CHAPTER ELEVEN
He didn’t call.
He hadn’t called yet, Nora amended. And sure, it had only been three days. And fine, she didn’t care whether or not he called. That wasn’t what had her sitting at her desk, distracted and staring into space.
It was the naked thing.
Of course it was the naked thing.
On the one hand, she now had an experience that trumped her walking in on Vince and Melissa.
On the other hand, while a few years of serious repression would fade the memory of Vince’s betrayal, she knew that she’d be able to close her eyes when she was eighty, and she’d still see in explicit detail the manly glory of Gabe Sterling, naked in his kitchen, wicked smile on his face, insanely hot body…and the rest.
When she was eighty, she had the feeling she’d be closing her eyes a lot.
Today, she couldn’t seem to concentrate. That afternoon kept playing over and over in her mind, and at the most inconvenient times.
Nora sort of hoped he wouldn’t call, because she was a hot mess of confusion whenever she thought of him. The weirdest, most confusing thing?
Gabe seemed to genuinely like her.
While it was hard to believe, considering he must be able to have any woman he wanted, he had expressed an interest in her every time they’d met.
If she hadn’t seen him naked, she’d have chalked it up to him being a friendly kind of guy. Except she had seen him naked. And he’d had a hard-on.
Difficult to rationalize an erection as friendly interest.
So it had crossed Nora’s mind: with a small effort on her part, she could probably hit that.
And that’s when the panic sweats had started.
Because she didn’t even know how to begin hitting that with a man like Gabriel Sterling. No clue. All she knew was, it would be a whole different ballgame from anything she’d experienced up to this point.
None of this mattered. He was their number one most important client, which made him the dead last person on earth she should be thinking of in dating or sexing terms.
Even though Nora had decided to file naked Gabe away for thinking about at the appropriate time, her brain had other ideas, and she found herself thinking about him all the time. It was a pain in her ass. She was trying to focus on her life here.
She’d stayed at the office late the last few evenings to use the computer and research how to settle a rescue dog into their new home.
She’d joined her local library, checked out a stack of books, and a green-haired librarian had talked her into joining the book club.
Anna had taken her shopping and had chosen her a pair of skinny jeans that fit her legs but didn’t dig into her waist or were so low-cut they dragged her panties down whenever she bent over, or tried to sit.
Aside from all that, she’d fixed a misplaced order for an ancient Minoan pottery bowl that had somehow been redirected to Gretchen Sharpe’s new office; had chased down the last bolt of Regency-striped fabric Anna needed to get to the upholsterer to finish a fainting couch; and had bought tickets to a gallery showing of a hot new artist Anna wanted to scout.
As long as Nora was busy, it was easy to fend off those inconvenient flashes that started her down the road to hopeless fantasies.
Flashes of things like the sound of his laugh, and the way it bubbled through her veins, danced along her nerves. The way he’d still looked hot with one eye crossed.
His tattoos.
She’d deleted all the photos of him on Anna’s camera because she knew she’d be tempted to look at them, like a tween crushing on a boyband, and she was a mature and busy woman who was supposed to be beyond that sort of behavior.
In retrospect, Nora regretted deleting the photos. Seeing him naked had only affected her so much because she’d never seen a man like him before. That was all. If she still had them, she could have peeked every now and then. Built up some resistance to his appeal.
You know. Bored herself.
She was onto something with this, wasn’t she? Exposure therapy. She should double-check the camera. Maybe she’d missed a photo.
She jumped up and grabbed the camera. She turned it on.
Empty.
Damn her scrupulous efficiency.
Nora sat and drummed her fingers on the desktop. Back to work. If she concentrated, she could get the order spreadsheet updated before Anna came in.
She stared at the spreadsheet, then clicked away and opened her web browser instead. She’d get on with work in a minute. First, she had to look something up…
~ ~ ~
In his office, Gabe drummed his fingers on the desktop. He should be working, but he couldn’t concentrate.
For Gabe, this was nothing new. Every day was a bloody battle to force himself to focus. When he was victorious, his attention was sharp enough it could cut through titanium. Bombs could drop and he wouldn’t notice. Only the physical demands of his body prompted him to move. He’d come out of the almost transcendental state long enough to eat or drink before dropping back under the surface.
Once he achieved flow, he was alive and uncontainable. Living in that altered reality, he was a god. There was nothing he could not achieve. He’d stay there forever if he could, but a flow state for Gabe was the Holy Grail.
Every great achievement of his life thus far had been an epic battle in the drawn-out war against his own nature. Over the years, he’d learned tricks and techniques. Some from the child psychologists his parents had sent him to when he hadn’t outgrown the tantrums his family doctor had assured them he would. Others from a sympathetic school counselor who’d recognized his atypical intelligence and championed him. Most he’d taught himself, after enduring years of frustration and boredom as the world around him trudged past, out of phase and so slow.
His determination had helped him overcome the drawbacks of his personality quirks. It was never easy, but he welcomed a challenge. Nebula was the first issue he’d had to wrestle with for a long time. He’d been complacent. He’d thought that he’d found his groove, had hit a comfortable plateau. So this particular clusterfuck had been a big surprise.
