Adriana looked back at him and saw that he didn’t even seem to notice. His attention was focused solely on her. “Um,” she tilted her head slightly toward the incoming amateur videographers.
Gabe blinked, and his eyes followed her lead just when the cute redhead in the group grasped at her chest and asked, “Can I get a picture?”
Gabe’s eyes shot back to Adriana’s. “Do you mind?”
“Me?” Adriana’s hand touched her own chest in surprise. “No. I don’t…I…go ahead.”
She watched as he stood and obliged the group. He almost looked like a different person when he was with them. It wasn’t that he was fake, it just didn’t seem like him anymore.
He dutifully took over a dozen pictures and even recorded a video greeting for one of the guy’s little brothers. They all gushed over how “badass” his fight had been. The redhead, in particular, was showering him with attention.
She kept touching Gabe’s arm as they all talked and got in as many of the pictures as she could, even planting a kiss on his cheek during the last one before raising up to her tiptoes and whispering something in his ear.
A sudden sharp stab of emotion hit Adriana in the chest. It was jealousy. Not in the classic definition. She wasn’t jealous of the attention the girl was giving Gabe. She was jealous of the girl.
The time in Adriana’s life where she could flirt and whisper things in a hot guy’s ear were behind her. She’d truly believed that she’d come to terms with that. But apparently, she hadn’t.
She was lost in her thoughts when she saw that Gabe’s hand was outstretched toward her. When she blinked up at him, the look in his eyes was communicating an SOS. The kids were still talking and snapping pics and it was obvious to her that he was ready to go.
Instinctively, she lifted her arm and placed her fingers in his large palms.
The instant their skin touched a jolt of awareness ricocheted through her. His brown eyes darkened like a storm was brewing in them, making her wonder if he felt it, too.
The next sensation she was aware of was the warmth of his hand encircling hers and being tugged off of the seat. As she stood, Gabe addressed the group, “It was good meeting you guys.”
When she was on her feet, a sudden burst of self-consciousness exploded in her as if she’d just bitten into a piece of Freshen-up gum and she pulled her hand out of his grasp. As she did, the back of her fingers brushed against rough callouses along his upper palm, and the sensation sent a shiver dancing down her spine.
He bent down, and the heat of his breath tickled down her neck as he said in a low, decisive tone, “Let’s go.”
The raspy quality of his voice combined with the warmth of his breath fanning the sensitive area just below her neck had her eyes rolling up in her head as she automatically shut her eyelids. She tried to inhale a deep, fortifying breath but her chest felt constricted. It was as if all of the oxygen surrounding her had been evaporated by the heat of his sexiness.
It didn’t help her quest to breathe when she felt the weight of his hand settle on her lower back. The thin cotton of her shirt was no match for the warmth radiating off of his palm. It spread through her like a shot of whiskey.
Air. She needed fresh air.
Walk. She told herself.
Forcing her heavy lids open she did just that. She put one foot in front of the other and didn’t stop until she was out the door. Even through all the chaos that was happening in her mind, her emotions, and her hormones, she took note that he held the door open for her. He was a gentleman. He’d pulled out of her seat and opened her door.
She’d never had a man do those things before. It hadn’t ever been something that she’d missed or looked for in someone. She’d always considered it old-fashioned. And it was, but it was also nice.
Gabe called out, “Thanks, Sue Ann!” before they left and in the back of her mind she thought about going back in and asking about the room, but she decided against it.
All she could handle was one crisis at a time, and right now that was keeping her composure. Plus, she’d rather sleep in her car tonight than miss getting to know Gabe better. That was the reason she was here.
When she got outside, she was happy when she managed to breathe like a normal person again. It did take putting some distance between herself and the furnace of hotness that was Gabe Maguire, but she managed to do it.
Before they’d made it even a few feet away from the café, Gabe motioned behind him. “Sorry about that.”
She glanced up as she shook her head. “You don’t have to be sorry. You have nothing to apologize for. It’s fine. You’re fine. You’re great, even. You made them so happy. Especially the redhead.”
No! The second the last words were out of her mouth, Adriana winced. This was why she tried not to speak when she was nervous. Because every time she did, she ended up tasting her toes.
Gabe didn’t seem to notice that she’d inserted her foot into her mouth, or maybe he was just used to people saying stupid things in his presence. “She was sweet.”
Sweet. Not the word that Adriana would’ve used…
She figured this was as good an opening as any to start asking questions and finding out what kind of life Gabe led. What kind of a person he was.
“Does that happen to you a lot?” As soon as she posed the question, she realized it could’ve been taken the wrong way, like she was asking if he got hit on a lot. She hurried to clarify, “Do people recognize you a lot?”
Foot-in-mouth-itis wasn’t an ailment she would wish on anyone.
“Lately, it’s been happening more.” Gabe winced as he stretched his arm over his head as they walked, using his hand to pull his right elbow to the left.
Adriana couldn’t help but notice the sculpted muscle in both his forearms and triceps. Arms had never really registered on her “What is Sexy” scale.
Hands? Yes. She’d always been a sucker for large, strong hands.
Smile? Sure. Who doesn’t love a good smile?
