Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
“Are we getting out of the elevator?” I challenge.
He pushes off the wall and not only does he exit the car, he pulls me close and takes me with him, but the minute we’re in the hallway, he releases me, leaving me cold and—cold. I’m just cold. This man heats me up and turns me to ice, all in the same thirty seconds. I start the short walk. I don’t look at him, but I’m so aware of him, of his big, perfect body, of his temper, of his desire. He wants me, too.
I reach my door and when I pull my key out, he takes it from me, the touch of our hands electric, a sizzling connection that slides up my arm and across my chest and settles low in my belly. He opens the door and allows me to enter.
I never get the chance to take more than two steps into my loft before the door shuts and he’s right behind me, a force that radiates through me, consumes me. I can feel him looking around my humble abode that is just one large brick-lined room with an open kitchen and a separate bathroom.
I head toward my closet and he catches my wrist and turns me, walking me to him, stepping into me. “It’s him or me,” he says. “I don’t share. Choose now.”
My defenses are instant, his demand extreme, and yet, now I get why I was turned on by his anger in the elevator, why I still am. He’s jealous and it only makes me want him all the more. This probably speaks of me being way more messed up in the head than I’d like to admit, but this man wanting me this badly feels good. It feels right. He’s nothing like Kenneth. He’s nothing like any man I’ve ever known. I want him to want me like this and yet, alarm bells go off in my head. Possessive men are dangerous as my ex proved over and over. As he still does.
I can’t fall this hard, this fast for this man. I can’t fall at all. “You don’t know me well enough to make that demand,” I say.
He stares at me and then shocks me by releasing me and starting to walk—to the door. He’s going to leave if I don’t stop him.
Chapter twenty-five
Gabe
I don’t know what it is about this woman that makes me crazy, but she does. And I don’t do crazy. And sharing is fucking crazy. I don’t share. I cross the small loft that she now calls home after living as a billionaire’s wife, and I could use that information any number of ways. I’m about to process at least a few of those ways, when she steps in front of me, her hands flattening on my chest. “You do know that we just met, right?”
“What’s your point, Abbie?”
“You’re almost asking for a commitment, and I barely know you.”
“And your point?”
“I barely know you.”
An excuse I don’t like. “I’ll meet you downstairs.” I try to step around her and she closes her fingers around my shirt.
“Gabe. Please don’t do this.”
“Do what, Abbie?”
I’m back to processing her small loft, and how easily that could make her want her old lifestyle back. Maybe she hated her ex when she signed up for this place, and changed her mind.
“I don’t want him,” she says, her gaze lowering and then lifting. “I can’t fall for you, Gabe. I can’t and telling you I want just you says that’s what I’m doing. I’m not doing that.”
She’s not doing that.
Fuck.
Why do I care?
“I’ll meet you downstairs.” This time, I set her aside and head for the door.
“Damn it, Gabe!” she yells after me. “Stop. Please, stop.”
I stop. I can’t seem to fucking help myself but I don’t turn around. She steps in front of me, close, so damn close I can smell how flowery and sweet her scent is. The scent I want all over my body, quite possibly for the rest of my life, and that thought scares the shit out of me.
“Until I kissed you in the bar,” she says. “I didn’t want to kiss anyone. I was removed. I was afraid I was cold and I’d never warm up. I was afraid I’d never want a man again. So, do I want you? God, yes. Do I want anyone else? No, I don’t but that scares the hell out of me. I can’t dive in head first. I need to toe in and as it is, I’m waist deep. If that’s not good enough for you, then—”
I drag her to me. “I don’t dive in, Abbie. Ever. At all. And yet here I am, nose fucking deep, and if you don’t get there with me pretty damn quick, I’ll leave before I let you drown me.” I kiss her hard and fast and then release her. “Dexter and I are going to walk off some steam. I’ll see you downstairs.” This time, when I release her, she lets me go, and I escape. And it is an escape. I’m crazy about this woman and that hasn’t happened to me for a very long time. I didn’t want it to ever happen again.