“If she gets here,” Cole said. “She never misses an appointment at work. I guess her work is more important than you.”
“Yeah, she’s busy making some other asshole money,” Gabe sneered.
Cole slapped him on the shoulder. “How long have you shacked up with Ivy? Seven years?”
“Looks like your beer is empty,” Gabe said. He went into the house, trying to block out his brother’s taunting. Where the hell was Ivy?
He tried to be understanding. Ivy had stayed with him through his time as a medic. He understood putting work first, and he didn’t want to dis-value her work, but she was skipping out on him more frequently. Gabe checked his phone. Not even a text.
Gabe got to his feet the instant he heard the click of the clock in the door.
“Hi! You didn’t have to wait up for me.” Ivy hung her bag on the hook and took off her heels.
“Leave them on, Princess. Where were you?” His hand flung out, grabbing her throat. He crowded her space, pinning her against the door. The flash of confusion on her face didn’t sway him.
“Work, where else?” The annoyance in her tone made him more pissed off. He wrapped her hair in his hand and tugged, squeezing her throat lightly.
“Gabe!”
“That’sSir,” Gabe said. “What was so important to you at work?”
“The Cherry Nails people. I was tied up with them all day, and then they took me to dinner afterwards as a thank you. What’s wrong?”
Gabe took her chin in his fingers. “I’m so mad at you, Ivy. I don’t know whether to cane you, deny you orgasms for the next month, or make you sleep on the couch.”
Her eyes glowed. “You want topunishme?”
Gabe yanked her hair. She gasped. “You didn’t hear me, Princess. I’m upset with you. It’s not the fun kind of punishment. You forgot about the dinner again.”
He watched the thoughts flutter behind her eyes. Yeah, it took her a moment.
“Oh my god, Sir. I am so sorry.” Her hands came out, and she hugged him, and he couldn’t help but embrace her back. She knew what his family did to him. This was the woman who stood by him during his deployments, who didn’t believe a word of what came out of his brother’s mouth and told him over and over not to let him and his dad get to them. “Was it awful?”
“The usual. You didn’t even call.”
“No, I was just so caught up in the meetings. I should have. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t you care I am leaving in four days?”
“Yes, I do. But you don’t have to. You have a job here.”
He turned away from her, exhaling a pent-up breath. They had been over this so many times.
“Sir, I’m sorry.”
He turned to see her on the floor, with her knees parted, her palms up, resting on her thighs.
She had taken off her skirt. With her pink heels and black nylons and the dark pink shirt that somehow complemented her fair colouring, she was a sexy picture of contrition.
“This doesn’t make me any less mad at you.”
“Not even a little, Sir?”
Gabe stalked over to her, stood in front of her, reached down and grabbed her lips with his fingers, pinching them slightly.
“No. Go get the cane and your clit vibrator. Come back here naked except for the heels.”
“Yes, Sir.”
