So Irresistible

by Lisa Plumley

  “You like it.”

  “I love it.”

  “But since I can’t have you leaving here believing that you’ve beaten me …” With a deliberate look, Gabby raised herself again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, then kissed him.

  He nearly levitated with the joy of it.

  He got instantly hard, too. As hard as Abraham Lincoln’s granite pedestal.

  “Uncle,” Shane rumbled when Gabby had stopped, knowing he was probably dazzle-eyed and witless in her embrace. “I give.”

  “Ha. I knew you’d see things my way,” Gabby told him. Then, with a final wink for Honest Abe, she took Shane’s hand. She nodded for him to hoist her bicycle, then she led them both toward his parked car. “President Lincoln agrees, too.”

  “President Lincoln just got a pervy show.”

  “It wasn’t pervy! It was a few innocent kisses.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” Grinning, Shane stowed Gabby’s bicycle in his trunk. He opened the car’s passenger-side door, then ushered Gabby into her seat. “In my imagination, it was a whole lot more. It was hot.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Gabby watched as Shane slung his carry-on bag in the backseat, then slid into the driver’s seat. “That wasn’t your imagination, Shane. It was me, giving you a promise.”

  “You can get into my mind with a kiss?”

  “Sure, I can. Wanna experience it again?”

  If it involved her kissing him … “Yes, please.”

  Gabby leaned over. She stroked his face, gazed into his eyes, then gave him the sweetest, sexiest, most moving kiss he’d ever experienced. Which was saying a lot, between them.

  “I changed my mind,” he said. “Let’s get a hotel room.”

  “Just hold on.” Looking satisfied, Gabby buckled her seat belt. “Everything good comes to those who wait. Besides, we have all the time in the world.” She smiled at him. “Now.”

  All the time in the world. Shane wasn’t sure what that would be like. But he couldn’t wait to find out. With Gabby.

  “A quickie in the executive lounge at the airport?” he proposed. “I have access. I can bribe the staff to leave.”

  “One of your ‘new leaves’ just fell off the tree.”

  Whoops. “You’re right. Thanks, Jiminy Cricket.”

  “I’m not your conscience.” Sultry-eyed, Gabby looked at him. “I’m your muse. I’m your naughty inspiration.”

  “You’re my love,” Shane said. “I’m about to prove it.”

  Then, putting his car in gear and trying not to break too many speeding laws in the process, he headed toward the airport to start his new life with Gabby.

  Together. Forever. Just the way it always should have been.

  And just the way it always would be, from here on in.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Five weeks later

  Gabriella noticed the first telltale signs of subterfuge while she was still walking hand in hand with Shane toward the brewpub. She dismissed it as a mistaken fleeting glimpse, but she could have sworn she spied Hypo ducking around the corner as she and Shane approached, moving with a speed that suggested her crew member had developed that rarest of all conditions …

  Ants in the pants. It did have speediness as a side effect.

  Grinning over the silliness of that idea, Gabriella squeezed Shane’s hand. Above them, the moon glowed with a brightness that reflected her mood. The trees stretched upward with a sturdiness and evergreen tenacity that made her glad to be back home in Portland. The streets, at such a late hour, were mostly empty, but that didn’t mean Gabriella felt lonely.

  Not with Shane by her side. She never felt lonely now.

  Because Shane understood her. He accepted her. He did everything he could, night and day, to make sure she felt his love. And Gabriella, in return, did all the same things for him.

  Because that’s what true love was all about. Wasn’t it?

  Feeling giddy and a little sunburned, she kept walking. They were almost there. Coolly, she nodded at the brewpub.

  “Everyone’s going to be so surprised to see us,” she predicted. “After all, we weren’t supposed to be back yet.”

  “We could have stayed away much longer.” Equally sunburned and more relaxed than she could remember seeing him, Shane strolled beside her. “I had use of that summer house for two months.”

