by Tawny Weber
Tessa looked up with a watery laugh.
“Thanks.” Tessa leaned over to give Livi a hug. She might not be a fraud, but she was damned lucky. It didn’t matter if she easily fit into the mold she’d carefully designed for herself any longer. What mattered was the reason why.
Because she’d grown. As a person, as a writer, even as a friend. And her world was bigger now because of it.
“So,” Livi said after a few healing minutes, “want to fill me in on all of those worries you have over my marriage?”
“Why don’t I do you one better,” Tessa said with a deep breath and the mental image of diving off a cliff. “Why don’t I fill you in on all of my worries over falling in love with Gabriel.”
“Love? You’re using the love word? Oh, my God.” Livi clapped her hands, her face lit with joy. “Wait? You and Gabriel? Hang on, we need chocolate for this.”
By the time they’d devoured Tessa’s sadly depleted stash of cookies, Livi had heard the whole story and Tessa felt more like herself than she had in months.
Especially when Livi’s eyes narrowed with indignant fury on her behalf.
“You let him get away with that? Just, what? Let him walk?”
“Well, what was I supposed to do?” Tessa scowled. “Tie him up and make him my love slave? I think there are rules against that.”
“You were supposed to do what you’d tell anyone else to. Call him on the bullshit and force him to be honest about what was going on. Holy crap, Tess, even I would do that much.” Livi shook a cookie at her. “But you pushed him away instead. You let him get away with it because you were scared. You were protecting yourself again.”
Tessa tried to respond, but the chocolate chips had turned to sawdust in her mouth. Livi took advantage by snagging the last cookie.
Had she let him push her away?
Tessa pressed her finger against the cookie crumbs left on the plate, realizing that she’d been so busy thinking that she was a fraud at things she was great at, she’d figured there was no chance she wouldn’t be one at something she’d never thought she’d be good at. Then she gave Livi a glum look.
“You’re right. I blew it. What am I supposed to do now?” she asked, for the first time in her life lost on how to handle a situation with the opposite sex. “He pushed me away for a reason. What’s the point in calling him on it?”
“The point comes down to what you want. Do you want to make him pay for hurting you? Or do you want to make him see that the two of you are perfect for each other?”
* * *
GABRIEL STEPPED OFF the elevator to Mitch and Livi’s apartment, the memory of the last time he’d been here flooding him with a needy sort of pleasure.
With the same narrow focus and determination that got him through brutal workouts and ugly battles, he shoved that memory right back out of his mind. It’d been two weeks since he’d last seen Tessa, though, and his theory that it’d get easier with time was proving to be complete crap. Instead of fading from his memory, her image was growing sharper, the need for her more edgy and pronounced.
Put it aside, he ordered himself as he approached the apartment door. He and Irish were back on an even keel, the other man insisting that everything was fine. Even the mission had gone well. Gabriel figured that was what tonight was. A friendly dinner invitation to prove that everything was copacetic.
But while Irish might have absolved him of the guilt of ruining his wedding, Gabriel hadn’t forgiven himself for putting the team in jeopardy. Since he knew that fact just irritated the other man, he’d been putting on his friendliest face, pretending everything was cool. Things like showing up at Irish’s instead of copping a much-needed nap in the barracks.
“Reporting as ordered,” he said, throwing Irish a salute when the other man opened the door.
“Smart-ass remarks won’t help,” Irish told him, stepping back to gesture him inside. “Actually, I’m going to wish you luck because I’m not sure there’s any help for you now.”
“You’re cooking dinner?” Gabriel frowned. “Couldn’t we just do takeout?”
“Oh, now, that’d just be mean,” Livi said, joining them in the entryway. From the look on her face, she hadn’t gotten the copacetic memo. Either that, or she’d talked to Tessa.
“For you,” Gabriel said, handing her a bouquet of flowers. He’d gone for the extralarge one, but stopped short of buying chocolates. He wanted to apologize, not kiss ass.
“How lovely,” she said in the same tone she’d probably use if he’d handed her a bag of snails.
Gabriel glanced at Irish, who offered a slight shrug.
Yeah. Livi and Tessa had been talking.
Picturing a very cool evening ahead, Gabriel wished he’d worn long sleeves.
Then Livi tucked the bouquet under one arm and her purse under the other.
“Go on in,” Irish invited. “Drinks and food are on the table.”
“Where are you going?” Confused, he watched as Irish and Livi stepped around him to get to the door.
“There are things I just don’t want to see,” Irish said, opening the door for his wife.
“Good luck,” Livi added with a chilly smile just before it shut in Gabriel’s face.
Damn.
Gabriel closed his eyes, barely resisting the urge to follow them out. But knowing his CO, Irish would be waiting in the hallway to make sure he didn’t do just that.
Knowing what was waiting for him, Gabriel squared his shoulders, smoothed his expression into something hopefully close to dignified and did an about-face for the living area.
“Hello, angel,” he greeted with an easy smile when he stepped into the room. “This is a surprise.”
A damned good-looking one. Being a woman who knew how to make the most of what she had—and more, one who knew just where to stick a knife—Tessa had pulled out all the stops tonight.
