by Katee Robert
She glanced over to find Gabe resting against the pool table, watching her. Of course he wasn’t even pretending not to eavesdrop. He crossed his arms over his chest, his muscles bunching with the movement. And that ink. Lord help her, but Elle could barely resist the urge to run her fingers over it.
As if she could sense Elle’s thoughts, her mother sighed, the sound perfectly calculated to instill guilt in her children. For some reason Elle’s brother never seemed affected, but she couldn’t shake the need to make things right. She spun away from the distracting sight of Gabe and rushed to fill the silence before her mother asked about the decidedly bar-like sounds in the background. “I already told you, I’m interested in someone else.” Someone who certainly wasn’t Gabe. Because she wasn’t interested in him. At all. She’d wanted Nathan, even if there was no way anything would happen with him now—not with Gabe in the picture mucking things up—but she was desperate to avoid another encounter with Sam.
“Well, Elle, you’ll forgive me if I have doubts about your taste. I swear, the only boy you’ve chosen to bring home was…less than impressive. And you certainly have turned up your nose at every man I’ve set you up with since.”
Elle bit her lip, and tried to stay calm. “I’ve got to go, Mom, the phone’s ringing. I’ll talk to you later.”
Another sigh. “If you insist.”
“Good-bye.” Elle hung up before her mom could come up with something else to harp about.
When she turned around, Gabe was watching her with an unidentifiable look on his face. “Family troubles?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Standing here with this man in this sad excuse for a bar only brought home the truth. Her mother was right. Elle had terrible taste in men, and Gabe would just be another black mark against her. “Take your turn.”
“Sure thing.” When his next turn hit at the wrong angle, he only grinned. “Have fun with that shot.”
It wasn’t an easy one. She was penned in on three sides by stripes, but Elle had been practicing banking. Leaning down, she froze when she caught Gabe staring down her shirt. “Stop it.”
“Can’t blame a man for looking when the view is so nice.”
“Yes, actually, I can.” Ignore him, ignore him, ignore him. She checked the angles and hit the ball, nearly cursing when it flew wide. That wouldn’t have been the hardest shot she’d ever made. She should have managed it. Would have if Gabe wasn’t running his mouth and she wasn’t still frazzled by her mother’s call.
Gabe walked around the table, passing close enough that his chest rubbed against her back. “Distracted, babe?” His breath brushed her ear, sending waves of tingles through her body. Unforgivable thoughts crowded her brain, images of him pressing her against the pool table, kissing her, holding her close while she came undone in his arms.
She already knew how that ended with guys like him, though. With cheating, lies, and tears.
Screw this game—she was getting out of here now. Elle slid away, making a beeline for the rack where the cue sticks went.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m done playing. I need to get back to work.” Her hand shook as she fitted the stick into its place. Curse him a thousand times over for bringing her to this dump and then trying to bully his way into a kiss. He was a Neanderthal and she wanted no part of his games. Elle turned around and nearly shrieked when she ran into Gabe. “What the hell?”
“Hell, babe? Careful there, that’s almost a curse word.”
She started to inch away, but there was nowhere to go—at least not without rubbing her entire body against his. No way in heck Elle was going there, not when her idiot nipples perked up at the very thought. She gritted her teeth. “Stop calling me that.”
Gabe leaned in, kissably close, and grinned.“Make me.”
There was a part of her—a small, pathetic part—that wanted to close the distance and kiss him.The rest of her was spitting mad. “Get. Out. Of. My. Way.”
“Or what? You’ll curse at me again? You forfeited, which means I won. I want my kiss.”
“Fat chance of that happening.”
Gabe pressed a finger to the underside of her chin, tilting her face up. Elle commanded her body to move, to slap him, to run, to do something other than stare helplessly at his mouth and sway toward him. His lips weren’t overly full, but they were perfectly shaped.The kind of mouth that brought to mind wicked, wicked thoughts—thoughts a woman like her had no business contemplating.
