His Brat (Off Limits Book 1)

by Kali Argent

  Sighing, I tried to rein in my temper, or at the very least, mask it. “How could you know that?”

  He looked at me and shook his head. “Stop being a brat. You always order the same thing.”

  It was true. No matter where I dined, water with lime was my drink of choice, but I was surprised that he remembered. Moreover, the way he’d said “brat” hadn’t been with his usual gruffness. In fact, it had sounded affectionate, endearing, causing warmth to blossom in my chest and spread, sending pleasant tingles across my skin.

  “So,” he continued, “we were talking about what I said on the street.”

  It wasn’t exactly a question, but I nodded anyway.

  I wasn’t so naïve that I didn’t understand what a hard dick meant. It wasn’t his words that had confused me but the meaning behind them. He could have easily pretended he hadn’t heard me. He could have laughed it off. There were a dozen different ways he could have handled the situation, but he’d chosen to be purposely crass. Maybe he’d done it to get a reaction out of me—which had worked—but I wanted to know why.

  “You’re very beautiful, Layla. You must know that. And the way you were looking at me…” His sentence sort of trailed away into a barely audible curse. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

  What. The. Hell?

  I was still gaping at him when the server returned with our drinks. She might have asked if we were ready to order, but I couldn’t really hear anything over the roaring in my ears. Gabe had called me beautiful, and he’d said it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  “Me, too,” I blurted.

  The server glanced at me, nodded, and walked away.

  Gabe laughed. “You hate potato salad.”

  “Wait.” I tilted my head as I met his gaze. “What?”

  “Never mind.” He waved his hand, motioning for me to continue. “You were saying?”

  The interruption had maimed my courage, but it hadn’t destroyed it entirely. That was probably a mistake.

  “I think you are, too.” The words spilled out in a rush. “Beautiful,” I clarified, then immediately wanted to die. “I mean, pretty.” Shut up! “Um, I mean, you’re nice to look at.” Like a fucking painting? “I…I…” I dropped my head and groaned. “I quit.”

  His bark of laughter was deep and rich and filled with the kind of happiness I hadn’t heard from him in a long time. It also did funny things to my belly, and despite the painful awkwardness I was feeling, I couldn’t help but smile in return.

  “Damn, you’re adorable.”

  Okay, not quite as good as being called beautiful, but coming from Gabe, it still made my heart skip a beat. Plus, unless I was very much mistaken, he was flirting with me. I didn’t know why or what had brought it on, but I wasn’t about to do anything to discourage him.

  God, he had a great laugh. I loved the way his smile lit up his face, and the way his eyes sparkled with humor. I loved that he remembered my favorite pizza and the fact that I hated potato salad. I even loved it when he called me brat, though I’d never admit it. Honestly, I just loved him.

  It wasn’t some big revelation. I wasn’t having a life-altering epiphany in the middle of the gritty pub. I’d been head over ass in love with Gabriel Turner for as long as I could remember, before I really even knew what that meant.

  “How was your meeting?” I was a coward. I admitted it, but I really needed to talk about something else before I lost all sense and blurted out how I felt about him.

  “It was good.” As he spoke, he loosened his tie and popped open the top button on his blue dress shirt. “Well, as good as these kinds of negotiations can go.” Next, he removed his cuff links, then began rolling his sleeves up to the elbow. “I think it turned out well for everyone, though.”

  I followed his every movement with rapt attention. The simple act probably wasn’t as sexy as I found it. Really, there wasn’t anything inherently arousing about his forearms. I’d seen him naked, for crying out loud. Watching him reveal an extra inch of his neck really shouldn’t have been making me squirm in my seat.

  “Can I ask what the meeting was about, or is that a secret?”

  “It’s not a secret. My company is purchasing an abandoned building just outside of the Quarter to turn into a dog shelter.”

  My heart melted. “Like a rescue?”

  Gabe bobbed his head a couple of times, but he didn’t seem too keen on continuing down that line of conversation. “So, how did your thing at the gallery go?”

