My mouth was on hers, stealing kisses. “I gave him the invitation.”
“That’s a start,” she murmured, her head falling back as I scraped my mouth over her cheek and down her neck. The dress she wore wrapped around her body, and I had the urge to untie it and let it fall open.
Remembering my father’s words, I asked, “How did you hear about this position?”
“A recruiter called me two days after I left Bradman.”
I halted my attempts to seduce her and met her eyes. “I didn’t use a recruiter.”
She squinted at me. “Of course you did. She said she saw my resume…which I hadn’t put up yet. I didn’t even question it.”
“What was the name of the company?”
“WPI Recruiting.”
I pinched the space between my eyes, hating that my father had yet another hand in my life. “Damn him. My father owned that company. He sold it right before I took him down, and I thought he was trying to find money in a last-ditch effort to avoid selling the larger holdings.”
“What are you saying, Gabe?”
What was I saying? That my father had brought us back together? But that made no sense. He was the one who had torn us apart. But the visit, running into Tori in the building, none of it had been coincidence. The candidates he had turned down, the excuses that they weren’t the right fit. He hadn’t been planning to give me back the CFO position. He’d known what Liv and I had planned and was waiting for the right moment to woo Tori from Bradman. I leaned against the desk trying to stay upright. All this time I thought I’d been in control, yet he’d been manipulating all the strings.
“Gabe?”
“My father wanted you here. He wanted us to reunite. He had the recruiter call you because he wanted you here.” I squeezed the bridge of my nose. “Why did you check in that day we bumped into each other?”
“The recruiter told me to check in at ten.”
Exactly when my father was signing the papers. My world fell from under my feet, and I held onto the desk.
“Gabe, what’s going on?” Tori stepped up to me, and I dragged her between my legs, burying my face in her chest.
“I thought I had him, and all this time, it was just a series of tests. He knew everything. He already told me he knew we were scheming. But he knew I was taking him down, knew I’d be waiting in the lobby that day at that time. Knew you’d be checking in and would likely bring Reid with you.”
She lifted my head, her blue eyes darkening with worry. “He brought us back together?”
“He tested me. All of it was a test, and when I was where he wanted me, where he thought I was strongest, he set it up to reward me. Let me buy the company, let me think Liv and I had beaten him, let me have every holding I bought from him over the years, and put you back in my path.”
“Making up for what he did to us?”
“Maybe.”
Cobalt orbs searched mine as her fingers draped over my jawline. “You still did all of it, Gabe. He didn’t let you do anything. You proved yourself by taking it from him. That was the test. He didn’t hand it to you. You took it just like he wanted you to.”
“But what if you’d married someone else? How could he have known you would return to me?”
“You said he knew about Reid, right?” A nod of affirmation. “He was watching me just like he was watching you. He knew we were both still in love with each other, and if we weren’t, then he would never have let our paths cross again.”
“That’s a lot of credit to give my father.”
“As much as you just gave him.” She brought her face closer to mine. “Stop overthinking it. We’re here. We’re together, and we’re getting married in two weeks. Nothing will come between us again, and if you sit around and think only about what-ifs, you’ll miss all we can truly be.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist and stood. “You’re right.”
Arms coming around my neck, she kissed me, saying, “I know I am. You’ll get used to that.”
I chuckled and untied her dress.
“Gabe!”
