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)
I think of what I’ve done, of that call I made, and I lean forward and press my lips to his, but I say nothing. What can I say? What I’ve done is done. I can’t go back, and if it protects this man and my mother, I’ll live with whatever the consequences.
He leans back and stares at me, his eyes narrowing, and I know he senses my secret, he searches for it, but I see the moment he decides he’s paranoid and I wonder: what made him paranoid? What made him question everything?
Who hurt him?
And can two hurt, broken people save each other? Or will we simply shatter into smaller pieces, no longer capable of ever coming together?
He strokes my cheek. “I’m ten shades of ready to be back in the city with you in my apartment.” He leans back into his seat, opens his door, and in a few minutes, we’re inside, helping the team for our flight get Dexter settled.
Once they take him away, I glance at Gabe. “How did you come to be so good with animals and not have one in your life until Dexter?”
“I had a collie when I was a teen and losing him crushed me. I didn’t think I could go through that again.” There is a slice of emotion in his eyes.
Losing that dog really hurt him. He’s so much more than his good humor.
“What was his name?” I ask, focusing on the positive, not the end of their time together.
“Jack.”
“Why Jack?” I ask.
“Because Reid hated the name and Jack in the Box was on every corner. My Jack. My Box. That’s what I told Reid because Reid had his own dog.”
“Sibling love,” I laugh. “Were you two close growing up?”
“Closer than you might think, considering the adult version of our lives.”
“But you work together and I’ve heard you interact. You two seem very close.”
“More so now than in the past.”
He offers nothing more and I turn to look at him. “This is where I drop the topic because you said nothing more.”
He stares forward for several beats, unmoving, more steel than man, and then he’s looking at me, his hand on my shoulders, pulling me closer. “I’ve trained myself to shut people down. It’s what I do. If you want to know something, ask. If I don’t want to talk about it, I’ll tell you. As for me and Reid, we’ve both waded through a lot of shit in the past, more when our mother died a few years ago than ever. We worked. We worked some more. We shut everyone out, including each other.”
I have ten million new questions to ask him, but I know deep inside that if he shares this with me, if he goes deeper into this story, it will hurt him. We need to be somewhere alone, where that pain can be shielded from the world. Where we can share pieces of ourselves without an airport audience. I need to protect him the way he wants to protect me. And he does. I sense that in him. And that’s the entire point in all that I’ve done. I want to protect him. I don’t want to hurt him. I want to save him now, more than ever.
We need to be alone.
We need to be with each other.
We came together for a reason.
The end of evil. The beginning of something good: us, I think. I think me and this man really are good and it’s wonderful and terrifying. So very terrifying, because who is going to keep me from getting hurt except him? And what if he’s the one who hurts me?
Chapter forty-six
Gabe
Gabe
I don’t know what this woman is doing to me, but I don’t even recognize the me of recent days. Hell, I don’t even know that I want to recognize the me of the recent past. These are the thoughts I have during the chopper ride back to the city, with my hand on her leg or holding her hand every second of the ride. When have I ever needed to touch a woman just to touch her?
By the time we land in the city, I’m ready to have her to myself and naked, but I don’t want a time limit on those desires. Thus why I’m quick to load us into a hired car and head to her apartment.
Once we’re there, Abbie turns to me. “I’ll go up alone.”
“Not happening.”
“Dexter—”
I lean forward and talk to the driver, palming him money and settling that problem quickly. I ease back into my seat. “Dexter now has a babysitter.”
“Gabe—”
“I’ll come around to get you.” I get out of the vehicle and by the time I’m at the opposite side of the SUV, Abbie is outside and shutting her door. “Gabe,” she starts again.
I kiss her. “Abbie,” I say softly, inhaling her sweet floral scent. “Let’s go upstairs so I can fuck you here and then later all over again.”