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“Well,” he said as they walked into the white-tiled kitchen space, “this is it.”
The area was smaller than she’d expected. Space was at a premium in the city, of course, but the design of the big dining room made the public area feel expansive. As small and crowded with kitchen staff as it was, the area looked spotless. A couple of the guys on the line waved spatulas toward Gabe. He waved back. Two of the dishwashers burst out laughing at something. Gabe didn’t seem interested. He guided her toward a big glass door at the back.
“My dad’s office,” he said. “He likes to see what’s going on.”
Small as it was, the office was comfortable. There was a desk and a couple of chairs and even a love seat pushed up against a wall. A big bouquet of fresh flowers sat in the middle of the desk with a note perched in the middle. The door closed behind them, shutting out the noise of the kitchen.
She looked around, trying to picture Gabe here at this desk. “Is this where you’ll work?”
“I suppose,” he said. “I’m hoping I can have an office in my apartment, though. Get some quiet. I should probably rent out an official office, though. My dad liked being in the thick of things and he was always moving from location to location. But we need something more central.”
His voice was flat. Tired.
“The employees seem pretty happy,” she tri
ed.
“Yeah, Dad likes to hire the best, so he doesn’t pay minimum wage, even to the dishwashers. He has high expectations. He gets people who care. I think it’s a great business strategy, but it’s really just who he is.”
Gabe glanced up and Veronica realized someone had signaled him from the other side of the door. “Hold on,” Gabe said. “The manager needs something.”
She looked around the office for a moment, wondering what James would’ve pointed out if he were giving the tour. The original blueprints were framed and hung behind the desk. She studied those for a moment but then she caught sight of Gabe again and watched him instead.
He was flat mouthed. Tense. With his beard gone and that resigned expression on his face, he looked like a stranger. Something twisted deep in her chest, something close to fear. This wasn’t right. He didn’t belong here, but there was nothing she could say to change that. She couldn’t come between him and his family. Gabe would die for them. She knew that. And this wasn’t dying. Not quite.
He opened the door and flashed that familiar carefree smile she remembered. “Come on. Our milkshakes are melting.”
Yeah, so was her heart. Because she realized now that this was her last night with Gabe MacKenzie.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
GABE’S HEART STARTED beating faster. Then it gained strength, the quick beats now thick with blood. And he and Veronica had only stepped onto the elevator.
They stood an inch apart, both facing the door, neither speaking as they rose toward the twelfth floor of her hotel. It was early yet. Still bright outside. After the milkshakes, he’d suggested they grab dinner later. Much later. She’d agreed.
Gabe was half-hard already, his body already imagining the moment when her hotel room door locked behind them. But it wasn’t just that. She’d had fun tonight. She’d enjoyed his family and his neighborhood. She’d held his hand on the walk to her hotel.
She’d forgiven him.
The elevator doors slid open, and Veronica stepped out to lead the way. He followed, his hands tightening with the urge to touch her.
As she stopped in front of a door and got out her key card, Gabe told himself to go slow, be careful, but then he remembered her desperation back in his bedroom. Her dirty words urging him on. The way she’d pressed a sweet, small kiss to his cock and sent him to a new level of painful arousal.
Veronica being shy had turned him on. This new needy Veronica made him crazy. So as soon as he’d followed her through the door, he backed her against the wall and kissed her.
She didn’t hesitate. She kissed him right back, moaning into his mouth as she twisted her fingers into his hair to pull him closer. He was rock hard in two seconds flat and tugging Veronica’s shirt up with his next breath.
Do it now. He heard her breathless words again. Just hurry.
Yes. He needed to fuck her, taste her, remind her how good things were between them.
When he swung her toward the bed, she helpfully fell right into it, already kicking off her shoes. “I want you naked,” she said.
He stripped out of his shirt and pants, feeling a violent jolt of lust at the way her eyes glittered with hunger when they locked on to his cock. She slipped off her bra and reached to unbutton her skirt, but Gabe couldn’t wait. He hooked his fingers beneath the fabric and peeled her underwear down her legs and when the skirt slid off, she was naked.
He moved between her thighs, his shoulders pushing them open. She gasped his name, a protest or a plea, he wasn’t sure, but when he put his mouth to her, she was already wet, already flooding his tongue with that taste he’d been wanting.
She cried out sharply, her back arching as he found her clit with his tongue.