  “Five weeks were plenty. Believe me.” Gabriella tossed him a grin. “I liked your friend’s private Pacific island, though.” She still couldn’t believe she’d taken such a luxurious and outrageous vacation. But Pinkie had managed Campania capably in her absence, and her dad had stepped in to pick up the slack, too. He’d been reinvigorated by his time off and his investment deal with Shane. “But it can’t be all play and no work.”

  “Why not?” Shane gave her a seductive look. “Playtime with you is the best thing ever. When you do that thing with your hips, it makes me lose my mind. And your mouth is so—”

  “We’re here!” Brightly, Gabriella stopped at the brewpub’s entrance. If Shane kept up his provocative talk, she’d lose interest in joining her crew for after-work drinks altogether. Apologetically, she said, “I really want to surprise everyone.”

  “Let’s make it an early night.”

  “Let’s see if you still want to do that after we go in.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” Shane broke off, canting his head as though listening to something. Listening to nothing. “That’s odd. There’s no music playing. Maybe this place closed down?”

  “Bowser didn’t tell me, if it did.”

  “Lizzy didn’t, either.” Shane frowned at the door, puzzled.

  His assistant had remained in town, Gabriella knew. Lizzy had claimed she needed to take care of some urgent “business.” Gabriella suspected that “business” had to do with a certain pierced and tattooed pizza slinger whose initials were B.Q.

  “Well.” Gabriella shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

  Agreeably, Shane opened the door for her.

  They both stepped inside the darkened brewpub.

  At once, every light in the place flared to life.

  “Surprise!” dozens of people shouted. “Surprise!”

  Everyone rushed forward. Gabriella spotted Pinkie and Hypo, Scooter and Jeremy, Lizzy and Bowser and many more of their friends. They filled the brewpub to capacity. The music thumped on again, making the whole place reverberate with loud beats.

  Caught in the overall festive atmosphere, Shane looked at her, handsome and beloved. “Did you know about this?”

  Grinning without admitting anything, Gabriella pointed. “Look! Pinkie brought a cake. It’s a really huge one, too.”

  They both watched as her cousin brought forward one of her most incredible pastry-chef ’s creations yet. Five rectangular layers high, iced with way too much buttercream, sporting colored sprinkles and a contingent of candles, that cake was …

  “Impressive,” Shane said. “I thought nobody even knew we were coming back early. We were supposed to still be in—”

  He stopped talking, staring intently at the cake.

  Beside him, Gabriella hugged his arm against her, feeling overwhelmed with tenderness and caring and love for him.

  Any second now, Shane would realize this wasn’t a party to welcome him and Gabriella home from the tropics. Almost there …

  Holding her cake, Pinkie reached Shane. Everyone else crowded around, holding beers and wearing bright smiles.

  They started singing the inevitable song. Gabriella joined in, too. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!”

  As they reached the song’s crescendo, Shane finally smiled. He shook his head, his whole face brightened by the lighted candles—the lighted candles that blazed atop his birthday cake.

  “Make a wish!” Jeremy shouted, grinning. “Make a wish!”

  Shane, looking touched and surprised and even a little bit sentimental, glanced at Gabriella. Then, dutifully, he inhaled, preparing to com
plete the ritual and blow out all the candles.

  Before he could, everyone else sucked in huge breaths.

  As one, they blew out the candles. They whooped with glee.

  They gathered around, slapping Shane on the back, giving him good wishes, welcoming him and Gabby back to Bridgetown.

  Amid all the hubbub, Shane seemed perplexed. “Wasn’t I supposed to make a wish and blow out all the candles myself?”

  “Usually,” Pinkie admitted blithely. “At least traditionally.” She aimed a teasing look at Gabriella. “But around here, we do birthdays this way. It means you get lots of extra wishes,” Pinkie explained, “because everyone pitches in.”

  “Hmm. I should have known you’d start your own traditions.”

  “It’s the Grimani way, son,” Gabriella’s dad said as he came over. He hugged Shane, then smiled. “I’m glad everything worked out with you and my little girl.” He hugged her, too. “Happy birthday.”

  As Robert Grimani went with evident relish to join his wife in sampling the enormous cake that Pinkie was now preparing to cut, Shane leaned confidingly nearer to Gabriella.

