Chapter 2
Chapter Two
OLIVIA
I wasn’t in the mood to search around an unfamiliar city for a bar, so I settled for the hotel lounge.
Well…I say settled , but the lounge at the Ritz was far fancier than what I was used to, and I felt more than a little self-conscious as the hostess led me through the spacious Salon Room to the last open table. Walking past the seats filled with women and men dressed in designer labels, I felt out of place in the simple black dress I’d bought from the Gap last season.
It didn’t help when the couple at the table directly across from me shot a judgmental stare as I sat down in my plush seat, my back to the darkened window. Their glares made it clear I wasn’t up to their standards.
From what I could see, I was one of the few people sitting alone. All around me, the room hummed with bits of background conversations drifting in from other tables. I grabbed the small menu propped up in the center of the table and started scanning the options. The flickering candle on the table barely gave enough light to read, though, and I found myself squinting at the page through its moody glow.
Any other time, I might have appreciated the lounge’s sophisticated atmosphere, but tonight, I just found it vaguely annoying. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and my mood was souring fast. I hadn’t meant to skip lunch, but the moment I’d started looking over the company numbers on the plane, my stomach had twisted into knots, and my appetite had disappeared.
But since pouring gin on top of an empty stomach was a recipe for disaster, I needed to put something in my belly, so I scanned the menu for something light. A salad might be?—
“Tell me, what’s a pretty lady like you doing sitting alone?”
No. Please, no.
I would have thought that in an upscale lounge like this, a person wouldn’t have to deal with random men and their pick-up lines, but it seemed that some things were a universal constant.
I lowered the menu just far enough to peek over the top and swallowed a groan.
Sure enough, the young man standing on the other side of the table looked just like he sounded—proud, over-confident, and drunk. From the disheveled collar of his suit to the cloud of whiskey breath that rolled toward me over the table, I guessed that he’d been drinking since his shift at the office had ended at five.
I tried to let him down easy by lifting the menu back up to cover my face. “I’m fine,” he said, hoping he’d take the hint.
No such luck.
“Yeah, you are,” he slurred.
Oh, hell no.
I really wasn’t in the mood for this. All I wanted was to have my drink and dinner in peace. The last thing I wanted was another headache to deal with. So, I tried another tack.
“I’m actually waiting for someone,” I lied.
For some reason, random men who wouldn’t take no for an answer from the woman sitting in front of them usually had no trouble bowing out at the mention of a fictional man.
Usually .
But unfortunately, not this time. The jerk just shook his head and flashed me one of the creepiest, insincere smiles.
“I know,” he said with all the misplaced confidence in the world. “You were obviously waiting for me.”
What kind of bullshit logic was that?
I wanted to tell him to go to hell, but I instinctually knew that wasn’t a good idea. This wasn’t the neighborhood bar back in Milwaukee. The people at the other tables were already starting to turn their heads and stare. And after the horrible day I’d had, the last thing I needed was to get thrown out of the lounge for causing a scene.
But what else could I do? The jerk was already pulling out the chair in front of him.
“Do not sit down,” I hissed.
“Too late. I already have.”
Oh great. Now, people weren’t just staring at us; they were starting to whisper as well. The judgmental couple was even gesturing toward the staff, no doubt to intervene and tell us to quiet down and behave.
This was mortifying.
“Please, if my boyfriend sees you here, he won’t be happy. And you really don’t want that.”
The jerk laughed—loudly enough to turn even more heads, and my embarrassed blush heated even more.
“Don’t you worry, sweetheart,” he slurred. “I’m sure I’m man enough to take whoever this boyfriend of yours might be.”
Oh, God. I ducked my head down, covering my face in shame.
“You sure about that?” Another voice cut in. A deeper, more commanding voice. One that made my head pop back up immediately, just in time to see the stranger clap his hand over the jerk’s shoulder.
The jerk jumped at the unexpected touch and started to spin around in his seat, ready to loose his bourbon-fueled rage on the poor man who dared to butt in. “Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like?—“
The instant the jerk saw the man standing behind him, all the color drained from his face. His jaw hung open. It looked like the words that had stuck in his throat were now physically choking him.
And honestly, I couldn’t blame him for that reaction.
At first, I’d thought the stranger might have been one of the hotel staff, a burly bartender or manager that the waitress had sent to save me, but I quickly discarded that idea.
