by Lori Foster
“Of course,” she said, pressing a kiss back. “Whatever you say.”
“If we just work together, I’m sure we can forget that any of this ever happened.” He held her to him, tilting her head back and feasting on her mouth.
She couldn’t answer him right away, because she had to catch her breath. “Of course,” she finally said, not even realizing what she’d agreed to.
Just as quickly, he pulled away from her, walking to the far end of the room. “Okay, all right, I can handle this.” He took a deep breath, waited a few minutes, closed his eyes. “Steer clear of me, Charlotte. I know you’ve got something going on with Jack, and I knew I shouldn’t have let this go on so long, but I couldn’t help myself. I swear, if you give me a few days…no, give me at least a week. I’ll get it all out of my system. Okay?”
“Gabe, what are you talking about?”
“You’re my best friend in the world,” he said, dropping a quick kiss on her already-swollen lips. “Please, for both our sakes, stay the hell away from me.”
With that, he bolted up the stairs as if demons were chasing him.
Fanning her face, Charlotte leaned back against the now-infamous laundry-room table. What had just happened was…well, it was unbelievable!
He wants you.
It wasn’t a matter of her not being his type. It wasn’t a matter of him seeing her as only a friend. He thought that she wasn’t interested in him. He thought that she only saw him as a buddy!
She might have a shot at this, she thought suddenly. If she was in love with Gabe, and she knew that he wanted her, she owed it to herself to see if a relationship would work. It was easy to think about, to worry about. It was harder to just go and do it. Now, the time for analyzing was over.
This wasn’t about his feelings, or their friendship. This was about love…and about her finally putting her fear aside, and going after exactly what she wanted.
If she recalled correctly, there was a chapter in The Guide about how to seduce a man. She smiled wickedly. Now was her chance to try it out.
9
A FEW DAYS LATER, Gabe felt that he had perhaps overreacted at the housewarming. He sat at his desk in the office. It was dark out, but he’d been getting a lot done. Yes, given a week’s distance and perspective, he felt quite sure that he’d blown the whole thing out of proportion.
“Boss?”
Gabe looked up from the proposal he was working on. “Yes, Jake?”
Gabe’s young assistant shifted his weight nervously. “It’s about these.” He held up several sheets of paper.
Gabe frowned. “What about them?”
“These letters don’t make any sense, boss.” Jake put them down on the desk in front of Gabe’s briefcase. “I mean, in one paragraph, you’re talking about the risks of potentially dangerous mergers. Then you’re saying we should throw caution to the wind and sign up tomorrow. What exactly did you want to say here?”
Gabe stared at the letters as if they were live snakes. “I wrote that?”
“The really strange thing is, I didn’t even think we were trying to merge with this company. I thought we just wanted to run a couple of co-op ads with them.” Jake cleared his throat. “I usually just proof your letters and send them as is, but this was really weird.”
“I…thanks, Jake.” Gabe sighed, taking the letters and throwing them on top of one of the piles on his desk. “I don’t know where my head is. I’ll fix them. What time is it, anyway?” He glanced at his watch with tired eyes. “Eight o’clock? What are you still doing here?”
Jake shrugged. “If you’re working, I’m working.”
“While I appreciate the dedication, are you nuts?” Gabe laughed, standing up. He felt tension in his lower back, signaling he’d been at his desk for way too long. “Just because your boss is becoming a workaholic doesn’t mean you have to be chained to your desk.”
“I thought you must be working on something pretty important,” Jake argued. “You’ve been here until nine o’clock every night, and you’re coming in at seven in the morning.”
“I’m just… I’ve been taking it easy this quarter, and I’m just playing a little catch-up. It won’t be like this for much longer,” He gave Jake a stern look. “And I expect you to work normal hours unless I expressly ask otherwise, got it?”
Jake grinned. “Thanks, boss.” With no further prompting, he bolted from the office.
