His Inspiration

by Tanya Gallagher

  “Sex,” she said, her face flushed. Why did saying that feel like making a contract with him, like agreeing to sneak into her office together and rip each other’s clothes off? And why did she still want that?

  She dropped her eyes to where Gabe’s pulse fluttered in his neck as he swallowed hard. A small silver scar rippled at the base of his throat as he moved. What would he taste like if she swirled her tongue there now?

  Gabe broke the tension, gesturing at a row of slim dildos behind her head. “I see we’ve made it to the elusive baby dildo area.”

  Bex remembered to breathe. She made her voice go light as she replied. “Indeed we have.”

  “So does this particular baby dildo keep you up at night?” Gabe touched a finger to one of the toys.

  His gentle probing was a test, but two could play this game.

  “Oh, yes,” Bex said. “That one is exhausting. Needs lots of attention.”

  Gabe’s eyes widened, and air hissed out of his mouth. “See, you can’t talk to me like that and not understand why I’d get the wrong idea.”

  “Sorry,” she said, but she didn’t feel bad about it at all. “My brain is wired for dick jokes. Occupational hazard.”

  “You might be the coolest girl I know.”

  She basked in the compliment. “Why thank you. Anyway, that just about concludes the tour.”

  She pointed out a trash can for Gabe’s hair net and ear plugs as she led him back to the front lobby. They stopped just out of earshot of Ruth.

  “So,” he said.

  “So.” She wasn’t quite ready to let him walk out of here, but he couldn’t stay either. She needed to get back to work, and anyway, that was the whole problem with him—he was distracting her from the job she needed to do. The prize she planned to win.

  Gabe dropped his hand from the door to the parking lot and took a step closer to her. Bex fought the shiver of desire that wanted to sweep through her body. “What would it take to make you change your mind about seeing me again?”

  She snorted out a laugh because it was easier than giving in to that tempting mouth of his. “Patience.”

  “I’m being serious.”

  “I know.” She frowned and smoothed a hand over her skirt. “I’m in the market for a friend right now, Gabe. I can’t promise you anything else.”

  “Okay.”

  She jerked her head up. “What? You just spent the last hour trying to convince me that there’s more than friendship between us. And I don’t know that I can give you that.”

  Gabe nodded and rubbed a hand over his jaw. “I’m willing to make some concessions.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re fun to be around. Because the sex was amazing. Because if you spend enough time around me, you’re going to change your mind.”

  Ah. So that was his game. “Do I look that easy to push over?” she asked.

  Gabe swept a heated gaze over her face. “You look like someone who’s very good at making up her mind. But you also look like someone who wouldn’t throw out a piece of evidence just because it didn’t suit her argument. And we both know the evidence points to something incredible.”

  “Stop talking like you want to get into my pants,” she grumbled. She gave his arm a light shove, which was a mistake because all it did was give her a clear reminder of how ripped he was. Which of course made her remember those arms wrapped around her, holding her against the rest of his hard body.

  Dammit.

  Gabe’s eyes danced with laughter. “It was just a compliment.” God, he was persistent. And—yes—it felt kind of nice to be wanted for more than just a fling. Maybe she should revisit her position. On the other hand, if she was craving a connection, she could always adopt a cat. Really hit that spinsterhood stereotype home.

  She couldn’t help smiling at Gabe as he slipped on his molten grin, amused and confident at the same time.

  “It was a compliment with a purpose.” Bex sighed. The more she defended her single lifestyle, the more stupid it sounded. Especially when he wore that sexy look so well. Another five minutes with those eyes raking over her body and she might cave in.

  Gabe leaned close and lowered his voice so no one else could hear. “You’re more than one night for me, Rebecca Kingsley.” His breath heated her whole body, made her want to forget all reason and just say yes already.

  She shook her head, more to convince herself than anything. “You can’t know that.”

  “Why?” He caught her eyes, and his face was warm and full of desire. But it didn’t change anything. He was still a bad idea.

