his face and leaned his head against the headrest. “But we’re not hurt. Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“Then we’re okay, yes?”
I grudgingly agreed. I hated being scared and right now with the blood pumping hard in my veins, I was fucking petrified. I’d nearly fallen off the scaffold of one of our construction sites once. Cold fear shocked me immobile. Heart trying to punch its way out of my ribs as adrenaline kicked in, my life flashed in front of my eyes in scarily vivid detail. If I’d not been wearing the harness and not saved by Ty’s lightening reflexes, I wouldn’t be here today.
This felt exactly the same. The same fear. The same pounding of my heart, but this time around, Leo had been the one to protect me, as futile as his gesture would’ve been had we not stopped in time and driven right over the edge. But I appreciated his attempt all the same, more so since I wasn't in his good books at the moment.
We exited the vehicle and carefully made our way to the edge. The foundations of the bridge on this side still looked pretty intact, so that was something, I guess. Leo pulled out his phone and took a few photos while I stared out longingly at the other side to my escape route. We’d been so damn close.
“Christ, this sucks.” My brows knitted together as the severity of our situation gradually sank in. “How exactly are we going to get across to the other side?” I asked. “There must be another way, right?” I watched as a pitying smile appeared on Leo’s face. At any other time, I would have appreciated how cute his dimples were. This, however, wasn't any other time. “Please tell me there’s another way,” I asked, a sinking feeling growing in my stomach.
The slight shake of his head gave me my answer.
“So what happens next? I mean we can’t stay here, right? Where are we gonna go?”
His low laugh echoed around the trees, and he gave another shake of his head. “For someone who’s supposedly some smartass businessman, you can be pretty clueless.”
“Hey.” My indignant response made him snort. “What’s so fucking funny?”
“That you still haven’t worked it out.”
“Worked what out?” I had no idea what the hell he was trying to convey.
“If we can’t go forward…”
He left his sentence hanging, waiting for the penny to finally drop.
“Ah, shit.”
“Exactly.”
“I think I’d rather get back in the vehicle; you put your foot on the gas, Louise, and hurtle us over the edge into the abyss.”
His laughter, softer this time, low and intimate, trickled over me.
“You may be right,” he replied, “but what other choice do we have?” He lifted his head to look up at the sky. “The snow isn’t gonna let up anytime soon, and if we don’t get somewhere safe and secure, we’ll eventually freeze to death out here.
“You’re sure there’s no other way out?”
He shook his head. “One way in, one way out, remember?”
I grunted. “Yeah, I remember.”
“And it was your idea to drive out here in the first place,” he added for no other reason, except spite.
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Bad Gabriel.”
He shrugged and smiled at me again, and this time I did take notice of his dimples and how the warmth reached his eyes, making them twinkle. Suddenly I felt way too warm out here.
“Right. Come on,” I said gruffly, “let’s get this over with. Let’s turn around and head back to the cabin in the woods.”
His chuckle calmed me as we climbed inside the warmth of his car, and for a moment I had an ally in this disaster because God knows we’d both need to help each other if we were going to survive five minutes in the company of Mitchell fucking Houghton.