Eyes? Of course. The windows to the soul and all that.
Height? Yep. Not that it took a lot to be taller than her, but still.
Shoulders? Oh yeah. A broad, wide shoulder to rest your head on and snuggle into—sign her up.
However, arms had never been a consideration.
After seeing Gabe’s arms, she was rethinking her scale entirely.
It wasn’t until he lowered them that she was able to think again.
“I thought that they’d seen Karina or Kyle.” They crossed the street as he explained, “Karina Black and Kyle Austen Reed both live here, and I figured it had been about them. The level of attention I’m getting is pretty new. I’m sure my fifteen minutes will be over soon. At least I hope it will.”
He looked down at her with an adorable lop-sided grin, and the butterflies in her stomach started doing back flips. They stopped when she realized she’d seen it before only on a much smaller person. Jonah had grinned that way since he was a baby.
Stop. She harshly instructed herself. She had to stop getting swept away in this dramatic, soap-opera-level attraction that she was feeling. Gabe wasn’t some epic affair waiting to happen. He could very likely be Jonah’s father. She needed to focus on what she was doing here.
Riding high on the wave of her internal pep talk, she stopped mid-stride and lifted her head, ready to give him the third degree under the pretense of interviewing him. However when she saw the intense look he was giving her, the momentum of the wave crashed onto the sand.
His eyes scanned over her face and she couldn’t think. She could barely process the way his stare was making her feel. All of her senses were raw and open. Her skin tingled as if his gaze were a physical touch.
“Damn,” he whispered beneath his breath.
“What?” Her heart was thudding in her chest like a dog getting scratched behind the ear.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said simply.
“Oh, thanks.” She tried to remember what she�
��d been determined to do just moments ago, but right now she was drawing a blank.
Gabe’s eyes didn’t leave hers as he shook his head. “No. You’re really beautiful. You’re the kind of beautiful that men wage wars over. You’re the kind of beautiful that men make monuments for, like the Taj Mahal or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. You’re the kind of beautiful that makes men drunk. You’re intoxicating. You’re more than just beautiful you’re devastating.”
Adriana wasn’t a stranger to compliments. With dark hair, fair skin, and blue eyes, she had striking looks. That, combined with the fact that she’d started developing sooner than other girls and had a full C cup before she even hit eighth grade and she’d never been at a loss for male attention. It had also made her bullshit meter highly-tuned.
She knew if a guy was hitting on her because he wanted to get laid or if he was genuinely interested her. She could easily compartmentalize any pickup line into one of those two categories. Nothing any man had ever said to her had left her speechless. But that’s what she was now.
Every time someone complimented her, she heard it, but she’d never felt it before. Their words had never resonated on a biological level. Gabe’s did. They went more than skin deep. They sank beneath the superficial level.
“I’m so sorry, that was…” Gabe lifted his arms and ran his hands through his hair as he let out a small forced laugh. “That was inappropriate.”
“It’s okay.” It was more than okay. She had a feeling she was going to be replaying what he said for years to come. She might even get it stitched on a pillow so she could hold onto the sentiment while she slept.
“No, it’s not,” he insisted as he shook his head. “You’re here for an interview not to get hit on with cheesy-ass lines. I don’t know why…I never…I don’t say things like that.”
“You’re a poet, and you didn’t know it,” Adriana teased, hoping to diffuse some of the tension between them.
“I think we started off on the wrong foot.” He waved his hand between them. “What do you say we have a do-over?”
Adriana was quite happy with the foot they’d started off on if it had led to him telling her that she was so beautiful she made men drunk, but she agreed anyway. “Okay.”
Gabe abruptly did an about-face and walked away from her. Adriana watched him take several steps before turning back around and acting as if he saw her for the first time. He walked back up to her, his tone formal as he greeted her, “Hi, I’m Gabe Maguire.”
She grinned, “I’m Adriana Hale.”
“Nice to meet you, Adriana.” He smiled, and his voice sounded back to normal. “Okay now that that’s out of the way, what do you want to know?”
Are you Jonah’s father?
And if you are, what does that mean for him, for me, for you?
Since she couldn’t ask any of those things, she went with other questions and pushed down the guilt she felt for pretending to be someone she wasn’t.
Adriana hated being here under false pretenses, but her heart was in the right place. She just worried that it would be broken when this was all over…but that was a chance she had to take. She had to keep her promise, and if that meant she had to lie, so be it.
Chapter 5
‡
“Wow. This place is like a Thomas Kinkaid painting come to life,” Adriana commented as she turned a full circle on the walking bridge they’d stopped on to gaze at the river.
They were surrounded by a panoramic vista of absolutely breathtaking scenery. The Sierra Nevadas provided the backdrop to this small town while the rushing river below them completed the stunning setting. There were tall pine trees and colorful aspens that dotted the landscape and a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds. It truly was like standing in a real-life portrait.
Gabe inhaled the fresh, crisp mountain air. “I’ve wanted to live here since I was a kid. Every time we visited my aunt and uncle I would get so sad when we would leave. It’s always felt like home.”
“Do your aunt and uncle still live here?”
