Wrong Bed, Right Guy

by Katee Robert

  Elle made a sound that was half laugh, half sob. “You know what? Tonight you reaffirmed that I was right all along. So thank you for that. Next time I won’t make the same mistake. Good-bye, Gabe.” Her voice was so thick with tears, he could barely understand her. “Please don’t call me again.”

  He kept the phone to his ear for a long time after she hung up. Gabe blinked, only now realizing that he’d been sitting at this stop sign ever since she picked up. He didn’t know what to do. His first instinct was to track her down, but she sounded like she’d already made her decision. It didn’t matter what he felt or how they’d connected or that things had been so great up until this shitstorm—Elle didn’t want anything to do with him. She couldn’t have made it clearer than if she spelled it out with her pink lipstick—the same fucking lipstick he couldn’t stop thinking about.

  Gabe shook his head, trying to clear the buzzing in his brain. He needed to get out of here, at least for a few days. Clear his mind. Figure out what he wanted. Do anything other than sit at this stop sign and let the pit inside his stomach swallow him whole.

  Mind set, he drove to his place. The empty house seemed to taunt him as he walked the halls to his room. Here, faced with the physical manifestation of his loneliness, he knew he’d made the right decision to leave. Gabe went into his room and tossed a few changes of clothes in a carry-on bag. He’d go take care of the L.A. club, since that was one problem that he could solve.

  It would give them both a few days to cool off, and then Gabe would figure out where to go from there. Maybe if he could sit her down long enough, he could explain the entire situation. She’d have to see reason once she realized what she’d walked in on. Then again, Elle hadn’t exactly shown herself as willing to listen to reason. Maybe it was better that he cut his losses now.

  It would be so easy to take off, tour his clubs, and do whatever it took to get that damn woman out of his system. If he kept busy, he could probably even ignore the barbs slicing their way through his chest.

  Stupid. She was so damn stupid. Elle pulled the blanket more tightly around herself. God help her, but if Roxanne said “I told you so” she was going to lose her mind. “And then I took off.”

  The brunette passed over a steaming cup of green tea, her green eyes sympathetic. “I’m sorry, honey.”

  Words bubbled up, poison she couldn’t keep inside her any longer. “I feel like an asshole.”

  “Oh jeez. You are not. You’re a woman.”

  Hurt lanced through her, the pain barely scratching the surface of her agony over Gabe. She’d changed when she was with him, had become someone…a person who stopped overthinking things—and now look what happened. “Whose side are you on?”

  “Yours, sweetie. Always yours. But this is your crazy-ass mother talking. You know I hate it when I hear her words coming out of your mouth. You aren’t an asshole, you’re human. Hard to believe you aren’t perfect, but such is life.”

  More tears—she had an endless supply, it seemed—bubbled up. Elle tried and failed to hold back a sob. “I w-was happy w-with him.” That was the worst part—she’d liked the person she became when she was around Gabe. And he was lying to her the entire time. Unforgivable.

  “I know.” Roxanne sipped her tea. “What are you going to do?”

  The question of her life. Things used to be so simple—she wanted her career, her husband, a couple of kids, a good life. Now…now, Elle didn’t know what she wanted. “I’m not sure.”

  “He’s going to keep calling. You realize that, right?”

  “I’m not ready to talk to him.” She wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready. Every time she thought of Gabe, she saw the red lipstick on his cheek. Maybe not talking to him was better. It was certainly safer.

  “Okay. I’ll field the phone calls for the time being.” “Thank you.” She tried and failed to dredge up a smile. “Can I…Can I stay here until Monday?” “Of course.”

  Roxanne couldn’t be her protector forever. Eventually Elle had to go back into the real world and deal with this. She had no illusions about Gabe’s tenacity—he’d found her before, and he would again.

  The trick was to figure out what the hell she’d say to his face when he did.“Maybe I can just take a vacation or something. I’m sure Florida is really nice this time of year.”

  “Honey, it’s hurricane season.”

  There went that plan. Elle slouched deeper into the couch. “I could go visit Ian in Japan.”