Elle forced herself to speak. “Please.” The word came out soft, nearly begging. What was she begging for? For him to let her go? To pin her against the wall and ravish her? Even she wasn’t sure.
His lips brushed against hers, sending shocks through her system. Had she convinced herself that her reaction before was a fluke? It couldn’t be. Not when the barest brush of his mouth had her reeling. Before Elle could do something stupid like wrap her arms around him, Gabe shook his head as if throwing off a trance. He dropped his hand and took a step back, breaking contact. “Let’s go.”
“Go?” Why was she arguing this? She should be thrilled he was backing off.
Those dark eyes saw far too much.“You owe me a kiss, but I’m not taking it until you want it.”
She already wanted it. A whole lot. Elle forced a harsh laugh. “As if that’ll ever happen.”
He leaned in again, so fast she flinched. “Keep up the attitude and you’ll be lucky if I don’t make you beg for it.”
“I don’t want you. I never will.” But already she’d gotten close to proving him right. Too close. Elle propped her hands on her hips and tried to stir up some righteous indignation. “Can we just go?”
Exactly what she’d wanted in the first place, despite the disappointment simmering in her stomach. Elle followed him to the bar, earning some nasty looks from the women as Gabe leaned over and handed the guy his credit card.
“What are you doing?”
He didn’t even spare her a glance. “Paying for lunch.”
She started to demand for him to let pay her half, but gave it up for a lost cause. Why bother? He wasn’t going to listen anyway. So she waited silently while he paid, then trailed behind him like a lost puppy when he led the way back outside.
She blinked in the afternoon sunlight, wondering if she’d tumbled down the rabbit hole when she climbed the stairs to Nathan’s loft on Saturday. This certainly felt more like Wonderland than her carefully planned reality. Which was wrong. So very, very wrong.
Everything in her life was balanced perfectly. It didn’t have a place for freaky dive bars and men with so much testosterone she could barely breathe past it. Even though he and Nathan were similar looking, everything about Gabe still seemed too big, too male, too uncontrollable. He was the type of man who left a trail of women broken and weeping behind him— women like her. Elle wanted no part of it.
Forget the lost puppy act. She marched to the passenger door, getting there before he could open it for her, and slid into the seat. The leather stuck to her skin, adding to the claustrophobic feeling. She had to get out of here—away from this place that smelled like grease and stale beer and cigarette smoke—and back to her clean and orderly existence.
Gabe started the car and threw it into gear. They flew out of the parking lot and raced through the streets, breaking more than a few traffic laws in the process. Even though she’d promised herself she wouldn’t talk to him anymore, Elle couldn’t let this stand. “Slow down, please.”
“What?” He blinked as if he’d been a thousand miles away. Fantastic. He was mentally wandering while risking her life and limb.
Maybe she should just keep her mouth shut, but… “You’re going nearly fifteen miles over the speed limit.”
“That’s a problem for you, I take it. Christ, babe, don’t you ever let your hair down? If you did, it’d probably help with the stick you have shoved up your ass.”
Elle gaped at him. There’s no way he’d just said that to her. W
hat kind of man talked like that to his date? “Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”
A shadow flickered in his dark eyes before he turned back to the road. “My mother’s dead.”
Damn it, she’d known that. Nathan didn’t talk about his family much, but Ian had once mentioned that both his parents were deceased. Elle let her head fall back against the headrest and closed her eyes.“I’m sorry.”
“Why? Not like you killed her.”
Her eyes flew open and she glared at him.“Do you have to be so crass? You know what? Never mind. It doesn’t matter—none of this matters.”
Gabe shook his head and flipped on the radio, turning it up as death metal screeched through the speakers. He didn’t want to talk anymore? Fine with her. Elle would be happy when this disaster of a date was over.