One look and it was clear this newcomer wasn’t some hourly worker. He was everything the drunk was trying so hard to be—masculine, assertive, and effortlessly attractive. Just simply standing there, the stranger gave off a sense of strength and power that demanded attention. This wasn’t some wanna-be poser in an off-the-rack suit.
This man was the real deal.
And clearly the drunk could sense it. His whole demeanor changed in an instant. All his bluster disappeared. His hands even started to shake. In that moment, I realized the jerk wasn’t simply intimidated by someone a couple rungs higher on the social ladder.
He was actually scared.
Scared stiff by the look of it. The poor man’s face and body were frozen in complete disbelief.
But the stranger broke him out of the state by saying, “You’re in my seat.”
“I-I’m sorry, sir,” the jerk sputtered, already rising from the chair.
I did my best to hold back the smile that was already threatening to spread across my face. Whoever this knight in shining armor—or, in this case, Armani—was, he certainly knew how to make a memorable entrance.
The jerk stumbled back from the table so clumsily that he bumped into the table of the judgmental couple across from me, jostling their drinks.
Strangely, this time, their tempers didn’t flare. Instead, they carefully kept their heads down even as their expensive martinis sloshed over the side of their glass.
Wow. I was impressed. This stranger wasn’t just good at intimidating drunk jerks. He could even make the rich and powerful shut up.
In fact, the whole lounge seemed to have quieted down since he’d made his entrance. There were more eyes than ever on us, but at least all the whispering had stopped.
If the stranger had noticed, he clearly didn’t mind the attention as he sat down in the now vacant chair across from me.
“That’s a good start,” he said to the jerk who was now clinging, white-knuckled, to the table behind him for support. “Now apologize to the lady.”
The jerk turned his attention toward me, and I could see that his face wasn’t just pale anymore. There were beads of sweat dotting his brow.
Damn, he really was scared.
Scared enough to make me wonder if maybe I should be, too.
“Please forgive me,” the jerk continued, his voice shaking so badly that I almost felt sorry for him. Almost . “I didn’t realize you were with?—“
“Leave ,” the stranger cut him off one more time, his voice commanding enough to fill the entire lounge.
Then I watched with wide eyes as the drunk shot out of the bar like his ass was on fire.
Only then did I turn to the stranger.
“Wow,” I said, not bothering to hide my amazement. “Thank you. That was…impressive.”
And more than a little scary.
At least, everyone else in the lounge seemed to think it was.
I, on the other hand, was more intrigued than anything else.
“It was my pleasure,” he said. Even though he’d given up the commanding tone, his voice was every bit as deep and rattily as before. “I could hear him giving you trouble from the bar.”
And he’d come over to help while everyone else had just shot me withering glares.
“Though now I’m worried the staff is going to kick us out for making a scene,” I said.
The stranger just shook his head. “No one here would dare.”
“You sound pretty confident,” I said. “You must be a VIP.”
It was easy to imagine him staying in the famous Royal Suite. He certainly held himself with the swagger of a man who could drop 30 thousand a night without blinking.
But the stranger shook his head, his enigmatic smile growing even wider. “I’m not guest. I live a few blocks away.”
Hmm…that didn’t explain why everyone in the lounge was acting so deferential to him.
Was he famous?
I never kept up with celebrity gossip. I was so out of touch that it was possible I could be sitting at a table with a giant movie star and not realize it. This neighborhood around Central Park was home to the wealthy and powerful, after all.
“I’m Liv,” I said, extending my hand across the table, and silently adding devilishly handsome strangers that chase away jerks to the list of people who got to call me by the shortened version of name.
The stranger took my hand, the warmth of his skin against my palm feeling surprisingly intimate for such a common gesture. “Gabriel.”
I’d hoped that if he was a celebrity, his name would spark a memory inside my head, but no such luck. All I knew was that his name suited him. Just like I knew, he never shortened it. He was never Gabe. Never .
This man was a Gabriel, through and through.
I was in danger of holding on to his hand a second too long but fortunately just then a text alarm chimed and he pulled his phone out of his coat’s inner pocket.
I quickly pulled my hands back, cupping them together tightly in my lap.
“Again, I really appreciate your help, but don’t let me keep you,” I said.