  Her lips trembled. “Because you don’t know me.”

  “But I will,” Gabe said quietly, his face so serious, so stubbornly sure.

  He turned back to the door, ready to push out into the sunlight. His linen button-down shirt hugged the sculpted muscles of his back and highlighted every controlled movement he made as he walked away from her.

  “Wait,” Bex said, and Gabe turned with the tiniest lift of his lips. Oh god, please don’t make her regret this. “If you happened to show up in a place where I happened to be hanging out, we could probably hang out together.”

  “That’s probably for the best.” Gabe nodded, and her stomach fluttered. “It could be awkward if we were both competing against each other in, say, a trivia competition in a random but well-appointed bar.”

  She twisted her hands together so she wouldn’t reach for him. “Yeah,” she agreed. “We should probably avoid awkward at all costs.”

  Chapter 10

  Gabe strode through the doors of The Walton and scanned the room for Bex’s familiar face. In the red glow of the bar lights, she looked like something out of a dream.

  Bex cocked her head when she saw him, an amused smile gracing those pretty lips of hers. He was too far away to talk, but he could almost hear her quiet chuckle.

  A good reaction.

  Thank god.

  He had taken a gamble she was going to be here, but he had a feeling that when Bex made a commitment she saw it through. And now he was glad he’d come.

  Emma intercepted him before he crossed the room. “Glad you showed up, cowboy.”

  “Cowboy? Is that really what this outfit screams to you?” Gabe gestured at his crisp button-down shirt and dark denim. He’d completed the look with a pair of Vans.

  “No. What it screams is, ‘I’m trying to look casually cool to impress the girl I like.’”

  “Is that a problem?”

  Emma grinned. “No. You definitely get bonus points.” She led him by the elbow to deposit him at Bex’s table before she headed back toward the bar.

  Bex smiled up at him. “Look who’s here.”

  “I figured you wouldn’t dare risk another Trivia Night without your ace player,” he said.

  “Ace, huh?” Bex tapped her lips. “I’m pretty sure that you answered one question correctly.”

  “Ah, but the important part is which question I answered.” He leaned close to her ear. “And it was the winning question.”

  Bex rolled her eyes but smiled. This close, the bright and fruity scent of her shampoo wafted in his nose. She smelled like tangerines and summer. “Yeah, well, I guess we’ll keep you.”

  He certainly hoped so.

  Gabe settled into the seat next to her, his shoulder brushing hers. Around them, the room was getting in order—trivia players settled at their tables and clapped each other on the back with a happy hum of voices, and Aderyn flitted around the room to distribute answer sheets and little golf pencils. He could see why Bex liked to come here, and it wasn’t just because it was her brother’s place. It felt like a community, like a family. People who teased each other and loved each other and showed up for each other.

  He could get used to it.

  Bex reached for a golf pencil. Her fingernails were painted shiny gold, and they flashed in the flickering candlelight like sparks. “So what do you think, ace? Are you going to deliver again, or was your first win j
ust luck?”

  He held her eyes and lowered his voice to a rumbling growl. “Oh, I plan to get lucky.” A tiny breath puffed out of her, and her eyes went wide. “But I also have the skills to deliver.”

  Aderyn set down a pint glass of beer in front of Gabe, its sides sweating. She looked at her sister-in-law, who was still installed right next to Gabe, much to his relief. “If you keep this up, Bex, people are going to think the game is rigged.”

  Bex lifted a shoulder, her hair spilling down. “Maybe it’s a good thing I always win. I’m keeping them on their toes.”

  Aderyn shook her head with a smile, heading off to check on other customers.

  Gabe turned to Bex with a grin. “I can’t believe we won again.”

  “I can.”

  “I’m glad your ego is intact.”

  She nodded. “I’m not bragging. I just have a healthy confidence in my abilities.”

  He cleared his throat, and she corrected herself. “In my team’s abilities.”

