CHAPTER FOURTEEN
As he’d requested, she’d dressed fancy.
The fact she looked like a fancy librarian just made his night.
Gabe hadn’t thought Nora could turn him on any harder, but the outfit she’d chosen in an obvious attempt to douse his interest proved him wrong.
Each time he saw her, he wanted her more.
The knee-length black dress was prim, with cap sleeves, silk-covered buttons up the back, and a narrow, retro collar along the modest neckline. She’d teamed it with flats—nothing that might get him going, like heels—and she’d put her pale brown hair up in a sophisticated twist. Most of it. Some was slipping down as he watched.
Nora Bowman fascinated him.
She was warm and sweet, and she still looked at him like there were bars between them. He’d worked out that she was definitely the one in the cage, and he was even more determined to break through.
He wanted to be the one who set her free.
Fuck, that was romantic.
Awesome.
Gabe didn’t know why she was resisting the attraction between them, but he was content to let things play out at her speed. For now. To be honest, he was crossing his fingers and hoping she’d jump him, as he’d heard her say to Anna when he’d caught her looking at porn.
While he was an optimistic man, however, he didn’t think tonight was going to be the night.
For a start, when he’d knocked on her apartment door a moment ago, she’d opened it a crack and sidled out. Then she’d stuck out her hand and given his a brisk shake.
“These are for you,” he said, passing her the extravagant bouquet of yellow roses he’d ordered thirty seconds after making the date. They’d been sitting on his desk, distracting him, all day.
Nora took the roses with a depth of pleasure that told him getting flowers was a novelty. Gabe had to make an effort not to let the strange anger that ran through him at this thought show on his face.
“They’re beautiful,” she said. “And yellow! My favorite color.”
He gave her a thorough, appreciative scan, and made sure that she saw him doing it. “I like your dress.”
“What, this old thing?” She looked him dead in the eye. “I’m not being coy. It’s old.”
“It is?”
“I bought it nine years ago. For my grandmother’s funeral.”
“I rate the funeral dress, huh?”
“It’s better than the alternative, trust me. Bridesmaid’s dress,” she added with heavy meaning.
That would have been even better than the librarian/funeral dress. He loved fighting his way through all the layers bridesmaids dresses inevitably had. Nora would have been breathless with laughter by the time he’d gotten to her at the center of it all.
And Gabe passionately wanted to make Nora breathless.
“Are you going to put those in water before we head out?” he asked, gesturing at the flowers she held between them like a flaming sword.
“Yes. Good point.” She unlocked the door and squeezed back in, shutting it in his face.
By the time she reappeared, he’d straightened out his grin. “Shall we go?” he said.
“Yep.” She put an end to any more chitchat by rushing him down the stairs and driveway and into his car. She didn’t even give him a chance to get her door.
“This is a really nice car,” she said once she’d stopped fiddling with the purse on a long strap that didn’t even begin to approach matching her dress. Or her shoes. Or the woven serape she’d wrapped around her shoulders.
“Aston Martin.”
Nora arched her back away from the seat to sit bolt upright, gazing around the interior with wide eyes.
Gabe cut her a glance. “Relax.”
“I’m relaxed.”
He wanted to reach over and poke her in the arm, see how loud she screamed, prove that she was wound tighter than a spring. Somehow, he controlled himself. When he made her scream the first time, he had a whole other scenario in mind.
“Would you care to relax against the seat?” he said. “It’s what it’s there for.”
“I don’t want to damage the leather. My buttons might scratch it.”
“Please.”
She sat back. Didn’t relax.
In fact, she didn’t relax at all during the whole date. He wasn’t sure if this was part of her plan, or if she genuinely was that uncomfortable in the restaurant he’d taken them to. He had the suspicion she was, in fact, that uncomfortable.
She did nothing but ask him questions about work and make up a whole lot of crap about interior design whenever he tried to direct the conversation back to her. Frustrated, recognizing a failure when he saw it, Gabe gave in and called it done.
They were back at her apartment a record two hours after he’d first arrived. Nora seemed pretty pleased with herself.
She thought the evening was over.
Knowing she’d try to leap out of the car without even giving him the chance to be the gentleman his mother had raised, Gabe angled out and beeped the locks. He took his sweet time sauntering around the hood to the passenger side.