Gabe sighed, shutting down his computer. He might as well admit it. He’d done everything he could think of to exorcise the ghost of Charlotte. He ran on the beach, worked out in his home gym until his muscles screamed, did paperwork until his eyes crossed. Anything to get his mind off her. But that didn’t protect him from his subconscious mind. The minute his head hit the pillow, he was asleep with her taste on his lips, the sweet scent of her hair in his nose and the silky feel of her flesh under his palms. He’d relived that moment in the laundry room every night…and had gone considerably further with it than they had in reality, as if they’d never been interrupted. What was worse, when he wasn’t fighting this overwhelming lust for her, he got blindsided by an even sneakier emotion.
He missed her.
He’d tried not to call her, but something would happen and his fingers would instinctively start to dial her number. He had consciously avoided poker night and all the usual Hoodlum hangouts, afraid that she might be there. So far, he’d shuttled to work or home, stopping only for long surf sessions because he knew that was one place she wouldn’t be. Out in the pounding waves for hours, he could almost forget how close he was to losing her.
He had inadvertently started this change, by proposing the stupid, shortsighted, damnable bet. Now that the change had started, he didn’t know what was going to happen to her, or to them. And he didn’t know how to stop it…but at the same time, he knew he didn’t want to live without her.
He had done everything but talk about this face-to-face with her. Maybe if he just sat down with her and discussed it, she would understand and come up with some way to help him fix things and make it all right again. He’d tried being around her and it had turned into the episode in the laundry room. Now, having tried not being around her, he found she was still just as distracting in his mind as she was in the flesh.
Okay, almost as distracting, he thought, a quick flash of her flesh burning his memory.
They had to talk it out. It was the mature, adult, rational thing to do. Taking a deep breath, he picked up the phone and dialed her number.
“Hello?”
“Charlotte,” he said, clearing his throat. “It’s me. Gabe.”
There was a moment’s pause on the other end of the line. “I thought you weren’t talking to me,” she said finally.
“It’s not working, Charlotte. I need to see you.”
Another pause. Her voice came through husky, seductively so. “Okay. Where and when?”
He glanced at his watch again. “I’m still at the office, but I was headed home to change out of the suit I’m in…we had clients, so I couldn’t wear casual. Maybe I could drop by after that?”
“I’ve got a better idea,” she murmured. “Why don’t I meet you at your house? Say, in…half an hour?”
He sighed. Half an hour. He could pull himself together in half an hour. “Okay. I’ll see you at eight-thirty.”
“I’m glad you called, Gabe.” He could hear the little smile in her voice. “I missed you.”
She hung up and he gently placed the phone back on its cradle. “I missed you, too,” he said, half to himself. And if this worked out, please God, he’d never have to miss her again.
CHARLOTTE LOOKED AT the phone for a long minute.
This is it. This is your one shot at finally letting Gabe know how you feel.
She stood up, trembling. Confidence, schmonfidence. What she needed was a miracle.
She whipped out her now-worn copy of The Guide. “Be what he isn’t expecting,” it advised. “Men love a break in routine. They wan
t something different and exciting.”
She scanned down farther. “Meet him at the door in…oh, my goodness.” She could feel herself blushing, and she was all alone in the room. “I don’t know if I could do that.”
But what choice did she have? He’d seen her as a tomboy, as a Hoodlum, as one of his closest and oldest friends. He was just beginning to see her as a potential lover. She needed to get him to make the transition…add friend to lover, and you had a relationship that was worth trying.
She took a deep breath and headed for her sewing machine. She now had created enough outfits to have a small line of her own, she thought proudly. She had really enjoyed doing something that at one time she would have considered so frivolous, but now found challenging and expressive.
She picked up her latest “creation.” It was simple, elegant and to the point. It was a midnight-blue teddy, laced up the front with satin ribbon. It emphasized everything it needed to and was devastatingly sexy. It would take guts to wear it…but then again, it would take guts to do what she was about to do.
She took another deep breath, desperately trying to stay calm.
Operation Seduction. Or, more appropriately, Mission Impossible.