  “He’s only there for another few weeks.”

  “Don’t remind me.” As much as she wanted to see her big brother, she really didn’t want to have to explain everything that happened with Gabe. He’d go ballistic if he found out about any of this. Yeah, better if he lived on in blissful ignorance. Which meant she’d need a good story to tell him before this was all over. Elle sighed. “Canada?”

  “Three things.” Roxanne held up three fingers. “Bears, mountain lions, and badgers.”

  A pathetic laugh escaped. “I don’t think badgers should be on the top three things to avoid in Canada.” “Think what you want.” She shuddered. “Those things are terrifying.”

  The absurdity of Roxanne being afraid of badgers of all things shook off some of her bad mood. Elle actually succeeded in smiling this time around. “I’m sure there’s a way around that. Just stick to the cities.”

  “Let’s just take Canada off the list and call it good, okay?”

  “Fine.” She sighed. “Guess I have to stay in town and figure this out, don’t I?”

  “Hate to be the one to tell you this, but I’m pretty sure that Neanderthal of yours would chase you across the wilds of Canada.” Roxanne shuddered. “Then you’d be dealing with him and badgers. Let’s just not.” “Good plan. Let’s definitely not. And he’s not my anything. He more than proved that tonight.” She could deal with this. Really, she could.

  In the meantime, she was going to let Roxanne distract her with talking about anything but sex in storage closets and Gabe.

  “I’m sick. Really sick.” Elle forced a cough.

  “You are not.” Nathan didn’t sound the least bit sympathetic. “You’re avoiding coming into work.”

  Well, crap. She swallowed hard.“I just…I can’t.” “Elle, you don’t have to worry about running into him. He’s not even here. He’s in L.A.”

  Of course he was. Gabe hadn’t even waited two days before he went running back to his other woman. Elle hadn’t thought she could hurt any more, but the shards in her heart twisted viciously. “Oh.”

  Nathan sighed. “Come in. I’ll have coffee waiting for you.” He hung up before she could come up with another excuse.

  Elle couldn’t bring herself to put forth her usual effort into getting ready for work. She pulled on a sundress and threw her hair into a ponytail and called it good. Really, who was there for her to impress? She didn’t care if Nathan saw her as less than perfect. Heck, he already knew the truth. She was a fool, willing to believe any lie as long as it sounded halfway convincing.

  No. No more beating herself up. She made a mistake, she should have known better, but it was over now.

  Nathan looked up as she walked into the gallery. “Forgive me if I sound like an ass, but you look like shit.”

  “You’re not helping.” She paused in front of her favorite painting, but even it couldn’t ease the ache in her chest. Taking the coffee cup he offered, she sank into the chair behind her desk. She’d barely sat down when her phone rang. Elle nearly groaned out loud when she looked at the caller ID. Ian. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to smile. “Hey, big brother.”

  “You never called me back.”

  Yeah, because she didn’t know what to say. “I was embarrassed about how our last conversation went.”

  “Ellie, I was worried about you.”

  “I’m sorry. Everything’s fine now. It was a momentary weakness.” And not one she planned on repeating, no matter how good Gabe made her feel when they were together. />
  “It didn’t sound like a momentary weakness. It sounded like some asshole broke your heart.”

  “You know me, I pick winners.” She started to laugh, but stopped when the sound cracked unnaturally. “Jason wasn’t your fault.”

  “What’s that saying? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.”

  Ian took a deep breath. “You’re not insane and you’re not stupid. Jason was a piece of shit.”

  Elle shook her head. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Honestly, though, I’m a lot better. We broke up, and I haven’t seen him since.”

  “I didn’t even realize you were dating someone.”

  She didn’t know if what she and Gabe had would count as dating, but she wasn’t going to tell Ian that they’d just been having sex. “Yeah, we haven’t talked much lately.” And he’d never understand.

  “I’m sorry, Ellie. Really sorry.” There were voices in the background. Ian sighed.“I have to go. Drills, you know? I’ll call you soon. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.” She hung up, not sure if she felt better or worse for having talked to him. She took a drink of coffee and sat back with a sigh. Time to get to work.

