WHEN I COULDN’T take the silence any longer, I spoke.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, Mama.”
She sighed. “I’m thinking two of my sons are trying to kill their mother.”
I laughed. “Why?”
“One girl is Irish, now the other is Italian. Nicholaus, we can find you a nice Greek girl. Why must you settle on . . . on this one. Italian? That’s worse than Irish!”
The grip on my steering wheel tightened. “Because I like this one. Mama, why is it so damn important for you that I marry a Greek girl? Do you not love Kilyn?”
She huffed.
“Mama?”
“Of course I love Kilyn. She makes your brother very happy, and she has given me a beautiful granddaughter whom I love very, very much.”
“Even though she is half Irish?”
Her head snapped to look at me. “I don’t look at Kira like that!”
“Then why do you look at Kilyn and Gabi that way, Mama?”
Her eyes narrowed at me. “Why can’t you find a Greek woman? Why Italian?”
“Because the first moment I met Gabi, something happened that has never happened to me before. Never, not with a Greek girl, not with any girl.”
Her look of frustration turned to a look of surprise. “What are you saying, Nicholaus?”
I pulled into my parking spot and turned to face my mother. Taking her hand in mine, I kissed the back of it.
“I’m saying that I’ve never felt this way before, and I really want to see where this goes. Please don’t do anything to try to push Gabi away.”
She swallowed hard. “You really care for this girl?”
“I really do. I’m falling in love with her.”
With a gasp, she covered her mouth. Then tears formed in her eyes. “Oh, my baby is falling in love!” She looked up and started rattling off in Greek before she finally glanced back at me.
“Do you think she would take a DNA test?”
My smile dropped. “What for?”
With a shrug, she stated, “She might have a bit of Greek in her.”
I rolled my eyes and got out of my truck. This wasn’t going to be easy.
Gabi’s front door was cracked open when I walked up to it. Pushing it open, I called out, “Gabi? Charity?”
I heard a voice coming from the balcony outside.
As I got closer, I realized it was Gabi’s voice.
“I understand how this works. I’ve been doing it for six years now. No, I don’t think so.”
Her voice was different. Cold, on edge. Whoever she was talking to, they made her feel on guard.
“I’m just as tired of this as you are. Believe me.”
Not wanting to eavesdrop, I cleared my throat and Gabi jumped then spun around. Her somber face was quickly replaced with a huge smile. Her eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning.
“That’s fine. I need to let you go.”
She hit End and pushed her phone into her back pocket.
“Hey,” she said softly.
I walked up to her and pulled her into my arms. “I missed you.”
“You’ve only been gone for an hour.”
“That’s too long.”
With a giggle, she buried her face into my chest. I could feel the stress releasing from her body as I held her to me.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
Pulling her head back, her eyes searched my face. I swore it looked like she wanted to tell me something, but she smiled and replied, “It is now that you’re here.”
“You seemed a little tense when I walked up. I wasn’t listening to your conversation, but I could tell you were on edge.”
“It’s nothing. Business stuff.” She tried to give me a reassuring smile, but I wasn’t fully buying it. “So, does your mom hate me?”
I laughed. “Actually, she invited us to dinner again since we had to cancel.”
Gabi’s face fell. “On no! I never told Kilyn dinner was not happening tonight.”
Cupping her face in my hands, I grinned. “I called Thano when everything happened at the bakery. I forgot to tell you Kilyn said to call her. I’m sure she’ll want a play-by-play of how that all went.”
Gabi laughed nervously. “That was crazy. I’m curious to see who this person is who ordered all those cakes.”
The sound of the front door shutting had us both turning to look back into the living room. Charity walked by and Gabi immediately headed in.
“Where were you, Charity?” Gabi called out, anger lacing her voice.
Charity stopped walking. “What?”
I couldn’t help but notice she looked a little confused. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes seemed like she was lost in another world.
“You left to run an errand and never came back! We had an emergency at the bakery and Max had to call me.”
Narrowing her eyes, Charity replied, “Max always has a damn emergency.”
“Well, I just spent the last few hours baking thirty lemon mascarpone cakes with Nic’s mom! Not how I really wanted to get to know the woman.”
Charity glanced over to me and pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh.
“So?” Gabi asked, her hands now resting on her hips. She looked so damn cute standing there all pissed off. I wanted to drag her off to her bedroom and sink deep inside of her.
“Sooo? What?”
“Charity! Where were you?”
“I am um . . . I ran an errand and then got caught by someone I know and we got to talking and I totally lost track of the time.”
“Was your phone off? We called you.”
She looked between Gabi and me before focusing back in on Gabi. “I lost my phone. I must have left it somewhere.”
Something was off. Charity was nervous as hell. She could hardly look at either one of us.
“I’ve got a massive headache, if you don’t mind, I need to go lay down.”
Gabi and I both watched as she walked into her room and slowly shut the door.
“Is she okay? Something didn’t seem right,” I asked.