GABE HAD GOTTEN HOME and changed into more comfortable clothes and was waiting for Charlotte to get there. He wouldn’t let her talk first, and he wouldn’t get physically close to her. He’d lay out the problem as if presenting a brainstorming session and see what she had to say. If he just kept his hands off her, if he could just stay focused, they might get out of this alive.
He smiled mockingly at himself. Okay, he was exaggerating. But not by much. This thing had driven him crazy, and he was dangerously close to the breaking point. He was torturing himself with images of her—at the sports bar, at the housewarming, on his couch. If she wore one of her simple-yet-sexy designs tonight, he wasn’t sure what he’d do…throw a beach towel over her, or just flat-out tackle her and take her on the living room floor.
He glanced at his hallway cupboard. Maybe he should get out a beach towel, just in case. Either way, he was close to snapping.
The doorbell rang and he started slightly. “Get a grip, man,” he muttered to himself, and praying for strength, he opened the door.
She was wearing her hair pulled back, and her makeup made her eyes look smoldering, her lips inviting. He quickly moved his gaze elsewhere. Thankfully, she was wearing a thick gray wool car coat…apparently over one of her shorter dresses, since he couldn’t see the hemline. She was wearing a set of low pumps. He quickly glanced away from her legs, knowing that staring too long at them would definitely push him toward the taking-her-on-the-living-room-floor scenario. “Come on in,” he said nervously. “Can I get you anything?”
“Um, a glass of water,” she said. Strangely, she sounded equally nervous. Probably in reaction to him. He’d been a complete basket case lately. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she were uncomfortable with it. And there was their previous and new physical history. Yes, the sooner they got this cleared up, the better.
“Do you want me to take your coat?” he asked.
She looked at him with wide eyes, as if he’d suggested they go murder somebody.
“Um, never mind. Actually, that’s better. Keep the coat on,” he said, his words tumbling out one over the other. “I have a few things I need to say to you, and I need you to just listen and not interrupt me.”
She nodded slowly, nibbling delicately at her lower lip. He tried not to let the sweet little gesture distract him.
“Charlotte, we’ve…” he started, then stopped. “What I mean to say is…” He took a deep breath. Okay, Gabe, just dive in! “We’ve kissed, Charlotte. A lot.”
She stared at him for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Um, I know that. I was there, remember?”
Her laughter helped break the tension. After a moment, he chuckled, too. “I keep forgetting who I’m talking to. Charlotte, we really need to talk about that.”
She smiled, tilting her head to the side. “Okay. What exactly do you need to say?”
His brain went blank for a minute. This was it. Make-or-break moment. “I…well, I guess I forgot it was you when I was kissing you.”
She flinched.
“That didn’t come out right,” he said hastily. “Let me try that again. I mean, I knew it was you, but I sort of forgot everything that you entailed.”
“And what exactly does kissing me entail?”
He sighed raggedly. “I…what I’m about to say here is, ever since you’ve changed what you looked like, I haven’t treated you like a friend, and that’s where the problem has been. I just kept getting sidetracked by what you looked like, and ignored the fact that you’re Charlotte. And since you’re Charlotte…well, you know what that means.”
“I’m not sure. Why don’t you spell it out for me?”
How long was this agony going to continue? “It means that I shouldn’t do anything like that with you. You’re…special, Charlotte,” he explained. “You’re very special to me just the way you are.”
She sighed. Without another word, she got up and went into his bedroom.
He blinked. Well, that had gone worse than he had expected. He followed her. “Are you okay…?” he asked, then stopped abruptly.
She had tossed the car coat onto the floor and was rummaging through his chest of drawers. What she was wearing…
He stopped breathing.
Oh, mercy.
She was wearing a deep, dark-blue teddy, in some shiny material that made it shimmer like a black-blue pearl. What little there was was cut high on the thigh and low down the front. It had a dark satin ribbon lacing it up the front, just begging to be untied. She turned to stare at him, her eyes huge and glowing like hazel crystals.