  “Do you think I should tell them it’s not my birthday?” he asked. “My birthday was four and a half weeks ago.”

  “Do you think we don’t know that?” Beaming, Lizzy put in an appearance. She hugged Shane and Gabriella, too. “I certainly do. I’ve been tracking your birthday for years. I just hadn’t had anyone to throw a party with until we came here.” She waved at Bowser. “Until we met all these weirdos and had a place to belong, that is. Once I saw how well you fit in with everyone at the pizzeria—how proud you were of the work you were doing there—this party was a slam dunk.”

  “This was your secret,” Shane surmised, shaking his head in evident amazement at his assistant. “Your plans for this surprise party were what you were hiding from me all that time.”

  “You’re a hard man to surprise, boss. It took work.”

  “It took love,” Gabriella corrected. “Lots of it.”

  That was true. The proof of it was in all the shining faces of the people surrounding them, still pushing forward to talk with Shane. If he’d never had a home before, he definitely had one now.

  “The only hitch was with Pinkie,” Gabriella confided. “We were planning this party, expecting it to happen earlier—”

  “Aha!” Shane caught her. “You were in on it, then.”

  “—which meant,” Gabriella continued noncommittally but happily, “that Pinkie had to bug out of Campania early one day to work on version 1.0 of that monstrous cake—”

  “That’s version 2.0 over there, I assume?”

  Gabriella nodded. “Because it was going to be a huge undertaking, and Pinkie had to start early. So she took out the pizza dough to warm up way before schedule that day. She thought she was turning down the thermostat to compensate—”

  “Which explains why I saw Pinkie fiddling with it.”

  “—but she accidentally turned up the temperature instead,” Gabriella said. “By the time we both got there, it was too late. The day’s pizza dough was ruined.” She tossed a commiserating look at her cousin. “Pinkie was absolutely wrecked about it.”

  “On the other hand,” Lizzy put in, “when the two of you ran off to an idyllic desert island together, someone had to eat all that version 1.0 cake before it went stale.” She patted her belly. “Let’s just say I’m looking forward to sampling the 2.0 version. I’ll bet it’s new and improved. So it’s all good.”

  Shane glanced at her. “Since when did you get to be so happy-go-lucky?”

  His assistant shifted her glance toward Bowser. “Since I got to know and love the special charms of staying put a while.”

  Gabriella was happy for Lizzy. She was beyond happy for Shane. Giddily, she elbowed him. “You’ve never had a birthday party like this one before. Am I right?”

  “I’m not saying,” Shane told her. But his face revealed everything. As he glanced around at the friends and gaiety surrounding them, he seemed more content than ever. “But I am saying, you just wait a few months till your birthday. You won’t believe the surprises that are headed your way.”

  “Mmm-hmm. You’re going to win the birthday-party-throwing contest?”

  He surprised her by shaking his head. “I already won everything I need to.” Shane pulled Gabriella close, then kissed the top of her head. “Because I have you. That’s all I need.”

  “Awww!” chorused the people surrounding them.

  Feeling her cheeks heat, Gabriella raised her arm to silence her friends, then cleared her throat. “From now on,” she announced firmly, “the new rule is, ‘no awwwwing us’! There’s liable to be a lot more mushy talk where that came from—”

  “Awww!”

  “—and I don’t need all of you calling attention to it like a wandering Greek chorus working in Dolby Surround Sound.”

  “Awww!”

  Her efforts were clearly failing. Giving the crowd her best, most intimidating frown, Gabriella tried to silence them.

  It didn’t work any better than her proclamation had.

  In fact, if anything, her friends’ appetite for sentimental schmaltz only grew more intense.

  “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” the crowd began chanting.

  “Give Shane a big ole birthday kiss!” Scooter yelled, waving his wrinkly fist in the air. “Kiss that man!”

  Gabriella gave her old friend a quelling glance.

  She turned to Shane, all the same. “Happy birthday,” she said in a low voice. “My gift is coming later. In private.”

