by Tawny Weber
With that in mind she straightened, and this time her deep breaths were cleansing ones.
In with the confidence, out with the worries.
In with the sexy energy, out with the stress.
In with the attractive mojo, out with the self-doubts.
And one last breath to perk up her breasts and bring a little color to her cheeks and that was it. Tessa was ready when the elevator dinged.
Stepping into the hallway, her hips were back to swinging and her easy smile was in place. She strode toward Livi’s door, certain that she wasn’t carrying any of her crap with her.
At least, not on the surface, where anyone—not even her best friend—would notice it.
“Mitch, hello,” she greeted with a friendly smile when he opened the door. “I brought wine and a present.”
“I’d say you shouldn’t have, but Livi would hurt me. You know how she loves presents,” he said, his blue eyes laughing before he ushered her into the apartment.
Tessa hadn’t been there in a couple of weeks, not since the couple had announced their engagement, but she knew that Mitch was pretty much living here when he wasn’t on base. She followed him inside, stopping where the entry opened into the living area.
She didn’t realize how much she’d been dreading seeing it until the knot in her stomach unraveled. Nothing had changed. Not really. The large, airy apartment was still filled with soothing shades of blue and purple. The sunken living area was a sea of white furniture and carpeting, accented with blown glass, rich throws and clever knickknacks.
A vivid contrast to Tessa’s own apartment. Her place screamed of sensual luxury, with its jewel tones and cool surfaces, where Livi’s space was soothing and peaceful. Things Tessa rarely felt, almost never sought. Probably because she knew that kind of serenity was always here for her if she needed it.
Would that change now?
Would she still be welcome to come and go as she pleased, to make this haven her own second home? Where would she fit once Livi and Mitch settled into their new life, wrapped around their new priorities? They’d be happy, she hoped. But how long would she be invited to see that happiness?
“I heard the word present,” Livi said, coming out of the kitchen and wiping her hands on a towel before wrapping her arms around Tessa in a welcoming hug.
Grateful for the distraction from what was becoming an all-too-familiar sense of self-pity, Tessa returned the hug with a tight squeeze.
“Gimme,” Livi teased with a bright smile when she’d stepped back.
“Who said it was for you?” Tessa asked, wide-eyed. She handed a grinning Mitch the bottle of wine, then dangled the gift bag by its satin handles so that the purple foil caught the light. Then, laughing, she handed it to Livi.
Without ceremony, teal tissue flew one way, then the bag the other before her friend gave a broken exclamation.
“Are you okay?” Mitch asked, hurrying from the kitchen when his fiancée burst into tears. He pulled Livi into his arms, shooting Tessa a dark look. “What’d you give her?”
“Happy tears,” Livi explained, patting his shoulder.
“You need a warning sign,” he muttered, shaking his head. But Tessa saw the look on his face and knew that he’d have come running just as quickly for happy tears as he would for sad. Clearly, the man would break the four-minute mile for love.
“Look,” Livi said, holding up the plush octopus. The watercoloresque fabric poured purples into blues into sea foam and back, with the happy-faced sea denizen wearing its own little sailor hat. “Isn’t it darling?”
Mitch’s smile turned goofy as he took the toy and examined it. Then, without warning, he pulled Tessa into a hug of his own, giving her a quick, friendly squeeze.
“Thank you,” he said before handing Livi back the toy with a kiss.
“I know you said you hadn’t decided on a theme or colors for the nursery, but I couldn’t resist,” she said, running her fingertip over one soft leg.
“He’s perfect. It’s perfect,” Livi murmured, leaning her head on Mitch’s shoulder as they both gazed at the octopus as if it offered insights into the joys of their future.
Ignoring the empty feeling in her stomach, Tessa gave another quick look around the apartment, even though she knew Romeo wasn’t lurking there somewhere.
“So,” Tessa said brightly, her smile only a little stiff. “How about some wine? Then you can tell me all about the latest workout filming while I help you with dinner.”
She’d almost said, “When your other dinner guest would arrive,” but managed to change her words at the last moment. She didn’t want anyone thinking she wanted to see him. She’d just keep it to herself that her stomach was doing little loop-de-loops.
“Wine coming up,” Mitch promised with one last kiss to the top of Livi’s head before he headed for the kitchen.
Tessa followed Livi around the small wall that separated the entry and kitchen from the dining area and living room, listening to her friend rhapsodize about her latest workout program as they went. Her eyes landed on the teak table and she frowned. Around the artistic arrangement of yellow and indigo flowers were only three settings.
Romeo wouldn’t be joining them.
She almost tripped over her own toes at the realization.
Relief, she promised herself. That flood of emotion pouring through her was pure relief. Now she could relax as she tried to find her place in this new mix that was her best friend’s life.
She smiled as she settled onto her usual place on the couch and accepted Mitch’s proffered glass of wine with a murmur of thanks.
She was glad Romeo wasn’t here. It was better this way. Who needed a whole bunch of sexual tension, hot looks and sizzling desires messing up dinner?
Certainly not her, she assured herself.
