by Nana Malone
“I think that’s sad.”
She shrugged away his consideration. “No. Not sad. Maybe one day I’ll fall in love and it’ll hit me like a ton of bricks.”
“Or maybe you won’t even know it’s happening to you,” he added softly. What was he saying?
The prickle of awareness chased up her spine and tingled. “Gabe, what are we doing?”
“Relax, Elina. We’re having fun and taking advantage of the fact that we don’t have to hide and pretend that we’re not crazy for each other right now. But it’s totally no pressure.”
But Elina knew it for what it was. This wasn’t just a onetime thing or a six-or seven-time thing. Something fun for the moment. He was worming his way into her heart. Soon, his campaign would be over, and then what? It wasn’t like she could tell herself not to feel. She had to protect herself so it didn’t hurt too bad when he left.
* * *
Gabe was so in love with her. It should have terrified him. Should’ve had him running for the hills. Instead, he just wanted to hold Elina as close as she would let him.
Over the course of three days, they explored the city of Montreal, even taking a day trip over to Quebec. They’d done all the things that tourists and lovers do. And they had a great time doing it. She’d been completely affectionate and open with her touches and her heart.
And every night, they’d scorched the sheets. Sometimes they blistered the sheets in the morning, too...or the afternoon...well, anytime, really. And sometimes it had been the shower, the backseat of their rental car... He couldn’t keep his hands off of her.
He’d known he wanted something more from her for weeks now, but this trip forced it. He was tired of giving her time to figure it out. This afternoon, she’d been busy eating an ice cream cone and ice cream dribbled on her chin. He kissed away the sticky sweet cream. And she’d smiled at him with the light in her eyes. He knew better than to tell her. She would only freak out, so he needed the perfect time and the perfect place. It was obvious she wanted him. But his patience was fraying under the weight.
The only real problem was what would happen with Delilah. He’d made her a promise, then broken it as soon as he’d seen Elina. They’d have to tell her the truth before it came out.
Because as much fun as it was sneaking around, he wanted to be with Elina in public. Montreal showed them how it could be. No more dragging her into alleyways or closets to kiss her. He wanted more from her. And to get that, they’d have to come clean to Delilah. Though that was easier said than done.
Chapter 15
The morning after their return from Montreal, Reece’s phone rang and she answered grumpily. “Dude, where have you been? I’ve been texting and calling you for days, as soon as we got back from our honeymoon.”
Elina held the phone away from her ear for a moment. When Reece worried, she tended to get loud. “Sorry, I’ve been out of town for last few days working on Gabe’s campaign.” Guilt seeped into her pores. This was Reece.
There was a beat of silence. “Gabe? As in Adam’s Gabe? As in Gabe, Gabe?”
Elina scratched her nose. “Yeah, turns out he was my bright shiny new client.”
“Oh goodness, Elina, this would only happen to you.”
“Don’t I know it. You can imagine my surprise when I walked into my meeting and there he was sitting there in all his gorgeous glory.”
“What did you do? Did you tell your boss?”
“Are you kidding? There is no way I was telling Delilah. We just pretended we didn’t know each other.”
“And how has that worked out exactly?”
Damn Reece and her rational thinking. “Fine. It worked out fine. No big deal.”
“Elina Sinclair, I know when you’re lying. Don’t make me call my mama to come get you.”
Elina laughed. “Oh no, not Mama.” Reece’s mother had a way of delivering a verbal ass-whooping that stung worse than any spanking. “It turned out fine. It was a hard few weeks learning to adjust around each other, but we figured out a rhythm.”
Her best friend laughed out loud. “And by rhythm, you mean who’s on top in the bedroom?”
“Reece!”
“What? Are you really going to pretend the two of you aren’t hot for each other? I can hear it in your voice. It’s the way you say his name.”
Elina covered her eyes and fell back in bed. “Do you think everyone knows?”
“Relax, I’m your best friend. I’ve known you since we were little. Delilah probably doesn’t know. But what are you guys going to do?”
That was the question she’d been dreading since picking up the phone. “I don’t know. We’re just having fun. It’s not like we can’t stop.” Liar.
“Fun,” Reece said the word slowly as if she was talking to an imbecile. “So, you two were just having good times where no one will get hurt?”
Maybe Reece did understand. “Exactly. It’s not serious. We can walk away anytime.” She ignored the twinge of pain that accompanied the thought.
“Uh-huh. Let me ask, just how do you think this is going to work out for you? Sure you date plenty, but you don’t really have that much experience with long-term boyfriends. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Then good thing he’s not my boyfriend.” The truth of her friend’s words rang her head. She didn’t want to talk about Gabe anymore, so she dropped the other bomb instead. “So, Mom is getting married again. This time to her yogi.”
Reece was silent, then cursed under her breath. “Oh man. Elina, I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine,” she lied. “I learned to find that Zen place of my mother’s. At least for a little bit. I sort of get her. Since I am acting out of control and impetuous I completely get how she can do it.”
Reece sighed. “Elina, you are not your mother. You know that, don’t you? Her mistakes aren’t your mistakes. I’m worried about you with Gabe, but not because I don’t think you guys wouldn’t be great together. I worry you’ll close yourself off to real feelings for him and get hurt in the process.”