  On reflex, I reached out to rest my hand on top of the box I’d placed in the booth beside me. “Oh, really good. The curator was able to sell some of my pieces, and I got my first, official commission check.”

  Maybe in a year, I could be blasé about it. At the moment, however, I was too excited to even pretend it wasn’t supremely awesome.

  “I can’t say that I’m surprised, but that’s great.” He didn’t sound like he was humoring me, either. His tone implied that he really meant it. “Congratulations, sweetheart.”

  My breath caught. Or maybe all the air was just blocked by my heart leaping into my throat. He had never called me by an endearment, not even when I’d been younger. I’d always been Layla or brat. But that was okay. I definitely wasn’t freaking out. No, sir. Not me. I was as cool as a…thing. Something cool. Like water? Unless it was hot water.

  Oh, my god, I was totally freaking out.

  “So, what’s in the box?” He nodded at the fist I still had resting on top of it. “Something from the gallery? Is it yours?” He held his hand out and wiggled his fingers. “Let me see it.”

  “What?” I dragged the box closer like he might steal it. “No.” Where the hell was our waitress anyway? It couldn’t take that long to scoop a glob of potatoes onto a plate. “I mean, it’s a gift. A present.” Yes, because he didn’t know what a gift was. “It’s mine. I mean, I made it. For someone. As a gift. Well, that’s not why I made it, but when I saw it today—”

  Gabe began to chuckle, effectively ending my rambling.

  Fuck my life. Why did I always turn into a babbling idiot around him?

  “Oh?” He grinned at me, and it was full of the type of confidence I could never imitate. “Who is this gift-present for?”

  I bit my bottom lip and debated lying. I decided against it pretty quickly. One, because he always knew when I wasn’t being honest. Two, and maybe more importantly, because it would be extra awkward when I finally did give him the statue.

  Sighing, I picked the box up and placed it on the table before sliding it toward him. “You,” I muttered. “It’s for you.”

  “Me?”

  I’d managed to surprise him for once. It felt pretty good and bolstered my courage. “As a thank you for last night.” Well, that sounded a lot dirtier than I’d intended. “I mean, for rescuing me from my own stupidity. You were right. I should have been more careful.”

  His expression gave nothing away as he opened the box and reached inside to remove the art piece. Even when he held it up and turned it in a circle to examine it, his features remained perfectly neutral.

  “You made this?”

  “Mmm hmm.”

  “And it’s for me?”

  “That’s how I see you.” In for a penny. “A protector, I guess. My knight in shining armor.” That had sounded much better in my head. Coming from my mouth, however, it just sounded lame.

  “I see.”

  He hated it. I was sure of it. He hadn’t cracked a smile once, nor had he complimented it. Well, he hadn’t actually said anything about it, but that was probably because he was trying to think of a nice way to say he hated it.

  “I just thought…never mind what I thought. If you don’t want it, just give it back.”

  I tried to take it from him, but he pulled it out of my reach and carefully placed it back inside the box. He didn’t speak until after he’d removed two bills from his wallet and slapped them down on the table. When he did finally say somethi
ng, it wasn’t at all what I expected.

  “Let’s go.” With his gift tucked under one arm, he slid out of the booth and grabbed my wrist, pulling me to my feet as well.

  “Wait,” I gasped as I stumbled after him. “What about our food?”

  “It’s paid for.”

  Not what I meant, but I figured he knew that already. “Where are we going?” Considering he was dragging me down the street toward the hotel he was staying at, I kind of put two-and-two together. So, I asked a different question instead. “Gabe, what are you doing?”

  “Quiet,” he growled.

  Uh, rude much? “What the hell has gotten into you?”

  He didn’t respond, but I hadn’t expected him to, and the rest of the ten-minute walked passed in nearly unbearable silence. I had no idea what I’d done to piss him off, but he definitely wasn’t happy. The only thing I could think of was that damn sculpture. When I’d seen it in the gallery, it had reminded me of him. It suited him. It was just my way of thanking him, but perhaps he’d taken it the wrong way.

