26. Gabe
26
GABE
“I don’t know how you talked me into this,” I muse from my spot in the passenger’s seat.
A feminine scoff sounds from the back of the Rover. “It was so hard to twist your arm.”
The humor in Katherine’s voice is unmistakable and totally addictive. All these years we’ve been quibbling in the boardroom, and now, when she cuts me down to size, it sets my blood on fire. I’m gonna have a freaking hard-on before we get to her dad’s place.
She came home from lunch with a bag full of lotions and potions, as she called it, candles, wine, and even a throw blanket. Now she’s wearing something that smells amazing—soft, musky, a tiny bit floral.
“She’s got a point,” Alex agrees. His dark brows are lifted in his classic ‘you’re not fooling anyone’ expression.
I love that he doesn’t let me get away with anything. Seriously, I couldn’t have picked a better best friend. I don’t know why he puts up with me, but I shoot him a grin and then turn toward Katherine.
“Surf and turf?” I confirm.
She nods. “That’s what Ford said.”
“Hard to say no to that.” My gaze drops to her lips in the soft evening light. How did I ever think she was frigid? In my arms, she’s like a forest fire, and I can’t wait to kiss her again. This line of thinking is not helping my arousal, and I shift in the seat, trying to find a more comfortable position.
The tires hit a bump in the road, and her tits bounce beneath the soft white sweater. I shouldn’t stare. I know that. But I can’t help it. Now that I’ve felt her curves, her lips. . . Forget steak. It’s hard to say no to her .
When I meet her gaze again, her left brow is quirked up, all-knowing and sassy. Busted. Of course, she caught me ogling her. Am I mistaken, or does she like it?
The car hits another pothole with such force my ass leaves the seat, and I grab Alex’s headrest to steady myself. Katherine does the same, and our hands collide.
“Sorry,” Alex mutters, but when I glance his way, he’s cutting me a look from the corner of his eye. I seriously doubt the jostling was accidental.
Is he jealous?
I thought we sorted all this out earlier after trailing her into town. Alex couldn’t relax, even though she was with one of his best bodyguards. I’m not proud of how stalker-y we were, sitting down the street, him watching her with binoculars. And I’m definitely not cut out for surveillance.
So much for his brilliant plan: date her and let her pick.
I face forward again, biting back a sigh, but leave my hand where it is. Touching Katherine, connected even in a small way, settles something in me.
“All this money spent on real estate, and this is the condition of the roads,” I murmur as we roll along between multi-million dollar homes, tidy hedges and scruffy, brush-covered dunes.
Alex gives me a ‘Whatcha gonna do?’ shrug and negotiates a sharp curve in the road leading inland.
“They like to think of it as charm,” Katherine pipes in. I grunt. She squeezes my fingers. Can Alex see us in the mirror? Touching her feels akin to passing notes in class under the watchful eyes of a teacher. But I’m not about to stop.
I glare out the window, trying to figure out my own mind. Why now? Why her? Why am I testing the boundaries of my longest, closest friendship for a woman? For a relationship that will probably crash and burn like every other?
No wonder I have heartburn.
“I can’t believe you bought a house on Delores Lane,” she says. “What are the chances?”
My gut tightens. How was I to know her dad owned a home on the same road?
“Wasn’t intentional,” I say. It’d been a spur-of-the-moment purchase when my agent called with the find of the century. Huge lot right on the ocean and a spacious old house that needed a makeover.
“Oh, I know.” There’s a hollowness in her voice that sets off alarm bells in my mind. She lets go of my hand. I glance over my shoulder, but she’s staring out the window, spine straight, hands folded neatly in her lap.
The ice queen has returned.
Fuck. I retrace my words. What did I say?
The navigation system trills.
“Your destination is ahead on the right,” a mechanical voice announces.
I watch the little blue arrow on the map closing in on a black-and-white checked flag. Every passing millimeter makes my blood pressure rise.
This feels like visiting the enemy’s camp, except Pierce Montgomery isn’t the enemy. His former in-laws are. Is that where Katherine’s mind went?
“I’m sure there’s plenty of Delores to go around,” Alex says, flicking on the turn signal as the vehicle slows.
A laugh bursts from me the way biscuits explode from a cardboard tube. Trust Alex to sense the tension and ease it with humor. I glance back to see Katherine’s lips twitch.
We pull through the gate and get our first glimpse of the big shingle style home. I see why Montgomery purchased this place. With a lake as a backdrop and framed by tidy landscaping and mature trees, it’s a sprawling compound and incredibly welcoming.