The biggest surprise was that thinking about Nora Bowman had eclipsed even Nebula.
Gabe had shown up at the office the last few days to calm people down. He’d even provided some dummy code to keep his programmers quiet. It would take them at least a couple of weeks to realize it wasn’t going anywhere. By then, maybe he’d have come to a decision about how to proceed.
Right now? He was bored.
The agitated kind of bored that usually sent him running off on any excuse that came to mind, because motion was better than standing still. Yet for once, he was reluctant to leave the city.
He could always call Alex.
Since Alex had found Elle, though, he tried—he really did try—to give them space.
He drummed his fingers again, then drew the keyboard toward him and rattled off a few commands. Why fight it? He was only sitting here rather than going to the gym to stop Bill from freaking out. It wasn’t as if he was working.
Gabe hit enter and waited while the call connected.
“Hello, Mr. Sterling.” Nora’s clear voice came through the speakers.
“Toggle the camera on,” he said. “I want to see you.”
“Hang on. Bear with me.” Nora appeared on his screen. “Is that it? Did I do it right?” She was frowning down at her keyboard. “Can you see me now?” she said.
Gabe sat back. The ever-present tangle of frustration that burned in his chest like his own personal sun eased. “I see you.”
She seemed flustered. It suited her. Her cheeks were pink and she was having trouble deciding where to look—at her screen, the camera, the keyboard. Her lips were a deep red. Had she been biting them?
“You’re doing something,” he said.
“What? No I’m not.” She sat straighter.
“You’re doing something and I caught you at it.”
Her nostrils flared.
“You’re doing something naughty,” Gabe said. “On the computer, that can only mean one thing.”
“Kittens.” She talked over him. “Yes. You caught me.” She heaved a theatrical sigh. “I’m looking at pictures of funny kittens.” Her gaze slid down from the camera to the desktop, then bounced back to his face.
Kittens? Bullshit. “I love funny cat pictures. Any good ones?”
“No. No good ones. I don’t mind telling you, I’m disappointed.”
Hmm. The disappointment was genuine. What was she doing? “So you’re looking at unfunny kittens.”
“They’re funny. Just, nothing stands out.” She choked on the last two words and, to Gabe’s fascination, her pink cheeks darkened into a full blush.
“Let me look. Hold on, we can share screens.”
“Oh, no!” Nora yelped. “No, don’t. It’s private.”
“Nothing’s private, honey. We’ve been over this. You step online, you’re standing on the street in your underwear.”
She shuddered. “That is a recurring nightmare of mine.”
“Really?”
“Except I wish I was in my underwear.”
“Mmm.”
Her gaze flew to his and held.
“Send me a picture,” he said. “Send me the best kitten picture on your screen. Save me the trouble of taking control of your computer and seeing for myself.”
“You know, I’m super busy at the moment. I’ll find one, I’ll choose one, and send it over later today.”
In the distance a door slammed, followed by Anna’s voice.
Nora glanced over her shoulder.
Anna’s voice grew louder as she approached. “…the hell are you looking at?” she said. “Porn on your own time, Nora. And never in the office. I’m not paying you to look at pictures of hot tattooed guys.” She swung into view and stopped dead when she saw Gabe.
He smiled.
“Shit.” Anna lunged for the computer and turned the monitor off.
Across town, Gabe sat back with his arms behind his head and continued to watch them. They had no idea he could still see them. It was kind of perverted.
He liked it.
If it had just been Nora, he’d have said something. The woman was not up to speed, technologically speaking. Anna, however, should know that turning off the monitor wasn’t going to do a damn thing if a tech genius who had already been digging around her system was at the other end.
A tech genius who didn’t need to be in the same room as the computer to take control of it.
Which he’d done the moment he saw Nora’s pink cheeks. Now, he opened up a window, and saw what had gotten Nora all hot and bothered.
He couldn’t stop smiling.
“What are you doing?” Anna stood with her hands on her slender hips, glaring down at Nora. “Are you trying to get us fired?”
“How am I getting us fired? I accepted a Skype call from a client!”
“I’m talking about the porn! It’s because of him, isn’t it? You’re looking at these dodgy pictures because of Gabe Sterling, aren’t you?”
“Yes! I’ve never seen anyone like that.”
“Naked?”
“I’ve seen a naked guy before. Come on. I dated Vince for five years, didn’t I?”
“Five years well spent.”
“Vince does not look like this.” Nora pointed at the screen, and let her hand fall. “Or like Mr. Sterling. I didn’t think anyone looked like Mr. Sterling in real life. But he’s a… He’s a fantasy come to life.”
Gabe didn’t know why she was back to calling him Mr. Sterling, but he was finding it cute. He shifted in his chair. Okay, cute wasn’t the word.
Anna snorted. “I’m not denying his aesthetic appeal, but he’s not the only good-looking guy in San Francisco. I’ve seen a hundred guys like him. Like any of them.” She jerked her chin at the screen. “You can see them all over the place.”