  Oh, god, maybe he thought I had been coming on to him. I tried to remember what I’d told him back at the bar, to see it from his point of view. Nothing I had said had been overtly or even subtly sexual, though. Not the way I was remembering it anyway. There wasn’t anything suggestive about the sculpture itself.

  What the hell was even happening?

  On the bright side, by the time we reached the hotel lobby, my nerves had settled, so when we stopped at the bank of elevators, I was able to speak without making a fool out of myself. Twisting my wrist out of his grasp, I took a step back, putting myself out of reach, and folded my arms across my chest. I knew I didn’t look intimidating, but I figured I was still projecting my annoyance loud and clear.

  “Look, if I pissed you off, I’m sorry, but you’re kind of being a dick.”

  Sometimes, it was hot when he got all growly and bossed me around. This wasn’t one of those times. I’d looked at it from every angle, and as far as I could see, I hadn’t done anything wrong.

  The middle elevator arrived with a loud chime, but I didn’t move when the door slid open.

  “Let’s go,” Gabe demanded.

  “No.” I shook my head and actually took another step back. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what bug crawled up your ass.”

  He marched forward, and for a moment, I thought he really was going to leave me standing in the lobby. Instead, he placed one foot in front of the sliding door to hold it open and turned to glare at me.

  “You can either get on this elevator, or I can put you on this elevator. Your choice.”

  I gaped, because the look in his eyes said he wasn’t joking. He’d do it. He’d make a scene right there in the lobby.

  I grumbled a little under my breath and shoved past him into the elevator.

  “You’re such an ass,” I insisted once the doors had closed, cocooning us inside the compartment. “If you don’t like the sculpture you could have just said so. You didn’t have to drag me back to the hotel.”

  “I never said I didn’t like it.”

  “You could have fooled me.”

  “I like it.” He didn’t look at me as he pressed the button for our floor.

  Wow, what a rousing endorsement. He might as well have said it looked like sparkly cat vomit for all the inflection in his tone. “Oh, forget it.” I stepped forward, reaching for the box still tucked under his arm. “Just give it back.”

  I almost had my hand on it when Gabe caught me by the wrist, jerked me close, and slanted his mouth over mine.

  Chapter Five

  I was kissing Gabe Turner. Or he was kissing me. I didn’t know, but there was definitely kissing happening.

  His lips were on mine, and he had his tongue shoved down my throat like he was trying to taste my soul. Not that I minded. Honestly, I was pretty sure I’d just had an orgasm right there in the fucking elevator. Awesome. Totally smooth. Not weird or embarrassing at all.

  The lift came to a stop with another loud chime, and Gabe wrenched himself away from me with a muffled curse. How he could make words happen at all was beyond me. I couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. My brain worked overtime, synapsis firing and misfiring. Words like Yes! More! Wait. What? Yes! Oh, my god! Maybe? Yes! were about the only coherent thoughts in my head.

  Although, “coherent” might have been a bit of a stretch. It was, at the very least, open to interpretation.

  When the doors opened, and he took my hand, pulling me out into the hallway, I followed without protest. Then again, at that point, he could have led me barefoot over burning coals, and I wouldn’t have complained. We paused at the door of his suite long enough for him to unlock it with a keycard.

  Inside the room, he gently placed the packaged sculpture in the seat of the armchair, then turned and lifted me into his arms, one arm under my knees, the other behind my back. The gesture wasn’t exactly romantic. More like he was too impatient to let me walk on my own. Still, I felt like a heroine in a romance novel when he carried me up the stairs and placed me back on my feet at the foot of the bed.

  I might have been a virgin, but I wasn’t so innocent that I didn’t know where this was leading. Especially when Gabe dragged me back into his arms and kissed me senseless. It wasn’t a tender kiss, either. No teasing. No hesitation. He claimed my mouth roughly with an edge of dominance and a whole lot of possession.

  He kissed me like he owned me, and I found I didn’t mind in the least.

