His Inspiration

by Tanya Gallagher

Emma nodded. “Once again, you’re human.”

  Bex continued, her mouth twisted. “I mean, his cock seemed to agree with me that having sex was a good idea. But he said no, and—god—what if he really doesn’t want me?”

  “Trust me, he wants you. Cocks don’t lie.” Emma brightened. “Hey, there’s another cross-stitch quote for you.” She smiled. “Free of charge.”

  Bex huffed a laugh. “I’ll take that into consideration.” She pulled her hands from her pockets and smoothed a palm over her forehead. “I’m just—ack. I’m out practice with this whole thing. I’m willing to try, but I don’t know how to have a relationship.”

  Emma shrugged. “So tell him that.”

  “He’s not going to want to see me again.”

  Emma stood and grabbed her shoulders. She leaned in close enough so Bex could smell her perfume. “He is. He’ll probably show up for Trivia Night again this week.”

  Bex shook her head. “He won’t.”

  Emma’s eyes gleamed at the challenge. “Wanna bet?”

  On Wednesday, Gabe threaded through the crowd at The Walton and aimed his gorgeous body toward the table where Bex waited alone. He wore a tight T-shirt that showed off his biceps, and he somehow looked different today. Good. Not that he’d ever looked bad, per se, but maybe her relief transformed him. She had flipped out and pushed him away, which had been utterly stupid because he was—regardless of anything else—a pretty fantastic human. If he hadn’t shown up tonight, she might have had to do something drastic, like apologize.

  Gabe patted the backrest of the chair across from her. “This seat taken?”

  She was way too happy to see him. “It’s all yours.”

  “Good.” He arranged himself in the chair, and his feet knocked into hers under the table. “Sorry I’m late. I just came from a shoot.”

  Bex gestured around the room. “You’re more on time than anyone else on our sad excuse for a team.”

  He smiled good-naturedly. “Hey, last week you were calling us champions.”

  “Yeah, well.” Teasing him was way better than ignoring him. What had she been trying to prove by kicking him out of her house? She couldn’t stay away from him, and she didn’t want to.

  At the front of the bar, Sam brought a microphone to his lips with a squeal of feedback. “Welcome to Trivia Night at The Walton.” He began the run-down of the rules, and Bex’s face blanched. She glanced at the time on her cell phone.

  “Where the hell are they?” she muttered under her breath. Emma had insisted on taking separate cars here from the office. She clearly hadn’t gotten her shit together, and Colton hadn’t arrived either. Sam and Aderyn were only here because they owned the place.

  She shot a text to Emma: Planning on joining us?

  Nope. Say hi to Gabe for me! Emma added a kissing face on the end for effect.

  A minute later, a text from Colton pinged through. sorry. can’t make it tonight.

  Dammit. This was a set up.

  Bex shrugged her phone back into her purse with a sigh. “It might just be the two of us,” she said.

  Gabe gave her a low, heated smile. “I can live with that.”

  Good thing he could hold his ground. A few rounds in, and he and Bex were in position to win again. Usually combined knowledge was an asset to a team, and while she and Gabe overlapped on a few subjects, he had a wider range of knowledge than she’d expected.

  “That’s right. You and Alex Trebek are pals,” Bex said before bringing her beer bottle to her lips.

  A shadow rippled across Gabe’s face, or maybe that was just the candlelight doing weird things. He dipped a finger into the condensation left by his pint of beer and used it to draw a damp star on the table. “You start to find patterns in things.”

  Was there a pattern to them? To her attraction to him? Because Gabe was so well-matched for her that she considered, again, that she might be willing to break her rules for him.

  Or, at least, stretch them.

  Anyway, she wasn’t going to do anything stupid to push him away. Tonight she nursed her beer, determined to keep her head instead of getting drunk, and the warm buzz of their conversation heated her.

  “What was the nickname given to the largest and best-preserved T. rex specimen ever discovered?” Sam asked the crowd.

  Gabe dashed the answer on a piece of paper and turned it to her. “Sue,” he whispered.

  “Aww, that’s so sweet.”