Elina swallowed hard, then for the first time, admitted her feelings out loud. “Reece, I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m lying to my boss. I’m sneaking around. This isn’t me. I’m completely out of control. I don’t know what to do with these feelings and it terrifies me.”
“Honey.” Reece’s voice was gentle. “That’s called falling in love. And what you do about it is, you talk to Gabe and tell him. Then the two of you figure out how to tell Delilah together.”
She knew Reece was right. But that wasn’t a decision she was ready to make yet. After all, what if he didn’t feel the same?
Chapter 16
Elina adjusted her clothing for the third time as she stood in front of Gabe’s door. This is stupid. Why was she so nervous? It was just him. She’d seen him yesterday. They’d made love yesterday...and this morning. What was so different about right now?
Well, for starters it was the first time at his place. So that was significant. And also, she was embracing her feelings. Also significant.
Suck it up, Elina, and get it done. They needed this talk. She knocked on the door three times, and it took a moment for him to answer.
Except when the door opened, it wasn’t Gabe on the other side. It was a pretty blonde from the casting video. “Hi,” she said. “Can I help you?”
Could she help her? Elina’s mind worked through all the possible scenarios. She was here for a date. What was this girl doing here? “Yeah, I’m here to see Gabe.”
The pretty blonde didn’t move out of the way, but her gaze flickered toward the interior. “He’s a bit busy right now. You want to leave a message?”
White-hot jealous fury flowed through Elina’s veins. Leave a message? With this girl? She was standing here, concerned abo
ut how to tell Gabe that she’d gone and fallen in love, and this girl was trying to take a message for him?
Elina cocked her head and put on her best resting bitch face. “What’s he busy doing?”
Blondie didn’t budge. “He’s in the shower. I’m sure he doesn’t want me to let some random girl in here. He gets a lot of groupies from his earlier work. If you just leave me a message I’ll make sure he gets it.”
Something about the way the girl pinched her nose made Elina think that her message would go straight to the trash. And why did he need a shower? She had dealt with girls like this before. Privileged, who thought the world owed them something. “You know what, I’ll wait.”
Blondie frowned, as if confused as to why her ploy hadn’t worked. From somewhere in the apartment Gabe’s voice rang out. “Hey, Jacinda, I think it’s almost seven so my next appointment is going to be here. We better wrap up. I need to get ready. Do you have any more parts of the script you want to review?”
The blonde flushed a deep shade of red and Elina smiled. I got your number, honey. “Gabe, I’m here early. Is that okay?”
He jogged over to the foyer with a wide grin. His hair wasn’t wet. So much for a shower. The girl hadn’t even been slick. “Hey, Elina. I see you met Jacinda. We’re going over the script.”
Elina strolled in past Jacinda and gave him a quick hug before turning her attention on the interloper. “Oh yeah, we just met. I’m excited to see what you guys came up with.”
Jacinda gave her a smile that was all teeth. “Actually, if you guys aren’t going anywhere right now, I’d still like to go over a couple more things.”
From Gabe’s stance, Elina knew he was waffling. And she even understood why. He’d worked hard to get here, and he wanted it to be right. She wanted Jacinda gone, but she could be patient. “You guys go ahead. I’ll just snoop.”
The blonde smiled up at Gabe. “Okay, and we can talk about where you’re going to take me out on Friday.”
What in the world? Elina blinked at the two of them, not sure if she’d heard correctly. Had that woman just asked him out? In front of her?
Gabe was just as surprised as Elina was. He stammered at first, but then he recovered enough to say, “I, uh. Wow. Sorry, Jacinda, I’m seeing someone. Besides, I really want to keep the focus on the movie.”
For a second Elina thought Jacinda whatever-her-name-was might pitch a fit, but then she smiled sweetly at Gabe. “Oh, I had no idea. What a lucky girl.”
Elina could only agree. “Yeah, what a very, very lucky girl. I hope she knows the kind of guy she has.”
Jacinda headed down the hall and Gabe pinned a look on Elina. “I am so sor—”
She put up a hand. “Don’t worry about it. Go. Get this done. We’ll hang out in a minute.”
Gabe visibly relaxed. His grin flashing before he leaned down and kissed her properly. With just enough heat to make her knees go weak. “You’re a star. We’ll be done in thirty minutes.”
Jacinda might’ve gotten what she wanted—to stay longer—but with that kiss, Gabe had left no doubt as to where she stood in his life. Advantage Elina.
* * *
Elina might be acting normal, but something was off. Gabe watched her carefully. She chatted excitedly about her new client and about Reece’s return. But she didn’t exactly meet his gaze. Was she pissed about Jacinda? He felt bad for going into overtime with her. But he wanted to make sure she was ready for the producer meeting.
He opened a fortune cookie and handed her the fortune before asking. “Are you pissed at me? You can tell me if you are. I know I should’ve told her to go.”
She shook her head. “No. You’re okay. She wasn’t very nice, but I can handle girls like that.”
