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)
She inhales, her lashes lowering, those full lips I’m presently obsessing over parting as she says, “Yes,” and then meets my stare, “I do want to stay with you, Gabe.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” I lean in and kiss her. “Let’s eat. You’re going to need your energy and so am I.”
She laughs. “Is that right?”
“Yes. It is.” I wink. “Now, I need something to keep my mind off your nipples under my T-shirt. Tell me about the shelter.”
Her cheeks heat and she laughs. “My God. You’ll say anything.”
“And I’ll do about anything, too.” I wiggle a brow at her and open the pizza box. “I’ll let you think about that one while we eat.”
“I don’t want to think about that one too hard,” she teases and grabs a fresh slice of pizza. “The shelter is a special place. We just had Santa days for the holidays. Kids could meet the dogs and cats and take photos. We had a big charity day as well with donations for the animals. It was really successful.”
“Define successful?”
“Enough to feed the animals for a full month.”
“How many animals are there?”
“A hundred at any given time. We’re no-kill, so we usually stay at full capacity. We can’t take in a lot of new animals, so we’ve been working hard to expand our foster volunteers, but that can be a lot to manage.”
“And you help with all of this?”
“I do.”
“Isn't that a big job? Aren’t you an attorney outside of the shelter?”
“I am. Well, I was. I quit my job a few years back. I then started working for the shelter for free, as well as helping with a variety of charity operations my ex wanted me to help with, free of charge, to make him look good. In essence, I put my career on hold.”
“And now?”
“I saved enough money in the past five years so that I’m fine, but I’ve just sent out my resume, and I’m going to re-launch my career. I’m actually excited about it. I worked for Neal and Newman Brothers as staff counsel before I resigned.”
“Were you good?”
“Yes, I was,” she says firmly. “They want me back, but one of the executives is too close to my ex for that to feel like a good career move. Plus, I’d like to focus on a broader caseload, rather than one massive monster of a company with the same kind of repeat problems. I want to work for a firm.”
“Did you send us a resume?”
She sips from her water and then sets her bottle down. “Actually, yes, before I realized I was going to need to hire your brother, I did, but we’ll pretend I didn’t.”
“No, we won’t,” I say. “No one else gets you. You’ll come to work for us.”
“Gabe, don’t.”
“I’m not letting you go someplace else and compete with me. Come win with me and our team. We’re damn good and—”
“You’re doing it again. I don’t want to be your kept woman. I don’t want that to be us.”
“That’s it,” I say, taking the pizza from her hands and setting it on the plate before I stand up and take her with me. “You don’t get to judge us by you and your ex. You don’t. If you do—”
“If I do what?”
“There’s a price.”
She frowns. “What price? And why do I feel like I’m not going to like the answer.”
“You don’t know me well enough yet or you’d know just how much you’re not going to like my answer.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just know that you can’t take care of me. I need to take care of me. I don’t want money for a job I don’t earn and—”
I pick her up and she yelps as I throw her over my shoulder and start walking toward my bedroom. “Time for that price you must pay,” I say.
“What does that even mean? Put me down. The T-shirt is falling to my neck.”
I squeeze her naked backside that her T-shirt falling has exposed and she grabs my pants. “Gabe.”
“That’s right, sweetheart. Gabe and no one else.” I walk up the stairs leading to my bedroom where I plan to give her plenty of reasons to forget her ex and to remember me.
Chapter twelve
Gabe
Idon’t turn on the light in my bedroom despite how much I want to see Abbie, but I know when someone is hiding. I know when they are finding a comfortable place inside the shadows. For me, that’s laughter and humor, a shelter I hide behind. No one sees the real me. No one gets inside my world, inside my life, but she has. She’s here and she doesn’t understand how significant that is, but she will. She will if she just joins me here, really joins me, which means she stops running. That’s her wall. She runs. She pushes. She shoves. No one gets close to her, but I will. I’m going to tear down every last ounce of reserve she has, expose her in every way. More so, I’m going to make sure she doesn’t regret letting it happen.