  He laughed, lifting his cup in a toast. “Cheers to that.”

  Tonight’s trivia prize had been an extra pint of beer, and while everyone else on the team had bowed out, he and Bex stayed late together to share the pint. He didn’t have a shoot scheduled for tomorrow, and his day stretched like a roll of undeveloped film. Maybe he’d do some editing, maybe post a few photos to social media. But otherwise, he could do what he wanted.

  And tonight he wanted to stay up late with Bex. If he could stay up late with her in her bed, all the better. Sure, she’d taken that possibility off the table for now, but he hadn’t just imagined the attraction sparking between them. Even now, she looked at him like she was making a decision, her teeth pressed into the soft curve of her lower lip, her eyes narrowed.

  “You know, you impressed me again,” Bex said.

  “With my trivia skills?”

  “Yeah. I didn’t see it coming.”

  “Well, I aim to please. You weren’t so bad yourself. How’d you get so good at trivia?”

  Bex smiled, a small, pleased thing. “I stay curious. You never know when something’s going to be important. And the more you pay attention to things, the more you can make connections. And when you can connect things together, you find you know more than you think.”

  It was so nice to see her like this—happy, smiling, engaged.

  “But what if the questions are hard?” Gabe asked.

  “Every question is hard if you don’t know the answer.”

  Fuck. That was profound.

  “So how did you get so good?” Bex shot back at him.

  He didn’t want to scare her away again, so he told half the truth. “A few years back I had some extra time on my hands, so I watched a lot of Jeopardy. That led to picking up books with random facts.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re a big Alex Trebek fan?” Bex teased.

  “We’re pals. But it was the theme music that did it for me.” He started humming the tune under his breath, and Bex giggled.

  “No! Don’t do that. It’s totally going to get stuck in my head.”

  Gabe laughed. “Tell me more about this design competition.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you trying to get into my pants again?”

  He held up his hands. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  Bex rolled her eyes. “The deal is my company hosts a design competition for the best sex toy, and the winner gets a huge bonus.”

  “Aren’t you already their best designer?”

  “Yes.” He liked that she didn’t downplay her talent, that she was honest about her skill. “But they started this competition after the CEO’s fiancée designed this prize-winning toy, and now it’s open to anyone in the company. So there’s more competition. And I want to win that bonus to help Sam.”

  “Help Sam?”

  “Yeah.” She sighed. “Don’t let him hear it from you, but he has a whiff of prostate cancer. Slow-growing, so the doctors are doing active surveillance.”

  Gabe winced, and a familiar pang of sadness coursed through him. “Tough break. Cancer’s a real bitch.”

  She frowned at him, her face serious. “You sound like you know firsthand.” It was a question and a statement.

  He was going to scare her away if he told the truth.

  He was going to shoot himself in the foot if he lied.

  Gabe forced himself to answer, his throat thick. “I had a whiff of thyroid cancer myself, Bex.”

  Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open. “No.” Her hoarse whisper scraped him raw. “Are you okay?” she asked, reaching for him.

  He squeezed her fingers, grateful for her touch. “I am. I had surgery a few years back, and spent a while recovering, which is when Alex Trebek and I became such good friends. Now I take a handy little pill each day and life keeps on cooking.” His chest was tight. “Is that going to scare you away?”

  Bex shook her head, her eyes wet with unshed tears. “No, Gabe. Sometimes I scare me away. But you? You are golden. I’m just sorry you had to go through it.”

  “Thank you.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. God, it felt good to touch her, to hold her. “I didn’t mean to jump the tracks there. Tell me about Sam.”

  She sighed. “Supposedly the type he has is rare in people under forty-five, but Sam’s just special. At least there’s a five-year survival rate of ninety percent or more.” Her voice grew rough, and a single tear spilled down over the freckles on her cheek.

