Shaking my head, I waved her off with my hand. I turned back to the television screen and lifted the remote, taking the show off of mute.
“It’s settled. New York. That’s where I’ll make my move.”
Chapter 15
Lena
“I cannot believe you booked us separate rooms,” I said while I rolled my eyes. Gabe and I were in the backseat of the town car he’d arranged to pick us up from the airport in New York.
Gabe made all of the travel arrangements for New York, putting everything under his name and my middle name, Jade, so it would be a little more challenging to track my movements. That was in case anyone was looking … which, honestly, at this point, I didn’t think they were.
Still, I was enjoying the privacy and not having to answer questions from reporters or fear photographers showing up at my hotel. I let Demetria know what hotel I would be staying at and the expected time of my arrival. She would meet us there.
“Are you ready to give me all of you?” Gabe leaned over and whispered in my ear. At the same time, he squeezed my hand.
Slowly, my eyelids fell closed as he made small circles with his finger on the inside of my wrist. He knew my body well enough to get me hot and bothered with only the slightest touch. And we still hadn’t even done the deed yet.
But I had to hold firm to my conviction. I would seduce Gabe so that we could both get the physical release we needed, but I wouldn’t give into him entirely. I couldn’t give him what he wanted.
A relationship with me came with too much drama.
“No,” I said firmly while sitting up straight. I turned to stare out of the darkened window, watching as we passed by skyscraper after skyscraper.
“Do you miss the City?”
I turned to face him. “Not really.” It was an easy answer. I grew up in New York and loved the City for what it was but after years of the go, go, go mentality, it got old.
“I bought a place in LA in my early twenties and lived between LA and NYC for a while. Five years ago, I permanently moved to Los Angeles.”
“You don’t sound too fond of LA,” he said.
“I’m not.” That was the first time I’d said those words out loud. But it was nonetheless true.
“There’s always Texas.”
I widened my eyes and stared at him. By then, however, we pulled into the garage of our hotel to be let in the private entrance.
“Thank you,” I said to the driver as he held the door open.
Gabe took my hand as soon as I stood upright, and we followed the hotel employee who’d come down to meet us.
“Ms. Clarkson, your assistant, Ms. Parks, is already waiting for you in the lobby. Shall I send her up?” the employee asked as he lowered the elevator phone.
I nodded before pushing out a deep breath.
Gabriel tugged on my hand a little.
I glanced up at him, giving him a small smile. “Back to work.”
He lowered his head and planted a kiss directly underneath my earlobe. A warm, fuzzy feeling filled the spot he kissed until it moved down my entire body.
“Ridiculous that you got us separate rooms,” I griped.
That stupid deep, rumbling chuckle of his pushed through his lips.
The elevator stopped, and we both exited behind the employee. Though we had separate suites, we were still on the same floor.
Marble flooring lined the hallways, while beautiful black and white photos of New York’s most famous locations decorated the walls.