“Do you have any sweats?” she asked.
He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. What?”
“Sweats,” she repeated, blushing. The pink wash covered most of her body, it seemed, and he could tell…most of her body was deliciously exposed. “I was wondering if I could borrow a pair of sweats and a T-shirt.”
His mouth went dry. He tried to look everywhere, all at once, and his pulse beat a hectic tempo in his chest.
She looked down at the drawer she’d opened. “Look, I feel really stupid about this. I should have known…oh, I’ve just been an idiot. Sure, I’ve changed a lot, but we’ve always been just friends. I guess I was starting to buy the hype, you know? Charlotte the Tomboy turning into Charlotte the Sexy. It’s like we always say…you know you’re in trouble when you start believing your own press.”
He barely registered the self-derision in her voice, the embarrassment. A part of him wanted to comfort her, but the rest of him had already started the chemical change that made listening or even rational thought impossible.
The beast was awake, and it wanted Charlotte. Gabe had finally reached his breaking point. He snapped.
“I just want to throw on some normal clothes and watch ESPN until I forget this whole episode ever…hey!” Her words got cut off as in two quick steps he was at her side, spinning her, grabbing her. Taking her.
With an impatient motion, he pulled the ribbon out of her hair, crushing the satiny waves in one hand. His eyes burned into hers. Before she could say anything else, he molded his mouth to hers, branding her. She tasted like some tropical fruit, sweet and tart and exotic. He feasted on her.
When he felt her body melt into pliancy, he gripped her to him, gently tugging at her hair until her closed eyes opened. “I tried, dammit,” he said, his voice ragged. “I tried not to do this.”
She took a deep breath. “Do you know who I am this time?”
He nodded. “You’re the woman I told myself I couldn’t want, but the woman that I need more than breathing. You’re the woman I crave like a drug.” He smiled, his eyes gleaming with ferocious promise. “You’re the woman I’m going to make lose control tonight. Satisfied?”
She started to nod. “Well, not yet,
” she said, and her voice sent sensual shivers from his heart to his stomach, and lower. “But I think I will be.”
“Charlotte,” he groaned, and took her mouth again.
This was what she wanted, she thought. She returned his kiss with a fierceness she didn’t know she was capable of, tangling her fingers in his dark hair. She moaned, low in her throat, as her tongue dueled with his.
It was only a few steps to the bed, and she laughed as they stumbled over a pair of his running shoes and tumbled onto it.
He laughed, too, a short, harsh gasp. “Okay, I’m going faster than I should,” he said, studying her intently. “I’ve wanted you for too long to lose control now.”
“Be careful,” she warned, moving her body seductively and grinning smugly when his eyes widened. “You’re not the only person who can make somebody lose control.” She kissed him gently on his jawline, then lay back on the bed and smiled.
He raised his eyebrow at her challenge. Then he ran his fingers through her hair, his fingertips caressing her face like a blind man, learning with his touch the way he’d only known her with his eyes. “You are exquisite,” he said, his voice low and rough. “Don’t ever doubt it.” He brushed kisses over the trail his fingers had drawn.
He made her feel beautiful. Her fingers went to his shirt. The trembling of her hands made her go much more slowly than she wanted to, but the sensation of material drawn slowly over his now-sensitized skin was having an effect on him. Finally, she tugged the thing off his shoulders and tossed it blindly onto the floor.
She took a minute to look her fill at his broad, muscular chest. Then she skimmed her fingertips over it, taking her cue from him, moving with gentle roughness. The satin smoothness of his skin contrasted wildly with the corded muscles that flexed under her hands.
He smiled that sexy, devilish smile that sent a spear of fire through her chest. “My turn,” he murmured against the base of her throat.
She gasped at the sensation, feeling ripples of it pulse through her chest. He took the ends of the ribbon that laced up her teddy and slowly tugged. The bow vanished. Then he eased the shoulder straps down off her shoulders. “This is nice,” he said appreciatively, grinning. “I think you should greet me at the door in this more often.”