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16
ELISE
I’m the eldest daughter.The genius of the family. The one who was reviewing contracts before I was in first grade. The one my father chose and groomed to take over his business, worth billions of dollars.
It’s taken me way too long to realize, fully and completely, what’s happening here.
Gabriel’s freaking out.
He’s more than freaking out, actually. We lost him for a solid amount of time. I can’t say how much for sure, because I don’t have my phone, and there are no clocks on the walls.
Jacob put his hand on the back of Gabriel’s neck, and Gabriel froze.
His face went a bright, stark red, and then all the color drained out of it, leaving his skin as pale as the ivory buttercream frosting I use on wedding cakes.
A beat passed.
He didn’t un-freeze.
I didn’t move, either.
Jacob was the one to take action. He kissed him, angling Gabriel to the side blocked by his body. There was no flirtationin it. No romance. It was like he’d shoved Gabriel out of the way of a speeding car, or a bullet. It kept the consortium from seeing what had happened.
Which was good, because Gabriel wasn’t there. Not with Jacob. Not with me. Not in the room, as far as I could tell. His hand stayed at my waist, resting there, motionless. Like it had snagged on my hip on the way to hanging at his side.
It’s still there now.
Gabriel blinks.
He swallows. Blinks again. He takes a rough breath, and finally Jacob pulls back enough so I can see most of Gabriel’s face.
His skin is a more normal color, but he seems surprised. Which is not how Gabriel Hill has ever seemed to me when it comes to making out and sex. Gabriel searches Jacob’s face. A fire comes back to his eyes. It takes turns with confusion. With something else.
Then he looks down at me. The hand at my waist pulls me closer. Jacob lets Gabriel take me those few inches.
I’m glad we’re all still pressed together now. It was scary as hell to watch Gabriel disappear like that. He can’t disappear again. Our lives are on the line.
I tip my face up toward his, my lips close enough for him to kiss. The flush hasn’t completely left his cheeks. “Gabriel, it’s okay.”
His hands tighten at my waist. He gives a tiny shake of his head. “It’s not. You should hate me.”
All the charm has been stripped away from Gabriel’s voice. I don’t think he has to try to speak softly. I think that’s all he can do.
“I don’t hate you.”I love you.Oh my God, no. I can’t say that to him right now. It’s true that there’s a strange, powerful ache in my heart for him. It’s true that what I said to him in thebakery was bullshit. There was no way I could look at the broken, beautiful Gabriel Hill trying to survive this andnotlove him. But he’ll see it as a bribe, and I won’t do that to him. “It’s okay. I’ll help you.”
Jacob leans in next to me and puts a hand to Gabriel’s face. “I’m here, too.”
Gabriel looks between the two of us.
There’s a moment of hesitation that makes me feel like I have vertigo. He can’t walk out of here. He just can’t. We have to finish this, and then we have to regroup. Together.
Tonight has shaken Gabriel to the core. If all I’d known about him was his reputation, I’d wonder why this wasn’t a walk in the park. What my father asked him to do is relatively simple—force me to have sex with him.
That was a mistake on my father’s part. Or a bad assumption. Probably both. Gabriel doesn’t have to force me to have sex with him. All he has to do is exist.
It’s the fact that he doesn’t have a choice.
Gabriel’s reaction reminds me of the night of his birthday. When we’d found that teenager, Nate, getting attacked in the alley. Gabriel waited until I was the only one who could see him, and then he broke down.
