narrowed with suspicion.
And everyone else’s didn’t.
Because Gabriel’s boys knew better than to believe such shit. Like they’d run from a confrontation. Not fucking likely.
Though there was some truth to what he’d said. Eva and Nika would be heading east, with their own personal guard of bikers to watch over them.
While Gabriel and the boys remained behind to finish this once and for all.
† † †
As Gabriel closed him and Eva into the suite a short time later, he was curious as to what Eva had taken away from the meeting. Whatever it was, it had broken a barrier and turned her into a clingy distraction he could definitely get used to having around.
A clasp and squeeze of his fingers as they’d left the meeting room. A distracted trapping of his hand between hers as she’d spoken to Nika in the lobby. Her fingertips drumming gently on his knuckles as they’d waited for the elevator. A full body press and her head on his shoulder once they were ascending. Her intertwining their fingers as they’d come down the corridor, keeping them locked together even when she’d hugged Nika before the edgy redhead had disappeared into the suite down the hall from theirs with her brother and Vincente.
Now, she was waiting for him to close the door, and was ready when he turned. She kissed him a few times, just soft pecks on the mouth, flashed him a quick smile that didn’t reach her eyes, then wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. Her first sigh came when he slid his arms around her waist and pulled her in. The second, when he cupped the back of her head and tipped it to the side so he could nuzzle her neck.
She silently drew back to study him, and who the fuck knew what she saw, but it took the steel out of her frame. Only then did she finally cut contact with him by stepping out of his arms.
But she didn’t leave. She remained within touching distance, smiling up at him, glittering eyes and all.
And, fuck him for not realizing it sooner, but that’s when he understood what she was doing.
Leaning on him. Not for safety, but for peace of mind. And he’d eased her. By simply holding her, he’d given her comfort when he hadn’t even known that was what she was seeking.
Strange how not that long ago, he’d have run at the first sign of a woman looking to him for anything other than a good fuck.
With this one? His feet were cemented. “You good?”
She nodded. “I’m good.”
Goddamn right she was. She was solid as a rock. Continuously adapting every time the situation changed. She wasn’t falling apart. She was strengthening right before his eyes, and his attraction to her was following suit.
Just in time for Vasily’s arrival, he thought, wincing as he led her into the main room.
“Why is Nika so against going to New York for a few days?” he asked as he sat on the arm of the sofa and watched her adjust the throw pillows. She shifted them a few times.
“Kevin. He doesn’t like her going to the grocery store, much less across the country.”
Stepping back, she eyed them before going in again to fluff and turn them.
“Will he hurt her?”
As she stepped back, she bit her lip and shook her head. “He wouldn’t dare. Caleb would eat him alive. Okay. This isn’t helping.” She slapped the pillows into a scatter and turned on him. “I think we should have sex. Right now.”
He grinned.
She shook her hands out. “Distract me. I’m going to meet my father today, and I’m not ready.” She skipped over and grabbed his face between her hands. “The bedroom. Now.”
The strain in her voice had him snagging her wrist and all but dragging her into the bedroom. Not because she was a gorgeous body he wanted to glut himself on or a spectacular face he wanted to watch come apart as he fucked her. But because his intelligent, compassionate, anxious woman needed to use sex with him as a distraction, and who was he to deny her.
Too, Vasily was enroute. What if he ordered Gabriel out of the picture? Out of their lives? What if this was it?
When he reached the bed, he turned so they were face-to-face. This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be the end of them.
She tilted her head as if she could sense the unexpected turmoil within him. “Are you okay? If you don’t want to—”
“Are