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She straightens. “No. Gabe, I’m not mixing business and personal any more than we already have.” She softens. “But thank you. Your firm is elite and respected. I’d be honored to work there.”
“Then take the job. I won’t be your supervisor.”
“And I’ll be the employee hired by the boss because he’s fucking her.” She shakes her head. “No. No, I can’t be that.”
“You have to make your own name and way. I’ve been around you. I see your spark and your fight, not to mention your passion and intelligence. I’m snagging you before someone else does.”
She reaches out and presses her hand to mine. “Thank you, but I’m sure you can see that I need to do this myself.”
“Do you know how many people would jump on this opportunity?”
“Fuck you and use you, and do so guilt-free because you gave them permission? Yes. I do. That’s not me. That’s not who I want to be with you.”
I can feel this woman soften hard places inside me that I didn’t know could be softened. “You are nothing like I expected, Abbie,” I say, not for the first time. I kiss her hand and thewaitress sets a check down next to us. The minute Abbie looks at it, I scoop it up. “Don’t even think about it. I’m a gentleman.”
“And a player?”
I somber again and quickly. There are things I don’t want to tell Abbie, things I won’t tell her, but that’s not the same as lying and I won’t lie to her. “Yes, Abbie,” I confirm. “I have been a player and I haven’t hidden that from you. Me. Women. Fucking and no commitment. That’s been my story.” I lean closer and add, “I fucked around. I made no promises. I also didn’t bring women to my apartment. I damn sure didn’t bring them to my house in the Hamptons. And I didn’t ask them to dinner. I asked them to fuck, but for the record, no commitment means no commitment. I didn’t cheat on anyone. I’m not Kenneth.” I say that and I mean it. I’m not him. Not in the way we’re talking about right this minute.
She studies me for several long beats and I expect some sort of pushback but it doesn’t come. She eyes the check and then me. “Thank you for the burger and fries.”
The waitress appears to take our check and I quickly hand her my card before arching a brow at Abbie. “That’s all?Thank you for the burger and fries?”
“You did colorfully fill in the blanks.”
The tension in my spine eases and I find my lips curving. “Did I now?”
“About all the things that aren’t all that important.”
“And what exactly is important?”
“The reason you chose to be a player.”
The tension in my spine is back because there it is. The secret I won’t ever reveal. “What’s important,” I say, “isn’t what made me that way. It’s who made me reconsider. And that’s you, Abbie.”
“Why me, Gabe?”
“Because apparently, it took a gorgeous redhead with a fiery temper to undo me.”
Heat waves between us and I lower my voice. “Now, I just need to undo you and I will. That’s my mission in life now. Undo Abbie in every possible way. Tear down your walls. Make you melt for me every time I’m near you. Hell, I want you to melt just thinking about me.”
It’s that moment that my check and card are returned. I barely acknowledge the waitress while I sign the receipt, put away my card, and then lean into Abbie. “Let’s go to the ranch and when we’re done, I’m taking you home to my bed, where you can melt on my tongue. Does that work for you?”
Her lips part and then her teeth scrape her bottom lip. A swallow follows before she says, “Yes. I do believe that works quite well.”
I smile and she gives me a sweet, sexy, almost shy smile in return. God, I’m crazy about this woman and as for my secret. I just need to give her other things to think about, like my tongue.
abbie
Gabe takes my hand and leads me out of the restaurant, heat radiating up my arm with his touch, and over my chest, my nipples puckered. My sex aching with the promise of his tongue. No man has ever talked to me the way Gabe does.Melt on his tongue. The man is incorrigible and yet I’m so aroused when I’m with him, like every second that I’m with him, it’s pretty clear I like it.
And dinner was good, and so is any time I spend with Gabe despite how guarded he is. I let go of the whole karma thing and focus on getting to know the man beneath the humor and smile that he uses to charm the world into seeing nothing more. Butthere is more and I find myself wanting to know this man. So much so, that I don’t believe I can walk away without knowing him. And if he didn’t ultimately want to tell me what causes his bad karma, why would he bring it up?
He wants to tell me.
We settle into the BMW and his hand settles on my leg. I’m lost in this man, just letting the heat between us consume me. The drive is short and we pull into the ranch and I suck in air. There are emergency vehicles everywhere.
Chapter thirty-four
