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Five
His phone rang. He hit the ignore button when he saw it was Hunter. Gabi gave him a quizzical look.
“It’s Hunter. I’ll call him later.”
“You two are pretty close, aren’t you?” she asked. She was sipping delicately at her water.
There was nothing sexy about drinking water, but somehow there was when she did it. He couldn’t tear his eyes from her mouth as she put the glass back on the table and licked her lips.
She’d hidden her big brown eyes from him with her sunglasses and he wondered what she was thinking. This Gabi was very good at hiding what she felt. She wasn’t at all like the hot-tempered girl he remembered. The one who’d let him have it if he as much as looked at another girl. She had told him she deserved a man who wasn’t playing the field and if he didn’t agree he could hit the road.
“So you never said if you were dating anyone,” he said.
“Would I have kissed you if I were?”
He shrugged. He didn’t think so, but why make assumptions? He wanted to hear from her own lips that she was single—and available to him.
“I don’t know. It’s been ten years.”
“Fair enough. I have changed a bit, but not about that. I believe if you commit yourself to a relationship then you honor it.”
“Me, too.”
She arched one eyebrow at him. “Don’t say that if you don’t mean it. It was just a kiss—”
“It was more than a kiss, Gabi. It was a reaffirmation that there is still something white-hot between us.”
She bit her lower lip. “Damn.”
“What?”
“I was hoping that you didn’t feel it, too.”
“I’d have to be dead not to have felt it,” he said. “Why did you want that?”
“Because I’m Conner’s nanny. I’m here as a professional in your home, not to date you,” she said. “I’ve never been tempted to mix business and pleasure and I’m not sure it’s a wise idea now.”
“I don’t think it’s a dumb idea,” he said, trying for his most charming grin.
She shook her head. “That’s because you’re a man.”
“Hey, that’s not fair.”
“But it’s true.”
He had to grin at her. She made him feel alive again. Something that he usually only experienced with Conner and his very small inner circle of employees and friends—Peri, Mrs. Tillman and Hunter.
Was this real, or was he feeling something from the past for Gabi?
She’d believed in his innocence back then and that had meant a lot to him.
“I think we can both handle this. I trust you to be a good nanny to Conner whatever happens between us.”
“I’m not sure, Kingsley. How would you feel about maybe giving this a break until I’m not living in your home? I have to set a good example for the women who work for me. I have a strict no-fraternization policy,” she said.
He had another glimpse of the woman Gabi was now. He had sort of seen those differences in the articles she’d written and in her office. She was a success in a business she’d built from the ground up. She came from a very wealthy family who were related to the Spanish royals, so she’d never needed to work. Yet she did.
She worked hard.
He didn’t want to do anything that would harm her reputation or call her ethics into question.
But he wanted her.
He had been searching his entire adult life for a woman who could make him feel this way, and no other one had. He knew that he had another agenda and that his focus should be on clearing his and Hunter’s names. Making whoever was responsible for Stacia’s death pay. But sitting here in the Cali sun with Gabi made all that seem distant.
Suddenly getting revenge on the real killer wasn’t as important as making sure he could kiss Gabi again and hold her in his arms. Make love to her until they both forget everything except the way it felt to be wrapped around each other.
His phone beeped and he saw it was a text message from Hunter.
WTF. Are you really romancing the nanny? I thought we decided that we’d fix the past.
Damn.
He glanced at Gabi.
“I have to respond to this.”
“It’s okay. I think we need a break. I’m going to go inside and find Conner. He is supposed to have a nap in twenty minutes, so I should be there.”