His gaze came back to mine a second later, as he tucked his phone away. It could have been the low light and candle flicker, but his eyes seemed extraordinarily dark and magnetic.
“Actually, I’m alone tonight as well,” he said. “I was hoping to run into someone, but it looks like they stood me up.”
“Who in their right mind would stand you up?” Oh, shit . I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. The words had fallen out of my mouth before I could stop them. “I am so sorry. I…I don’t know why I said that. I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast, and I’m feeling a little wobbly.”
As apologies went, it was pretty pathetic. But the man sitting across from me didn’t seem to mind.
“No need to be sorry,” he said, a slight smile slowly lifting his full lips. “Not for a compliment like that. But it sounds like we should get you some dinner.”
I could feel my blush deepening.
He raised his hand and was surprised when one of the servers appeared at his side a moment later. For someone who swore he wasn’t a VIP, he certainly got a lot of attention.
“What can I get you, sir?” the waiter asked, but Gabriel politely gestured for me to order first.
“The Caesar Salad,” I said. “And a gin and tonic, please.”
“Classic choice,” Gabriel nodded appreciatively. “Make it two gin and tonics, and tell McKinley at the bar to use the Nolet’s Reserve.”
That was some top-shelf gin. Beyond top shelf.
“The silver will be just fine for mine,” I broke in.
The waiter looked at Gabriel as if his word mattered far more than mine. After a full second, he gave a nod and sent the server away with a slight twitch of his finger.
“I don’t know many people who would turn down a taste of the reserve,” he said after a moment. “Especially when someone else is buying.”
“I’ve heard that it’s fabulous,” Not that I’d ever had the opportunity to try it myself. “But it’s too good for a mixer. The silver will pair better with the tonic.”
“Is that right?”
“It is.” Even though I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol yet, just the sight of his smile was enough to make me light-headed.
Fortunately, the chime of his text alarm sounded again, and I was saved from him noticing the blush that was quickly heating up my cheeks when he pulled his phone out of his pocket again.
“And you didn’t have to buy me anything,” I said, doing my best to control my racing heart. “After what you just did I should be the one buying you a drink.”
Not that I was in the financial position to buy anything for someone with such pricy tastes.
Luckily for my poor savings account, Gabriel gave his head a shake as he looked up from his phone. “That’s not going to happen. What kind of gentleman would I be if I let a woman pay?”
“Gentleman ?” A small chuckle sneaked out from between my lips. Clearly, skipping lunch had messed with my head. My poker face was usually much better than this.
“You find that funny?” he asked.
I was willing to guess with his fine suit and commanding presence, he wasn’t used to being laughed at…especially not to his face.
For a second, I thought about lying. It would be so much easier—not to mention safer—to soothe his pride and say that I’d been thinking about something else. But strangely, I didn’t want to. Especially not when, instead of appearing offended, he leaned forward in his chair, his expression genuinely curious.
“Honestly, a little, yeah,” I admitted, more aware than ever of all the eyes fixed on our conversation. I choose my next words carefully. “Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate how you ran that jerk out of here, but how easily you did it sort of proves that you aren’t really a gentleman, doesn’t it?”
His gaze lingered on my face for a long moment, his expression almost painfully intense as he studied my face. For a second, I feared that he was going to call me names or get aggressive, just like the drunk had, but he surprised me by letting out a laugh of his own.
For a sound that should have cut the tension, the room strangely only became quieter.
“You’re very perceptive,” he said before adding, “…and brave.”
Now, that was a word people rarely used to describe me. “For stating the obvious?”
“It’s rarer than you think,” he said. “There aren’t many people who would risk talking to me like that.”
Somehow, I had no trouble believing that. Even just sitting across from me, the man radiated an aura of intimidation.
So why wasn’t I intimidated?
“That’s a shame,” I said honestly. “Maybe you need to find better friends. Everyone should have someone who they can trust to tell them the truth no matter what.”
For a second, the flames flickered even deeper in his dark eyes. He nodded. It looked like this was the first time he’d ever thought about it. “You’re right. They should.”
Just then, our drinks arrived. Gabriel waited until the waiter had left before he spoke again. All the while, his assessing gaze moved over me.
“So, what brings you to Manhattan?”
“Is it that obvious I’m not a local?” I joked as I took the first sip of my drink.
“You were the one just making the case for honesty,” he countered.