Gabi stared at the door. “I’m not sure. I hope she is okay. She’s never lost her phone before. It’s like her safety beacon. I think she needs it to breathe.”
I laughed and pulled her over to me. “So, we have the evening to ourselves. What do you want to do?”
She pulled her lip in between her teeth. “Would you be upset if I said I wanted to stay in? I’m exhausted.”
Lifting my hand, I brushed her blonde hair behind her ear. “As long as I’m with you I don’t care where we are.”
When she smiled my knees felt weak. “How about I pour you a glass of wine and you sit on the sofa. I’ll massage your feet.”
Her eyes lit up. “Oh, my gosh, that sounds like heaven.”
Slapping her on the ass, I motioned for her to sit down while I headed into her kitchen. I had remembered where her wine glasses were from our first date when she made me dinner.
I grabbed two wine glasses and set them on the counter. Glancing down, I saw the itinerary for her trip to Italy.
“You excited about your trip to Italy?”
Her head whipped to look at me. “What? Why do you ask?”
Jesus she was on edge. “I saw your itinerary and I know you had mentioned you were looking forward to going.”
Her face relaxed and then finally her body did as well. “Oh right. I am looking forward to going back. I’ll be worried about the bakery though.”
Handing her a wineglass, I winked as I sat down next to her. “I’m sure Charity will take care of the bakery.”
After she took a sip, she frowned. “She was nowhere to be found today. If I hadn’t had been here, what would have happened?”
“Max would have told the customer it was too short of a notice, but that next time they needed something to please keep your bakery in mind.”
The corners of her mouth pulled up into a beautiful smile. “You’re right. If I hadn’t had the lemon curd made up, we wouldn’t have been able to do it, anyway.”
“Right.”
She took another sip. “Do you think it was sort of a test? I mean seriously . . . who needs that many cakes?”
Laughing, I shook my head and reached for her foot. She’d already kicked her shoes off. “Someone having a party, large dinner, a company. I could think of a hundred things.”
We both set our glasses on the coffee table. Gabi slid down on the sofa while I took both feet and began massaging them.
“Mmm, that feels heavenly.”
Her eyes closed and her lips slightly parted open. My dick was getting harder by the second.
I pushed a little harder and she gasped before letting out another moan.
“I think we should move this to your bedroom.”
Opening her eyes, she asked, “Why?”
With a half grin, I replied, “Because I want your ass naked so I can give you a proper massage, that’s why.”
Gabi giggled and pulled her feet from my lap. Standing, I took her hand and led her to her bedroom. My heart was pounding like it always did when I was with this woman. She did crazy things to not only my body, but my heart as well.
When I shut the bedroom door, Gabi pulled her shirt over her head. My hands cupped her breasts while my thumbs rubbed her nipples through the thin lace bra.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
We both froze. “Fuck,” I angrily said.
Gabi closed her eyes and sighed. “Terrible timing.”
Cupping her face within my hands, I kissed her. Our tongues danced hungrily as I pulled her body closer. Deepening the kiss, we were lost in each other. If I thought I could go fast, I’d have taken her right then.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
“Goddamn it, I want you, Gabi.”
Her hands moved down my back and over my ass where she squeezed me and pushed her hips into my dick.
“Come back by when you’re done.”
My forehead rested on hers as I pulled my pager out. “It could be hours.”
“I don’t care.”
“You know the rule. Don’t take care of yourself.”
She smiled as her fingers traced along the stubble on my jaw. “I promise I won’t.”
I kissed her quickly again before pulling out my pager then my phone. My heart sank knowing I was leaving my sweet Gabi.
Calling in, I told Oliver I was on my way.
“There’s a hostage situation happening.”
Her eyes widened in fear. I kissed the tip of her nose. “It’s okay, baby. I’ll call and check in, but if you don’t hear from me, don’t worry.”
She nodded, but I knew what I was asking was impossible.
“Gabi, if my job is going to—”
She lifted her fingers to my lips. “It’s not. I can’t help but worry and I’m sure I will always worry. But your job will never keep me away from you.”
Smiling, I pulled her closer and kissed her softly.
I pulled back and looked into her eyes one more time. I asked, “Are you sure everything is okay, Gabi?”
The way she looked at me, I knew she was holding back something. I wasn’t going to push her though. She’d tell me whenever she was ready, whatever it was.
“Everything’s fine.”
One more kiss and I was heading to my truck. I couldn’t stop thinking of those sweet, soft lips pressed against mine. Or the way her hands felt moving over my body.
Shaking my head, I tried to clear my thoughts. I needed to have a clear head and couldn’t afford a distraction. I made a mental note to talk to Oliver about Gabi.
By the time I got to the station and in the briefing room, I pretty much had my head clear. The only thing that still bothered me was the fact I knew Gabi was keeping something from me.
Sitting in front of my computer, I typed in Gabi’s name and hit search. I wasn’t sure why I did it, but I sure as hell wasn’t expecting the results I got.