They roared through downtown, jerking to a stop across from the gallery’s door. Elle shoved open the door as he reached for the volume, determined to get out before Gabe said something else to make her even angrier. She slammed the door and strode around the front bumper, barely resisting the urge to flip him off. It wasn’t something she’d normally even consider, but this man seemed to bring out a part of her she’d never known existed.
He leaned out the window. “I’ll see you around.”
“Don’t hold your breath.” Elle crossed the street and pushed through the front door, feeling his gaze boring into her the entire time. It didn’t matter. It was over and if she had her way, she was never going to see Gabe Schultz again.
8
Five whole days passed while Gabe argued with himself about Elle. Five days of flip-flopping and bitching to Nathan about her. She thought he was trash, thought he wasn’t fit to kiss her disgustingly perfect feet. Gabe didn’t need to spend time chasing a chick like that. There were plenty of women in town who would be more than happy to jump into bed with him, let alone gain a more permanent position.
“I don’t understand women.” He swept the tattoo gun over Paul’s arm, shading in the pair of wolves.
“You and me both, brother.” Paul was one of his regulars, and Gabe always made time for him when he was in town. It didn’t matter how long the waiting list was, Paul got one of the top spots if he wanted it.
“I thought you had that redhead,” Gabe said. “What’s her name? Laney?”
“Lee. Yeah, it’s over. Has been for a while.”
Well shit. Gabe kept shading, darkening the corners and fading them out to blend in with the top of where Paul’s sleeve would start—once he figured out what he wanted. “I’m sorry.”
“No reason to be. So who’s the broad that’s got you all tangled up in knots?”
He didn’t want to talk about Elle, even if she was all he thought about during his downtime. “Just some chick.”
“Bullshit.”
“She’s a good girl—not the type who’s comfortable with all this.” He waved to the tattoo shop. It was more home to him than any house he owned, Gabe’s personality etched through every inch of it, from the movie posters on the walls to the red and black coloring. Even more than his nightclubs, this shop was his.
Picturing the horror on Elle’s face if she ever mistakenly walked through the door made him frown. Then again, maybe she wouldn’t freak out. She seemed to appreciate good ink when she saw it, unlike so many other women who gushed over the fact that he had tattoos without bothering to ask about the stories behind them. Didn’t matter, though.“She’s not for me.”
“As if that’s ever stopped you.”
Gabe snorted. “That’s what Nathan said. I think you guys are confusing me with someone who chases women. I don’t have time for that shit.” He thought back, wondering when was the last time he’d actually been interested enough to try. Six months? A year? Too long. Which had to be the reason he was borderline obsessed with Elle. Maybe he just needed some stranger to wash away the memory of her in his arms.
“I’m not talking women, though maybe the reason you’ve never chased one down before is because you never found one worth chasing.”
“Thanks for that, Yoda.” Gabe dragged the needles over Paul’s arm a little harder than necessary, but the big man didn’t so much as flinch. “This one’s different. A country corn princess of all things. I don’t know what to do with her. Either way, it doesn’t matter— she’s not into me.”
“Then you haven’t tried hard enough.”
The problem was, Gabe didn’t know how to go about any of this. It wasn’t something he liked admitting but, damn it, he needed help. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Flowers, man. Chicks dig flowers.”
Flowers, huh? He sat back and looked at the tat. Pretty damn good, if he did say so himself. “You’re done. Check it out.”
After Paul gave his approval, Gabe bandaged it up and waved away the cash. “No charge this time. You helped me out.”
Paul shook his head. “I just told you what any shitty rom-com would. Go watch The Notebook or something. Apparently that’s the standard women are putting to relationships now. A real guy can hardly compete.”
“Now who’s talking bullshit?”
“I know, right?” Paul grabbed his leather jacket and headed for the door. “See you.”
Gabe set about disposing of his needles and cleaning up his work space, but his mind wasn’t in it. Did he really want to pursue this? Elle wasn’t just gorgeous, she was a lady. A stuck-up one, but a lady nonetheless. Women like that expected certain stuff he didn’t know the first thing about. Maybe Paul was right, and he should just buy her some flowers.
