Getting Gabriel (14 page)

"What? You said I should be honest."

"Honest. Honest, Alice. Not hostile. There is a middle ground."

Alice sighed. "You’re a much more difficult date than the A through F’s were. Okay. I’ll try again." She put on a smile. "I’m afraid sports bore me to tears. Everything except curling. Fascinating."

"I’m trying to discover if there was a double entendre in all that broom talk. I think I may be too innocent to figure it out."

Alice giggled. "Well, you spent your first self-defense classes wrapped around a broom, didn’t you? You should know. How are the classes going, anyway?"

Alice gestured with her fork. "Can a small woman really stand up to a much bigger and stronger man -- and win a physical fight?"

Gabriel shrugged. "She may not be able to win, as in overpowering him. But she has a good chance of escaping. And she has a good chance of showing her attacker that she’s more trouble than she’s worth. Of course, there’s always a chance it backfires – it can be more dangerous to fight back." He shook his head. "Then there’s domestic abuse, which happens on a regular basis. How do you teach a woman to defend herself from her husband? It’s not simple, and there are no guarantees anything I teach them will work. It might make things worse instead.."

"I’ll never understand why women stay in that kind of a relationship," Alice said. "It’s just unbelievable. How can they let it happen again and again? Women have to be fatally flawed to accept treatment like that..."

"Hope," Gabriel interrupted in a harsh voice that stopped her indignant speech.

"What?"

"It’s called hope, Alice. Hope that the one you love will stop hurting you. Hope that the love and commitment you’ve invested a lifetime in is worth something. Hope that it will never happen again. These women don’t deserve your scorn."

"I don’t scorn them, Gabriel! I just don’t understand why they don’t leave. I know it’s often not easy, but it has to be better than the alternative!"

"I know," Gabriel muttered. "It’s hard to understand. I’m hoping the classes do some good. That they go away with a little bit of confidence." He shrugged. "It’s more common than we think. So well hidden."

"Tell me something, Gabriel," Alice played with her food, not quite sure she wanted to hear the answer. "Do you really mean what you said the other day, that people were lucky if they found someone they could actually tolerate for a whole year?"

Gabriel shrugged. "What do I know?"

"Don’t you believe in love? Not at all? I mean -- not even as something that could happen to some people, some of the time, if they’re very very lucky and meet the perfect someone?"

His grin was sweet and patronizing. "It’s a make-believe game. I’m not playing that game. Those three little words are not for me."

Gabriel grabbed his napkin and narrowly managed to avoid spitting wine all over the table. "Don’t call me romantic," he coughed. "I’m not. I’m anything but."

Alice smiled in a cat-got-the-cream fashion, but let it slide. She’d achieved what she’d wanted – Gabriel had admitted he did not have a girlfriend about to move into that upstairs bedroom. "I’m jealous of your future girlfriend. The one who will teach you to say I-love-you."

Gabriel coughed. "Okay. Enough. Can we talk about basketball now?"

***

"So," Alice asked provocatively as Gabriel had done the gentlemanly thing and walked her to the door. Fortunately the door to her apartment was not in direct view from the main house. She could make out with Gabriel without her parents watching. "What do you think? Kiss or no kiss on first date? What’s your view?"

Gabriel was standing one step below her on the stairs, but she still had to look up at him. She felt emboldened enough to loosely link her arms around his neck. Heck, what was one more rejection in the great scheme of thing?

He grinned and removed her arms from his shoulders. He raised one of her hands and briefly kissed it. "Goodnight, Alice. It was interesting."

It was time for drastic action. Alice needed a guy. More specifically, she needed an H-man. Whatever happened, he had to make sure she moved past G and on to greener pastures before the last of his defenses crumbled.

If they hadn’t already crumbled.

After the day’s self-defense lesson, he sat down with his address book, and flipped through it looking for guys whose first name began with an H. He made a few phone calls, and then took a deep breath and drove around to Alice’s place with the happy news.

There wouldn’t be a happy ever after with this guy – he knew that. Howard was nice enough, but not her type. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to fix her up with anyone who might be her type.

