Wear My Ring. Kate Hardy
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jeans and felt a tiny stab of fear that Mae wasn’t the only one she was hiding things from any more. So she blurted, ‘When are you going back to Brazil?’
‘I’m not,’ he said, and Paige’s stomach fell to her shoes. Then, ‘That deal’s done. But I will be leaving as soon as I’m done here. I follow the work, and ninety per cent of the time it’s many many miles from here.’
She breathed out a sigh of relief so loud she closed her eyes tight against the embarrassment of it.
‘Wrong answer?’ he asked, and she was surprised to find humour in his voice.
She screwed up her eyes. ‘Will it sound callous if I say that’s the right answer?’
‘It does a bit,’ he said, his smile growing. He gathered her to him, sliding his hands over her hips, his thumbs trailing hot and tempting spirals over her lower back. ‘But then it seems I’m into callous women.’
The lift binged. Opened.
Paige let out a huge ‘Whoop!’ as Gabe’s hands slid to her backside, lifted her and carried her into the lift. Then, before the lift doors closed, his lips were on her neck, his fingers sliding into the edge of dress, caressing the outer edge of her breast.
This, she thought. This was what mattered. Not all that thinking, and wondering and second-guessing. It was exhausting. And unnecessary. Thank heavens. Because she’d much rather be doing this instead.
Goose bumps sped across her skin as Gabe’s warm breath shot across her ear. ‘Although it’s not manly to admit as much, I’m strangely looking forward to learning what real garnish might look like.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘I finally get to see your place.’
Paige’s eyes flung open. The wedding dress! It was still hanging over the chair in her kitchen. She’d never got around to putting it away. As though if it went into her cupboard that would be the final evidence of ownership.
In one second flat, Paige kicked off her shoe and with a naked toe jabbed the emergency stop button. The lift juddered to a halt with such suddenness she gripped Gabe’s jacket for dear life.
In the sudden silence their intermingled breaths sounded overly loud. Her heart rocking against her ribs sounded even louder.
Though she was clueless as to how she was going to explain that little move, her eyes went back to Gabe. Surprise lit the dark depths for a moment before one dark eyebrow rose, and his smile kicked up at one corner. And relief flowed through her like an injection of pure heat on a cold winter’s day.
Then with a growl that spoke to something deep and primal inside her, Gabe pressed her back into the wall of the lift. Their hands were all over one another, urgent, desperate to find skin.
Her skirt was up, his pants down, he was sheathed and inside her. Hard, solid heat filling her until she cried out with the pleasure of it. She flung a hand over her eyes as sensation pummelled her every which way.
So hot, so right, she thought. Whatever else was going on, however short a time they had, they were made for this and that couldn’t be denied.
Sensation pounded through her like a perfect storm as she tightened around him, pleasure pulsing until she couldn’t stand it any more. And with a cry that must have echoed up and down the lift shaft every last tension fell away in waves of perfect heat, until it ratcheted right back up again as Gabe’s powerful release followed right on top of hers.
The storm inside her quieted slowly as she leant her forehead on his chest, letting the deep rhythm of his breaths calm her.
When she finally lifted her head it was to find his eyes were closed. His lips parted as he found his natural breath. The bright lights of the lift created shadows beneath his brows, highlighting every crinkle around his eyes, every hair on his jaw, the curve of his Adam’s apple.
He was so much man it made her chest hurt just looking at him.
He opened his eyes, gave her a small smile, tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, and then his eyes left hers to drift over her face. Hovering momentarily on her hair, her neck, her lips.
This, she thought, swallowing hard.
Raging attraction plus wedding-dress-purchase-recoil had sent her into his arms in the first place but this was why she wasn’t yet ready to walk away. The way she felt when they were alone together. Work, family, Mae; they didn’t come up because they didn’t matter. He stilled her mind. Made everything feel simple. Let her live in the moment.
She reached up and traced the backs of her knuckles along the hollow of his cheek. Ran a thumb softly over his bottom lip. Smoothed a stray hair in his eyebrow. And he let her. His eyes gave nothing away, but his nostrils flared at her quiet touch.
When the feeling inside her began to swell so large she struggled to find a full breath Paige curled her fingers into her palm and pressed herself against the wall so that they could disentangle themselves. Gabe fixed his pants, she fixed her dress, both of them flickering sly glances at each other, before they both burst out laughing.
‘You, Miss Danforth, are a revelation,’ he said.
‘Would you believe before you came along I was a bit of a good girl?’
His dark eyes connected long and hard with hers for long enough that her breath caught in her throat. Then, as he reached for the emergency button, he said, ‘Nah.’
And Paige laughed again, light, free. Happy. Even as she revelled in the feeling, she knew it was dangerous.
Gabe didn’t notice as he was jabbing and jiggling the emergency button. Yet the lift refused to budge.
Giving her dress a last fix, she joined him. ‘You’re kidding me, right?’
Gabe spared her a flat glance, before reaching into his jacket pocket for his mobile to call for help. Only to find it was missing.
‘The flamingo,’ they said as one, and Paige laughed so hard she clutched her stomach.
‘This isn’t funny. There are over a hundred people stuck up there.’
‘And it’ll only take one to leave early to notice the lift’s not working.’ Paige put a finger to her bottom lip. ‘If not for the fact that the lift is a total diva at the best of times.’
A muscle jumped in Gabe’s cheek and she realised he was beginning to look kind of stressed. Poor love.
‘Here,’ she said, pressing him aside to pop the hatch to find the lift’s emergency phone. It was busted. Seriously, at the next tenants’ meeting she was bringing out a whole bag of whoop on Sam the Super’s ass.
Gabe ran a hand through his hair as his gaze shot up, down, and at the seam in the lift’s doors.
And something occurred to Paige. ‘Gabe. Are you claustrophobic?’
He tugged at the V of his sweater. ‘Of course not. But neither am I keen on feeling trapped in a small space for an extended period of time. This rotten, stinking, no good—’ Gabe said, his voice now not much more than a growl as he banged at the control panel with enough force to bruise. Still the lift didn’t budge.
Paige lost it. Laughing so hard now she hiccuped. ‘See!’ she managed to get out. ‘It’s not just me. This is fantastic. And I was so sure he’d fallen under your spell.’
‘He?’
Paige blinked up at Gabe, whose eyes were narrowed dangerously in her direction. She was the one who’d hit the button in the first place after all.
Her bottom lip slid straight between her teeth and his gaze slid straight to her mouth, his eyes darkening, his breath lengthening, as she said, ‘Rock Hudson, of course.’
Then his eyes shot back to hers, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a dangerous smile.
Silence