Gabe picked up his phone and dialed Nathan. “Hey, meet me at that grocery store by your house.”
“Hello to you, too.”
“Yeah, yeah. Hi. I’ll see you in twenty.” He hung up before Nathan could say no.
Gabe closed up the shop and then headed north. His brother had a house on the very edges of Spokane, close enough for easy access to all the necessities, but tucked away in a copse of trees that afforded it some much-valued privacy.
Personally, Gabe was of the mind that if you were going to live in the country, you should goddamn well live in the country—which is why his house was well beyond the city limits. The only problem was its location made it a pain in the ass to get into town.
So he crashed at Nathan’s house more often than not—a fact his brother constantly ribbed him over.
Hell, he’d threatened to start charging Gabe rent.
But there was another reason Gabe only went up to the house every so often, one he’d never admit to his brother even though he was pretty sure Nathan felt the same way. It was so freaking lonely to come home to an empty place. He couldn’t even have a dog because he was out of town so often. All that greeted him when he walked through the door was a cold, impenetrable silence.
He turned up the radio, letting the music roll through him. There was no reason to go all emo over it. He didn’t like being alone. So sue him. There was nothing wrong with that. For some reason, though, being around Elle and all the challenges she represented only made the loneliness worse. She didn’t think they were compatible.
Well, Gabe was going to prove her wrong.
Despite the traffic, he got there at the same time as his brother, pulling up next to the jacked-up black Ford F-150. As he climbed out of the Camaro, Nathan hopped down. “You want to tell me what’s going on?” “We’re going to buy some flowers.” It sounded really stupid when he said it aloud. Gabe ignored his brother’s smirk. “And I need you to tell me everything you know about Elle.”
“Elle? I thought you’d decided to let that go.” He thought he had too. “I’m not done yet.”
“She’s been stomping around the gallery all week, with steam practically shooting out her ears.” Nathan crossed his arms over his chest.“I suppose this is going to make it worse?”
“Probably.” “Good to know.”
They headed into the grocery store, veering left off the door and into the fl
ower section. Gabe turned a full circle, taking in the rainbow of colors. “Holy shit. How is someone supposed to pick from this?”
“You could just buy her roses.” “Roses are lame.”
Nathan tapped two fingers to his chin. “Hmm. I seem to remember Elle saying something similar a few months ago.”
“You’re not helping.” Gabe pulled off one of the plastic bag things used to make a bouquet.“What’s her favorite color?”
“Purple. Or maybe pink.”
Gabe shot him a look.“Hasn’t she worked for you for damn near a year?”
“Well, yeah.”
“And you don’t even know her favorite color?” Maybe bringing Nathan along hadn’t been the best idea. At this rate, his brother was just as likely to steer him down the wrong road as the right one.
Nathan shrugged. “It’s never come up. But she wears a lot of those, so it stands to reason.”
“Fair enough.” Gabe started grabbing random purple and pink flowers, trying to get a good variety. Chicks liked variety, right? “What else can you tell me?”
“She’s girly. I’m pretty sure the woman would drop dead at the idea of camping. Like I said before, I served with her brother. He didn’t talk about his family a lot, but his little sister was untouchable in his mind. I know their parents are still alive and still married, but that’s about it.”
Of course they were. It was exactly the type of family unit Gabe could picture around her. They were probably just as goody-goody as Elle was. Then again, there had been definite tension on her face during her phone call with her mom. Trouble on the home front? It was something to think about. “What else?”
“God, you don’t ask for much, do you? It’s not like we sit around, braiding each other’s hair and gossiping.” Nathan picked some tall flowers and shoved them into the bouquet. “She’s an amazing coordinator—has a great eye for art and a passion to go with it. I’ve never met anyone who can identify so perfectly with what the artist is trying to get across.”
