he give into temptation if he didn’t already want Gabi so much it was painful?
He left his truck, walked to her front door, and knocked. Gabi looked through the peephole in her door before opening it. “Is everything okay?”
No more playing games. “We’re not done.”
Chapter 7
Gabi’s mouth went dry. Silas Hollister, standing in her doorway, that sexy look in his eyes and a simple, “We’re not done” on his lips, could turn any woman inside out and upside down.
He wasn’t the kind of man who’d push. If she said, “Yes we are,” he’d go away.
She didn’t want him to go away.
Blake had robbed her of so much. Her ability to trust. Her home. A new career and a few good friends. He’d taken them all away. Could she allow him to take everything? Pleasure? Fun? Maybe even love, one day? In order for her to know if that was even possible, she had to take a chance. She had to take that first, difficult step. Difficult or impossible? There was only one way to find out.
She took that step, moving back and away from the door so Silas could come into her house.
Her heart beat too hard. Her stomach clenched. Between her legs it was as if she already felt him touching her. She tried to dismiss her response as being caused by simple biology, the fact that it had been such a long time. But she didn’t have this reaction to other men, just him.
Silas closed the door behind him. When he didn’t immediately lock that door, Gabi reached around him and turned the lock herself. She didn’t rest well behind an unlocked door, not anymore.
“Expecting someone to stop by and walk in on us?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around her.
“No, I just…” She didn’t want to explain, so she went up on her toes and kissed him. They didn’t need to talk. That wasn’t why he was here.
Mia and Judge were sleeping. Marnie was long gone. No one was going to interrupt them. Just as well. Any interruption would give her too much time to think. She’d become an expert at overthinking. What-ifs, maybes, one days… those thoughts were crippling her.
They moved to the couch, sat so that their bodies touched from shoulder to hip, and kissed some more. It was as if the world collapsed in on itself until there was nothing else but this. She could drown in Silas’s arms, give in completely so that the kiss would never stop.
Gabi tried to give in to the overwhelming sensations, she tried not to think, but without warning unwanted images of her ex-husband intruded. Blake pushing himself at her, demanding. Saying he loved her, then proving he did not. The face she’d imagined at the café window tonight popped into her head, as Silas moved one of his warm hands to the back of her neck. She instinctively stiffened as she remembered Blake’s hands at her neck, her throat. Would she never be rid of him?
She jerked a bit and moved away, turning her torso so they were no longer pressed together. Silas eased his hold on her, he backed away but didn’t release her completely.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
There was no anger in his voice, none of the frustration she’d come to expect from a man when things didn’t go his way.
“I’m not ready for this,” she said, without revealing that she might never be ready.
“That’s understandable. It’s happening pretty fast.”
She nodded. “I’m not fast.”
He relaxed. She felt it, in the arms that were still loosely wrapped around her. She saw it, in the set of his jaw. “Neither am I, usually. You got under my skin in a way I didn’t expect. I guess I wanted to see if I got under yours.”
Gabi held her breath for a minute. “You did,” she confessed. “You are. I just…”
“It’s okay,” he kissed her again, gently this time, without demand. When he pulled his lips away he said, “I wish you’d tell me who scared you so much.”
Could he feel her heart pounding? Did he feel her entire body tense? How could he not?
“You don’t have to say a word,” he said. “I get it. You can tell me or you can keep all your secrets locked away, it’s up to you. I want you. Right now I feel like I have to have you. But I can wait. I’ll wait for you, Gabi.”
Did he know that was exactly what she needed to hear? Was he charming