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“Does plumbing turn you on?” she asked with a grin, moving closer to press up against him.
“You turn me on,” he said. “I’ve been in the other room thinking about you naked and alone in my shower for thirty minutes now.”
“Our shower,” she said, dropping a kiss on his collarbone.
“Yes,” he whispered. “Ours.”
By the time they’d gotten each other all messy and then clean again, it was well past lunchtime.
“Wear something nice,” Gabe requested, standing behind her as she stared into the empty half of his walk-in closet. The half he’d so thoughtfully cleared out for her to use.
She’d hung up a few dresses, but most of her clothes were still in suitcases, bags, and boxes. And her winter wardrobe was back at her apartment in Kansas. She wondered if she’d ever need winter clothes in Texas.
“I’m taking you out to dinner after we run our errands.”
“You don’t have to wine and dine me, Mr. Banner. You already got into my pants.”
“Prepared to be wined and dined for life.”
He kissed her bare shoulder, and she shivered.
“Also prepare for me to be in your pants for life.”
She laughed. “There is no way to prepare for that.”
“I guess you’ll just have to wing it, then.”
He helped her pick out underwear—a sexy black lace set—and she chose a tight pair of black boxer briefs for him that made his ass look good enough to bite. She’d never had a man tell her what he wanted her to wear under her clothes. She wasn’t sure why she found that simple request so sexy, so intimate. Her heart was literally throbbing as she watched him dress. She’d thought she’d been in love before, but it had never been like this.
“What are you grinning about?” he asked as he struggled to button his sleeves. She took over the task, still standing in her bra and panties, because who could think about putting on clothes when Gabe Banner was in the same room?
“I was thinking I was wrong about being in love.”
The pained gasp he emitted made her heart twist.
“Not with you,” she amended hurriedly. “I could never be wrong about you. I meant the men I dated in the past. I thought I loved them, but now . . .” She shook her head. “That wasn’t love. Affection maybe. Attraction, to some degree. But this? What I feel for you? This is what love is supposed to feel like.”
“Mel,” he whispered, and the next thing she knew, she was in his arms and being kissed until her knees went weak. When he drew away, he pressed her head against his chest, holding her there with one large hand. His breath came in ragged gasps, and his heart thudded to a powerful beat beneath her ear. “I am so in love with you, I can hardly breathe.”
“I have an inhaler in my purse.” When he said things like that, the emotions inside her swelled until she couldn’t breathe either, so she had to joke or she’d die.
He laughed and lowered his hands to squeeze her ass. “Get dressed or we’re never going to leave this room today.”
“Promise?”
He groaned and pulled away from her, kissing her lightly. “I’ll wait for you in the truck,” he said.
“I’ll try to hurry, but it takes me forever to do my hair,” she said. But then she remembered Nikki was there. Nikki was amazingly proficient at calming Melanie’s waist-length curls. Usually Melanie put her hair up in a sloppy bun or twist, but she knew Gabe liked it down—just not in the raccoon-nest fashion it ended up being when she styled it herself. “Could you send Nikki in here to help me?”
“After you put your clothes on,” he said. “I see the way she looks at you.”
“She didn’t sleep with us last night, did she?” Melanie didn’t know if she had or not. She didn’t even remember going to bed and had slept half the day away.
“No. She fell asleep on the sofa as the filling in a Labrador sandwich.”
Melanie chuckled, wishing she’d seen that. She reached for her go-to little black dress and slipped it over her head. “There,” she said. “Though honestly, Gabe, it doesn’t really matter. She’s seen me naked a thousand times.”
“Now that you’re mine, no one gets to see you naked but me.”
She rolled her eyes at his posturing, but didn’t argue. She sort of liked when he was possessive of her. It gave her the right to be just as possessive of him.
Gabe left her to find her shoes. She was placing her most expensive pairs of heels on her half of the shoe rack in the closet when Nikki came into the room, still in her pajamas, the two dogs trailing her.
“Gabe said you needed help,” Nikki said, examining Melanie’s elegant attire with one eyebrow raised. “Are you going somewhere fancy? I thought you were shopping for dishwashers or something equally boring.”
“Gabe’s taking me out to dinner after we run a few errands. I was going to wear my hair down, but you know I can’t get it to look decent without your help.”
“I’m on it,” she said.
She found the bathroom box and searched for the various products and tools—hair dryer, curling brush—she’d need. Melanie slipped on a pair of black high heels and sat in front of the vanity mirror, applying her make-up while Nikki worked wonders with Melanie’s stupid hair.
“I see you’ve made some new friends,” Melanie said as Beau and Lady found comfortable spots on the bathroom rug to watch Nikki worshipfully.
“They’re sweethearts,” she said. “Both of them. If I ever run into the kid that hit Lady with his truck, I’ll . . . I’ll . . .” She gritted her teeth and brandished a hairbrush menacingly.
“He might still be out in the cornfield across the road looking for his keys.”
“We’re going to go bite him, aren’t we, Beau?”
Beau barked, his tongue lolling to one side.
Nikki worked curl relaxer into Melanie’s hair with both hands. “So will you and Gabe be out late?” she asked, her attention on Melanie’s head.
“Probably. There should be some leftover lasa
gna in the fridge. You can heat it up for dinner.” Melanie hoped Nikki didn’t expect to accompany them. “Or we can bring you back something from the restaurant if you want.”
“I’ll be fine here with the dogs,” Nikki said. “Gabe showed me how to massage Lady’s shoulder so she doesn’t get too stiff. It’s not good to leave her alone so much. And she needs help off the porch so she doesn’t have an accident in the house.”
Melanie was glad that Nikki felt responsibility for the dog’s well-being. She needed something to keep her occupied.
“Have you been massaging her shoulder this morning? I think