  “What are you going to do?”

  Gabe barely resisted the urge to throw his phone across the room. He swore to God, if his brother asked him that one more time he was going to do something they’d both regret. “I don’t know.” He’d spent the weekend putting out fires in L.A. The old G.M. hadn’t acted so tough once they sat down in a room together. It’d taken all of twenty minutes to get him to sign an agreement saying it had been a lawful termination, probably because he didn’t try to intimidate Gabe the way he had with Lynn. After that, there’d been half a dozen smaller problems waiting for him to deal with.

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I guess I’m going to try to talk to her.” And hope it went better than last time. He kept picturing the horror on her face, which quickly melted into the exact same expression she’d worn the moment she turned on the light and realized he wasn’t Nathan.“Maybe this was a mistake.”

  Something rustled on the line. “You’re being stupid.”

  “I am not. She and I are too different.”

  “Not true. Did you ever think that the reason you work so well together is because you’re so different?” Of course he had. It was part of the reason he’d pursued her. He’d thought she was everything he ever wanted. Gabe wasn’t sure he’d been mistaken.“It’s not that simple.”

  “Are you trying to convince me or yourself? Because you’re doing a piss-poor job of both. Just figure your shit out and win her back. Simple.”

  “So simple that you let your mystery chick slip through your damn fingertips?”

  Gabe had always thought the expression “you could hear a pin drop” was exaggerating. He was wrong. So wrong. The silence was almost physical between them, a wall he had no hope of climbing.

  Nathan finally said, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that, and we’re going to move on. Figure your shit out, Gabe, because I’m tired of your anger coming out at me.”

  The worst part of it was he was right. Gabe should have let it go. “I’m sorry.”

  For a long second he actually thought Nathan would say it wasn’t okay. “I’m not worried about it.”

  “You see how it is? This chick has me so twisted up, I can’t see straight anymore. It’s not natural.”

  “Do you care about her?”

  He didn’t even have to think about his answer. “Yeah. A lot.”

  “Well, she cares about you, too. She tried to call in sick today and, when she finally showed up, she looked like shit warmed over.”

  “I’m sure she’s fine.”

  “Will you get over yourself? So she thought the worst of you, so what? You guys had only known each other two weeks—two really rocky weeks. And even after the multiple screwups, she gave you another chance. Don’t you think you need to get off your high horse and do the same for her?”

  When he put it like that, he made Gabe feel like an idiot. “You’re a pain in my ass.”

  “No. That’s the stick you have shoved up there. You need stop pussyfooting around and figure out your big move.”

  The worst part was that his brother might actually be right. Sure, Elle had run screaming into the night at the first indication that he might be less than Prince Charming, but hadn’t he done the same damn thing? A sobering thought if there ever was one. Which meant one of them had to be the bigger person, and put aside their pride. Gabe rubbed his jaw. Ah hell. If he didn’t try, he’d always wonder what could have happened.

  Anything he did would have to be pretty damn big to get Elle back on his side—and in his bed. Gabe turned a slow circle, mind whirling. The normal “I’m an asshole and I’m sorry” gifts wouldn’t do anything. Chocolates, flowers, jewelry, none of it would make Elle stop long enough to listen to him. But there was one thing that would, something she wanted more than anything. He leaned against the desk. “I have an idea. It’s a Hail Mary, but it’s all I’ve got.”

  In just two weeks, his entire world had been rocked. Elle had shown up, bringing a breath of fresh air he hadn’t even known he needed. Gabe didn’t want to go back to the emptiness his life had been before her— the free space between work was a time he avoided like the plague.With her, he actually looked forward to something other than his clubs and tattoo shop.

  It was time to win back his woman.

  22

  Elle stopped in her driveway to stare at the package leaning against her front door. Judging from the basic brown paper, twine wrapping, and its size, it was some kind of painting.

  What was it doing here?

  Except she couldn’t pretend she didn’t know.There was only one person who’d be leaving her things on the front doorstep, and she didn’t want anything to do with him right now. A week sure as heck wasn’t long enough to sort out how she felt. A year wouldn’t be long enough.

