here have weakened.” His voice was careful and softer than she’d ever heard it, and needing that, she put up no fight whatsoever when he drew her against his wide chest and slowly rubbed her back. “Will you tell me what happened earlier?”
“Can we leave? I want to get out of here. I’ll tell you at the hotel, okay? Where I want my own room, by the way,” she added, taking one more weak stab at being independent. She felt the loss when she regretfully pulled out of his comforting embrace.
“You’ll sleep in my bed.”
Okay!
She cringed. “Listen—”
He came down, grasping her chin and invading her personal space as if it were an extension of his own. “No. You listen to me. I’ve allowed you more concessions than I’ve ever allowed another. You’ve refused my offer of help, talked back to me like no one has since I was a fuckin’ teenager, walked out on me, interrupted me too many times to count. All of that ends now. You’re gonna do as I say until this shit is over. And you’ll do it from my fuckin’ suite where I can guarantee your safety. You understand me?”
He really was from Queens, she thought as she looked into his blazing eyes and felt the scorch of them on her skin. She tenderly cupped his face and did what she’d been dying to do all day. She kissed the man who’d just made her feel safe and protected in a way no one had since her mom was alive.
“Thank you,” she whispered against his lips. “For caring enough to be concerned about me. I’m not sure how partial I am to your methods, but it’s still really nice to have again.”
TWELVE
Gabriel’s ringing cell had Eva drawing away from him with an understanding smile. He released her with an obvious reluctance she found way too flattering.
“I’ll go up and pack a bag while you get that.”
He snagged her wrist, holding her in place while shaking his head. “It’s already done.” Before she could do anything more than frown, he plucked his phone from his pocket and answered with a rude, “Yeah.”
Weird. He was using a Blackberry. She was sure he’d had an iPhone at the office today.
Shrugging it off because she wasn’t positive, and who really cared, she went back to that bag she didn’t need to pack. Had he done it for her? If so, he’d been in her room. Gone through her things.
The intimacy of that made her belly tighten.
“Goddamn. Nice fuckin’ work.”
She looked up at the rare praise someone had just received from their boss.
Gabriel’s satisfied look had a dark edge to it. “Gimme a few and I’ll get back to you.”
And he was speaking like he’d just left the streets of Queens again, something she noticed he was doing more and more.
“You sound happy,” she observed as he put his phone away.
“Security caught some asshole rolling up on one of our closed-off job sites near Issaquah.”
Was this the same CEO she’d worked with today who’d spoken to the Florida Governor about signing some contracts to put a new project into motion? “Oh. What do you do in a case like that? And wouldn’t a foreman or site manager be called to deal with it? Why would they contact you?”
Gabriel looked at her for a suspended moment, a small smile forming as he came down and kissed her softly on the corner of her mouth. “This fuck was carrying weapons, smart girl.” Giving his nose a playful rub against hers that had her smiling, he took her hand and led her to the front door. “Do you want to change before we leave?”
She nodded and went up to discard her work dress before changing into a pair of leggings and a tank top. Minutes later she was carefully moving down the stairs to where Gabriel was waiting, the cuts on her feet uncomfortable but not bad enough to hinder her ability to walk. Or run, if she had to.
When she reached the bottom, she read his intent before he scooped her up. She didn’t protest because she was feeling embarrassingly vulnerable. As he carried her outside, her face found its way into his neck and she inhaled his familiar scent, losing it too soon when he placed her into the rear of the Escalade.
“Be right back.”
He closed her in and she sighed, letting her head fall back against the seat. Exhaustion descended like a blanket, lending a haze to her drowsy thoughts