29. Alex
29
ALEX
No one speaks on the ride back to Gabe’s house. Which suits me just fine. I can practically hear the thoughts churning through Katherine’s mind. Twenty-four hours in her company and I’m so in tune with her it’s scary.
There’s a deep sigh from the backseat and I glance in the rearview mirror and find her staring out the window, chin propped on her palm. My chest tightens as my instinct to protect surges through me.
I should have had Roman follow us tonight. He could have stopped Kingston at the door, added a layer of security. I grit my teeth as the image of him sweeping her into his arms replays in my mind.
Gabe cuts me a look, obviously sensing that I’m stewing over this. It was bad enough to feel conflicted and jealous of his interest. How the hell are we supposed to compete with her best friend ?
He knows her better, and he’s so. . . suave. And there’s no denying Kingston Saint is incredibly handsome.
As soon as I have the car in park, Katherine’s out the back door before I can get my seat belt off.
She’s not fleeing, exactly. But marching. Steady steps toward the front porch, unbothered by the lack of landscape lighting or even a welcoming lantern.
“Katie Bird.”
She pauses on the first step. It’s too dark to see every detail clearly, but I know she turns, her face shadowed but anguished.
I don’t even know how to ask the questions clanging around in my brain.
“What’s going on, Princess?” Gabe steps closer. “Who is he?”
She looks back and forth between us and then licks her lips. It’s like she’s preparing for battle. Buying time.
“Kingston Saint. He’s been my closest friend since we were children.”
Gabe shifts his weight, and the pebbles crunch beneath his feet.
Her answer tells me little. I already knew who was kissing her. The question is why.
I take a step forward. Gabe and I are shoulder to shoulder now. Touching distance to her.
She shakes her head. “He turned me down six years ago, and we went. . .” she makes a rolling motion with her hand, “went back to being friends. That’s all we’ve been. I had no idea he was even in the country. He’s been in Croatia for months.”
“But he wants you.” There’s not a hint of uncertainty in Gabe’s voice, and on that, I agree.
You don’t kiss a woman like that as a hello, hi, nice to see you .
That was a come-here-i-missed-you-more-than-life-and-I-can’t-wait-another-second-to-tell-you-how-I-feel kiss.
Maybe he didn’t mean to try to claim her in front of us, but he did.
Seeing her with Gabe earlier was surprising because it was so erotic. Because their pleasure pleased me. Both of them. The look on her face as she came was stunning, and I instantly wanted to be the cause of it the next time.
She shakes her head again, her attention on Gabe. “I guess.”
I wait a beat because it feels like she’s still mulling all this over and I don’t want to pressure her into making a snap judgment that will end poorly.
“I don’t want to talk about him. He had his chance. Six years’ worth of chances. More than that!”
Gabe props a foot up on the stairs next to hers. “What do you want?”
She looks from me to him and back but says nothing. I can tell she has something she wants to say. On the tip of her tongue, maybe, and she just won’t voice it.
“I know what I want,” Gabe says.
“You do?” She sounds breathless now, hopeful and damn if that doesn’t slay me.
Of course she wants him. He’s smart, successful and travels in her circles, and he wants all the finer things in life. Things she’s accustomed to.
From the corner of my eye, I see him nod.
She turns her attention to me. “What do you want, Alex?”
“I think you know.”
She sways forward, a hand sliding up my chest. Her lips press against mine in a sweet kiss that speaks of trust but also need. Soul deep, life-altering need. I slide a hand to her hip and kiss her back. Lips roving, promising, and then she backs away.
My eyes have adjusted so I can see the serene smile on her face and when her gaze darts to Gabe.
“What do you want, Gabriel?”
“You.”
No hesitation from my best friend. When he’s made up his mind, he’s all in. Everything else be damned. It’s kind of miraculous to witness. No second guessing. No self-doubt.
He worries. I know he does, but there’s nothing but pure octane desire in his voice.
“Good,” she murmurs as she leans into him.
My chest tightens, but not out of jealousy. It feels right to see her kiss him. To watch him fall for her, kiss by kiss, moment by moment. His left hand slides around her waist, and his right cups her cheek.