  Gabe reached for her face and swiped away the tear with his fingertip. Bex blinked at him, and they were trapped, staring into each other in the middle of this bar in the middle of this night. But then Bex pulled herself together enough to continue. “Anyway, Sam’s doing pretty good right now, but the cancer is more likely to be hereditary than other kinds, and he doesn’t want to pass it on to his kids. He was also advised not to try to have his own. So he and Aderyn are trying to adopt.”

  “Which, I’m assuming, isn’t cheap?”

  She shook her head. “Not at all. There are a few agencies who will work with cancer survivors, but it’s a long and expensive battle.”

  He nodded. “And now your contribution is going to make their adoption possible.”

  Bex’s mouth flattened, and she blew out a breath. “I mean, not entirely. They’d probably be just fine without me. But there’s so much that’s happened to them with the cancer and the adoption that I couldn’t control or fix. Giving them my prize money, at least, is something I can do.”

  “That’s really kind of you, Bex.” He smiled, and her face softened. “What if we could find a way to help you get some more inspiration? Partner up so you could win this competition?”

  Bex tilted her head. “In bed?”

  Gabe reached for her hand again. “I’m not going to hide my desire from you, Bex. But if you want to be friends, for now, we can work with that, too.”

  “For now?”

  He held her gaze, and her eyes widened. “For now.”

  “Okay.”

  Bex pulled her hand from his and took a swallow of her beer. She drained the pint, licking her lips in a way that made him want to drag her into the back room and lick them, too. She set the pint back on the table and brought her hand to her mouth. “Oh fuck.”

  “What?” She nodded over his shoulder, and he followed her eyes to the clock by the door. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got work in the morning.”

  “Can I walk you to your car?” He stood and reached for his keys.

  “Yeah. All right.” Bex gathered her purse, then pushed back from the table. When she stood, she stopped short and grabbed his arm.

  “Gabe?” A drift of her perfume washed over him, and she was so close and soft and warm. Why did she have to be so scared of this thing between them?

  “Yeah?”

  She looked up at him with those big eyes. “I might be a little more drunk than I thought.”

  Chapter 11

  “No. No, no, no.�
�� Bex stormed toward the door of The Walton, then stumbled out onto the sidewalk. A rush of air hit her face and shivered down her arms. It was warmer outside than inside the air-conditioned bar, but the night felt fresh and new.

  “Bex, listen to me.” Gabe’s hands tugged on her own, bringing her out of her head. His palms were warm, his fingertips reassuring on her skin. More than reassuring. They felt good.

  She was even more buzzed than she’d thought.

  “Take a deep breath,” Gabe instructed.

  Bex brought her eyes to his, and his calm gaze steadied her. She filled her lungs with air. It smelled like cigarettes from down the street, like perfume and motor oil.

  “You okay?” Gabe asked.

  “Yeah.” She nodded, the late-night traffic streaming by.

  “Good.”

  Bex reached into her purse to grab her phone. “I’m going to call a Lyft. I just need to make sure my car isn’t going to get towed.”

  Gabe moved his hands up to her shoulders and squeezed gently. “Let me drive you home.”

  She swept his eyes over his body—his delicious body, his talented body. His button-down shirt exposed the tanned skin of his chest, and his eyes held hers with concern.

  She wanted to swirl her tongue over his neck, to taste his skin. Why had she told herself she couldn’t? She couldn’t seem to remember.

  “Yeah. Okay.”

  Gabe pulled her into a quick hug, and every plane of her body sparked where it touched his. “Give me your car keys.”

  She dug them out of her purse and pressed them into his palm. Gabe sprang into action mode, jogging down the street and tapping the key fob until he located her car. He scanned the posted sign about parking regulations and towing before heading back to her.

  He dropped the keys into her hand. “You should be okay to leave your car here overnight.”

  “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “Come on, honey. Let’s get you home.”

  “Honey?” She crinkled her nose at him, and he laughed.

  “Honey. Because you’re a queen bee and you like things that buzz.”