  “Named after the person who discovered her.” He grinned at Bex while the clock ran down. “What it’s called when a dinosaur gets in a car crash?”

  “What?”

  “Tyrannosaurus wrecks.”

  She groaned. “You did not.”

  “I did.” His eyes sparkled with amusement. “Just pretend my ten-year-old humor amuses you.”

  Oh, it did. She liked that Gabe could be goofy with her, that he was showing her all these sides of himself. She opened her mouth to tell him so, but Sam stepped forward before she could reply. She swallowed her comment. Maybe it was just as well.

  “Last question for you trivia buffs,” Sam said. “What was Indiana Jones’ real first name?”

  Bex flicked her eyes to Gabe. “Come on. You’re the names guy.”

  “Henry,” he supplied.

  She shook her head. “You are too good at this.” She wrote down the answer, then walked across the room to hand the answer card to Sam.

  “What are our odds of winning?” Gabe asked when Bex returned to the table.

  She swept her eyes around the room. “There are eight other tables competing with us, and when you factor in past success rates…” She tossed her head from side to side, trying to work out a number.

  Gabe reached for her arm, sending sparks over her skin. He shook his head. “No mental math required,” he said. “Tell me your gut feeling.”

  She blew out a breath. Her gut feeling was she wanted to reach over the table and kiss him. To wind her fingers through his hair and hold him tight in this dark little bar. But that wasn’t quite what Gabe was asking. “I think we’re looking pretty damn good.” She glanced at the front of the room, where Sam ruffled through the scorecards. He picked out the winning answer sheet and frowned.

  She nodded a chin in Sam’s direction. “Look,” she whispered to Gabe.

  Sam trudged to the microphone. “Tonight’s top score, earning a twenty-dollar gift card, goes to”—Sam broke off and glared in her direction, and she knew she had won again—“Team Dildo over in the corner. Come see me at the end of the night to collect your prize.”

  Gabe whooped like an overgrown teenager, and she couldn’t help beaming back at him. She reached forward to high-five him, but this time when they connected, Gabe didn’t drop her hand.

  He wove his fingers between hers and held her eye.

  “Are we okay again, Bex?” His voice was a low plea, and her stomach fluttered. She could feel her pulse jumping against his, palm to palm.

  She sucked in a deep breath, exhaled a whisper. “Yes.” Gabe was unraveling her, knot by knot. The more she loosened up around him, the closer she got to forgetting why she had pushed him away. If she was being honest, letting it go was a relief.

  “Good.” Gabe brushed a thumb over the back of her hand, and her whole body lit on fire. Good god, just holding hands with him was enough to make her want to change her mind about starting a relationship. “Since you still didn’t tell me what you want from me, I’m going to tell you what I want.”

  Bex nodded. “Okay.” It was totally sexy seeing him in charge like this.

  “I want to take you out on the town. My treat, my surprise. I’ll help you find a little inspiration for your contest. No strings attached.” He flashed a sexy smile. “Unless you want them.”

  Did she want them? She wasn’t good at this, but he was here, offering her another chance. If she asked, he’d let her cross that line again.

  Bex bit her lip. His offer sounded dangerous and decidedly tempting. “Okay,�
� she told him. If he wanted to help her, who was she to stop him? “You’re on.”

  Chapter 14

  Gabe felt like a trespasser as he pulled up to Bex’s curb in the light of day instead of the shadow of the night. A low spring breeze wrapped around his shoulders as he traipsed the steps to her front door, and in the distance a hawk wheeled in circles, riding a thermal.

  He rang the doorbell and stuffed his hands into his pockets. What if Bex decided she didn’t want to do this? What if she called this whole thing off?

  Bex pulled open the door and stood there, a vision in a sundress, looking way more innocent than he knew she was. Gabe smiled in relief as she stepped outside.

  She hadn’t changed her mind after all.

  “Since this trip is a mystery, you need to tell me if what I’m wearing is okay.” Bex twirled on the front step, and his throat ran dry. Maybe this was a stupid idea. Maybe he should walk her back through the door and fuck her in her pristine dress. Wedge sandals and everything.