  A voice in the back of my head said things were moving way too fast, but that voice was a waspish little bitch and easily silenced. I’d been fantasizing about this for years. Yet, I couldn’t be as casual about it as Gabe. I wasn’t saving myself for marriage, but I did want my first time to mean something. To share that experience with someone I loved, with someone who cared about me in return.

  Maybe it was old-fashioned, but it was what I wanted. Not to be just another body to warm Gabriel Turner’s bed for a single night.

  When his hands slid under the hem of my top, his palms rough and hot against my skin, I gasped. He swallowed down the moan that followed, his hands trekking up the expanse of my stomach toward my breasts. I wanted this. It felt like I’d wanted him forever, but there was something I needed to say, and if I didn’t get it out now, I wasn’t sure that I ever would.

  Flattening my hand over his chest, I gasped again and jerked it back quickly. When the hell had he taken off his shirt? God, he was so warm. So…hard. I’d always known he was muscular, but damn. I wanted to touch him again, to keep touching him until I forgot all the reasons this was probably a terrible idea. Then, his thumb brushed against the swell of my breast, and reality came crashing back.

  I still wanted everything he offered. It was what came after that worried me.

  After another long minute of enjoying the feel of his hands on my body, and the tangle of his tongue with mine, I finally managed to pull away. “Wait,” I gasped. “Stop.”

  Instantly, as if I’d doused him in cold water, Gabe dropped his hands and took a carefully measured step back.

  Crap, I hadn’t meant stop everything, and I instantly missed his closeness. On the other hand, it was probably better that he wasn’t touching me while I stumbled through what I needed to say.

  I took a minute to compose my thoughts, vigilantly constructing each sentence before speaking aloud. When I opened my mouth, all that planning went right out the window, and I simply blurted, “I love you.”

  If he had looked like I’d doused him in water before, he now looked like I’d just punched him in the gut. “Layla—”

  “No, wait. I have to say this.” It would be so much easier if he would just put his shirt back on. All that smooth, bronzed skin wrapped around bugling muscles…no, I had to stay focused. “I love you, Gabe. Honestly, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love you. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way.” It really wasn’t, but I wouldn’t pressure him. “I know thi
s isn’t a big deal for you, but it is for me.”

  “Wait, are you…”

  Apparently, “virgin” was just too much for him to get out, but I nodded anyway. I wasn’t ashamed of it. “I am, but that’s not what I meant.” I don’t know where I’d found my courage, but it felt good to finally tell him all the things I’d kept bottled inside for so long. “I can’t be just another notch on your bedpost. I won’t. This means something to me, and I want more than just one night.”

  “Layla, I—”

  “If you don’t want the same thing, that’s okay.” I spoke over him, determined to get the words out before my newfound bravery abandoned me. “If that’s the case, though, I think we need to stop here. We can both just walk away and pretend this never happened.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to be possible.” He smiled, but it looked kind of sad. “This changes things.”

  His words were like a dagger to my heart, but I bit my lip and nodded.

  “I can’t walk away and forget this happened,” he continued, closing the distance between us and sliding one arm around my waist. “I don’t want to, either. This—” He pulled me to him, molding our bodies together. “—means something to me, too.”

  My pulse sped, and my breath lodged in my throat. “What are you saying?”

  He dipped his head, his lips a breath away from mine. “I’m saying one night will never be enough. I’m in this, sweetheart. For however long you’ll have me.”

  “Be careful,” I warned with a teasing smile, but still unable to reconcile that this was really happening. “I’ve wanted you for forever, and I don’t see that changing.”

  “Good, and because I know you’ll obsess over it, let me just set the record straight.”

  Uh oh. That sounded ominous. “Yes?”

  “You’re not just some convenient fuck.” The words were practically growled, and he looked at me pointedly, waiting for me to nod before he continued. “I love you, Layla Maddox. Nothing is going to change that, but if you’re not ready, I can wait.”

  It wasn’t some flowery declaration with hearts and roses, but to me, it was ridiculously perfect. It was those three little words that mattered, that made my heart soar, not the way he’d said them.