Nora was frowning as she tugged at the handle. He made a show of beeping the locks open, and her frown devolved into a scowl. He held out a hand, and when she placed hers in it, he yanked her out.
“Well,” she said. “You must be ready to hit the sack. Long flight. Busy day. Great food.”
“Was it? You inhaled it so quickly, I wasn’t sure you had the chance to taste anything.”
“It was superb. Especially the crème brûlée.” A conflicted expression flitted over her face. “It was kind of you to go to the trouble. And the expense.”
“Don’t,” was all he said. Yeah, she’d been messing with him all night, and now she was feeling guilty.
Made him an asshole to do this, but he was flexible. He could be a gentleman and an asshole. “Shame we missed out on coffee.” He yawned, stretched, and shook out his arms.
She regarded him. “Jet lag?”
“Yeah.” He’d been in Portland. “I’ll be fine when I get some sleep.”
“Since I don’t want that happening when you’re still behind the wheel of this very nice car—” she reached out to pat it but stopped short of making contact with the paintwork, “—do you want a coffee before you drive home?”
“What a good idea.”
He followed her to the porch, where she stopped suddenly. He bumped into her, steadying them both with a hand to her hip. Her breathing picked up but she stayed facing forward to say, “Coffee as usual, though. Our usual thing. Friendly coffee. Not date coffee.”
“No sex. Got it. Not sure I could bring my A-game anyway. What with being jet-lagged.”
Unless Nora gave him the slightest hint she’d worked through whatever was going on in her head. In that case, he’d bring every last ounce of game he had.
She led him up the narrow stairs to her apartment and flung the door wide, gesturing him in. “Welcome to my humble abode.”
“Ladies first.”
He walked in behind her, his eyes hot on the back of her neck. Her hair was falling in wisps at the sides. The vulnerable bump at the top of her spine was exposed.
And those prim little buttons went all the way down to the top of her butt.
Gabe wanted to undo every single one of them very, very slowly, until she was begging him to rip the dress off. He could make her do it, too.
He sighed.
But not tonight.
~ ~ ~
Nora left Gabe in the living room and darted through to the kitchen to fill the reservoir of her new Keurig single serve coffee maker.
She was feeling guilty. In way over her head, and guilty.
He’d dressed up for her. He was devastating enough in the jeans and tee she normally saw him in.
Or in nothing but his tattoos, her favorite look.
Standing there with a bunch of yellow roses, in black slacks and shirt, sleeves as always rolled over his muscled, colorful forearms, he’d been unreal. She’d been torn. Jump him, or run back into her apartment and slam the door, because if he got any deeper under her skin she was in serious trouble.
He’d dressed up, he’d taken her to an off-the-charts glamorous, expensive restaurant which gave her palpitations, and he’d been nothing but attentive and charming.
She was praying for the date to end.
For the first time in her life, Nora found herself in a unique position. She’d chosen her outfit to be smart but as plain as possible. The flash in his green eyes when he’d seen her told her she’d failed, because he liked it.
A lot.
She’d tried to be as polite and boring as possible—not a big stretch—but all he’d done, all night, was regard her with focus and fascination.
Nora was trying to extinguish the chemistry between them that she kept denying…and she was failing. On all counts.
His usual laid-back manner had changed. It was subtle, but there was something about the way he held his body when he was close to her. Like he was waiting for… She didn’t know what he was waiting for. If it was a sign, she had to be careful not to give it but, honestly? She was so hot and bothered around him, there was a strong possibility of that sign being her leaping into his arms.
She’d have a real problem pretending she wanted to keep things platonic after that.
The coffee maker sputtered to a finish and Nora switched out the cups to make herself one. She didn’t even bother making it a decaf. She wasn’t going to sleep tonight, anyway.
She heard him moving around in her living room, and then the footsteps stopped and she heard instead the faint patter of Sunshine’s tail on the floorboards.
“Hey there,” Gabe said in a soft, low voice that lifted all the downy hairs on her arms.
His greeting was followed by the scrabble of claws on the floor.
“Come on, buddy. Come say hi. Come on… Oh. Sweetheart. Come on, sweetheart.”
Then silence.
Nora carried their coffee to the living room. Gabe was on the couch with Sunshine cradled in his arms like a baby, despite her size. His face shone with delight.
