by T. M. Cromer
“Want to have lunch with us, Jamie? We have more than enough,” she offered.
Gabriel could’ve cheerfully throttled her. What was it with her inviting other men to join their little duo? The only positive was that she’d asked her brother and not another rival for her affections.
James shot him an amused look. “No, you two should go enjoy yourselves. I only have a limited time for lunch. I’m grabbing a sub before heading back to work.” His grin widened as Margie ducked to put her purse in the car.
Gabriel rolled his eyes and gave a slight shake of his head. They shared the age-old silent communication of two men marveling over one woman’s cluelessness.
Once they were on their way, Gabriel addressed his most pressing issue. “Care to explain to me why you keep inviting other men to join us?”
At her horrified gasp, he shot her a sideways glance.
“With such a big family, we are always doing things like that,” she said.
The apology was heavy in her voice, and tension eased from Gabriel’s shoulders. A distinct relief filled him because it seemed her actions were ingrained and not any desire to avoid time alone with him. “Do you go on James’s dates?”
“God, no! I wouldn’t dream of—oh, I see what you mean.” She smothered a laugh. “I’m sorry.”
“For the record, if I was interested in taking out a group of people, I’d invite them. But right now, I’m only interested in spending time with you.”
The cute way she bit her lip and peered at him from beneath her lashes turned him on. What the hell was it about her? The most innocent gestures made him mad with desire. In his need to touch her, he shifted to his right and reached for her hand.
Once they reached the beach, they laid out the blanket, and Gabriel positioned the cooler to secure it. After the food was spread out, they took their time sampling the assortment of dishes.
“I think I like the macaroni salad the best.”
“Mmm, no. It’s the chicken, hands down.”
She laughed and dug a fork into the container. “Spoken like a true protein-obsessed male.”
Before long, their meal was complete, and bellies full, they sprawled side by side. The salty sea air and repetitive crash of the waves lulled them, dispersing any remaining tension.
Gabriel rested on his right side, his head in his hand, and gazed down at Margaret’s flushed face. He could spend every day this way. “True confession time.”
“Oh? What exactly does that entail?” she asked, a slight, curious smile in place.
“I want to know why you were avoiding me.”
Her smile turned to a grimace. “Truthfully? I don’t know if I want the complication of dating you.”
“Why does it have to be complicated?”
In an abrupt, jerky movement, she sat up. Gabriel stayed in place, although his casual air was all a ruse. Inside, his heart had kicked up its pace. He hoped “complicated” wasn’t as dire as it sounded.
“Are you even looking for a relationship, Gabriel?”
Trust her to dig right to the meat of the matter.
“I don’t know. I only know I like you and want to spend time with you.”
“And sex?”
“Hell yes! That, too. But I won’t pressure you if it’s not what you want.”
She nodded as if she already suspected his answer.
“Is that a bad thing, Margaret?”
“It’s not.”
She stared out over the horizon, and Gabriel gave her time to formulate what she wanted to say.
“You aren’t getting a spring chicken. I’m close to forty, with a ton of scars and stretch marks. I can’t compete with the beautiful women you must attract.” The worried look she gave him was bothersome. “And I’ve got children.”
“Margaret, listen to me. I like your kids. And I couldn’t give two shits if you were forty or fifty, because you’re beautiful. Sexy as hell to boot. Who I do or don’t attract has no bearing on you and me. What matters is, while we’re exploring whatever this is between us, I’m not receptive to any other woman.”
Her troubled expression didn’t ease. “We are from two different worlds. You’re a high-powered attorney, and I suspect a brilliant one at that. I’m an ex-housewife and single mom with nothing beyond a high school diploma and a box of paintbrushes.”
“It doesn’t bother me.”
“It bothers me. I’d be an embarrassment to you in your social circles.”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves. First and foremost, let’s take the time to get to know one another. After that, we can explore this off-the-charts sexual chemistry between us. Anything else, we can take from there.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea.” She turned regretful blue eyes upon him.
He sat up and bracketed her between his raised legs. “Then don’t think. Feel.” He kissed her. She tasted of spices mixed with pure Margaret. A heady combination. And although he had the hardest time remembering they were in a public place, he halted their necking at a PG-rating. “I don’t know what it is about you, but I’ve never been so obsessed so quickly.”
A frown tugged at her brow. “Do you become obsessed often?”
“No. Poor choice of words. I should’ve said, I’ve never been obsessed in my life. Not until you. You’re all I’ve thought about since the first moment I saw you.”
She traced the outline of his upper lip, and he felt it down to his groin. He wanted nothing more than to tumble her onto the blanket for a make-out session, but the curious glances from the other beachgoers were becoming more frequent due to their close proximity.
Gabriel eased back and busied himself with putting the food in the cooler. Once he was done and his erection was down to a more manageable, less embarrassing state, he stood and offered a hand. “Shall we take a walk?”
“I’d love that.” Margaret rose gracefully to her feet.
Hand in hand, they strolled along the water’s edge. Periodically, she would stop and pick up a shell to admire before putting it back.