“Right,” I said with a laugh. I couldn’t tell if it was the gin or the man sitting across from me that had me in such an unusually playful mood. “I’m just here for the night on business.”
“What kind of business?”
“The worst kind.” I rolled my eyes. “Family business.”
He leaned back in his chair, drink in hand, forearms leisurely stretched out on the armrests. “You have my sympathy,” he said. “I had to deal with a family situation myself recently. They can be…difficult.”
Difficult ? That was the understatement of the year. “Unfortunately, this one is a total pain in the ass.”
“That bad?”
I shook my head. “You aren’t here to listen to me complain.”
He cocked his chin to the side, a move that made him appear even more dangerously handsome. “You don’t know why I came here,” he said. “Tell me.”
Even though I wasn’t in the habit of airing my family’s dirty laundry with total strangers, something about that commanding tone in his voice made it hard to refuse. Even more than that, I found that I actually wanted to talk to him. Something about the anonymity of the situation was freeing.
The fact that I was now halfway through my first drink didn’t hurt either.
“The details don’t matter,” I said, shaking my head. “Someone in my family is always getting themselves into trouble. The part that upsets me is that they only seem to care about me when they need my help getting them out of it. They can go months without talking to me, then throw a fit when I don’t come running the second they snap their fingers.”
“So why do you come when they call?”
That was the question I’d been asking myself all day. I wished I had a better answer.
“Because even though they are a pain in the ass, they’re still my family,” I said. “They may drive me up the walls, but I don’t want anything bad to happen to them. Especially not if I can help it.”
“Loyalty,” he mused, looking at his glass and the way the candlelight played off it as he twisted it back and forth between his fingers. “That’s a noble trait. But loyalty is only worth a damn if it flows both ways. It sounds like, in your case, it’s a one-way street.”
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh, feeling myself relax even more in this stranger’s presence. “Just once, I wish I didn’t have to be the reliable one. I wish I could just live and not worry about the consequences of my actions.”
“Then why don’t you?”
Another simple question, and another one I found myself struggling to answer.
“Honestly, I’ve been the responsible one for so long, I’m not sure I even know how to let go.”
“Not even for one night?”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
He leaned forward in his seat just a touch. “What if there was someone there to guide you? To teach you how to be just a little selfish?”
Why did I get the sense we were no longer talking in the abstract? I took another sip of my gin and tonic to cover my sudden nervousness.
Still, I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t curious.
“What exactly are you suggesting?”
His smile turned downright sinful. I can’t lie; it was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. And with nothing but gin running through my veins, my pulse ran hard and fast at the sight.
“I’m not suggesting anything,” he said with the slightest shake of his head. “There’s nothing holding me back from doing what I want. This conversation is about you. The only thing I want to hear is what you want.”
Want . That was a loaded word.
There was so much I wanted, so much I craved. But at the same time, I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. At least nothing that I felt comfortable speaking in a crowded upscale lounge like this. To be honest, I doubted I’d be comfortable saying it anywhere.
“And what if I don’t know what I want?” I said.
“Well, then, it would be even more important to have someone there to guide you. To show you what was possible.”
Oh…
But there was no hiding my blush this time. Heat flooded my cheeks at his unwavering attention. Especially since the people nearby had to be overhearing our conversation.
I glanced over at the judgmental couple at the next table, and, sure enough, they were shooting me a disapproving stare.
“Don’t look at them,” Gabriel said, his voice low but firm. “They don’t matter. No one in here matters right now but you and me.”
As if to prove his point, he looked over at the couple and motioned for them to leave.
And surprisingly, a second later, after making sure everyone in the room heard their exasperated huff, they got up and left.
My mouth hung open in amazement. “How did you do that?”
“We’re not talking about me, remember?”
Yeah, but after that, maybe we should be. At least a little.
“But—“
“Just take it as proof that I’m not lying to you, Liv,” he said, cutting off my concerns with a wave of his hand. “If I say I can do something, then I can.”
I no longer doubted that. Not for a second.
Whoever Gabriel was, he was a powerful man. The kind of power that could make even the elite of New York society shake in fear.
If I’d been thinking clearly, I probably should have been shaking too. I should have been running for the hills.
But instead, I found myself leaning in even closer, pulled by the raw power of his magnetism.
“Okay…but when you say ‘ guide ’ me, what exactly do you mean?”
