“Gabe.” Her voice wobbled, pulled at his heart, and suddenly, the tiredness he had felt all these months settled heavily on his shoulders. Not physically tired, but tired of being angry.
“Today, I waded in the water of Burrard Inlet to rescue a pair of overpriced shoes I am probably going to have to pay for. My one client fired me. My roommate sublet the apartment I’ve been living in since August. I was tired, cold, and had nowhere else to go. You didn’t buy me out of this place. You just told me to get out.”
He swallowed, his mouth dry at her words. The absolute hollowness in her voice cut through his anger. “You could have gone to a hotel or a friend’s house.”
“I don’t have much money. I’ve still been paying my part of the mortgage here.” Gabe glanced away. He should have called her. But maybe it was his way of holding on to a piece of her.
“And most of my friends stopped talking to me months ago. Emery said I could crash on her couch tonight if you were going to throw me out of my home again.”
Geez, when she put it like that, he was a complete asshole. He should have handled the finances. The hurt she caused, the betrayal of trust, was too much for him to deal with.
“I sent you two thousand dollars.” Only when he saw her at the product launch and realized he hadn’t been taking care of her.
“Thanks,” Ivy muttered.
“I’m so tired of being angry at you.”
“I’m tired of that, too.”
“But I don’t know how to stop being mad at you.”
“I never meant to hurt you!” Her voice rang with insistence.
“It’s hard to believe that when your actions were calculated to hurt me.” She wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“Not to hurt you, tostopyou from signing on with them and making a mistake.”
“So you’ve said, Ivy.” He clutched his head in his palms, wincing.
“I can get your pills for you?”
“Okay,” Gabe said.
Ivy threw off the blankets and strolled out of the room, gloriously naked. He knew exactly how gorgeous she was, how soft her skin was, how sensitive her thick nipples were. He missed her. By the blood rushing to his cock, his body craved her, even as his emotions were trying to repeal her.
Ivy handed him a glass of water and his medication. He took it. Staring at her in the soft light of the bedroom from the outside lights, all the times they had in this room circled through his mind.
“What is it?” Ivy said. Her eyebrows furrowed. He saw the fear on her face, and it was like a punch to his gut. His anger caused him to be a jerk, and he didn’t want that. Not right now.
Her being here with him eased some of the pain he felt. He set the water glass on the nightstand and leaned back against the pillows.
“Do you think I can stop being mad at you for one night?” He reached out, lightly dancing his fingers along her arm.
She turned her head away from him at the question.
He knew he was being unfair. But right now, right here, it was impossible to resist her, and he didn’t want to.
“I wish you would stop being mad at me forever.”
“I want you so bad, and I know I can set it aside for tonight.” He took, grabbed her hands and pulled her close to him. She dug in her heels. He pulled her harder. She giggled and fell into bed beside him.
She smiled, revealing her dimples, softening the hard angles of her face and making him feel like he won the game because she didn’t give that smile to just anyone. He always thought of that expression as the smile she only gave him.
“If one night is all you’ll give me, I’ll take it,” Ivy said.
He touched his forehead to hers, breathing in her scent, his eyes drinking in her familiar features. They had been through so much together. She was his. And he never thought she wouldn’t be with him. As soon as his hands touched her hips, the hurt in him eased. Touching her was like coming home. His hands moved to her breasts, cupping them, squeezing.
Her soft cry urged him on.