Of course he wanted her to find someone and be happy – but he couldn’t quite face being the person who brought them together. He didn’t want to dig too deep and discover why that would be a problem, though.

All in all, he didn’t want to think too much at all.

The good news was that Gabriel had dropped by unannounced, which had to be A Good Sign.

The bad news was that he seemed to have some very strange ideas about the next step in their relationship. She stared at him, hardly believing her own ears. "You did what?"

"I found an H for you. You needed one, right? You’re up to H, aren’t you?"

"Yes, but—"

Gabriel flipped the hair out of his eyes and barged on. "Well, I’m serving you one on a silver platter. He’s a cool guy. You’ll like him."

"But..." I want you, she wanted to say. "Oh," she said instead.

"He works with me.... Used to work with me," he corrected himself. "He works at Dad’s firm. Howard. He’s a lawyer."

"You could put it that way. You see -- I’m very interested in a G-guy." She watched him start to scowl. "And I know he’s interested in me, despite his protests."

Gabriel groaned. He rested his head in his hands and considered just giving in. He wanted to give in. It wasn’t fair that he couldn’t give in. It wasn’t natural for him to run in the other direction when Alice looked at him like that. But he had to. It was the right thing to do. She deserved better than him. She deserved someone who’d always treat her right.

"Alice, I’m not right for you. And hey, besides, Michael would rip my head off and stuff it down the shower drain." It was a weak excuse, and made him sound like a wimp, but he needed all the excuses he could get. No matter how flimsy.

"That’s the lousiest excuse I’ve ever heard!" Alice glowered at him. "Come on, Gabriel. I’m not stupid! Do you seriously expect me to believe you’re afraid of my brother? What’s going on here? Who is that bedroom for?"

Alice snorted. "Hah. Don’t even try it, Gabriel. You’ll never convince me you’re afraid of Michael. Besides, he won’t try to rip your head off until we actually had sex. You’re quite safe."

"I see. So sex isn’t a part of the game plan then?"

Well – yes. But she definitely hadn’t planned on discussing it with fifteen feet of very tense air between them. If there’d be any discussion at all about the pros and cons of engaging in that particular activity, she’d planned to be plastered all over him and whispering lewd suggestions into his ear. She’d hoped to make him blush, because he looked so cute when he was blushing.

Two years of copyediting Susan’s column, ‘How To Make Him Squirm’ had taught her a thing or two. It was past time for some hands-on training.

His frown had disappeared. He was smiling now, damn him, and she knew it was because he just loved catching her off-balance. And he was looking at her with that teasing smile, head cocked, waiting for an answer. And she was the one blushing. Again. Damn.

"If you just want me to be a friend and a little sister, why do you keep flirting with me, Gabriel?"

That wiped the smile off his face. He looked down at the floor, and didn’t answer. She summoned her courage and walked towards him.

"Gabriel?"

Gabriel froze as she put her hands on his shoulders. What was she doing? He was trying so hard to be a gentleman, but she wasn’t helping. Had she no idea how difficult this was for him? He was doing this for her, damnit! She deserved someone better. Someone safe.

But now she was pressing herself against him, touching his face with those small gentle hands, and there was only so much he could take.

Gabriel?" he heard her whisper, through the rapidly diminishing fog of resolve. "Would you mind lifting me up on the counter?"

The question was surreal. He blinked. "What? Why?"

"Because I’m going to kiss you and even in these heels I’m so damn short I can’t reach you from here."

She smiled at him and her lips were rosy and soft, and that was it. In a split second he’d turned them around so that she was the one against the wall. He wasn’t gentle and he hated himself for being so rough with her, but he couldn’t help it. His hand tight in her hair, holding her head immobile, his other hand on the wall behind her. A tiny portion of him wondered if he was frightening her, but even that didn’t stop him.

For long seconds she was frozen in surprise, but then her body softened and leaned into his, her hands cradled his face, stroking his hair, running over his shoulders and her mouth opened to welcome him. With a groan he gave up the last remnants of control, cupping her head in both his hands. More, more, he needed all of her. She responded eagerly, and then her hands slid down his back, into the back pockets of his jeans and pulled him even closer. The sudden contact jolted him to his senses.