“Why don’t you keep them?”
“Because they are beautiful right here, where they belong. They’d lose their appeal if they were cluttering up my house and I had to dust around them all the time.”
“You have a unique way of looking at life.” Gabriel raised their joined hands and kissed her knuckles. Looking out over the water, he saw a fin, and an idea formed. He knew the perfect way to extend their date. Something that would appeal directly to Margaret. “What time do I have to have you home?”
“Why? Are you planning to abduct me?” she teased.
“You are playing with fire, Margaret. I’m barely containing myself.”
Her deep, throaty laugh hit him swift and hard. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Only to dark-haired beauties with large, sparkling blue eyes and a curvy body designed to make a man weep.”
“Ah, so you have a type.”
“Nope. That was strictly directed at you.” He steered her back the way they’d come. “So? Do you have the afternoon free?”
“I could call my mother to see if she’d pick up the boys. Kaley has soccer practice after school.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes.”
Satisfaction curled within him. “Good.”
“Do I get to know what you have planned?”
“Nope. Not until we get there.”
“Now you’re making me nervous, Gabriel.”
“Come on. Last one back to the blanket has to pay a forfeit.”
Margaret stunned him when she hooked a leg behind his and shoved him down in the sand. As he regained his feet, he judged the distance he needed to make up. With a grin, he charged full-steam ahead. Just before she reached the blanket, he cut her off, scooped her over his shoulder, and headed for the water.
“Gabriel James, if you throw me in the water, I’ll never speak to you again!” She pounded his back to emphasize her point.
> “Now I see where Kaley gets her temper.”
“Bite me!”
He let loose a low growl. “Margaret, I thought we talked about you throwing out statements that challenge me to take you up on your offer.” He turned his head enough to nip her left butt cheek.
Her screech almost deafened him as her hands flew to her bottom. They were a foot away from the water, and he shifted to cradle her in his arms. “To dump you or not to dump you, that is the question.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Hmm, I’m thinking we need to cool off that temper of yours.”
“Gabriel, I’m—”
He silenced her with a bold kiss. When they parted, her eyes were soft and dewy.
“Now there are other things to cool off,” he told her.
She giggled and wound her arms around his neck. “You weren’t really going to throw me in, were you?”
“I did think about it.”
“And?”
“I didn’t want to ruin any chance of getting lucky later.”
“Who said you were going to get lucky?”
“In that case…” He pretended he was going to toss her in.
She laughed and clung to him. “Okay! Okay! You can get lucky.”
He chuckled as he carried her back to the blanket. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“But not today.”
With an abrupt about-face, Gabriel headed toward the water.
“Okay! A little lucky today.”
“I’m not sure what a little lucky is, but I’ll take it.”
Margie had never had a more enjoyable day. After their beach picnic, Gabriel took her to Marineland, where his friend Paul happened to be on staff. She got an up-close view of what went on behind the scenes and how the employees and volunteers worked tirelessly to care for injured sea creatures.
“A baby dolphin!” Her insides went to mush when she saw the little one in the pool behind the main headquarters. “Why is it back here without its mama?”
“We found her stranded on the beach. She’d ingested plastic.” Paul dipped an arm in the water and caressed the calf as she bumped her rostrum into his hand. “We’ve been able to remove it, but now it’s a matter of tube-feeding her, providing antibiotics, and getting her stronger with the proper nutrients.”
Her heart ached for the missing mother of the dolphin. What must it be like for your sweet baby to disappear? She wanted to gather the calf up to care for her until the poor thing was stronger and ready to swim away. “Will she be able to be released back in the wild?”
“She’s too young to be on her own. Without knowing where her pod is, it’s doubtful.”
“Does this happen a lot?”
“Enough,” Paul confirmed. “People insist on plastic everything: bags, bottles, Mylar balloons.” He shrugged off his apparent anger. Giving one last rub to the calf’s pectoral fin, he nodded to a large pool by the fence. “We’re rehabbing a sea turtle if you want to see it.”
Margie couldn’t believe its size. “It’s huge!”
Gabriel laughed as Paul concurred.
“Would you like to see the reptile building?”
She shuddered. The idea of snakes didn’t appeal to her in any way, shape, or form. “Nope.”
Gabriel sidled close and stirred the hairs on her neck when he murmured, “Chicken.”
“I’m not ashamed to admit it.”
“I’ll protect you,” he promised with a grin.
“Nope. Still going to be a hard pass.”
He laughed and shifted to converse with Paul as Margie crossed to the pool with the baby dolphin. As the calf grinned and clicked in greeting, she smiled. She’d have to ask Paul what the minimum age requirement was for their volunteer program. Without a doubt, her children would love interacting with the sea creatures. Gabriel had given her a beautiful gift today, and he probably had no idea he’d done it.
A short while later, Gabriel and Margie were back in his Lexus and headed south on A1A.
“That was a nice surprise. I appreciate it.”
“My pleasure, Margaret.”
He reached across the console to clasp her hand.
