“Supreme court?” He pushed the feel of her hands on him down deep or they’d end up in a ditch.
“Just a joke. Ye sure she won’t bring charges for taking her car all the way to Texas? Vegas, I can see her looking the other way.”
“She’s terrified of Luke. She knows he’ll bury her.”
“Why would she be terrified of a guy who owns a hotel? Oh, because yer billionaires?”
Now Grayson got how his brothers were so taken with the women they’d met who shrugged little shoulders at their money.
“Luke’s also a lawyer. One of the top ones in the city. Lexi, too.”
“Aye.” Sabine nodded.
Those little phrases were getting to him. Aye. Brats. Babes. Wee ones. He found her accent adorable and it eased his anxiety while waiting for the damn phone to ring.
To all the women I’ve never called back... I’m so fucking sorry.
“What’s in Austin?”
“I went to school there. I know the city well. Plus, I have a comp card for a hotel there. That deal Lexi had done with Chevalier, the high-end hotel partnership, opened doors all over the country.”
“Yer a basket full of surprises, Grayson.”
“Are you ever going to call me Gray?”
She sawed off a laugh. “I can’t think of a name more unfitting for a human being. Yer not gray. Yer...”
“Yeah?”
“Yellow.”
“Yellow? Like a coward?”
“Golden. Like sunshine. Bright and warm. Ye project power and passion and heat.” Those compliments zinged out of her mouth.
“Are you making fun of me?”
She laughed. “We should just cut the shite. Ye know yer a strapping lad. And I’m sure ye had lasses in yer bed non-stop. Although, maybe not when ye moved to Marina Del Rey. That apartment complex was rather depressing. But I suspect a woman would live in a cardboard box anywhere with ye.”
“Are you saying I’m a jerk who’s full of himself?”
“No. Just the opposite. Ye should be proud of what ye are. Own yer shit. Yer beautiful and can get anything ye want. Why are ye waiting around for that one part? I know they came down hard on ye from that movie. But the longer ye hide, that’s all people will remember.”
“It’s not as easy as that, Sabine.” He glanced at her. “Do you have a nickname? Like Beanie Baby?”
“Not unless ye want a punch in yer throat.” She smiled.
“Noted.”
Siobhan Elana. “Your middle name is Elana?”
“Aye.”
“I like that. Siobhan Elana. Did I say it right?”
“Aye, but if ye were trying to shorten my name, ye went in the wrong direction.”
Oh yes, he did. It meant he could savor her. Not dismiss her with a clipped version of her name.
“Have you ever been to Austin, Siobhan Elena? Yes, I’m changing the subject.”
She also stopped picking sugar off his body and he could think clearer.
“Nope.”
“So not to Vegas. No to Austin. What about Chicago?”
“Nope.”
“New Jersey?”
“Everyone in New York makes it to New Jersey. No tax on clothes.”
“I see. Pennsylvania? Connecticut?”
“No. No.”
“Florida? If you tell me your parents never took you to Disney World–”
“Aye. Once.”
“Once?”
“Ye dun’t know my brothers. I think we’re banned for life.”
Now he was curious. “Sabine, I have two older brothers and a very close cousin. I have some semblance of what it’s like to be surrounded by testosterone.”
“Ye ma would understand more.”
“Maybe. You just got on a plane to L.A. from New York and didn’t stop anywhere in between?”
“Aye.”
“Why L.A.?”
She didn’t answer and looked away.
“Sabine?”
“It wasn’t planned. The whole thing. I just...” She put a hand in front of her face. “They told me I had to marry Kieran. And I hated myself for not seeing it coming.”
“When was this?”
“Three years ago, a month after Norah died.”
She went silent again and stared at the road. Just concrete and blacktop. The sun, hazy in the mid-morning. The best colors in the southwest came out at night and in the early morning sun. Like Manhattan, when the sun rising from Long Island made all the skyscrapers on the East Side glow pink and gold.
Every minute, every mile with Sabine he felt more and more invested in her. Felt responsible for her even though she would never admit she needed anyone. Odd, since she probably grew up being sheltered and treated like a piece of glass. Or a prize, to reward the right man.
“Are we stopping anywhere along the way?” She picked up his phone and scrolled through the GPS app.
The 67 Aston Martin didn’t have Nav.
“I was planning on driving straight through. Why, do you want to stop?”