I clasped my hands around his neck, but his words hadn’t escaped my notice. “Party?” I repeated.
“Ahh, hell,” he muttered. “My entire family and our friends are waiting at Elite. We’re already late.”
My heart began a steady pounding. “You arranged a surprise party for me?”
He inclined his head. “I was going to propose there.”
I clasped his cheeks and kissed him again, sliding my tongue inside his hot, waiting mouth, but it didn’t last long. Gabe broke the kiss, looked at me, and groaned. “We have to get to the club.”
I brushed my hands through his hair, feeling the soft strands beneath my fingertips. “I know.” Unable to help myself, I nipped the side of his jaw, feeling playful and pleased. I’d conquered my insecurity and fear—okay, well, I still had some work to do on those things—but my reward for trying was fantastic.
Gabe’s fingertips bit into my waist. “You’re testing my restraint, kitten. But if we’re going to attend this thing, we have to go.”
I nodded. “One sec.” I dabbed at his lips with my fingers, wiping off traces of my lipstick. “All better. You can let me go now.”
He shook his head. “Never ever again.”
I smiled because Gabe never said what he didn’t mean.
Chapter Nineteen
Gabe: Invitation to Eden
Gabe loved this island. There was the privacy—they were alone on a stretch of endless white sand and clear blue water. There was the mystery—his entire family and many friends were here for the opening of Elite, and yet there was no one around to hear or see a thing. And there was the view—his wife in a red bikini, showing off her luscious curves.
So much had changed in a short time. Trust between them had blossomed. When he’d rescued her from the police station, he’d thought she was the one who’d needed to let down her walls. In the time since, she’d showed him trust ran two ways. Together they were creating a life, in more ways than one.
He had someone to come home to at night, who made sure he didn’t get lost in work, not that he could with her waiting at the end of the day. He had an equal partner in day-to-day living. He shared his highs and the lows—to his surprise, Isabelle was interested in his business frustrations. Before her, he’d mull them over all night and return to them again in the morning. These days, they talked, he let his day go, and then he took her to bed.
He wouldn’t have thought interior design was his thing, but he enjoyed the stories she had about annoying clients and stubborn people. Most of all, he was proud of her successes, this club opening on Eden being the biggest of all.
For so long, he’d closed himself off to the possibility of love and a future because one woman had instilled him with fear and the possibility that he couldn’t be enough or do enough. With Isabelle, there was always more he wanted to give. It always gave him pleasure to do things for her, to take care of her in small but important ways.
Like making sure her bastard ex was fired from his job for attempting to poach clients and embezzling funds. Gabe hadn’t known what Daltry was up to, but a snake like Lance had to be doing something to regain his former golden boy status on Wall Street. All Gabe had had to do was hire a private detective and wait for the evidence, then let the bastard bury himself. Now the SOB was too busy trying to stay out of jail to think about anyone but himself.
Gabe watched with pleasure as Isabelle walked the beach, her hand on her stomach. He grinned, fully aware she had no idea she was pregnant. She’d been so busy getting ready for the opening of Eden Elite, first in New York and then here, she didn’t remember to eat meals unless he reminded her, let alone take her pill. He hadn’t realized until it was probably too late to do anything about it, and he really hadn’t wanted to.
Lately, there were times she was queasy, which she blamed on nerves. Adding in the subtle differences in her body, he knew better. Her br**sts were more sensitive, her stomach a tiny bit rounder. She cried when she was happy and also when she was sad. More than usual. It wasn’t like he knew the signs, but he did remember his cousin Ian mentioning the changes in his own wife in the early stages of her pregnancy. Ian and Riley now had a baby girl, who Gabe felt fairly certain would turn her father’s hair prematurely gray. The uptight bastard deserved it, Gabe thought, laughing.
But thanks to them, he knew Isabelle most probably was carrying their child. When this club opening was over, he intended to tie her to their bed and keep her there for the next nine months. Okay, true, she wouldn’t allow it, but he was pretty sure she’d let him use the ties when it counted, he thought.
On the heels of that image, Isabelle trussed up and spread, waiting for him to bury his c**k deep inside her, he strode down to the beach, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. “Hey, kitten.”
She spun in his arms, aligning their bodies with a sigh. “Happy three-month anniversary,” she said again, having woken him up with those words this morning.
As if he’d forget. He’d hauled her off to Vegas, his brother and sister in tow, and married her three months after they’d gotten engaged. Waiting wasn’t his style or in his vocabulary.
“Happy anniversary.” He nuzzled her neck, enjoying the coconut scent of suntan lotion and Isabelle. “How are you feeling?” He gingerly palmed her stomach.
“So-so. I’ll be glad when this opening’s over. Nerves and all that.”
He bit back a grin. “Everything ready for tonight?” he asked.
She nodded. “Nothing out of place, no stone unturned.”
“Will Lucy notice if you’re a no-show?” He slid his hand down the front of her bikini bottoms, gliding his fingers over her damp lower lips.
She moaned her appreciation. “Yes, and so will I. I worked too hard for this to miss the main event.”