Storm Warning - By Kadi Dillon Page 0,44

of tangled hair was spread out over the pale pillow. Her lips, still swollen from his, were parted and curved slightly in sleep.

He stood beside the bed for a while—memorizing everything. He drank in the way her dark brows arched, the way her thick lashes curled, casting shadows down her cheeks by the pale moonlight seeping into the room.

With the lightest touch, Gabe trailed his fingertip along her smooth jaw line. She stirred slightly, murmuring his name, and he ached. And even as his heart was breaking, he placed a kiss on her lips, then her brow—then walked out of the room, closing the door soundlessly behind him.

Tory rolled to the empty spot beside her and fumbled awake. She wiped her eyes to clear them and murmured her lover’s name. When no answer came, she glanced anxiously around the darkened room.

He was just here, was all she could think as she slipped out of bed and into her robe. His scent was still hanging in the air, she thought running a hand through her disheveled hair. She pressed her fingers to her lips. They were still warmed from his. She realized with a sinking heart that his things were gone.

With a sound of distress, Tory raced across the room and clung to the window sill. Then, she saw him. He had one bag slung over his shoulder and carried the other two. He was walking briskly across the darkened parking lot into the street light. His body was cast in shadows, making him look untouchable. Already gone.

Tory watched helplessly as her lover walked away from her. And even as her heart was shattering, all she wanted him to do was turn around. But he never even looked back.

Chapter Fourteen

“Order up!”

Those words alone were enough to have Tory grinding her teeth. It was time for a new job. She had already changed so much, she reflected as she refilled coffee cups.

She’d had her hair whacked off until it stopped at her chin, bought a useless dog she’d dubbed Chaos, and was fixing up her parent’s house one board at a time.

She slept there as well. It was hard at first, being alone there. However, as time went on, three months to be exact, it got easier and easier. Now, with the kitchen in its final stages and one bathroom complete, she felt more at home there.

“Miss, I need a refill.”

She pasted on a sorry excuse for a smile and made her way over to the annoying local, obligingly holding his empty coffee cup up in the air. Tory recognized his face, but didn’t have the inclination to remember a name.

Without a word of thanks, he dismissed her after she filled his cup, continuing his meaningless conversation with his companion. She barely suppressed the urge to sigh and turned around to greet more customers when the bell above the door dinged.

“Have a seat anywhere and I’ll be right with you,” she told them and went to fetch her notepad and pencil from the counter.

“Should keep that in your apron,” was the cook’s clipped advice which she merely snarled at. She didn’t feel like explaining that the notebook bulged out of her pockets, making her look even more ridiculous.

She took orders methodically and served steaming coffee, all the while growing more and more irritable. Stopping for her break, she worked out a kink in her neck. She felt run down and exhausted and couldn’t blame it on sleepless nights or physically laboring days.

No, she laid the blame for her foul disposition squarely on the fact that her lover had walked out of her life in the middle of the night and had failed to contact her since. She didn’t often let herself think of Gabe—only every other minute or so. She frowned at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

She had been used for temporary amusement. She’d sensed that all along, but it hurt to know that she had meant nothing more to him than a temporary affair. She wondered often if he ever thought of her now that he was back in his elegant, polished world.

On a muttered oath, Tory shut off the lights and walked back out into the lobby. When she saw Adam sitting at the bar, surprise came first followed by pleasure. It had been a week since they had spent time together and she badly missed the contact with her brother and team.

“Hey, Bro.” She slid onto the stool next to him. “What’s up?”

Adam pulled out a rolled up