Margie found it tough to recall a more perfect moment. She studied his profile as he drove, and he cast her a curious, smiling glance. There was a rightness to being here with him. Gabriel had an easygoing way about him that fit with her desire to be drama free. He didn’t argue or make her feel uncomfortable. He just was.
“You’re a nice man.”
“Uh-oh. That sounds like you’re ready to shove me in the friend zone.”
She released a soft laugh. That was the beauty of being in his presence; he made her feel light and happy. He always had. “I can’t imagine us not being friends. But I meant, I like you. You’re easy to be with.”
“I like you, too, Margaret.” He grinned, and it lit something within her.
“In the spirit of honesty, it’s been a long time since I’ve been with anyone.”
“Dating or sex?”
“Both.”
He nodded, not taking his eyes from the road, but his fingers tightened around hers. “We can take it as fast or as slow as you wish. And although I’m finding myself worse than a horny teenager around you, I’m not going to ask for more than you’re willing to give.”
“Are you real?”
His deep chuckle reached in and stroked her lady bits. Once again, she wondered if she was being ridiculous to apply the brakes on their romance. The rest of the way home, they made small talk. Each asked questions about the other, and Margie thoroughly enjoyed this getting-to-know-you stage.
Gabriel stopped his car a few feet from her place. “Do you still have time before the kids are home?”
“I do.”
“Good.”
He whipped into his driveway and pulled into his garage. Inside the house, he gave her the grand tour.
She shook her head as she looked around. “It’s hard to believe this was once Opal’s house. Everything is so drastically different with a little paint and new furniture.”
“Yes.”
The sadness in his voice was something she understood. “She was like a mother to you, wasn’t she?”
“She was.”
Not surprising. In their previous incarnations, Opal actually had been his mother.
“She loved you. All she could talk about was Gabriel this or Greyson and Gordon that. She was so proud of all you boys. That’s how she referred to you, as boys.”
“Thank you. Sometimes it’s hard to believe she’s gone. She was larger than life.” He smiled even as he cleared his throat.
“I know. I completely adored her.” Margaret followed him to the kitchen where he removed two wineglasses and a chilled bottle of vino. “She and I would sit on her front porch nearly every morning, enjoying a cup of coffee while we waited for the kids to catch the bus. It was the best part of my day.”
“That’s a great memory.”
“I miss her.”
“Me, too.” He raised his glass in a toast. “To Opal. May she terrorize the angels in the afterlife.”
Margie could imagine her doing exactly that. She sipped her wine around a soft smile.
“She was a character.” Gabriel continued. He was about to take another sip when he remembered something. “Wait! You were serious when you told Don she’d been trying to set us up. You’re the neighbor she talked so much about.”
“Yep. I can’t tell you how many times she tried.”
“I wonder why it never worked.”
A single glance showed he was serious. “Would you have wanted to be set up?”
“If I’d have known it was you? Most definitely.”
Unable to withstand the heat in his gaze without doing something drastically out of character, Margie took stock of her surroundings. When her eyes fell on the wall clock, she gasped. “Crap! I have to go. Kaley will be home any minute.”
“She’s a big girl, Margaret
.”
“I know. But since the incident, she’s a little freaked to be home alone. Plus the new alarm, remember?”
“Right. How about I walk you back, and we can both be there to greet her?”
“I…” How could she tell him she needed time to process the emotions he stirred in her?
“Unless you’ve had enough of me for one day.”
Margie detected a vulnerability he failed to hide. What would a man who looked like an Adonis have to be insecure about? Any woman, her included, would trade their soul for a chance to have someone as gorgeous, generous, and caring as Gabriel interested in them. Again, she wondered why she was fighting against their attraction this time around when all she wanted to do was dive into his embrace and take all he had to offer.
“No, I haven’t had enough.” The breathiness in her voice betrayed her thoughts.
His smile started slowly and spread until his whole face was lit with wicked delight and a promise of passion. “That’s precisely what I was hoping you’d say.”
Before she could blink, he’d removed the glass from her hand and set it on the granite counter. One muscled forearm wrapped around her lower back and urged her closer. He toyed with the dark wisps of hair curling across her cheek and tucked a strand behind her ear. His fingers were as light as air as he traced the outer shell. When he skimmed his fingertips along her jaw, Margie was a goner.
All light was blocked by his large frame as he leaned in. The subtle taste of red wine on his tongue was like an aphrodisiac, and Margie moaned when he deepened the kiss. One second she was standing, his arms wrapped around her, full chest to chest, and the next she was sitting on his counter with him nestled between her thighs. Their contact had become groin on groin, and his erection could be felt along the most sensitive area of her body. Without thinking about her actions, she shifted her hips to rub against him. His deep groan made her deep-down happy. She, middle-aged Margie Holt, evoked such an ardent response from a man who was off-the-charts sexy, and it tickled the hell out of her.
“Gabriel.” With great reluctance, she whispered, “I have to go.”
He rested his forehead against hers and struggled to regulate his breathing. “Yeah, I know. But before we leave this kitchen, I need to know when I can see you again.”