Which is exactly what I want. An oasis. A haven.
It feels like a sign, and I half expect the clouds to part and a beam of sun to shine down on the house.
As Alex parks in the circular drive, his phone rings. His mother’s name flashes across the dash, and I sense the change in his mood. His parents are amazing, lovely people. They practically adopted me on sight. And by now, they’ve obviously gotten wind of our. . . adventure.
“You guys go ahead. I need to take this,” he says.
“Sure.” Katherine reaches for her door handle.
When we’re standing in front of the porch, looking up at the house, she blows out a small sigh, and I see her straighten her shoulders.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
That doesn’t sound convincing .
“It’s just. . . been a while since I’ve been here. Lots of memories.”
Sensing her unease, I turn toward the white, rectangular pavers cutting through the brilliant green grass. “Where does this go?”
I don’t stop for her answer, just lead her around the side of the house and hopefully away from all the heaviness weighing her down.
Especially if I caused any of it.
We pause beneath a rose-covered arbor, and she fiddles with the gate’s latch. I reach for her wrist, stilling her movements.
“The story I’m telling myself is you remember your grandfather hated me, and you’re regretting. . . everything. Coming out here. Our kiss. Even the fact that I bought a house on the same road as your dad.”
Her gasp is soft, and her gaze swerves up to mine. A second passes. Then another. She shakes her head and glances out at the lake. “I thought it was sort of serendipitous. You buying a place on the same road as my dad’s house? It’s complicated, but I’ve always loved it here. Felt comfortable. . . until I didn’t, but?—”
“You thought I was shutting you down.”
She turns her attention back to me and shrugs.
“I was thinking about how lucky it was to even get the property,” I admit. “How fast it came on the market. I snagged it immediately because as soon as I looked out the back window, it felt like home.”
She lets out a small, self-deprecating laugh and slips her arm through mine. “We’ve got to learn to communicate better, Gabriel.”
A breeze lifts her hair. Heaven help me, but she smells amazing.
“I think we communicate just fine when we want to,” I murmur, gaze on her lips. When she’s in my arms, we understand each other perfectly. All the complications fall away, and all the biting comments turn to embers, one kiss away from going up in flames.
Stop staring at her lips, jackass.
I drop my gaze, sucking in a deep breath. “We should go find your brother.”
Not that I want to. I could stay here soaking her in.
“Before they send out a search party,” she agrees.
Around the back of the house, in a five-star outdoor kitchen, she introduces me to her brother and Sutton.
“But he’ll always be a little brother to me,” she says, giving the dark-haired man a one-armed hug.
He watches me like he knows every dirty thought I’ve ever had about Katherine. And he doesn’t like it. Did Henry fill his mind with vitriol?
“Alex is taking a call, but he’ll be around in a minute,” she says, oblivious to the tension. “Do you guys need help?”
“Nope. Marissa’s got everything ready for us. Sutton’s gonna grill the steak. ”
Katherine chuckles. “Are we sure that’s a good idea?”
“Hey!” he grouses, and I detect an inside joke.
I’m firmly on the outside. Until she leans into me. “He said he’d cook the burgers last Fourth of July, then he got sucked into a conversation about—what was it?”
He rolls his eyes. “Algorithms.”
“And burned them,” she finishes.
As my ears perk up, Katherine laughs and steps toward the grass. “I’m gonna show Gabriel the grounds. He’s in the market for a top-notch landscaping crew.”
I follow her across the massive yard. There’s an herb garden tucked into a nook near the house and what looks like a small orchard in another corner. But I have trouble paying attention to the landscaping when the evening light makes Katherine’s hair glow like a phoenix rising from the ashes. I feel a little like I’m following a fairy through the forest. Except she’s life-sized and touchable.
“What do you think?” she asks, turning. Her back is to a thick green hedge, slightly taller than I am. Her gaze rakes over me, and I get the feeling she’s checking in on me. Which is funny because moments ago, I was worried about her .
“Beautiful.” It’s the only word that comes to mind.
Then I realize she’s asking about the landscaping. “ I mean, incredible.” For the life of me, I can’t figure out why I’m so tongue tied. Is it because we’re alone? Because I kissed her? Because she brought me that amazing lunch, complete with the pasta salad I was craving? It’s like she was reading my mind.
“I know you want to concentrate on the interior first, but you have such a pretty lot. I thought this place,” she motions in a circle, “might inspire you.”
She walks backward along the hedge, her lips curling into a smirk that makes my dick sit up and take notice. Then she disappears into the lush greenery.
