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“Of course not,” I countered. “I just can’t seem to relinquish such soft, beguiling fingers.”
“Oh, give me a break.” She sniffed as I smoothed my palm across the carpet, pausing when I encountered damp fibers.
Holy shit, she might’ve actually told the truth here.
Above me, a smug voice taunted, “Wet, isn’t it? Huh. Guess I’m not such a liar, after all.”
I peered up at her, dazed by the realization that I’d been wrong. I always assumed the worst about people, and I was very rarely mistaken.
“Why would you clean her carpet?” I couldn’t help but ask.
She did that uncomfortable shifting thing again, transferring her weight from one leg to the other as her gaze darted away. She’d done that before, when she’d confessed a truth she hadn’t wanted to share.
Then she scowled at me and muttered, “Look, I have a strange compulsion to clean carpet stains, okay. It involves blood and dead mothers, and just don’t ask. All right?”
“All right,” I whispered. The agony and torment in her eyes had my lips parting as I continued to study her.
Every emotion in her features was genuine, I realized. What you saw is what you got with this woman. The concept was so refreshing and startling that I couldn’t seem to look away. I wanted to reach up and simply touch her, just to experience what true purity felt like.
I’d only ever met one other person who was so honestly sincere. And I’d already thrown down twenty-eight grand for an elevator to be fixed in her building just to make her happy. It made me wonder what lengths I’d go to for the beauty in front of me, since I was actually attracted to her. She had some bite to her, too, not the sickening sweetness Kaitlynn did. That made her so much more alluring.
Jesus, this woman just might have the power to destroy me.
She frowned at me suddenly and jostled my hand as if to get my attention or shake herself free. “Seriously, why are you still kneeling like that? You look like you’re going to propose.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe I am.”
Was I? I knew I didn’t want to let her go. I knew I wanted her. I knew I might never encounter anyone like her again. But trusting the things bubbling inside me was impossible.
I tightened my grip on her fingers as a cold sweat took over. What the hell was happening here?
“Oh my God.” Gabby huffed out a moody breath and tugged at my hand again, manually trying to yank me upright. “You are so ridiculous. Get your ass up, right now.”
Ridiculous. There came another term no one had applied to me before. She definitely saw me through interesting eyes. Lovely, dark chocolate brown eyes with the thickest lashes that fringed them spectacularly.
Damn, she was gorgeous.
“No, I don’t think I will,” I told her mildly, refusing to move. “You’re kind of cute when you’re irritable and uncomfortable like this.”
“And your looks seriously decline when you’re being a pain in the ass.”
Pain in the ass. Hmm, that was getting closer to what people usually called me.
I tsked. “So, this probably isn’t an ideal time to ask where you want our wedding to take place, hmm?”
“Stand. Up. Now,” she growled.
I smiled through my un-cooperation, until my gaze fell to the white trash bag she continued to clutch tightly in her free hand.
Sobering, I nodded to it. “Tell me what’s in the sack.”
Sighing, she tipped her face toward the ceiling. When she glanced down at me again, she looked almost defeated.
“My brother’s sick,” she said. “Okay?”
I squinted at the sack, not sure what that meant.
“This,” she lifted the bag a few inches and shook it, “is just a couple things I thought would suffice as payment for cleaning the carpet. It’s to make him feel better.”