  Shane’s dark eyes flared. “Hubba-hubba.”

  “I think you’ll find that’s my line?”

  “Hubba-hubba,” he insisted, pulling her nearer. “That’s all I’m saying until you kiss me again. Hubba-hubba. Hub—”

  Gladly, Gabriella pressed her mouth to his.

  The crowd went wild.

  Heart pounding, Gabriella leaned back. She stroked Shane’s cheek. She smiled at him. “Now we’ve done it. We’ve given in to peer pressure. Who knows what will happen from here?”

  Shane smiled back. “Not me. But I can’t wait to find out.”

  Then he took Gabriella’s hand and went to join the party, merging her world with his … and turning both their hearts to one.

  Now and forever.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading So Irresistible!

  I’m so happy to share this story with you. I first met Shane in my holiday-themed romance Together for Christmas—and he intrigued me so much that I just had to find out more about him and where he came from. Once I’d dreamed up Gabriella to go toe-to-toe with Shane (and the whole crazy crew at Campania pizzeria to keep them both hopping), I was off and running. I hope you had as much fun reading about their adventures as I did writing them.

  If you did (and you’re curious about my other books!), please visit my Web site at www.lisaplumley.com. While you’re there, you can check out first-chapter excerpts from all my contemporary, historical, and paranormal romances; sign up for my free new-book reminder service; catch sneak previews of my upcoming books; request special reader freebies; and more.

  By the time you read this, I’ll be hard at work on my next Zebra Books contemporary romance. It’s another Kismet Christmas story, and I can’t wait for you to read it. I hope you’ll be on the lookout for it.

  In the meantime, I love connecting with readers, so I’d be thrilled if you would “friend” me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lisaplumleybooks or follow me at @LisaPlumley on Twitter. See you there!

  Best wishes,

  Lisa Plumley

  The nonna-style pizza that Gabriella and her family make has a thicker crust (almost like Sicilian) and is usually baked in rectangular pans. You could, of course, make these pizzas in round cake pans as well.

  The Grimanis’ dough recipe is a secret, but this one is pretty close. Any store-bought dough will work in a pinch, too, though it might not be as
bready. Your local pizzeria might sell you some of its dough if you want something fresh without having to wait for the yeast to rise.

  Pizza Dough

  3½ cups all-purpose flour

  2 tsp. salt

  1 tsp. instant yeast

  ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

  12½ oz. (a little over 1½ cups) water, warm but not hot

  1. Whisk flour, salt, yeast, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a bowl until combined. Add water and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough is thoroughly mixed and you don’t see any dry flour. It will be a wet dough and should pull away from the sides but might still stick to the bottom of the bowl.

  2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 8 hours at room temperature.

  3. Pour the rest of the olive oil into a 13-by-18-inch rimmed baking sheet (or split between 3 to 4 cake pans, depending on diameter) and brush it over the entire inner surface (including up the sides) with a pastry brush or your fingers. Transfer the dough to the baking sheet or pans and rub the top surface with excess oil. Cover the baking sheet or pans with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for another 2 hours. It should spread out to nearly touch the sides of the pan.

  4. Before assembling pizzas, preheat oven to 550°F.

  5. Remove the plastic wrap from the dough. Using oiled hands, gently work the dough into the corners of the pan by stretching it beyond the edge of the pan. It should pull back until the pan is just filled with dough. Be careful to not punch it down and lose the air bubbles.

  6. Assemble pizzas with chosen toppings and bake 15 to 20 minutes. The bottom (and edges) should be golden and crisp, and the top will be bubbling with cheesy goodness. Allow to cool a few minutes before cutting and serving.

  Note: I like to mix a little dried oregano and dried chopped garlic into the dough for some extra flavor!

  Basic Tomato Sauce

  In a food processor or blender, puree together a 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes; a tablespoon of olive oil; and a teaspoon each of salt, ground black pepper, and dried oregano.

  You can top your pizzas with whatever you like. Here are some suggestions for toppings named after the Grimani family pizzerias. The amounts of the toppings will vary by your personal preferences.