“Tell me where, because I could stand to see them. I think I need to see them. I nearly lost my shit, all because I was a few inches away from him. I’m an intelligent, got-it-together woman, and he turns me into a gibbering idiot. I swear I feel my higher brain functions drain away in his presence. The world stops, and there’s nothing in it but me and him. So where are all these hot guys hiding? I have to build resistance, or I’m going to jump him.”
“It’s not a big secret, Nora. It’s called a gym. You should think about joining one. Then you can sit there on a stationary bike and watch all the men grunt and strain and lift weights to impress the women.”
Nora’s gaze was distant and unfocused. “I’ve never touched actual abdominal muscles,” she said in a dreamy voice.
Gabe touched his own abs.
Anna paused. “When you say you dated Vince…?”
“Yes, we slept together. Come on. I touched him. I touched him a lot.”
Gabe scowled.
Nora continued, “He had a nice body but he didn’t have muscles. Definition. I didn’t miss them, because I didn’t know what I was missing. You know what I wanted to do when I saw Mr. Sterling’s abs?”
“Same as any other red-blooded woman, I imagine.”
Nora sighed. “What do they feel like? I’m assuming you know.”
“Yeah, I know. They feel great.”
“I bet his feel great.”
“They do.”
Nora spun the desk chair and bumped into Anna’s knees. “Oh my God. You didn’t…? You two haven’t…? Ew. Now I feel weird.”
“No, I didn’t and I haven’t. My friend Amber did. Said he was an absolute maniac in bed.”
Amber? Gabe didn’t recognize the name, but he was pleased she’d had a good time with him. He decided to be optimistic and assume that’s what she’d meant by a maniac.
“What do you mean, a maniac?” Nora said, her voice high. “Like…? No, I can’t guess. What do you mean?”
“She said it was like being screwed by three men at once.”
“Why? How? What the hell did he do to her?”
“I don’t know! I didn’t ask for a play-by-play. We’re not that close. Where is all this curiosity coming from? Are you sure you don’t have a list in that Filofax? Please don’t embark on your sexual odyssey right now. I need you focused on the job. Besides, you’ll do it wrong and end up in hospital. Or jail. Your mother will blame me.”
“I will not do my sexual odyssey wrong. I’m not on a sexual odyssey. It sounds exhausting. I’m too old. I’m off men. I don’t even have a sexual odyssey list.”
Yeah, she could deny it all she wanted, but she had a list. It had been puzzling Gabe since he’d seen the word odyssey when her Filofax fell off her lap in his warehouse. He’d wanted to read through the planner badly to start with.
Now he hungered for it.
The list had been only a couple of items long. He could fill a page and a half without even trying. And he’d love to volunteer.
“Stop thinking about him, Nora,” Anna said. “You cannot think about that man.”
“Why not? I thought about him most of last night. The last three nights.”
“Nora.”
“Not like that! Ew. I wouldn’t tell you that. You’re my baby cousin. I was trying to say that he scares the crap out of me, all right?”
Gabe blinked. He did?
“He’s not scary,” Anna said.
“He’s so out of my league it’s not funny. I can’t concentrate. I can’t get his abs and his pe… I can’t get his abs out of my head. And that—” she held out her hands in a ta-da kind of move, “—is why I was looking at the hot tattooed guys. Exposure therapy.”
“Huh.” Anna cocked a hip. “That may be the best excuse for looking at porn I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s not porn.”
“It’s porn. One of the pictures, the one at the bottom? It was a GIF, Nora. It was moving. Porn.”
“It doesn’t matter. Exposure therapy, aversion therapy, whatever. I was trying to numb my hormones.”
“Did it work?”
“It did until you said the maniac thing. How am I supposed to get over thinking about him and his abs being maniacal in bed? I can’t Google that.”
“Not on my work computer, you can’t. Use your own.”
“I don’t have a computer.”
She doesn’t have a computer? Gabe couldn’t help it. He made a shocked noise.
Nora and Anna froze. “That wasn’t me,” Anna said. “Was it you?”
“No.”
They both stared at the computer. Hand shaking and Tiffany bracelet chiming, Anna reached out. She tapped the monitor back on.
Gabe leaned forward and shut the camera down, disappearing from Nora’s screen.
Anna slumped with relief. “Shit. Can you imagine how embarrassing if he’d been there all along?”
Nora was pale. “You’re not the one who said you wanted to jump him and—”
Someone banged on his office door. Hard.
Gabe watched Anna and Nora turn to face their doorway with puzzled frowns. Fuck. He cut the link, closed the program, and stretched back in his chair, making it creak. He rolled his head against the seat to face his own doorway.
Bill Anderson stood there. “You done getting your ego stroked, pervert? How long have you been spying on that poor woman?”
“Spying? Sounds evil.”
“You are evil.”
“Says the lawyer. I wasn’t spying. I was having a very businesslike conversation when they turned off the monitor in the middle of it. Maybe they were busy. Maybe they put me on hold.”
“You should have said something.”
He grinned. “I know.”
“Ready for the meeting?”
He was ready for everything. Gabe jumped up, stretched his arms overhead, shook them out. “Lead the way.”