I think about Gabriel’s hands the entire time I get ready instead.
Chapter 17: Gabriel
“Natasha.” It’s both my cousin’s name and a curse now.
I rub my temples, staring down at the absolute disaster that is her electrical system jutting out from the wall of her new home. The breaker switch is busted beyond reason, and her cords are fried. This thing is a total fire risk, and I wish she would have never purchased this home without having me do a walk through first. It didn’t even have to be a thorough one. I would have taken one look at this place and decided it wasn’t worth the good deal she was getting. I’m going to kill her brother when I see him next.
“I told you I’d have someone come fix this. What’s this mess?”?
“Yeah, but you were taking too long, and I didn’t want to bother you,” she says, flashing me a sheepish smile. At least she looks like she somewhat regrets her decision to hire some idiot who didn’t know what they were doing and only made this shit worse.
I exhale sharply. “I’m very busy.”
“And I know that,” she says, all sweet and unapologetic. “You and my brother are slammed getting everything off theground with the new business. I know you’re behind on deadlines and bleeding money. I thought I was helping. I’m sorry. I’ve made things worse, haven’t I?”
I nod. “You have.” But because I’m a nice guy, and a pushover when it comes to the women in my family, I soften my tone. “We’ll get you out of this mess.”
I flip the switch by the kitchen counter again, like maybe this time, some divine force of electricity will course through the wires, and everything will start working in the home.
It doesn’t. No surprise there.
Daylight is fading fast, and her house is practically a dungeon now. A very cold, dark one.
I sigh and shake my head. “You can’t stay here tonight.”
“I’ll be fine.”
I shake my head again. Because it’s not just Natasha I’m worried about—it’s Aly. They’ll both freeze if they try to sleep here overnight without any power. The snowstorms rolling through the northeast have been brutal, and now even the space heater I brought over for Aly two weeks ago won’t work because everything is shot.
“It’s not an option,” I tell her firmly. “Everything’s going to freeze. I can bring over a generator to keep a few essentials going so that your pipes won’t burst, but it’s not enough to power the whole house. You need to stay somewhere else until next week when my electrician can come fix this…mess.”
She sighs heavily, her shoulders slumping. “Fine. I can sleep at the bar. There’s a loft upstairs with a bed that the owners said is available if I need it. I practically live there anyway.”
“And Aly?”
“Well, there’s only one bed there, so if you’re hoping for a romantic comedy moment where two women are forced to share one bed and—”
I hold up a hand. “Stop.” Because the image of Aly in bed with my cousin is not one that I want to think about. Especially when I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Aly for the past two weeks since I showered with her upstairs.
She grins, grabbing her purse from the door. “Rhiannon’s old bedroom is free at your house, right? Looks like she’s moving in with you, big cousin.”
Wait.
That’s not… that’s not what I had in mind.
“I’m off to work,” Natasha tosses over her shoulder like a live grenade. “She should be home soon so that you can break the news to her that you’re her new roommate.”
She peeks through the glass of her front door, then smirks. “Oh. Here she is now. Bye!”
I rub my temples, bracing myself as I hear her greet Aly in the doorway. And then she’s here. The woman that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. The one who’s pussy felt like heaven, who temporarily made me lose control and make a rash, very reckless decision.
She’s blowing through the door like a damn fever dream that I wasn’t prepared to confront today. Dark curls cascading over her chest. A tight, red dress hugging every inch of her body. Red-painted lips that could ruin a man if she’d just wrap them around my cock and leave a mark there. And on her feet—black heels with red bottoms.
She looks like a fucking Valentine’s Day fantasy.
Which reminds me of the red thong that I took from her bathroom floor the night we showered together as a souvenir.
I need to find that thing...
