by Ally Blake
‘I’d like to think so,’ she said, ‘but I’m not averse to hearing you say it.’
Humour flared in his eyes again. Humour and heat. Then he leant his forehead against hers. ‘I’m back,’ he rumbled in his deep delicious voice, ‘because you love me.’
Paige hiccuped a half-sob half-laugh. Then she croaked, ‘Excuse me?’ her hand flying to her throat, but Gabe caught it, bringing her knuckles to his lips. His eyes closing as he breathed deep, drinking her in.
‘You love me,’ he said. He turned her hand to press his lips to the leaping pulse inside her wrist. ‘You told me so. Soft and warm and sated in my bed.’
‘I didn’t say that out loud! Did I?’
‘You did. I can all but feel your breath whispering against my cheek even now.’
Paige’s spare hand flew to her own burning hot cheek. He knew she loved him. And he was still standing there, kissing the tips of her fingers. ‘You knew, and yet you—’ Left.
Gabe placed her hand over his heart, and then cradled her cheeks to make sure she was looking him right in the eye as he said, ‘I knew and I found it hard to believe. Right up until I found it impossible not to believe.’
Gabe didn’t make it any easier for her to get a grip on what was happening when he began raining soft warm kisses across her forehead, below her eyes, at the corners of her mouth. Then with a groan he swept his hands to take possessive rights on her backside, and he nuzzled her neck, warm air scooting across the sweet spot below her ear.
His voice vibrated through her as he said, ‘I’ve spent every day since I’ve known you convincing myself it was all happening too fast to be real. That you were too good to be true. That I needed more time to be sure.’
The old Paige would have said, Amen to that. But the new and improved Paige was falling deeper and deeper into a blood haze and she flipped his leather jacket out of the way so she could find a backside to hold. So that she could press her hips into his. To tilt her head to give him all the access to her sweet spots he wanted. ‘And now?’
‘It only took ten thousand miles and trying to live a life I’d outgrown to realise when it comes to you, Paige Danforth, there’s no such thing as too fast.’ Gabe lifted his head, his eyes dark with desire. ‘I’m in love with you, Paige. And I’m ready for you to love me right on back.’
That was all Paige needed to hear. She ran the back of her hand along his cheek, over his week-old stubble, then threaded her fingers through his dark hair and pulled his head to hers. A groan left his mouth as their lips met and she melted into him, heat on heat, hands everywhere as they couldn’t get close enough. He smelled so good, felt so strong, her limbs were so loose, her blood on fire, her heart full to bursting. This was what she’d worked so hard to avoid? Never again.
She dragged herself from the fog of his kiss, and, while she could have watched him looking hungrily at her lips for ever, she waited till his eyes left her mouth to look into hers to say, ‘I love you more than you can know.’
‘I reckon you love me exactly as much as I know.’
Paige pressed onto her toes and kissed him again. Only this time it was soft, lingering, searching, finding. A kiss that had found its home. A tear ran down her cheek as emotion too great to hold back overwhelmed her.
Gabe pulled back, licking her tear from his lips, and wiped a gentle knuckle down the trail. ‘Now that we’ve got that all sorted out, you weren’t busy, were you?’
Paige laughed, and thought of the suitcase that was hopefully still outside her apartment. ‘Nothing pressing.’
‘Good, because I’m in the mind to buy a suit and thought you might be the girl to help me pick one out.’
‘A suit? I’ve never seen you wear a suit. Not once.’
‘Turns out I need the right inducement.’
‘Such as?’
‘I’m not sure my leather jacket quite goes with that dress of yours. The white one with all the beads—’
‘Pearls,’ Paige corrected, even as her blood began to rush so fast through her system she thought she might be about to faint.
‘Hmm?’
‘They’re natural freshwater pearls. Just saying.’
His mouth kicked up into the beginnings of a smile. A flash of teeth. A crinkling of his eyes. A mere hint of the smile that had got her into this in the first place and she had to swallow down the flood of saliva that poured into her mouth.
‘Right,’ he said. ‘The way I see it, if you hadn’t bought the dress with the pearls you wouldn’t have wished for me. If I hadn’t caught you in the dress, hadn’t been forced to rid you of it like a groom on his wedding night, I might never have been snapped out of my self-delusion that I’d never want to do it for real. That dress came with a little bit of fairy dust, methinks. Only fair I get me a suit to match. You in?’