Then, sipping her wine, she wondered when she’d sunk so low that she’d started lying to herself. Probably when she’d peeled her body away from the delicious temptation of Romeo’s.
6
GABRIEL WAS A man who’d been raised to understand that life moved in stages. The seasons, the years. Trainings, missions, procedures—they all followed a cycle. He understood the value of those cycles, the need to layer the necessary steps in the right order to achieve a desired outcome.
Over the years, people had expressed surprise that a man who blew things up for a living could be so chill in his belief that things happened when they were meant to and not a moment before. But he’d learned that trying to circumvent the right timing was usually a recipe for disaster. But Gabriel’s patience was an innate part of his thought process, as natural as breathing and as deep as his faith that everything happened for a reason.
So it was a rare and unwelcome thing to find that patience dangling by one loose thread, ready to snap at any second.
It was even rarer that he was willing to risk that thread by using it to strangle someone. But today, he was more than ready to lose the rare power of his temper, and let it explode all to hell on one particular person.
Jeglinski.
But...
Gabriel shifted the pretty pink box from one hand to the other, leaning his shoulder against the wall of the elevator as he took a deep, calming breath.
He wouldn’t.
It took the rest of the elevator ride for him to believe that. But when the metal box dinged, he set his irritation aside and buried his anger, and his usual mellow facade was solidly in place.
By the time he reached Livi’s door, his smile was comfortable, his charm in place and his mood upbeat. So when the pretty blonde welcomed him in, he was able to hold up the dessert box and wiggle his brows suggestively.
“What, I wonder, would a pregnant lady do for a delicious dessert?” he mused.
“Gabriel,” Livi exclaimed,
throwing her arms around him.
With his usual lightning reflexes, Gabriel lifted the box overhead, where it wasn’t in danger of being jostled or squashed, even as his other arm came around to return her hug.
“Wow, you must have one major sweet tooth,” he teased.
“More like I was worried when you canceled dinner,” Livi told him, her voice lowering as she shifted back to inspect his face. “Mitch said it was no big deal, but he had that voice when he said it. You know, the totally casual, completely innocuous voice? So I knew it was.”
Gabriel wondered what it was like to have someone read you so easily. Irish was one of the best, had been courted by the powers that be to serve on DEVGRU. He wasn’t easy to read. Love must be pretty special if it gave those kind of insights.
“And you didn’t nag him into telling?” Gabriel teased. “You are a queen among women, Ms. Kane.”
“Oh, no,” Livi said, her voice still low as she sent a quick look over her shoulder. “I didn’t let on that I knew. It’d just upset him, then he’d worry about me. Then I’d worry about him worrying about me, in addition to me already worrying about you.”
His mind spinning as he tried to follow that, Gabriel decided he was much better off without having anyone read him. That sounded like way too much worry for his taste.
“Come in,” she invited, taking the box and curling her arms around it protectively. “You’re just in time for coffee.”
“Coffee sounds great.”
He entered the apartment to another great sound.
Tessa’s laughter.
Gabriel’s grin turned wicked.
Time for another round of Operation Romance.
“Dessert delivery?” he heard Tessa say in a delighted tone. “You had dessert specially delivered?”
“There’s this great place in Virginia that makes these custom éclairs. Livi had one when we were back visiting my mom a few weeks ago and she’s been craving them ever since. So I had some flown in.”
“What are you going to do in a few months if she’s craving some exotic condiment from Turkey?” Tessa asked with a laugh.
“I know people. I’m sure I can fly those in, too.”
Gabriel stepped into the room just in time to see the goofy look on Irish’s face over the idea that his gal was getting cravings.
Before he could laugh, his gaze was caught by the gorgeous angel seated on the couch. Lust hit like a fist to the gut at the vision she made, her hair pulled back to leave her lovely face unframed. Her sheer black blouse emphasized rather than hid her black bra and flat abs, while her black skirt looked like something a cheerleader would wear. He rocked back on the heels of his motorcycle boots, grinning. A naughty cheerleader.
“Hello, angel,” he greeted.
Her eyes flashed. But for the first time it wasn’t irritation he saw in those big blue depths. If he wasn’t mistaken—and he never was about these things—it was interest.
The triumph was brief. He knew he hadn’t won the war. But he was still taking this as a tactical victory. And like any good victory, he planned to parlay it into a bigger win with carefully orchestrated, strategic steps.
Ready to get started, he stepped farther into the room and turned his attention to Irish.
“Commander,” he greeted with a modified salute.
“Romeo,” Mitch responded, rising to shake his hand. “Thanks for making the trip. How was the flight?”
Knowing his commander was asking about more than the condition of the travel from the East Coast to West, he glanced at Mitch, shrugging to indicate that the mission was proceeding according to plan. He’d spent the past thirty hours in Little Creek being briefed in the use of the new bomb gear.
Satisfied with his report, such as it was, Mitch nodded, then tilted his head to indicate Gabriel be at ease.
“Can I get you a beer?” Irish offered.
