4. Chapter 4
Chapter four
Abigail
W hen he kisses me, I feel alive. I feel like the woman that was hollowed out with pain. I tell myself to pull away from the kiss, that he’s my only hope in a war I didn’t want to fight, but that’s the problem. He feels like the lifeline in this war in ways I didn’t expect. And so, I sink into the kiss, and I kiss him like I’ve never been kissed before, like I will never be kissed again. Unbidden though, images of my mother crying last night are back in my mind and I shove away from him.
“Wait,” I plead. “Wait. I can’t hire you and do this, not without getting you in trouble and that’s not what I want.”
He turns me and presses me against the wall, that big, hard, perfect body of his caging mine in a delicious way that makes me forget anything I might be about to say. “You’re worried about getting me in trouble?” he demands.
“Yes.” My hands flatten on the solid wall of his chest. “Because you or Reid have to be the attorney. Really, it’s Reid I need, but he’s gone and—”
“Why Reid?”
“Because my enemy used to be his client.”
“Who?”
“Jean Claude Laurette. Reid managed his investments and—”
“My father managed his investments. Who is Jean Claude to you?”
“Do we have to do this right here like this?”
He studies me, his blue eyes intense, sharp, potent. God, when this man looks at me, I feel it everywhere. And then suddenly, he’s kissing me again, his fingers tangled in my hair, a rough pull to their touch that undoes me in all the right ways. I can’t hold back with this man. I can’t stop the assault on my senses he creates and I melt right here in the hallway.
The only thing that brings me back to the present is the sound of voices nearby. I jolt and Gabe pulls back to look at me. “If we don’t go right now, I’m going to pull you in that bathroom and you won’t leave until you’ve come on my tongue.”
My eyes go wide. “You can’t say that.”
“You prefer I just do it?”
My cheeks heat. “No. I mean—I—”
He laughs, a low sexy laugh, and then a woman rounds the corner. He ignores her and presses his cheek to my cheek, his lips at my ear. “I’m going to enjoy making you blush,” he promises before pulling back and taking my hand. “Come with me.” He starts walking.
I don’t argue. Not when the woman that entered the hallway just glared at me. And not when his hand on mine feels so very good. I’ve been alone this past year, but in truth, I’ve been alone for five years. I was miserable. I know this isn’t possible, he and I aren’t possible, but there is this part of me that needs to feel every moment I can with him until it’s ripped away. He rounds the corner and moments later we enter the bar. He leads me toward my table where I assume we will sit and talk, but that’s not what happens.
The minute we get there, he shuts my MacBook and sticks it in my briefcase before he turns to face me, his handsome face etched with determination. “Where’s your coat?”
“I—at the hostess stand, but shouldn’t we sit down and talk? Or do you want to go to your office?”
He slides my briefcase over his shoulder and cups my face. “I’m taking you home with me. I don’t take women to my home, but I am you.”
His home ? “I can’t do that. You can’t do that. I really need your help legally. I’m an attorney, but I can’t represent myself on this. I’ve tried. I need—”
“Reid and me. You need us both to beat Jean Claude. And as an attorney, you know that I can represent you as long as we’re involved before I sign on and I’m honest about it.” He takes my hand. “And we’re involved. I made that decision the minute you kissed me.”
“I can’t—”
He leans in and kisses me. “I can, and enough for both of us. Say yes.”
Say yes .
I want to.
“I can’t believe I’m really going to do this.”
His eyes simmer and he starts walking, obviously taking my reply as a yes. I don’t have time to even try to stop him from dragging me forward. Is he dragging me? No. I’m pretty sure I’m walking quite fast. And do I want to stop him from doing this, whatever this is to him? I don’t. I don’t want to stop him, but we do stop at the hostess stand. “We need her coat,” Gabe tells the girl behind the counter.
The girl nods and walks into the room behind her, while Gabe turns to me, his hands on my waist. “I live right across the street in Battery Park, but the opposite side of the park. I’ll get us a car.” He reaches in his pocket, pulls out his phone and punches in something I can’t see. “Five minutes that you don’t get to use to back out.”
“This isn’t smart.”
“Smartest thing I’ve done in a long time.”
“Here’s the coat.”
At this announcement, Gabe kisses me like he can’t stand waiting until we’re out of this moment then reaches for my coat. He undoes me. He drives me crazy. I haven’t had a man kiss me because he couldn’t wait to kiss me later in forever. The butterflies in my stomach are wild and crazy and wonderful. Gabe holds out my Chanel trench coat for me, a coat that is one of the few things I retained from my old life. It represents money and tells a story, but not the one he likely assumes. I turn and slide my arms inside, and when he settles it around me, he leans in and whispers, “You smell like roses tonight.”
Because I used my favorite bath products with a splash of rose-scented perfume and if I’m honest, I did it because I wanted to see him because I wanted him to be this close to me. I turn to face him and his eyes collide with mine with a punch of awareness that steals my breath. His eyes lower to my mouth and linger before lifting. “Why’d you come here instead of to the office?”
“I—” I breathe out, “was uncomfortable showing up to your office after kissing you. I thought you might frequent this place and I could talk to you here.”
“Good call,” he says, and his phone beeps. He pulls it from his pocket. “Our ride is here.” He laces his fingers with mine, holding on as if he thinks I will bolt, and the truth is, I should. I’m pulling this man into dangerous territory, far more so than he knows. He has the right to hear all the facts. I have to talk to him before anything else happens between us.
I hold this thought and vow to make it true, but then we’re in the back of a black sedan and he’s dragging me to him, his powerful thigh pressed to mine, his hand on my face, his breath a warm tease on my lips before he’s kissing me, drugging me with the taste of him, with a demand on his lips. And while I swore I would never let a man demand anything of me again, this man’s passion, his hunger, does demand, and it’s wonderful, it’s addictive, it’s an escape I didn’t know I needed, but I do. I need this. I need him. I can’t seem to stop the assault on my senses, and the burn to just keep kissing him. And kissing him. And kissing him some more.
I’ll tell him about the danger when we get to his apartment before I kiss him again. Before I let him kiss me again.