  With a sigh, she unlocked the door and carted the package inside. A cowardly voice insisted she toss it in the garbage, but that was freaking rude, no matter who gave the present. Elle settled for tucking it behind the sofa. She’d deal with it later—when she wasn’t on the verge of bursting into tears. Lord, she was a mess.

  As the night wore on, Elle couldn’t settle down. She moved from one part of the house to the other— trying to zone out with a book until it became obvious she couldn’t focus on the words, poking through the fridge but deciding she wasn’t hungry after all—before finally trudging upstairs to fold laundry. Faced with a huge pile of clean clothes, she decided she didn’t really want to do that either. Nothing could hold her interest.

  She needed to do something about it.

  No, she didn’t want to see. It had to be from Gabe—he didn’t deserve the time and effort it would take her to go downstairs and unwrap it.

  Back and forth she went. Should she to throw it out or sit up here and pretend it didn’t exist? Yeah, ‘cause the last one was working out so well. Finally, completely disgusted with herself, Elle picked up her phone. It rang a few times before Roxanne answered. “Rox, I need you.”

  “What happened?”

  “I think Gabe left something here for me. I’m… afraid to open it.”

  Roxanne sighed and Elle loved her all the more for not hanging up right then and there. “I’m on my way.”

  “I love you, Rox.”

  “Yeah, you too.” She hung up, probably cursing Elle up one side and down the other in her head.

  Elle sat on her bed, rocking back and forth, until she heard the front door open. For one insane moment, she was sure Gabe had come back and every cell in her body leapt to life. But then Roxanne’s voice echoed through the house, “Elle?”

  “Up here.”

  “Uh-huh. Right. I’m assuming this is the painting?

  I’ll just get to it.”

  The sound of ripping paper had Elle
up and off the bed in record time. She ran down the stairs to find Roxanne setting the painting on the kitchen island. For several breaths, she refused to reconcile what she was seeing. “That’s…”

  “Yes, it looks like the same painting you’ve been obsessed with for months.” Roxanne tilted her head to the side. “I mean, it’s pretty enough, but I don’t really see the appeal.”

  “It’s…” She couldn’t even begin to find the words to express her emotions. Good lord, she didn’t even know what she was feeling right now. Elle had seen the price tag on this piece—she’d agonized over the reality that she’d never be able to afford it. Not in a million years.

  Gabe bought it for her. “I have to take it back.”

  Roxanne gave her a look like she’d lost her mind. “What are you talking about?”

  “I can’t take this. It’s too much.”

  “Honey, listen to yourself.” Elle made a grab for the painting, but she easily held it out of reach. “Stop for a second and think about this. How long have you wanted this painting?”

  “Five months.”

  Roxanne dodged another wild reach. “And could you have ever bought it for yourself?”

  “No! That’s the point.” Elle smacked her hip on the corner of the island hard enough to bruise. Ouch. “He can’t freaking buy me off.”

  “I really don’t think that’s what he’s trying to do.” When Elle’s mouth dropped open, she handed over a sealed envelope. “Look, I get that you have crazy-conflicted feelings about this guy, but I’d have to be blind to not to see that he’s crazy about you. The least you can do is read what he wrote.”

  Elle backed away as if the envelope were going to reach out and bite her. Heck, maybe it was. “I don’t want to hear what he has to say.”

  “Then you’re an idiot.”

  That stopped her in her tracks. “Whose side are you on?”

  “Are you even listening to yourself? You’re pissed off at him for…what exactly? For wiping lipstick off his face? It’s not like you found him banging that bitch against the wall. For being too much like Jason? Because I don’t really see how he’s all that similar to your pissant of an ex-boyfriend. For leaving you? Honey, you’re the one who took off and told him to lose your number. Or maybe it was for giving you multiple mind-blowing orgasms? Because that doesn’t sound all that bad either, Elle.” Roxanne set the painting down and smoothed her hair back.“I love you, but this is ridiculous. Did the man make you happy?”