What the ? —
I dart forward and find an opening I didn’t see before. There’s no sign of Katherine. In front of me, it’s just a wall of green with a path to the left and the right, hedging on all sides.
Her laugh floats through the foliage, and a lightness takes up residence in my chest.
“Your father has a maze?” I don’t know why I assumed those were exclusive to pompous English manor houses.
“He does.”
Another giggle.
Fuck, I adore that sound. As I race around a corner and hit a dead end, I wonder what I can do to make her laugh again. My steps are light as I double back through the thick grass.
“Are you lost?” she quips .
“Figuring it out.”
“Mhmm.” She sounds so pleased with herself.
She also sounds close. I arrive at another T-junction and turn to the right, sure that she’s just around the corner, waiting. I can even see the grin on her face in my mind.
But she’s not there.
“Did you take another wrong turn, perhaps?” Her voice is impish and beckoning. Urgency pumps through my veins. I’m a bloodhound on the trail of a criminal.
My lips twitch at the thought, and I continue to zigzag my way through the greenery. The scents of evergreen and earth fill my lungs.
“I’m going to find you,” I assure her, my body pumping with emotions and hormones. The drive. The primitive urge to chase. Pursue.
I’ve gotta get to her soon because all my blood is headed south. I pause to adjust my dick in my slacks.
“Mmm. . .” The sound comes from behind me, and I turn. There’s a flash of golden hair and a creamy sweatshirt, and then she’s gone, darting back into the maze of green. I follow. Left. Right. Dead end. Backtrack.
“What will you do?” she asks, sounding pleased at the idea. “When you find me?”
“You mean when I catch you?”
No response. My heart rate picks up. I must be close .
“Boo!” She darts forward as I round another corner. I have a vague impression of a square space, a bench in the middle of the grass and a statue across from it.
But most of my attention is on the beautiful young woman laughing up at me. I snag her by the waist and pull her hips to mine. Her lashes flutter, and I can tell she feels what she does to me. What chasing her through a lush maze did to my cock.
God, she’s something else. I want to throw her over my shoulder and carry her off somewhere private and remote.
Her giggles turn into a broad smile, and fuck if that doesn’t do weird things to my heart. And my stomach. There’s a vague fluttery sensation in both.
“Hi,” she says.
“Hi yourself.”
Her hands slide up my arms to my shoulders and then down to rest against my chest. Need burns me from the inside out. I caught her. She’s mine now.
“I’m waiting. . .” Her brows lift in a sexy combination of question and goading.
“To see what happens when I catch you?” I ask, gaze memorizing every feature. “This.”
Ducking my head, I press my lips against hers in a firm kiss that leaves no doubt of how much I want her. I’m sick of denying myself. Denying her.
She wants me, too. The truth is in the way her lips move against mine, urgent and surrendering to the desire that is flaming between us. Hotter and hotter. A fire that threatens to rage out of control with every breathy sigh. Every shift of her hips.
I back her up a few steps.
She clings to the front of my shirt, stretching upward to return my kisses. The most amazing sounds bubble up her throat. So fucking needy. Like she’ll die if she doesn’t keep kissing me. If she loses this connection.
“This,” I say as I break our kiss. “This is what happens when I catch you.”
Her arms slide up around my neck, and she lifts her lips, ready for more.
Now that I know the truth, that she lets her hair down away from the office, I want to get tangled with her. See what this mystery date entails. Ravish her. Lose myself in her.
Her nails rake against my scalp, and I shudder, hips flexing. A siren blares through my head. We should slow down. We’re outside. Exposed. We’re not exactly alone.
My body doesn’t care. I need her. Her body beneath mine and nothing separating us. Not clothing, not air.
But when I lift my head, trying desperately to remember where we are and why we’re here, she whimpers, practically climbing into my arms.
“Fuck,” I say against her succulent mouth.
I swear to god, she purrs. Straight-up kitty-cat purrs. Rubbing against me, fingers tightening in my hair.
It’s electric. Amazing. Unstoppable. Why did I ever think she was frigid?
Stretching up, she nips my lower lip, and I growl.
Definitely. Not. Frigid.
She melts like warm butter. All my blood is still rushing to my cock, and I don’t know how much longer I can remain standing.
Sliding my hands lower, I cup her ass, and she moans. Another firm squeeze, and then I slide my left hand down and lift her leg. Her arms tighten around my neck, and her body sways against mine like a soft, rolling wave.
Needy. Delicious.
I need to sit down.
Another purr. “You should catch me more often,” she murmurs, lips brushing mine.