Nora set their cups on the coffee table. “I’m not sure you’re supposed to hold dogs like that.”
“She likes me! She climbed into my lap. She likes me!”
“Why are you so surprised? You’re likable.”
He gave a hollow laugh. Sunshine leaned her head back on his shoulder and swiped a long pink tongue up the side of his neck. Gabe looked thrilled.
Nora perched on the edge of the low table in front of the man and dog, her knees almost touching Gabe’s. She swung one in to nudge him gently. “You’re the most likable person I’ve ever met.”
His eyes pinned hers. “The fact you see me that way is one of the many things that makes you a treasure among women, Nora Bowman.”
She shook her head at him, then at Sunshine. “My dog is a hussy.”
“Your dog is perfection. What’s her name?”
“Sunshine.”
“Good name.” He rubbed her belly.
Nora looked away, took a hurried sip of coffee and nearly choked on it.
Gabe rolled the dog off his lap and she snuggled against his thighs instead. He held out a hand to Nora.
For a moment she wondered if it was her turn to climb into his lap, but before she embarrassed herself and went for it, she remembered the coffee.
Right.
“Here you go.” She passed it over. Gabe kept stroking Sunshine’s head and the dog groaned with approval. “Why are you surprised she likes you?” Nora asked.
“I was starting to think I’m a cyborg.”
She laughed.
“It would explain a lot,” he said.
“Not to me.”
“Didn’t you ever watch The Terminator?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Dogs can tell when whether someone is a cyborg pretending to be human, or the real thing.”
“Let’s pretend that cyborgs are real and not technology from the future that no one has created yet—”
Gabe buried his face in his coffee cup. “Let’s,” he agreed.
“—why would you be one?”
“Guess I’m used to being given the cold shoulder. My buddy, Alex, has a dog. Gargoyle. That animal has been messing with me for years. To be fair, Gargoyle has a boatload of behavioral issues and everyone keeps telling me not to take it personally, but he knows me, damn it. And every time he sees me, he treats me as if I’m a serial killer. Unlike this angel.”
Sunshine was drooling on his pants, one of her ears inside out and showing the vulnerable, pale pink interior.
“Why don’t you have a dog of your own?” Nora braced a hand on Gabe’s hard thigh as she leaned over to flip Sunshine’s ear the right way. His eyes were hot when she straightened, and she snatched her hand off his leg.
“Commitment,” he replied. “Not my strong suit.”
It should have sounded like a warning to her, but it didn’t. He sounded conflicted.
“You can’t commit to a dog?”
“Honey, I can’t commit to a houseplant.” He shrugged. “Gargoyle isn’t the only one with behavioral issues. I have…problems…concentrating.”
Not that she’d noticed.
“I don’t trust myself to get a dog,” he said. My concentration problems? They’re kind of atypical. I can’t concentrate, until I do. When I do, the world falls away. I’ve got nothing to give. It doesn’t seem fair to do that to someone who might care about me.” He looked down at Sunshine, still gently petting her.
He was denying himself something he wanted because he thought he wasn’t good enough? Nora could identify with that. She didn’t, however, believe for a second that Gabe would ignore or neglect anyone or anything that depended on him. It was the first hint of insecurity she’d ever seen in him, and it only made him more appealing.
As if he could be any more appealing than this, sprawled on her couch, petting her dog, watching her in silence.
Nora realized with a start they were staring at each other again, but she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes from his.
He broke the silence. “I think it’s time for you to tell me the story.”
“What story?”
“The one about asshole Vince and his surprise wife. Thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you? I didn’t forget.”
“It’s boring. A boring old break-up. Nothing special.” Nora took a gulp of coffee. “Why do you want to know?”
“We’re on a date. It’s a get-to-know-you thing.”
She drained her coffee—ouch, hot—and set the cup down with a sharp clink. “Date’s wrapping up. Next time, maybe?” Hah. There wasn’t going to be a second date.
Gabe narrowed his eyes and studied her long enough that she wondered if she’d said that last bit out loud.
“I was going to bring it up over dinner,” he said, “but you know how that went. Couldn’t get a word in edgewise.”
Yeah. She’d monopolized the conversation. Man, that had been tough.