She lifts her lips to his, ready, eager, and then they’re locked tight. Fused at the lip, claiming each other without words.
When they come up for air, she immediately turns to me, pressing up on her toes. Her hands slide into my hair, pulling me down for another heart-stopping kiss. My cock flares in my slacks, and I resist the urge to adjust myself because all that matters right now is the warmth and wetness of this sexy woman’s mouth.
Damn, she does it for me. Quietly seeking what she wants. Taking it.
She moans, swaying, falling into me. I catch her and hold her against me as I steal kiss after kiss, lips merging, sharing breath. Her tongue brushes along the seam of my lips, begging for entrance, and I open, letting my tongue tease the tip of hers. We parry back and forth, and there’s a masculine groan that doesn’t belong to me.
I break the kiss, breathing deeply, and look over at Gabe. He’s got a hand at the back of his neck, rubbing up and down, his gaze laser-focused on us.
“That’s hot,” he says, no deeper explanation needed.
Katherine half turns and ascends another stair. Gabe follows, but I stay put .
“Katherine—” I say. “What do you want?”
Where does she expect this to go? I’ve thought about it nonstop since I found them together in the maze. Two sides of a coin. Fitting like two puzzle pieces, so exquisitely matched.
I won’t fight Gabe for her. I won’t. He’s my oldest friend, and he needs a woman who will discover him and unravel him and rebuild him. Katherine Montgomery might just be that woman.
But maybe I could share her.
Tonight? Tomorrow?
I don’t know.
More importantly, I don’t know what she wants.
She turns back to me, a finger brushing along the line of my jaw. “You.” She looks up at Gabe. “Both of you.”
“What about Kingston?” Gabe asks.
She’s still for a long moment and then shakes her head. “I don’t know. I wish I did. But I can’t be with someone who only wants me because someone else has me.”
The sadness in her voice is a spear to my heart, but even as it bleeds for her, it pounds with pleasure.
Someone else has me.
Such a similar phrase and feeling to when she told that dick Tyler ‘ not yet .’
Beside me, there’s an odd rumble from Gabe. “Inside. Now.”
He takes Katherine’s hand and leads her up the stairs, but she pulls him to a stop and turns back to me, hand outstretched. The gesture hits so much harder than her words. I grab hold, letting her reel me in, and she squeezes my fingers. I want to beg her to never let go.
But she does. Has to.
The instant the door is locked behind us, Gabe has Katherine pinned against the wall, arms bracketed around her, leaning in to nuzzle her throat. “Say that again,” he demands.
Her hands grip his waist, and she stares straight at me. I feel the connection all the way to my soul.
Dammit.
But even as my heart wars with my brain, I can’t look away. Can’t crack down on the feelings building inside me.
“Say what?” The two words are so breathless.
“Someone else has you. Say it.”
“Someone else has me.”
Another low growl. “Who?”
She tips her head back just a fraction, resting against the wall, but her gaze doesn’t waver. We’re locked together and somehow. I don’t feel on the outside at all, the opposite really. Her attention binds us.
“You do.”
I see the wheels turning in her mind, the realization dawning on her. Gabe needs to be claimed. To feel wanted. Desired. Things he never had growing up. Excluding our friendship, I’m not sure he’s ever felt that.
Mind rushing, I drop my gaze and look away, but from my peripheral, I see her reach out a hand. Beckoning me. Drawing me back to her. To the circle. Then she looks at him.
“And?” Gabe presses.
“You,” she says, focusing on my best friend. Her voice holds a mixture of desire and tenderness that I wish I could bottle up and enjoy over and over. “Both of you.”
I take her hand again, and she clings to me. That single motion relays so much. That she wants me here. That she needs me. That I belong.
Gabe shoves away from the wall and takes her other hand, tugging her forward. “You’ll have to tell me if I’m moving too fast for you. I feel like I’m about to shoot straight to Warp Nine.”
His eagerness makes my lips twitch. The light from the breakfast nook provides just enough illumination for me to see the silent laugh she shoots over her shoulder at me. I don’t detect an ounce of worry or apprehension in her as, hand in hand, Gabe leads us to the bedroom, stopping at the foot of the mattress.