Paige tried to think. She really did. But the thought of Gabe fresh shaven, in morning grey, top hat, tails, pearl buttons on the waistcoat and a matching pale cream cummerbund was so ridiculous a picture she laughed out loud.
‘Something funny about the idea of you marrying me, Miss Danforth?’
Her laughter stopped quick smart as Gabe slid down onto his knee, just one knee, and lifted her top to place a kiss on her belly. She slid her fingers into his long thick hair and shook her head. Then, her own knees giving way, she sat on his.
‘You want to marry me?’
‘You don’t think I came all the way back here carrying a pair of love-locked flamingos on a whim, do you? You’re it. You’re mine. I’m done. And I’m already looking forward to seeing the faces of your fan club as they watch you walk down the aisle.’
Not having a clue as to what he was talking about, Paige shook her head. ‘I know you, Gabe. You won’t see a single person in the crowd but me.’
‘True. So you’re in?’
‘All the way in.’ She held up a finger when his smile grew. ‘On one condition. I don’t want you wearing a suit for me. I love you just the way you are.’
‘Yeah,’ he said, sliding her beanie off her head and scrunching it behind her neck. ‘I know.’ Then he kissed her as if his life depended on it.
A few minutes later, feeling as if she were in the middle of a dream, Paige said, ‘Though I have always liked men in suits.’
‘Well, you can’t have one. Not any more. I’m all you got now.’
She wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed. ‘Fine. I think I can handle that.’
‘All this? I guess we’ll see.’
A flicker of something lit his eyes. Something dark and delicious. A warning, the boundaries of which she knew she was going to thoroughly enjoy pushing again and again and again if the heat that came along with it was anything to go by.
Her voice was husky as she said, ‘You’ve spent the past day in airports or on planes so perhaps we could make a quick stop at home before we do any shopping.’
With a whoosh Gabe lifted her to standing and tucked the flamingos under one arm. ‘I knew you were a woman after my own heart.’
Laughing, Paige went to press a button, then paused.
‘Eighth floor,’ Gabe said, tucking her beanie back onto her head. ‘My place never felt like it was really mine. Yours, on the other hand, I like very much. Though it could do with a bigger TV. And I’ve seen inside your fridge and there’s only so much celery and carrot and dip a real man can take. And that girly bed has to go—’
‘Yeah yeah yeah,’ Paige said, all the while knowing she wasn’t letting him near the decorating aspect of her apartment. Except his bed. The thing was so glorious she’d carry that bed down from his apartment herself.
She pressed the emergency stop button, then the button for the eighth floor and leant her head on Gabe’s shoulder as his arm wrapped around her waist. And waited for the lift to move. She’d waited her whole life for him, she could wait a few minutes longer.
This big brawny man who’d seen flamingos and thought of her. The dark, dangerous pirate who was prepared to bu
y a suit to marry her. The man who, when he went to Venice, or Brazil, or Timbuktu, would always be thinking about when he’d next be home.
A man who only had eyes for her.
EPILOGUE
SAM the Super leant back in his chair, shaking his head at the leggy blonde and the big guy from the top floor as they stared into one another’s eyes like besotted teenagers on the lift’s security monitor. They were both oblivious to the fact that he’d sent the lift to the penthouse and back to the lobby twice already.
She was hard work, the blonde, the way she couldn’t just leave his little bit of fun with the lift well enough alone, but, he thought grudgingly, he admired her chutzpah. The other residents took his antics with the lifts for granted, but she never stopped trying to put things to rights. And while he was in a mood for admitting such things, he thought the new guy was all right too. He glanced at the box of cigars the guy had given him in thanks for helping him track down his bed.
Maybe he’d start to cut them a little slack. Maybe.
When the new guy reached up and cupped the blonde’s chin, running his thumb over her cheek, Sam’s mouth twitched in what felt like the beginnings of a warm smile.
When the black and white figures on the screen leant towards one another, clearly on the path to kissing, again, he mumbled beneath his breath, flicked off the monitor of the security camera. Sure, he liked to have his fun, a guy had to fill the hours of the day somehow, but they could keep their happily ever afters to themselves.
He pushed himself to standing with a groan and headed towards the service lift. It was time he changed the orange blossom mist in the foyer diffuser anyway.
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II BV/S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
® and TM are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
First published in Great Britain 2013
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited.
Harlequin (UK) Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road,
Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Ally Blake 2013
ISBN: 978-0-263-89975-7
eISBN: 978-1-472-00157-3
Table of Contents
Excerpt
About the Author
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Copyright