  But no. He needed to do this right.

  “You look more than okay, Bex.”

  Gabe owed Emma a major thank you. There was a sixty-forty chance he would have shown up at Trivia Night anyway—probably—but Emma had called him from X Enterprises on Tuesday morning and threatened to smack him with whatever object she was holding if he didn’t show up.

  “Want to guess what’s in my hand right now?” she’d said.

  Gabe had taken the tour. He didn’t want to guess, but that didn’t mean his mind didn’t fill in the blanks.

  “We’re good.”

  The call had been a confirmation that Bex still cared, and then Emma had the good sense to leave the two of them alone at Trivia Night. And getting Bex alone so she’d agree to this Saturday excursion? It was everything.

  Bex smoothed a hand along the skirt of her dress and offered him a pleased smile. “Good.”

  She followed Gabe to his car, and he eased onto the 95, edging south away from Downtown.

  Bex read the street signs as they passed. “We’re not headed to The Strip, are we?”

  “Maybe.” He turned his eyes toward her just enough to see the face she made. He grinned. “I thought this was my outing to plan,” he said. “I promise there is serious inspiration to be had.”

  Bex sat back against the seat and lifted a dubious shoulder. “If you say so.”

  Bex had lived in Las Vegas her whole life, so she’d probably taken to avoiding The Strip like all the other locals. To be fair, the only reason to chance the sprawling chaos was to entertain visitors from out of town. People came to explore the glamour and the glitz. To swig free booze at the casinos. But it was a giant hassle.

  Anyway, in the middle of the afternoon, it wasn’t his goal to take advantage of the lurid nighttime offerings. But if his destination made Bex think about sex? Well, that was entirely the point.

  “The Renegade?” Bex stared at the entrance to the luxurious hotel, her face skeptical. “Did you bring me back here to party?”

  “Not quite.”

  Gabe reached for her hand, pleased at the way she molded it into his. He tugged her gently, steering them through the hotel lobby and past the entrance to the pool. The area smelled like chlorine and sunscreen. Like oranges. Like Bex. The whole thing felt like summer, but an East Coast summer, not the Las Vegas kind of summer where everyone stayed indoors because you’d melt the second you stepped foot outside. Gabe stopped in front of a second set of double doors with a smile.

  “Oh,” Bex breathed. A delighted smile played across her features. “The Trailblazer Gallery.”

  It was a popular attraction—hotel guests got discounted tickets, and the gallery held a rotating selection from artists around the world. Bex read the marquee out front as a crowd of women wearing six-inch heels sailed past. “The Chihuly glass exhibit is here?”

  “Let’s go find out.”

  He held the doors open for Bex and followed her into a museum festooned with glass on every surface. Heavy glass flowers hung from the ceiling and sprouted next to the museum’s walkways. Still more flowers were mounted on the walls. The entire space exploded with whimsy and color.

  Bex’s face transformed with delight. “Wow, Gabe, this is magical.” She looked like she was right at home here, with the light refracting onto her face. She’d always been color and motion to him, like a Ferris Wheel spinning by. “Look at these colors.” She sucked in a deep breath and covered her mouth with her hands. “Just wow.”

  “Glad it makes you so happy. Look at that cluster up there.” He pointed at the ceiling, and she brought her cheek close to his to see his point of view. High above them, whorls of red and gold and orange glass were folded like paper fans around a central disk of deep color. Gabe admired the elegant workmanship of the display, his eyes caught by the tendrils of green that wove through the petals. How was it even possible to make glass bend this way? “Look what happens when you look up through the layers,” he said. “See how everything fractures together?”

  “It’s gorgeous.” Bex’s face so was close to his, and he wanted to crush her against him and never let go. “This is…” Her voice trailed off.

  “I know.”

  Bex squeezed his hand and tilted her face to his, and he breathed her in. Her eyes caught his, sparkling and beautiful. Gabe dropped her fingers so he could bring his hand to the back of her head and hold her steady as he leaned forward. Because he was doing this—god, was he doing this?—and her eyes fluttered shut as she met him halfway.