“I want your story, Nora. I have this thing about getting what I want. And,” he added before she could protest, “I feel invested. What with holding you in my arms while you sobbed like the world was ending.”
“You play dirty.”
His face was serious. “Always, honey. Do well to remember that. Now. Let’s hear it.”
She took a deep breath. “It’s possible that I might not have handled the break-up in quite the mature fashion I indicated.”
He began to smile.
“I might have gotten drunk and…” Her shoulders slumped. He lifted his chin an encouraging inch. Go on. “Vandalized his dream house.”
“I am deeply shocked.” Gabe’s tone said he wasn’t shocked at all. “Did you set something on fire?”
“That would be irresponsible.”
“Okay. You kept your vandalism responsible. What’s that look like, responsible vandalism?”
“Responsible is pushing it. I, uh, got drunk and there was this can of spray-paint hanging around so I called a taxi and went over to his house and I sprayed something on it.”
He rolled his wrist. Tell me more.
She bit her lip. “It was a rude word.”
“Ah. You know, you’re going to have to actually say the word.”
“It wasn’t all that rude. I used an asterisk instead of the letter ‘O.’”
“A masterful disguise, I’m sure. What was it, Nora?”
“Does it even matter? It was rude, the neighbor saw me when he was walking his dog, he called Vince, he called the cops, all very embarrassing, the end.”
Gabe moved the snoring Sunshine’s head off his lap and settled her against the couch cushions. He slid forward until the insides of his knees pressed to the outsides of Nora’s. Wrapping long fingers around her thighs he held her, his grip light but firm. “There’s more.”
“Melissa sweet-talked the cops and collected me from jail. The end.”
He shook his head slowly. “More.”
“I left town, went on a two-month road trip, landed in San Francisco. The end. Another coffee?”
His hands didn’t move but he looked down at where they rested on her thighs with such concentration it felt like he stroked her. “The word?”
“Why does it matter?”
“It matters because I find your word kink enchanting.”
“I don’t have a word kink.”
“You want me to get anatomical with you again? Hmm. Penis got you all hot and bothered. What would happen if I said—”
“Okay! I may have a tiny word kink. I’m a visual person. I hear it, I see it. Sue me.”
He shook her knees. “The word.”
Her cheeks heating until they throbbed, she muttered, “…sucker.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “What-sucker?” he asked.
“Four-letter word. Begins with a ‘C.’”
“Go on, now,” he said. “Finish it. Or I’ll make you mad, and then you’ll be screaming it at me full volume.” He reached out and touched her cheek with a light flick. “My repressed little volcano.”
“Cocksucker,” she said. “All right? Cocksucker.”
He tipped his head to the side.
“Now you have nothing to say? Gabe?” She put her hands over his. “Gabe?”
He sighed. “I didn’t think you’d say it.”
“You wanted me to say it.”
“I surely did. I didn’t think you would, though.” His hands turned under hers and he stood, pulling her to her feet with him. He looked down, his eyes dark and intense, mouth tight. He swept a strand of hair from her eyes, smoothing it behind her ear with great precision.
Nora’s breath came short. “I’m not having sex with you,” she blurted, startling him out of the thoughts that had taken over his fun, teasing mood.
That almost-dimple flickered in his cheek. “Not tonight,” he agreed, and walked her sideways until they cleared the narrow gap between the table and the couch. He continued to back her toward the door.
“Not at all,” she said. “It’s not a good idea.”
“We’ll see.” He reached around her and opened the door. Then he lifted her up off her feet and against his hard body for a shocking moment, turned them in a half-circle so that he was standing in the open doorway, and set her back down.
He didn’t let go. One hand curled at the nape of her neck and his thumb rubbed against the top button of her dress. “Probably I should get a kiss goodnight, don’t you think?”
“I’d hate to lead you on.” Nora did a terrible job of covering the full-body spasm that shot through her when his thumb slipped below the collar to brush over the top of her spine.
His hand tightened briefly before he released her. “Kiss on the cheek?”
“High five?” she countered.
He grinned. “Noogie?”
She opened her mouth but before she replied, he pinched her chin. “You’re so damn cute,” he said, and left.
“Thanks for the date,” she called after him.
He lifted a hand, and disappeared down the stairs.
Nora ran to the window and watched him slide into his shiny black Aston Martin, pull out into the light traffic, and blend into the night.