She hadn’t gone for a revealing dress that screamed sex like some women would have. No, his angel was too smart for that.
Instead, she was wearing a simple black skirt that ended midknee. She’d paired it with an off-the-shoulder T-shirt depicting a skull wearing lipstick that revealed a black tank underneath. Short ankle boots completed her battle gear.
That she was ready for battle was a given.
The only question was, what was her objective?
To make him suffer was a given. But she’d have achieved that with their friends present. So she had bigger aims.
“Did you miss me?” he teased, hoping to irritate her enough that she’d show her hand. Because the sooner he figured it out, the sooner he could end the torture of seeing her and not being able to touch, not being able to taste.
“Were you gone?” she teased, tilting her head to the side so her long curls skimmed over one breast. Gabriel’s chest—and other things—constricted. Before he could reply, or even find the breath to consider it, she waved her hand toward the table next to her. “Drink? Something to eat?”
“No, thanks.”
“You really should try something,” she told him, taking a small plate of appetizers and a glass of wine with her as she moved to the couch. “It’s excellent. Livi went all out. I think she’s trying to appease her guilt over her part in this evening’s fun.”
Gabriel rocked back on his heels, impressed with her strategy. She wasn’t even going to pretend that this wasn’t an ambush. So maybe he shouldn’t bother pretending he was okay with it.
“What’s the deal?” he asked.
“The deal? Oh, that’d be the unfinished business between us,” she said, shifting so her skirt slid up her leg just a little. Gabriel considered it a credit to his willpower that he didn’t lick his lips.
“I thought we wrapped it up pretty well,” he said. “Unless you wanted to get in a few digs
about that bet? Or collect on the winnings?”
Figuring that’d piss her off, he steeled himself for the lash of temper.
But Tessa just laughed.
“Silly Romeo,” she chided with a wicked laugh. “I’m an expert at games between the sexes, remember? Did you really think that little ruse would work on me?”
Well, yeah.
“I’ll admit, I was surprised to find out about your part in the wedding changes,” she admitted slowly, tapping her finger against her lips as if she was considering her next words. Or just reminding him of how kissably delicious her mouth was. “But only because you hadn’t mentioned it while doing everything in your power to help me pull off the ultimate wedding rescue. You did bust your butt helping out after all. Even calling in favors to get a helicopter that’d fly you to the mainland at night, waking vendors, bribing store clerks.”
Gabriel shifted, all but shuffling his feet as he tried to dismiss her words. Harder to ignore was the look of admiration on her face, though.
“You did all the heavy lifting,” he said dismissively. “I just followed orders.”
“Right. Orders. That’s what caused the problem that led to the wedding changes, isn’t it?” At his scowl, she rolled her eyes. “Don’t get your boxers in a twist. Mitch didn’t spill any secrets. All he said was that you’d followed orders. Which is good, since that’s what you’re supposed to do, isn’t it? He also mentioned that the mission changed, that the team would have had to go regardless.”
“He wouldn’t have.”
“And that is between you and Mitch,” she said with a shrug. “It’s impossible for me to argue with confidential information. But knowing the both of you, I can surmise that he did exactly what he thought he had to, just like you did. Since you both have that Boy Scout gene going, I’m sure in both cases it was for the good of the team.”
Gabriel wanted to explain why she was wrong. He wanted to point out the missteps he’d made, the potential problems he’d caused. But he had a feeling she’d react the same way Irish had. By telling him to get over himself.
“What’s between you and me, on the other hand, had nothing to do with the good of anybody.” Her voice shifted from reasonable to cold with a flick of those lush lashes. “And for that, you do owe me an explanation.”
“Will you accept it if I offer one?” he challenged.
“Of course.”
Yeah, right. Gabriel knew better, but he also knew that she was right. He owed her more than a brush-off.
“One of the team was gunning to take me down and I kept ignoring him. He pulled a lot of stupid stunts, trying to trip me up. I finally reported him, which is why Irish had to step in to take his place on the mission.”
“And how is this a reason to dump me?” she asked in that same reasonable tone that was driving him crazy.
“I was too distracted by what was happening between us to pay attention,” he snapped. “If I’d been focused like I should have been, I’d have seen that the guy wasn’t going to throttle back. I’d have taken steps before things got out of hand.”
“Must suck, seeing the best in people,” she mused. “You do it all the time, you know. Your teammates. This idiot with a chip on his shoulder. Me. You’re not blind to the possibilities, Gabriel. You just choose to believe the best.” She slowly rose, her eyes not leaving his as she crossed the room. “How come you can’t see the same in yourself?”
“Please. I don’t have ego issues,” he said with a hoarse laugh. His hands twitched with need, desperate to touch her. But he knew he was teetering on the edge so he held firm.
“No, you have an amazingly healthy ego,” she agreed. Her hands, apparently, had no rules about touching because she chose that moment to press them to his chest. “But you seem to think you have to walk this narrow line and that one misstep on either side deserves punishment.”
