Yeah, his ex-accidental-virgin was about to get a little more than she’d bargained for.
NINE
Roxie sent him packing,using her minuscule shower as her excuse. Truly, she’d just needed to breathe. No, she hadn’t slept with Jake, because Jake had never turned her on to the point that she was a writhing, panting, incoherent mess of sensation—as she’d just been on her cold, hard floor. She couldn’t believe she’d let Gabe do all that boundary-breaking intimate stuff. Or that she’d done it to him first. Or that she’d liked it so much she was hot again already. But she was hanging onto this new-found audacity. This was fun—so long as she could keep it all within her control. And her flight instinct told her that meant maintaining some distance.
She pulled on some clothes and realized she was hungry for food. She snuck down the stairs to get some greens to add to her dinner. He was on the deck, sticking his knife into a giant steak. Masses of potatoes encircled it. He was clearly both carbo-loading and replenishing muscle. That would be useful—later—when she was ready to deal with him some more.
Gabe swallowed a smile at the dirty look she gave his dinner, but she said nothing. It amused him that she’d had no idea of what his name meant. It really was the reason so many of those dancers had set their sights on him rather than a rugby boy.His name—and family—was synonymous with farming wealth. So she was wrong about the sex-stud thing, and there were a few more things it wouldn’t do her any harm to learn about him. Except she didn’t seem to be interested in doing anything with him but the salacious. But he planned to change that.
‘Why not sit here to have your dinner?’ he asked casually. ‘You can’t sit at your table up there with all that furniture and crap crammed around it. Have it down here. I promise I won’t bite.’
It was more a dare than an invitation.
She didn’t answer immediately. Interesting how at ease she was with him when they were physical, and how uncomfortable she was at the thought of spending more simple, sex-free time with him. Was she actuallyshy? That didn’t make sense when she’d been nothing but smart’n’sassy and strong from word go. Assertive beyond belief He thought about it more carefully—about how she’d hung on the edge of the group of dancers at the after-practice drinks, how she’d hidden in the dark instead of confiding to anyone about her nerves before the game, how she lived behind a giant hedge no one would be mad enough to fight through. Suddenly, the idea of her being shy made more sense than anything.
‘I’m nearly done anyway.’ He tried to make it easier for her.
She shrugged. ‘I have to get the rest of it.’
‘So go get it,’ he said, as if he didn’t care. Wished he didn’t care half as much as he feared he could.
Three minutes later she perched on the edge of the seat opposite his, her plate full of rabbit food. No wonder she was so slim. He kept the conversation light. Stadium-related stories mostly, until she warmed up and laughed. Until she started talking back. Topping some of his tales with mad-old-lady shopping tales of her own. Turned out her day job was at the gift store at the corner shops, a store no one from theirgeneration would ordinarily enter. He couldn’t understand why she worked there—if she wanted to work in retail, why not some high-dollar fashion place? She had the physique to wear those expensive, slinky numbers and have all the customers desperate to look just like her. That was just one of several things he was biding his time to ask her. But for now, he just talked—nothing too personal or too heavy, but enough to entertain and keep her there until it was late and dark and the bedroom beckoned.
In his big bed in her old room, Roxie stretched. It really was time for her to slope across the garden and curl up on her own hard, narrow stretcher that reminded her of reality. But Gabe’s big arms encircled her. He lifted her, repositioning her so his chest was her pillow, his hand worked through her hair and he rubbed the base of her skull. She let it happen—it felt too good to pull from. Just a few more minutes. No harm would come from that little bit of closeness—right?
‘Why haven’t you gone travelling sooner?’ he asked lazily.
‘I needed to get this place ready.’ The repairs after the earthquake that had devasted the city a few years ago had cost money that had taken her a long time to earn.
‘But you’ve never got round to trimming the hedge?’
She laughed gently. ‘No. At first it was just because I was too busy to get to it. Then I noticed it kept people out. I liked that, keeping my privacy.’
She felt the vibrations in his chest as he chuckled with her—it made for a wonderfully relaxing kind of massage.
‘So what are you going to do once the champagne runs out?’ he asked. ‘Is there a new list or are you just going to travel indefinitely?’
She breathed in deep and sighed as she answered. ‘There’s a new list. I’ll have to find some champagne over there.’ There had to be a new list—her life would just be beginning over there, right? The start of her freedom.
‘Where’s there? What’s first on the list?’
She smiled up at the ceiling as she thought about it. ‘You’re going to think it’s lame.’
‘No, I won’t.’
Oh, he so would.
‘I want to go to the ballet in London.’
‘The ballet? That’s number one?’
She chuckled. Yeah, he wasn’t that wowed. ‘Don’t knock it. I studied for thirteen years, started when I was three. I’ve been dreaming of going there forever.’
‘If you loved it so much why’d you give up?’ He firmly slid his hand down her back, pulled her lax body even closer. ‘You couldn’t afford classes anymore?’
‘Actually my teacher offered to waive the fees, but it was the time more than the money. There were other things I had to do.’ Her grandmother had just had the stroke; her grandfather had needed help caring for her.
There was a small silence, as if he was waiting for her to say something more. Which she didn’t.