He tilted his head back, resting it against the seat back. Sitting like that, he reminded me of a king lounging on his throne. “I think you know, Liv.”
Heaven help me; I really liked the way he said my name. I could listen to him say it all night…and if this was going the way I thought it was, maybe I would.
Usually, I wasn’t the one-night stand type. Still, if anyone could make me reconsider that stance, it would be the brutally hot man sitting across from me.
“Are you asking to follow me up to my room?”
“Is that what you want?” Gabriel’s eyes didn’t flicker from mine as he shot the question right back at me. Not even for a second. “Is that all you want, Liv?”
I shifted in my seat, leaning forward as I lowered my voice to the barest whisper. “I’m sorry. I’m sure I sound naive, but what else is there?”
He arched a brow. “Do you want me to show you?”
“Right now?”
“Right this second.”
I blinked. “You want me to leave the hotel with you?” He couldn’t be serious.
But, of course, he was. “I do.”
A thrill ran through me—a whole body shiver from top to toe, and in that moment, I realized just how out of my depth I really was.
Sure, I’d flirted with men before, but nothing this intense. And definitely not with men like Gabriel.
What the hell was I saying? Even after just a few minutes of conversation, I was pretty damn sure there were no men like Gabriel. He was his own creature—singular in the world.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Because…Because my dinner is still coming.”
He quickly batted that pathetic excuse to the side. “Don’t worry. I’ll feed you and a hell of a lot better than some wilted salad.”
“Where would we go?”
“My brother just bought a nightclub not far from here.”
I shook my head. “I don’t dance.”
“You don’t have to,” he said. “It’s not that kind of club.”
It wasn’t? What other kinds were there?
“I still need to pay the bill,” I tried, grasping at straws.
This time, Gabriel didn’t answer with words. Instead, he pulled out the largest roll of cash I’d ever seen, peeled two hundreds off the top, and slapped them down on the table before arching a brow as if to say anything else?
One after the other, he’d knocked all my reservations down, until there was only one left. The only real one I had.
I let out a small, defeated sigh. “But I don’t know you.”
“I thought that was the point,” he said. “No ties. No responsibility. No consequences.”
A taste of real freedom. It was tempting. So very tempting.
Not that my rational, practical brain was about to give up that easy.
“Right, but how do I know you’re not a serial killer or something?”
“I guess that depends on what you mean by or something ,” he said. “That’s vague enough to cover anything.”
That coaxed a smile out of me. There was no denying how charming he was.
Then again, that’s what they’d said about Ted Bundy.
“Fine.” I drew a deep breath, reading myself to put it in plainer terms. “If I leave here with you right now, how do I know that I won’t end up axe-murdered in your basement?”
“Because I don’t have a basement,” he answered with a straight face.
I shot him a look, the kind that said that wasn’t good enough, and he responded by grabbing a waiter who was walking by—actually reached out and grabbed him by the arm. My eyes widened at his audacity, but any complaints the server might have had died on his tongue the moment he saw Gabriel’s face.
“Do you know who I am?” Gabriel asked.
The waiter nodded. “Of course, sir.”
“And you see this woman I’m with?”
The server raised his head and briefly looked me in the eye before ducking his head down again. “Yes.”
“Good,” Gabriel said, his voice slipping back into the commanding tone that had hushed the whole lounge earlier. “If anything happens to her tonight, I want you to go straight to the police and tell them that she left this bar with me. Understood?”
“Sir?” The poor waiter looked more afraid than ever. “A-Are you sure about that?”
“Positive,” Gabriel said, sounding as confident as ever. “Now promise me—“ He glanced down at the man’s name tag. “—Oscar.”
The man gave a shaky nod. “Of course, sir. Whatever you want.”
Gabriel let go of the man’s arm. “I won’t forget this, Oscar.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant that as a threat or a compliment, and given the way Oscar rushed away from our table, he didn’t either.
“Satisfied?” Gabriel asked, turning his attention back to me.
Sort of. I wasn’t worried about being hacked into little pieces anymore, but now I had more questions than ever before.
“Who are you?”
A devilish spark shimmered in his dark eyes as he stood up from the table and extended his hand to me. “The man who’s going to show you just how pleasurable one night of total freedom can be.”
And God help me; that was the man I wanted right now.