“Not punishment,” he denied, trying to ignore how right, how wonderfully right, her hands felt on his body. “Just accounted for.”
“Was that what you were doing when you blew me off after the wedding?” she asked quietly. “Accounting for your feelings for me because you blame them for your thinking everyone was a team player like you?”
How did she do that? She’d neatly twisted it all around as if he wasn’t to blame for what had happened. She’d probably done it the same way she’d worked it out so his hands were gripping her waist despite his intentions not to touch.
“You were right about me,” she told him, the confident mask falling away to show the sweet vulnerability beneath. “I was so worried about my image that I lost myself. I let my reputation as a man-eating vamp convince me that we had no chance of anything beyond hot sex.”
“You’re not your reputation,” he said, irritated to see her dismiss herself so easily.
“No?” She smiled a wicked little smile. “Well, then, if I’m not, and if you were right about my letting those worries define me, then you must have been right about the other thing.”
Gabriel knew a trap when he heard it. He knew that if he didn’t sidestep, he’d be caught good and solid. But she felt so good in his hands. He felt so good just being with her. So he didn’t care. He walked, eyes wide-open, into the trap.
“What other thing?”
“That you and I are so hooked on our images, our reputations, that we’re afraid to make changes. Even when not making changes means giving up the person we love.”
Oh, shit.
Had she really said that?
There was a roaring in his ears, but Gabriel was pretty sure she had. Not just because her eyes were huge and vulnerable, but because his heart felt whole for the first time in his life.
His brain threw up caution signs, though, warning him to step carefully. A fall at this point would be treacherous for both of them.
“You know if we do this relationship it’s not going to be easy, right?” he warned. “I’m a SEAL. I’m gone a lot of the time. I’ll never be able to tell you everything I’m doing, everywhere I am.”
“I know,” she said, the teasing light in her eyes fading as she grew serious. “My best friend married a SEAL, remember? I spent a lot of time asking myself how she could do it, how she could deal with it. But now I know.”
“You do?”
“She loves him.” Tessa shrugged. “Which is why I know I can handle it, too. Because I really do love you.”
Finally letting himself believe that he could really walk this path with Tessa at his side, Gabriel rested his forehead against hers as he whispered, “I love you, too.”
“Forever?”
“Forever,” he agreed.
All it took was a little hop for Tessa to wrap her legs around his waist. Her hands locked behind his neck, she winked and gestured toward the couch.
“Why don’t we get started, then?”
“It’ll be my pleasure,” he promised.
* * * * *
Read on for an extract from INTRIGUE ME by Jo Leigh.
1
LISA MCCABE MADE sure no one was close enough to overhear her before she answered her brother’s call. “What is it, Logan?”
“Where are you?” he asked. “Why are you whispering?”
“The Moss Street free clinic in the Bronx.” She scanned the crowded waiting room again. “I’m checking out someone for our Hot Guys Trading Cards client.”
“What about the Murphy divorce? I need that wrapped up today. They go to court next week.”
“I typed up the report yesterday. The file’s on your desk.” She caught a glimpse of a tall man in scrubs and pulled a folded paper out of her purse.
“I don’t see it.”
“Did you check your in-box?” she asked. For a man who was on the verge of taking his security firm to a whole new level with
the sting operation he was coordinating, her brother wasn’t very organized with his paperwork. To be fair, he had more important things to be thinking about. And he definitely didn’t need to be worrying about the divorce cases Lisa handled.
Her attention went to the photocopy of Dr. Daniel Cassidy’s trading card while she absently listened to Logan shuffle papers.
Lisa had already deduced that the tall man in scrubs wasn’t the object of her investigation—Cassidy was much better looking. His clean-cut dark hair made him look sharp and professional, but his eyes, the color of cognac, were just plain damn sexy.
If she belonged to the Hot Guys Trading Cards dating club she would’ve snapped up his card based on his looks alone, which was embarrassing to admit since she’d worked her butt off to prove she was more than a “pretty face.” Still, the truth was, she’d do him in a minute. Or would have, in another life. She would never risk it now.
Her fingers traced the lips on the photocopy. They were full, yet masculine, with a hint of—
Logan muttered something.
She straightened, feeling as though she’d been caught in the adult section of the video store. “What?”
“Found it. Hold on while I give it a quick look.”
“Sure.” Lisa went back to studying the doctor’s photo—more specifically his lips and how they were a perfect contrast to his square jaw. The image stopped at his shoulders but she’d bet the farm that the rest of his body was equally hot.
Her gaze went to the details on the reverse side of the trading card. Dr. Cassidy was looking to get married, preferred home-cooked meals to dining out, was passionate about using his skills to help people and had a great heart. All this according to Josephine Suarez, the woman who’d submitted his name and photo. If Cassidy himself had provided the information, it would’ve sounded creepy as hell. But that wasn’t how Hot Guys Trading Cards worked.
Each of the women who belonged to the group was required to submit a photo of at least one guy she knew well enough to vouch for. Lisa had learned that not all of the guys knew they were being passed around and ogled. She wondered if Dr. Daniel Cassidy had given his approval.