  Bex moaned into him, her lips so soft as they parted for him. So sweet. He teased his tongue inside her mouth and explored her with slow, careful strokes. This kiss was a test. Are we okay? Are you with me?

  Yes and yes.

  Bex wound her fingers through Gabe’s hair, and his body sparked. She pulled back just far enough to say, “Thank you.” Her voice was a breathy little moan, and his chest warmed with the knowledge that he could drive her this crazy with only a single touch. He didn’t know what had changed between them, or why she’d stopped running. All he knew is he didn’t want to let her go.

  “For the kiss?”

  “For this day.”

  He smiled against her mouth. “We’ve barely even started.”

  Gabe let her lead the way around the museum, and together they threaded their way through the room. The gallery’s regular installations still hung on the walls—everything from photographs to paintings—and he felt like he was walking through a magical field of flowers to get across the room.

  As they neared the far wall, Bex stopped short in front of a small sculpture with a smirk on her face.

  “What’s that look about?” Gabe asked.

  She smiled wider like a kid with a secret. “You really want to know?”

  Was she teasing him? “Yeah, I really do.”

  She pointed at the sculpture, a phallic twist of glass cast in deep blue and purple. “Some of these remind me of glass dildos.”

  Gabe tsked. “Such a dirty mind.”

  “You like it.”

  “Never said I didn’t.” He grinned at her. “So tell me about dildos.”

  Bex fucking lit up. Man, he would keep on surprising her if he could keep that look on her face. When she talked about the things she loved, she practically glowed.

  “Well, glass is a super body-safe material because it’s non-porous. So there are lots of artisans who make glass dildos. And they really are works of art.”

  “Beauty and function?”

  “Exactly.”

  He stopped short and pulled her close, lowering his mouth to her ear. “You realize you can’t talk about dildos without me picturing you using them.” He knew what she looked like as she hovered on that edge—her eyes slitted, her mouth open. How was he going to get her there again?

  Gabe leaned back in time to catch Bex blush, and he felt a sting of pride. This woman worked in the sex toy industry, and yet he was getting to her. Hell, she had kissed him. He was go
ing to win her over.

  “Speaking of pictures,” he said. Bex cocked her head to the side, waiting for him to banter back. “I’ve got a gallery showing coming up in a few weeks.” Or, at least, he hoped he did. Kevin could still say no if Gabe didn’t deliver better images.

  “That’s awesome.”

  “It would be if I had pictures ready to show,” he admitted. “But I’m trying to do something different. Something in between landscapes and headshot photography.”

  “And?”

  “Any chance you’d model for me?” She’d been in his mind ever since that first night, and Kevin had even said he wanted something like Bex. Why not give him photos of the woman herself?

  Bex narrowed her eyes with an amused look on her face. “This isn’t one of those scams where you promise me a fancy modeling career in exchange for getting naked, is it?”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “I mean, do you want a modeling career?”

  And how soon can I get you naked?

  Bex swatted his arm and bit her lip. Those lips that he’d kissed again, he thought with a smile. Those lips that tasted like honey, like hope. “Is this really going to help you?” she asked.

  “You’re beautiful Bex. The camera loves you. And maybe we can help each other out. Figure out a shoot theme that would help your business, too.”

  “Oh god. Okay, fine. Yes.” She rested a hand on his arm, and his pulse thundered in his ears. “What did you have in mind?”

  Chapter 15

  Bex opened her design notebook on her office desk and flipped to her latest sketch. She’d hand-drawn a glass dildo on the page in cool purples and blues like the sculpture at the Trailblazer Gallery.

  “Time to get you onto my computer,” she murmured, booting up her 3D-rendering program. While she almost always started her designs on paper, putting them into her computer, where she could specify dimensions and figure out the restrictions of different materials, made things come alive for her.

  She tapped her lips with the end of a colored pencil. How could she replicate the swirls of a glass dildo using silicone? Most of X Enterprises’ toys were cased in medical-grade silicone, and if she could achieve the look she was aiming for using the silicone, it would be a better fit for their manufacturing capabilities.