“Let me make it up to you.”
I met his eyes again. “You never can,” I said, my voice quivering.
“I can try.”
There was so much hope in his eyes that I put aside the past for just that moment and took his hand. Sparks flickered through me.
“You two have fun. I’ll watch over Rick.”
My sight snapped back to her as I corrected, “It’s Reid.”
She gave me a devious grin, but Gabe tugged me out the door.
“She’s just playing with you,” he said, pushing the elevator button.
“I don’t have my coat or my wallet.” I tried pulling away, but he kept my hand firmly in his.
“You don’t need either.”
“But…” I gave up as he pulled me into the elevator.
My pulse thrummed like a beating drum in my head. My hand remained in his, and I looked down at it, hating how perfect it felt and how much I’d missed his touch. Being this close to him always left me jumbled, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle spilling from a box.
We passed the lobby level, and the doors opened into the garage.
“Come on,” he said, giving me no choice but to follow, his grip tight on my hand like he feared losing me again.
A private gate blocked this part of the garage off. He pressed in his code and walked me through. I had parked my car next to the Jaguar, whose lights flicked as Gabe unlocked it. I frowned at the pattering in my chest when I realized I’d parked next to his car as if even then I’d been drawn to him. There was only one other car in the vicinity with plenty of open spots, yet that’s where my body had led me.
Gabe opened the door for me, finally releasing my hand. I gazed into hazel eyes, the colors fractured with emotion.
“Where are we going, Gabe?”
“Just trust me, please. I promise you’ll get all the answers. No more secrets.” His features were softer, giving me a glimpse of the man I had loved and still loved despite how my mind protested.
After closing my door, he ran to the driver’s side and got in. The engine purred as he backed out, and I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “I see you upgraded.”
After a long pause, he said, “Yeah. I’ve always had Jags. I’ve had them since I could drive.” We exited the garage, and I stared out the window as the city passed by. “It didn’t go with the justout-of-school vibe when I moved, so I bought the other car to keep up pretenses.”
“Pretenses,” I repeated. “Is that all I was? A pretense?”
He slammed on the brakes to avoid running the red light, but the motion was more pronounced than it should have been. I bit my lip, thinking this had been a bad idea.
“You were never part of the pretense, Tori. Nothing about us was a lie.”
Turning to him, I said, “Everything was. You built our relationship on lies that corrupted every part of it.”
His eyes grew darker, the light from them fading before a horn had him looking away from me. Silence fell over us and remained as we exited the city. The miles continued with the quiet, and I felt myself nodding off. Sleep had been coming in interrupted segments since taking the job. Having Gabe back in my life disrupted it.
“Tori,” I heard as I fought to return to the waking world. I blinked my eyes open to see him leaning over my door, his face too close to mine not to send my chest into mini convulsions. “We’re here.”
I stretched, looking past him and seeing a magnificent beach house in front of us. It stretched across a manicured lawn, lights forming a path up the walkway and along the front gardens. The breeze brought the smell of salt water to my senses, and I looked back at Gabe, questioning him with my eyes.
He held a hand out for me, and I dropped my eyes to it, hesitating.
“Where are we?” I asked, placing my hand in his. The sparks returned, snapping at my skin and reminding me that my body still answered to him even after all this time.
“The Hamptons,” he answered, helping me out and closing the door behind me. A four-car garage faced me with one dooralready lifted. “This was my parents before my father had to sell it. I bought it under one of my companies so he wouldn’t know.”