Gabe had always tried to keep his family out of the press, but this past hour that he and Adriana had been walking along the Riverside Rec area, he’d opened up to her about things he’d never shared with anyone. He’d talked about his treatment and the toll it had taken on him, about how he’d isolated himself, and about the numbness that he still felt.
After the brief, yet humiliating aberration of his Shakespeare impersonation, he’d managed to get things back on track, and they’d had a really nice time talking. In the back of his head he knew that she’d be writing all of it up for her blog, but for some reason, it didn’t bother him.
It didn’t feel like any interview he’d ever given. It felt as if Adriana was genuinely interested in getting to know him. The real him. Not the sensationalized hero firefighter or the cancer-beating MMA champion. When she looked at him, he felt as if she was seeing him. Gabe Maguire, the man. That’s it.
Because of that, he’d probably revealed a lot more than he should’ve, but right now he didn’t care about that. He didn’t care about anything but this moment and being with Adriana.
“Yeah, my family’s still here. My aunt and uncle and my cousins Eric, Nikki, Amy, and Jake.”
“Jake?” She repeated. “Did you say Jake?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“No reason.” Her lips pursed and the strangest expression flashed on her beautiful face.
He dropped it, even though he felt like there was something significant there. “They’re all married and live here with their families. Eric is the chief of police and Jake is the fire chief. I’ve been working with him. Amy is a school teacher, and Nikki runs a non-profit with her husband that offers computer programs that help at-risk kids across the nation get a better educational start.”
“Wow. They all sound amazing.” Her lips turned up in a wide smile and it was like the sun was shining through a cloudy day.
He had to actively stop himself from telling her that. Just like he’d had to bite his tongue when her hair brushed his arm and it reminded him of silk. Or when she’d laughed, and it sounded as heavenly as a choir of angels.
In all of his twenty-eight years, he’d never had a problem charming the opposite sex. But he’d never felt like this. His game had never been so corny or overly sentimental. It had also never been so sincerely earnest.
Her smile dropped, and she squinted past him. “Is that a dog walking down the middle of the street?”
Before he even turned around, he had a pretty good idea of what he’d see. When he did, his suspicion was confirmed. From the bridge they had a perfect view of a Great Dane waltzing down Main Street.
“That’s Scooby. He’s my cousin Amy’s dog.”
“We have to get him.” She rushed past him with alarm. “He’s gonna get hit by a car!”
“He’s fine. He’s going to get an ice cream cone.”
That had her stopping on a dime.
“What?” She glanced back over her shoulder. “Did you say ice cream?”
“He walks to Two Scoops, the ice cream parlor we passed with the striped awning, and they give him a scoop of vanilla ice cream.”
“Seriously?” Her eyes narrowed in disbelief.
He didn’t blame her; it was almost as ridiculous as those hokey compliments he’d spouted. “Yep. And sometimes he even brings her sister Nikki’s Chihuahua, Scrappy-Doo, with him.”
“Scooby and Scrappy-Doo? I love it!” she enthused with pure, unadulterated wonder and excitement but it was quickly clouded by worry. Her cheek hollowed as she bit the inside of her mouth nervously and looked back toward the street. “Are you sure he’s okay, though?”
He could tell her yes, but he figured he might as well show her. “Let’s go find out.”
“Okay, good.” She let out a sigh of relief.
As they walked the short distance back over the bridge and up across the recreation area that ran up and down the river, he felt the ice around his heart
begin to melt. Being with Adriana was like waking up after sleepwalking through life.
When he’d finished his treatment, he’d gone into a fairly deep funk and his doctor had put him on antidepressants for about a year. They’d helped. He no longer had the lows that he’d had before. But he also didn’t have any of the highs. Once he got off of the medication, neither came back. It took him a little bit to realize it, but when he did, he figured that it was a permanent condition. He’d assumed that the medication, or the disease, or both had changed his body’s chemistry and he’d never be the same again.
He’d had small glimpses of happiness. When Aubrey was born. When Nunez agreed to the fight. When he won the fight. But those were such extremes. In his day-to-day life, he was just going through the motions. He maintained his drive and discipline, but there was no passion.
Being with Adriana had awakened all of that passion in him. Maybe even a little too much if his poetic recital was any indication.
“There he is!” She pointed down the street as soon as they stepped onto the wooden sidewalk.
Sure enough, Scooby was standing at the take-out window at Two Scoops. They were just in time to see a hand emerge with a small vanilla ice cream cone. It was gone in two bites.
Gabe looked down to see Adriana staring in shocked amazement. “I can’t believe…I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Scooby licked his lips and started back down the street. Gabe pressed his lips together and whistled to get the dog’s attention. When he did, the Great Dane happily trotted over to them.
“Hi, Scooby!” Adriana reached down and petted Scooby’s head. She scratched him behind his ears and asked, “Did you get an ice cream cone?”
The dog looked up at her like he was in love. If it were a cartoon, there’d be hearts flying around his head. Gabe was so entranced watching them that he didn’t notice his cousins approach them.
“Scooby!” Amy spoke his name in admonishment as Nikki chuckled beside her sister. “How did you get out this time? I swear he’s an escape artist.”
Fire and Foreplay Page 5