He frowned and sat up. “What do you mean she wasn’t very nice? You said she’d been keeping you company.”
She rolled her eyes. “That was girl code for she wouldn’t let me in the door and tried to get me to leave you a message.”
He frowned. “She did what? But that’s ridiculous—she knew you were coming over. I told her.”
“And that was homegirl trying to sabotage me. Come on, Gabe, you have to know she’s interested in you. It’s obvious.” She gestured to him. “There is the obvious packaging. With the smile and the eyes and whatnot. But now you’re the filmmaker and this is your project. You’re the executive producer. And that’s very appealing to a lot of women.”
Gabe flushed. He was an idiot. Jacinda had been dropping hints that she would be available to him anytime, when she arrived. But from the beginning he made it clear that he wasn’t interested and that he had a date coming. You have to make it even more clear, apparently. The only woman he was interested in at the moment was sitting in front of him. “Just ignore her.”
“Well, not exactly that easy to do. Women flock to you.”
He perked up. This is the first inkling she’d ever given that she wanted to take things further with them. “Elina, are you jealous?”
She flushed and covered her face. “I swear I am not that jealous, bitchy girlfriend type. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But it bugged me to see her here. It bugs me that she’s been here all alone with you. And I understand that you were working on the script. That’s the logical, rational part of my brain. There’s a whole other part that wants to tear her head off.”
“Elina, whatever you need from me I’ll do. But first, I’m going to need you to say that this, what we have, is real for you, too. It’s been real for me since the day I saw you in the Hamptons laughing at something Reece said. You were so damn beautiful, I couldn’t take my eyes off you. We’re seeing where this goes? Giving it a real try?”
Her eyes misted over and he worried he’d said something wrong.
“I’m afraid.” Her voice was soft when she spoke.
“Baby, you don’t have to be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you. You can do this if you want to. We can do this.”
“I’m not sure how this happened. One day we were having fun. And the next, I’m acting like a jealous maniac in your apartment.”
“You know as jealous maniacs go, I’ve seen worse.” She swatted his arm. “Ow. Just kidding.” Not really. “So now we can stop pretending that this is just temporary?”
She nodded as she sobbed. “Sorry about that. I just thought maybe you’d get bored and walk away, or I’d be able to hold my feelings separate from you, but I can’t. It terrifies me.”
“If it makes you feel better, it’s a little scary for me, too. We’ll figure it out together. The first thing on the agenda, though, we need to talk to Delilah before this gets way out of hand.”
She groaned. “I know. I’ve been dreading that probability for a week now.”
It might be unpleasant, but if it meant he got to hold on to Elina and keep his career, then he’d do it.
Chapter 17
Gabe nuzzled Elina’s hair and inhaled the scent of her honeysuckle shampoo. He kissed her shoulder, and she nuzzled back into him. And of course his dick, nestled against her soft curves, twitched in response. She was so damn sexy. And she was his.
They needed to talk with Delilah today. And it wasn’t going to be easy. He didn’t want to impact Elina’s job, but the only way to move forward was to be open and honest about everything. Delilah might be pissed, but Elina was a hard worker and really good at her job, so it was unlikely the consequences would be too stiff for her.
He, on the other hand, might be a different story. Delilah had been clear with him at the beginning. And he still needed her. He may have a producer and some investors onboard, but it never hurt to have the right kind of PR people in his corner. He wouldn’t be where he was without her. He would hate to lose her as part of his team. You should’ve thought about that before you touched Elina again.
Yeah,
well, he and Elina were sort of established before he signed on with Delilah, so he hoped that would count for something...
His phone buzzed on the nightstand, and he ignored it. He wasn’t willing to let the real world intrude yet. Instead he kissed Elina’s shoulder. “Good morning, sweetheart. Are you awake?” He kissed her again in the hopes of getting her to roll over.
“Mmm, I’m still sleeping,” she grumbled.
“I promise you a surprise.”
She pulled the sheets over her head and giggled. “Is this the same surprise that’s been poking me for the last thirty minutes? Because if that’s my surprise, then I might be inclined to turn around.”
So she’d been awake. Deliberately trying to entice him. “So you knew he was missing you this whole time?” Gabe cupped her breast, slowly circling his thumb over her nipple, and Elina moaned under the caress. “As surprises go, I think this is one of my worst-kept secrets.”
She rolled over and kissed him. “I would have to say so.”
Elina slid a hand into his hair and scored her nails on his scalp, making him shiver. He kissed her deep, rolling her over so he was on top. When he drew back, he met her gaze. “I just want to make sure last night wasn’t a dream. We’re doing this, right? You and me?”
Her smile was soft, and she didn’t shy away.
“Yeah, we’re doing this.”
He bent his head to kiss her again, but just before their lips touched, his phone rang again. Next her phone started to ring, and she frowned.
“Isn’t it too early to start getting called in to work?” she muttered.”
She was right. It was only six thirty. “Ignore it. I’ve been doing that with my phone for the last thirty minutes. It’s probably your mother anyway.”
Their phones both rang again, and Elina set up. “No, I think this is important.” She reached over to the nightstand and unplugged her charger. “It’s Delilah. I have to take this.”
