Mine - HelenKay Dimon Page 0,79

of your food.”

Gabe didn’t fight it. Pay for the food here or at school. Didn’t matter to him. “Grab whatever you want.”

He was about to help empty the rest of the cabinets when Natalie slipped off the stool and grabbed his arm. Pulled him into the great room, just a few feet away.

“We’re not dating,” she said in a desperate whisper.

The denial was starting to get annoying. Sure, he would have backed her up just yesterday, but now . . . no. “You sleeping with someone else I don’t know about?”

“My life is a mess.”

“No question about that.” Seemed to be an affliction of almost everyone he knew.

“The plan is to placate the CIA and start over.”

The words, however smart and right, grated on his nerves. “Where?”

“I have no idea.”

Relief smacked into him. From the wild look in her eyes he got the sense she wasn’t lying. She’d planned out so much of her life but now she was winging it. And Natalie was not a winging-it kind of woman.

He knew the changes, the uncertainty, had to be ripping her apart. She had mad skills but no place to use them. She’d served with distinction and was being hounded and followed. The whole thing pissed him off on her behalf.

So did the idea of her panicking and running away. “Then, for now, you’ll stay here.”

She held up a finger in front of his face. “Not dating.”

He folded his hand around it but didn’t push the topic. Not yet. “Call it whatever you want, but you’re sleeping in my bed tonight.”

“You’re mighty sure of yourself.” But she didn’t jerk away from him. If anything, she moved in closer, lowering her voice with each sentence.

No woman had ever wreaked havoc on his senses like this one. She had him thinking things, wanting things. Breaking promises he made long ago to stay unattached.

But one fantasy had been playing in his head almost from the start and it was time to bring it to life. “Let’s just say it’s time I follow through on that promise to tie you up.”

“Your son is right there.”

“And he’ll be gone tonight.” For once Gabe didn’t hate the thought of Brandon heading for school. Not when he remembered what waited for him at home. He leaned down and whispered into her ear. “Be ready.”

TWENTY-ONE

The man kept his promises.

Stretched out on Gabe’s big mattress, Natalie breathed in, letting the last of her worries morph into excitement as Gabe walked around the bed. Naked. He didn’t wear a thing. Neither of them did. Except for the red ties in his hands and the soft white sheet underneath her, not a scrap of material threatened to get in their way.

She’d been in this position, arms above her head and legs spread wide, for what felt like an hour. After stripping the clothing off her piece by piece, he positioned her there. Waiting. Then he performed an excruciatingly slow striptease. When the last of his clothes hit the floor she almost jackknifed off the bed to get to him but she clamped down and waited. The tension rose, and her stomach churned with each passing minute.

Those long, lean thigh muscles brought him around to her side of the bed. Her gaze traveled over the flat stomach to his broad chest and the sprinkling of dark hair there. Up she continued, to his bulging biceps, then farther until she met him gaze for gaze. The intensity in his dark eyes nearly had her turning away. But she couldn’t. Wanting him, needing him, entwined until she craved the touch of his hands and mouth.

He had her wound up, fighting against her own shaky control. She wanted to move, to squirm, but she stayed still. Every cell waited for his next move. Even the air in the oversized room felt thick. The overstuffed couch, the soothing medium blue walls. She ignored it all and focused on him. The one man whose memory danced in her head from the first minute they met.

At first, months ago, he’d said very little, almost nothing, as his gaze followed her. She’d pretended he repelled her and tried to boss him around. Insisted she didn’t need his protection and would be fine on her own. But everything about him, even from that very first day, intrigued her. Made her want to know more.

All that strength. The command he held over his body. His competence. The scruffy beard that drove her wild. Her hands balled into fists as she forced her