He gave me an appraising look. “Convenient,” he said, throwing me off with the response that made no sense to me and following it up with one that further confused me. “I suppose my threat no longer holds sway. Although he knows better than to underestimate me, which explains the confusion you’re struggling to hide.”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” was the only thing I could think to say.
“Of course you’re not. Even when I’m not controlling him, I am. Let’s see if he rebels again with you this close. Good day, Miss Hent. I’ll be watching to see how it plays out.”
He left me standing there, my mind still working out what he was saying.
“Oh, and Miss Hent.” I glanced over my shoulder. “Tell my grandson to have a happy birthday.”
My world spun as he walked away, his confident swagger so similar to Gabe’s. Had Gabe told him about Reid? From everything he’d told me, it didn’t seem like he would. And what had he meant by a threat and controlling Gabe?
Key card in hand, I watched the elevator doors close. When they reopened, I jumped, not realizing the floors had passed by so quickly. I dropped my stuff in my office and signed into my computer, attempting to get the conversation from my mind. Secrets. So many secrets defined my relationship with Gabe, andthe reason we barely had one now was because those secrets kept compounding.
After staring at my computer with no luck quieting my brain, I needed answers. Gabe’s door was closed, so I knocked and peeked my head in. Big mistake because he wasn’t sitting at his desk.
“Jesus, Liv, do you ever wait before you barge in?” he grumbled, not looking up as he snatched his dress shirt from where it rested on his desk.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t even think you’d…” My words wouldn’t form. He was still just as beautiful as he’d been. Muscles defining his chest, his arms powerful and sleek, the V that I’d loved tracing with my fingers still leading to where his pants sat low on his hips.
“Tori? Shit, sorry. I should have known Liv wouldn’t be here this early.”
I dragged my eyes up his bare chest, memories of all the times I’d laid on it, touched it, kissed it, all the times I’d felt safe wrapped in his arms overwhelming me.
“I can come back,” I stuttered.
“No, it’s fine. I used the gym here this morning. I should have known my father hadn’t locked the door on his way out.” He reached for his tie, the shirt still in his hands, and I wondered if he was purposely torturing me. As he grabbed it, I caught the outline of a tattoo on his shoulder blade. My breath stuck in my throat. A half-moon. My knees almost gave out. “Did you need something?”
He pulled the shirt on, resting the tie around his neck while he buttoned it.
“Umm, I… When did you get a tattoo?”
His eyes shot up, a flicker of emotion in the hazel. “It’s just something I got a few years ago. What did you need, Tori?”
I wanted to press him, to understand why he would put a moon on his body or why he would name one of his companies Luna. But the answers were in everything he’d told me, and they rubbed at my need to continue to hate him. To keep him at a distance because even with all he’d told me, I still didn’t have the one answer I needed. Why he had left me.
Clearing my throat, I said, “I ran into your father in the lobby.”
Narrowed eyes and a jaw twitch. “Did he bother you?”
I shook my head. “No, but he said something I didn’t understand. He mentioned a threat and how it no longer held sway, but you knew better than to underestimate him. What does that mean?”
His fingers froze, a flash of worry lighting his eyes before he said, “It’s nothing.”
Shuffling my feet, I studied him, knowing from that reaction that it wasn’t ‘nothing.’ “What aren’t you telling me, Gabe?”
His eyes dropped to focus on his buttons. “I said it was nothing. Why are you working so early?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
Amber eyes jumped to mine. His features altered. It was subtle, but for a moment my Gabe was back, the soft, sweet man I had fallen in love with. And my chest swelled, beating with a steady rhythm that belonged to him. But the moment passed, and the hesitation that had been there disappeared. “There is no subject, and it’s nothing you need to worry about.”
A ragged sigh scraped from my throat. “I’m so tired of your secrets. I just want the truth for once. I’m not asking that much, but you seem to think I’m asking you for the world.”
Hazel with specks of gold lost its darkness, and his mask slipped again. I hated that he thought he had to wear it because I knew what he was like without it. The amazing man he had been.
Until he left you,I reminded myself.
“Fine,” I huffed, throwing my hands in the air and storming back to the door.
