27. Chapter 27
Chapter twenty-seven
Abbie
I left Gabe with my bag. That wasn’t my intent, but I was rattled by how fast we’re moving, and at this point, I just need to make arrangements for the dog.
I enter the airport, the cold air behind me, warm heat suffocating me, yet it’s this man who’s suffocating me in all the right and wrong ways, as insane as that may sound. My head is spinning with him, my ex and God, everything. I don’t know how I went from trying to hire Reid, to kissing Gabe by the bathroom.
I walk to the counter and speak to the woman there. “Hi. Grayson Bennett rented a chopper and Gabe Maxwell and myself are supposed to be passengers. Gabe is on his way in, but he has a dog that needs to ride along.” I have this moment, where I realize what a couple we’re acting like.
“Of course. There will be an extra charge.”
“Expected,” I say. “And this is a large dog.”
We chat back and forth and I know the moment Gabe enters the airport and not because of the gust of air behind me, but because of the tingling awareness in my body that only this man creates. No one else has ever awakened every sense I own. No other man has ever taken me so off guard and held me so very close, and I’m not even speaking literally.
He steps to my side and Dexter starts whining for me, acting like he hasn’t seen me in years. I bend down to pet him and Gabe does the same at the exact same moment. We end up facing each other with Dexter’s big nose nuzzling my neck. “Hi,” I say because why wouldn’t I say “hi” right now.
He grins. “Hi.”
He leans in and kisses me. “You’re a tough bargainer, Abbie Tanner.” He presses his cheek to mine. “We’ll negotiate the terms of everything .” He pulls back and winks. “Right now, I need to get Dexter set-up.”
I swallow the crazy dryness he’s created in my mouth while making other places quite wet. “I took care of him.” I kiss Dexter and stand up with Gabe right along with me. “Did you now?”
“I did.”
“We’re here for Dexter.”
At the male voice, Gabe and I turn to find two men in khakis and white shirts eyeing Dexter. “That was fast,” Gabe said.
“You paid quite a lot for the service,” I whisper, warning him.
His lips quirk and he cuts me a look. “Did I now?”
“Yeah. You did.”
He laughs. “I’ll just eat ramen next week to make up for it.”
One of the men approaches and Gabe hands him the leash. He tugs on Dexter and Gabe grabs his arm. “He’ll kill you if you give him a reason. No tugging, shoving, kicking, hitting, biting, or yelling. Sweet talking and licking are allowed and good practice for other parts of your life. Talk sweetly to him. Love him. Show him you’re worthy.”
The man looks indignant. Gabe hands him a bag of treats he must have gotten at the shelter. The man grabs one and gives it to Dexter. From there, Dexter is all his. He leads Dexter away. I laugh. “Licking is okay? You’re crazy, Gabe.”
“Crazy for you, Abbie.” He kisses me. “Any sign of Grayson and Mia?”
“No, actually,” I say. “I was rushing to take care of Dexter and forgot to ask where they are.”
“Here!”
With a breeze at our backs, we turn to find Grayson and Mia entering the lobby. “We forgot something,” Grayson says. “But we’re ready to hit the sky.”
A few minutes later, I’m in a chopper with Grayson and Mia as a couple and me and Gabe as another, with our dog. Our dog. His dog. The dog. My God, what is happening to me? I’m not adopting a dog or a man. They keep trying to adopt me and I wish it didn’t feel so good. I can’t let the feeling I have with Gabe take me over the top. If I can’t say no to him, this needs to be fun and pleasure. It needs to be a fling. This man hasn’t even been married. He’s not the marrying kind. There is no reason this just can’t be fun. Well, except my ex.
Fling.
Fun.
Sex.
What isn’t he telling me?
A lot, I remind myself. I barely know him.
Rephrase.
What doesn’t he want to tell me? Will he ever tell me? Do I want him to tell me? He squeezes my leg and I look over at him, the chopper’s arms clanking above us, the dark night sky seeming to cradle us, and I’m so very lost in this man. In his eyes. In his secrets. In his laughter and giant personality. I’m going to fall for him. I’m going to fall really hard.
He kisses my hand and when he looks at me again, I watch the confusion in his eyes, and I don’t think this is something he often feels. He’s confused but about what? Me? Us? The dog? Me, I think. Us, I think. Not the dog. Dexter is Dexter. He’s a dog. He’s love. He’s simple. That’s what I love about animals. They’re simple. They love. They eat. They sleep. They love some more.
Gabe is not a simple man. I know this instinctively no matter how simple he tries to seem.
I’m a simple girl. I want to be, at least. I want to be that simple girl with a hot man who loves her and doesn’t cheat on her. A man who loves her and doesn’t betray her. The problem is, I’m not sure I believe that man exists in this world. And as Gabe has said, he fucks. That’s what he does. I cut my stare from his.
What am I doing?
I just told myself to have a fling and now I’m mad at him for being the guy who is the perfect fling?
He leans in, earphones and noise preventing conversation and cups my face, drawing my gaze to his, a question in his eyes. Fuck. I want to fuck and be fucked without being fucked over. I want that to happen with Gabe. It already has. It can. He’s not the guy who sued me. My ex is that guy. And damn it, I deserve a Gabe. I deserve to just enjoy life. I deserve to forget that lawsuit and the threats of this night and just be with this man. That means he can’t hurt me. He’s just sex and sex and more sex.
I like sex.
I haven’t liked sex in a long time, but I do now with Gabe.
I’m going to do just that. We’re going to land and I’m going to let him know what I want.
I press my lips to his and kiss him. He leans back to look at me and frowns as if he doesn’t like something he tastes on my lips.
He sits back in his seat, and we finish the ride with this awkwardness between us that steals all my thunder. When finally we’re on the ground, Gabe encourages Grayson and Mia to deboard first. We follow, and when we would enter the building, he pulls me to him and cups my face. “What happened up there in the air?”
Be bold, I tell myself. Be the girl who kissed him by the bathroom and stay focused on the fling and the escape. Set him free now, before this becomes trouble. “I decided to let you off the hook. I don’t need everything. I just need you naked.”