A Billionaire's Redemption - By Cindy Dees Page 0,65
they’d scratched the itch between them. Maybe it would give them closure and allow them both to move on with their lives. Right?
Who the hell was he trying to kid? He’d seen her, he’d wanted her, he’d taken her. He was a first-class son of a bitch who ought to be thrown in the deepest circle of hell for taking advantage of a sweet, innocent young woman. End of discussion.
He lay her down in his bed, drew the covers up over her sleepy, relaxed body, kissed her gently on the brow with a murmured promise to come back soon and walked out on her.
Chapter 14
Willa opened her eyes and disorientation slammed into her. Where was she? In a moment, recollection came. Gabe’s bed. And last night...
A smile curved her lips. She stretched luxuriously under the soft cotton sheet, feeling better than she had in years. That man sure knew how to make her feel like a woman. An attractive, sexy, relaxed one.
She got out of bed and availed herself of his super-high-tech bathroom. It was kind of fun to watch the news on the plasma screen in the shower, and the full body dryer was amazing. Dozens of jets blew warm air at her, and in a matter of seconds, she was entirely dry. No shivering, dripping race to towel herself off this morning, no sirree.
Her clothes were nowhere to be seen in Gabe’s bedroom. If she was certain he would be alone in his living room and not using that video teleconferencing phone he’d shown her the last time she was here, she wouldn’t mind prancing out into the condo naked. But as it was, she raided his walk-in closet and found a T-shirt and gym shorts in the built-in drawers that opened silently at a touch. Too cool.
She padded, barefoot, out into the condo. It was silent and still. “Gabe?” she called out.
Nothing. Huh.
“Computer?” she tried experimentally. “Where is Gabe?”
The British sexpot intoned on cue, “Mr. Dawson is not in this residence.”
Not here? “Computer, when did he leave?”
“Mr. Dawson left the residence at 12:10 a.m. this morning.”
That was right after he’d tucked her into bed so sweetly last night! The sunlight streaming in through the huge windows dimmed a little. He’d left her?
And then it dawned on her. He must have been looking out for her reputation. He’d known she had bodyguards waiting downstairs. He’d left so they wouldn’t think the two of them had done...well, what the two of them had, in fact, done. What a gentleman. The sun regained its brilliance. She dressed and cooked herself breakfast with the help of the computer, who ably told her the location of everything she needed in the kitchen to fry up some eggs, make toast and brew a small pot of coffee.
She ate slowly in hopes of Gabe rejoining her, but he didn’t, and like it or not, she had work to do today. A quick text to her bodyguards got an immediate response that they would be out front in ten minutes. She washed up after herself in the kitchen, donned her pumps and headed out.
She exited the elevator in the building’s lobby, and winced mentally. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think Paula Craddock was stalking her. Worse, the woman had spotted her coming off the elevator. Backing into the conveyance would look cowardly and earn the reporter’s ire. Willa sighed and stepped forward, pasting on a smile.
“Good morning, Miss Craddock, What brings you to this neck of the woods this morning?”
“You, of course. Did you and Gabe Dawson spend the night together?”
Willa was abjectly grateful to Gabe that she could look the reporter steadily in the eye and answer honestly, “Of course not! He was kind enough to let me spend the night at his condo because of how late it was when I finished my business in Dallas. But he wasn’t here.” She added hastily when the reporter opened her mouth to pounce on that, “And I have no idea where he did spend the night, Miss Craddock. You would have to ask him that.”
She expected he’d driven to his little house in Vengeance, but she wasn’t about to help out the journalist.
Paula recovered quickly. “Do you have any statement regarding your shocking endorsement of your father’s opponent?”
“Is it shocking? I wasn’t aware of that,” Willa replied mildly.
“You abandoned your own party and your family’s long tradition of supporting the same party. People are calling it a posthumous slap in your