“Sure.” Free now to indulge in the next stage of his plan, Gabriel stepped into the sunken living area and gave Tessa a smile. The kind he’d offer a friend’s mother or an elderly shop clerk. Nonthreatening, nonsexual and friendly.
Instead of taking a seat next to Tessa on the couch, or even in the chair opposite, where he could stare directly at her, he took the chair to her right.
Damn, she had a great profile.
He watched with appreciation as she gave a deep sigh, the move pressing her breasts tighter against the sheer fabric of her blouse. Then, as if she couldn’t stand it any longer, she turned her head and gave him a cool look under arched brows.
“Here ya go, Romeo,” Irish said.
Gabriel reached out to take the bottle, but he didn’t take his eyes off the black-haired beauty staring at him.
He couldn’t read her gaze. He knew he hadn’t imagined the interest he’d seen there earlier, and he didn’t doubt for a second that she could wield indifference with deadly accuracy.
Which meant she was hiding the interest.
His smile widened.
Operation Romance was working just fine. He’d gotten her attention the other night with his opening salvo of a kiss. He’d issued his terms. Now the fun could start. Keeping her off balance enough that she didn’t lose interest, but not letting things get so out of hand that he couldn’t resist giving in. He’d wait her out, see how long it took before she couldn’t resist talking to him.
“Oh, Gabriel, these look amazing.”
It wasn’t Livi’s gushing exclamation that freed his attention. It was that her words seemed to flip a switch for Tessa. With just a flick of her lashes, the brunette angel dismissed him to turn her gaze toward her friend. His lips twitched as the message came through loud and clear.
Shoo, those lashes said. Just shoo.
Damn, she was cute the way she thought she had the upper hand.
“Tessa, aren’t they decadent looking?” Livi said as she set a tray on the glass coffee table. “My mouth is already watering.”
“They look great,” Tessa acknowledged, accepting the plate Livi offered and sending Mitch a teasing smile. “I didn’t know you were craving éclairs, though. I thought you were on a kale kick.”
“Balance. It’s all about balance,” Livi said with a wave of her hand. “I had this sudden craving for cream-filled pastries last night, but there were no good bakeries open at midnight. I finally settled for hot cocoa and whipped cream, but it wasn’t the same.”
“You should have told me you were in the mood for something besides seaweed,” Tessa said. “I’d have stopped at the little bakery by my place that you love.”
“That’s okay,” Livi said as she handed Mitch his plate, along with a kiss. “Mitch said he’d get them for me.”
Hurt flashed in Tessa’s eyes but was hidden away with another whisk of those lashes. He frowned. More interested in knowing the cause than in his plan to wait for her to speak first, Gabriel planted his elbows on his knees, his fingers loosely linked between them as he leaned forward.
“So did you offer to bring Livi kale, too?” he asked.
Tessa lifted her gaze from her plate to give him a sardonic look.
“Friendship has its limits,” she declared. “Seaweed is one of them.”
“Now, that’s not true,” Livi said, finally tearing her attention off her fiancé to give her friend a wide-eyed look. “You found me kale in Albuquerque.”
“You were chewing on your fingernails,” Tessa pointed out, circling her fork in the air. “I had to get you something to calm your nerves.”
Livi wrinkled her nose before giving Gabriel a rueful smile.
“We were doing a tour to promote my Strip Fit workout program and I used to have a little trouble facing crowds. Tessa was always great at keeping me focused before events, but she had a major deadline when we hit Albuquerque so I had to
go it alone.”
Tessa’s lips twitched.
“I got there a half hour before the second workout,” Tessa explained, curling her feet under her as she got more comfy. This was about as relaxed as Gabriel had ever seen the petite powerhouse. “Apparently she’d white-knuckled it through the first session. Now she’s got two hundred people waiting in a stadium while she’s pacing this makeshift stage, muttering the lyrics to ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ and chewing her nails off. I had to do something before she ran out of fingers and went for the toes.”
Gabriel could see the history of affection in the look the women shared before Livi shook her head at the memory.
“Tessa knew the best thing to calm me down was food, but I was about to go on stage wearing the equivalent of a sequined bikini. Comfort food was out of the question—”
“Normal-people comfort food was out,” Tessa interrupted, rolling her eyes toward the men and pulling a face. “But I knew Ms. Fit here could be soothed with some twigs or leaves or, you know, seaweed.”
“So she grabbed a cab, found the nearest health food store and filled a grocery bag with everything health food,” Livi laughed. “I still don’t know how you managed to do all of that and get back before the session began.”
“Pl-ee-ase.” Tessa drew the word out, her expression sliding from light and amused to seductively sultry with just a flick of her lashes. “The cabbie was a man.”
Even as he joined the others’ laughter, Gabriel mentally filed the insight that comment offered, patting himself on the back for his plan to play it cool. She was so used to guys falling all over her, but he wondered if any of them actually saw her for more than a sexy body and gorgeous face.
His laugh fading into a frown, Gabriel realized that he wasn’t any better.
He was busy pondering that when Livi offered him the cream-filled, chocolate-covered delicacy.