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)
The girl nods and walks into the room behind her, while Gabe turns to me, his hands on my waist. “I live right across the street in Battery Park, but the opposite side of the park. I’ll get us a car.” He reaches in his pocket, pulls out his phone and punches in something I can’t see. “Five minutes that you don’t get to use to back out.”
“This isn’t smart.”
“Smartest thing I’ve done in a long time.”
“Here’s the coat.”
At this announcement, Gabe kisses me like he can’t stand waiting until we’re out of this moment then reaches for my coat. He undoes me. He drives me crazy. I haven’t had a man kiss me because he couldn’t wait to kiss me later in forever. The butterflies in my stomach are wild and crazy and wonderful. Gabe holds out my Chanel trench coat for me, a coat that is one of the few things I retained from my old life. It represents money and tells a story, but not the one he likely assumes. I turn and slide my arms inside, and when he settles it around me, he leans in and whispers, “You smell like roses tonight.”
Because I used my favorite bath products with a splash of rose-scented perfume and if I’m honest, I did it because I wanted to see him because I wanted him to be this close to me. I turn to face him and his eyes collide with mine with a punch of awareness that steals my breath. His eyes lower to my mouth and linger before lifting. “Why’d you come here instead of to the office?”
“I—” I breathe out, “was uncomfortable showing up to your office after kissing you. I thought you might frequent this place and I could talk to you here.”
“Good call,” he says, and his phone beeps. He pulls it from his pocket. “Our ride is here.” He laces his fingers with mine, holding on as if he thinks I will bolt, and the truth is, I should. I’m pulling this man into dangerous territory, far more so than he knows. He has the right to hear all the facts. I have to talk to him before anything else happens between us.
I hold this thought and vow to make it true, but then we’re in the back of a black sedan and he’s dragging me to him, his powerful thigh pressed to mine, his hand on my face, his breath a warm tease on my lips before he’s kissing me, drugging me with the taste of him, with a demand on his lips. And while I swore I would never let a man demand anything of me again, this man’s passion, his hunger, does demand, and it’s wonderful, it’s addictive, it’s an escape I didn’t know I needed, but I do. I need this. I need him. I can’t seem to stop the assault on my senses, and the burn to just keep kissing him. And kissing him. And kissing him some more.
I’ll tell him about the danger when we get to his apartment before I kiss him again. Before I let him kiss me again.
Chapter five
Abigail
Ireally don’t even know when the car stops moving. Gabe parts our lips, awareness of our arrival washing over me, even as he strokes a strand of hair from my face, tenderness in the touch that he can’t possibly feel for me. He barely knows me, but it doesn’t even matter if it’s real. I just really need to feel this man, to feel something other than this hollow sensation I’ve been feeling.
“Come on,” he whispers, kissing me again before he glances at the driver. “Thanks, Jim.” He exits the car and helps me out, draping his arm over my shoulder, and sets us into motion down a sidewalk, the cold air off the nearby ocean gusting and lifting my hair. I shiver and he pulls me closer, holds me to him, but we don’t speak. We don’t have to speak. We’re just here, together, headed toward his apartment where we both know what we intend, and that sexual tension heats my chilled body.
It’s a short walk before we’re approaching his building. Gabe lets me go for only a flash of a moment to hold the door and then I’m back under his arm while we cross a lobby of shiny floors and high ceilings. Gabe waves to the guard behind the security desk and we cut right to a bank of elevators. A car opens immediately as if the guard did something to ensure it was waiting for us.
Gabe laces his fingers with mine and leads me inside the car, maneuvering me until I’m against the wall by the panel. The doors begin to shut and Gabe steps close, his big body crowding mine, his spicy scent that hints at musk and man, consuming me the way he consumes me. He gives me no room to breathe anything but that scent. He gives me no room to escape, his powerful legs framing mine like they had in the bar bathroom, and then he punches in a floor and a security code. The doors are sealed and his hands cup my face.