Priceless (12 page)

Neil c
lapped me on the back and thanked me enthusiastically while I did a silent fist pump in the air.  Score one for me.  He raised his Guinness to my Bombay & Schweppes in salute.

Fate could be a beautiful thing, I
realized as I tapped drinks with my friend.

I’d found her again just like I’d hoped
, even if I don’t think I could’ve been more surprised by the circumstances.  My mysterious obsession was connected directly to my own flesh and blood.  E and Brynne had both talked about Gaby to me.  Both had expressed how much they wanted us to meet on more than one occasion.

Well we did, actually.  And all on our own.
  And definitely not in the way you’d expect.

What were the odds?
 

I had her in my sights for the weekend, and
would again in six weeks when Neil and Elaina tied the knot in Scotland.  Oh, this was priceless.

Gaby.  I rolled the name aroun
d in my mouth silently.

I liked the sound of
Gabrielle more.  It fit her exquisite beauty to perfection.

She was Gabrielle to me
.  Especially since I now understood that “Maria” was just a specter from a night when confusion and mistaken identity had ruled.  I now had the real name for the real woman, and for some reason, it felt fucking victorious.

But
I don’t think she was too happy about seeing me.  She’d been so quiet on the drive up to the house, sitting stiffly in the seat within inches of me, breathing in soft deep pulls that made me want to feel them against my skin.  Make that
her
skin on
my
skin.  Naked.

Gabrielle Hargreave
pushed all of my buttons, and in just the right way.  I was pretty sure I pushed hers as well, even if she wasn’t ready to admit it just yet.

I
would let her absorb the blow of finding out exactly how we fit into the other’s world for the moment.  This whole thing
was
a shock, I’d agree with her on that point.  But now with our little freak-out behind us, there was nothing for it but to go forward.  I’d get her alone later on and tell her what I needed to say.  And she would listen to me this time.

She didn’t have another option
.

I grinned at Neil as he went off to get us another round of drinks. 
Gabrielle was firmly in my world now, and there would be no escape for her.

Not during
the next three days at least.

HER
arse.  The skirt clinging to it.  Her skirt was tight and black with colourful flowers wrapping around front to back.  Looked
very
nice paired with her long legs and black heels. 
I’ve had my fingers up in between those lovely legs…

Yeah…I wish
ed I was that skirt right now.  I know she saw me pegging her the moment she came into the garden for rehearsal with the others, too, but she ignored me and turned away to talk to Brynne’s mum.

Which was how I got the chance to study her
spectacular arse again.  I hadn’t forgotten how nice it looked in jeans, either, from the night when she showed up to Donadea.

I’d take
the view and bide my time.  I can play nice when the occasion calls.  Expert at faking, remember?

Gabrielle was expert
at pretending we were strangers.  So fucking sexy watching her play aloof.  She’d been doing it steadily since our meeting at the station.  Once we arrived at the house, there had been no chance to get her alone because guests were arriving in droves by that point.  Brynne and Elaina had swept her away somewhere and I was left doing duty keeping my cousin from chain-smoking himself into an early grave with those goddamn Djarum Black coffin nails he was addicted to.

Neil and I decided that hiding his stash was
for his own good.  Tough love and all that crap.

“I need a fucking cigarette,” E complained beside me
as the vicar droned on about the particulars.

I stared at
him, pretty bloody sure he’d just read my mind, the clever bastard.  “No time for that now, brother.  Pay attention to the man or you won’t know what to do tomorrow afternoon.” I nodded toward the end of the path where his girl was waiting to walk down for this practice run-through.

His expression brightened as soon as Brynne came into view with Clarkson leading her
.  Christ, talk about a chap so head-over-heels he didn’t know if he was coming or going.  E still surprised me very much.  I was happy for him, of course, but to see him like this was something that needed a little getting used to.

Clarkson was an interesting fellow as well.  I knew he was a photographer and had been the one to take Brynne’s nud
e portraits.  Well, the one E had purchased the night he’d met Brynne in London.  Gabrielle and Clarkson seemed very close and I wondered what the story was there.  He was gay, and Gabrielle, as far as I could tell, wasn’t.  Had Clarkson taken pictures of Gabrielle as well?  Flesh shots?  I wanted them if
they
existed.  There were so many unanswered questions I wanted to ask…

“Now the
couples will exit behind the bride and groom with the best man leading our maid-of-honour,” the vicar announced.

Showtime.

I smiled at Gabrielle as I met her in the middle, holding out my arm.

She didn’t want to take my arm, but
then she was without options.  The whole effect got my cock twitching as I pulled her into my side and walked us out, not missing the fact that she fit perfectly against me.

“Finally,” I said, looking down at her
.

“I’m sorry, did you say something?”  She kept her eyes straight ahead.

“We need to have an adult conversation, Gabrielle, don’t you think?”

“
Oh, you want to act like an adult now?”

“Mmm hmm, I do.”

“So you must’ve given up on the idea that I’m Maria-the-Escort you paid to service you.  That had to have been a devastating
blow
for you, Ivan.”

I caught her sexual innuendo and imagined exactly what she could blow.

“It does seem the logical conclusion.  Didn’t Sherlock Holmes say something like once you eliminate the impossible—”

“—
whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”  She finally looked up at me as she finished the quote.

God, she was lovely
, and I so wanted her in my bed all fiery and wild as I took control of her pleasure again.  Even if she wasn’t ready for that yet, I still fantasized.

“Conan-Doyle fan?”

“I know my Sherlock Holmes.  I read the whole volume in college.  Checked it out at the library and dragged it to the beach with me all summer.”

“And where was this?”

“University of California at Santa Barbara.”

“
A very beautiful coastline you have in your home state.”

She didn’t respond, and I knew exactly what she was doing.  Trying to reassert control over our conversation by withholding her participation, and regretting she’d told me anything at all.  I knew all the tricks.

I led her to our dinner table and seated her, resting my hands on her shoulders and holding them there for a moment longer than necessary.  I couldn’t help it.  I had to have my hands on her again.

She took her seat stiffly, probably trying to figure how she could get away from me, but I wasn’t having it.  She was mine for the course of this meal
and hopefully afterward.  One small victory at a time.

“Eat your soup, Miss Hargreave, you’re not going anywhere for a while.”  I winked.

She glared at me and then took a bite of what I guessed was a corn bisque of some sort.  Watching her take a spoonful and then swallow, her elegant neck moving in reflex was quite the show.  I waited for her to hit me back with something cheeky but she stayed quiet and took another spoonful of the soup.

“I phoned you and sent texts
,” I said softly.

She kept her head down.  “I wouldn’t know because I’ve been off the grid leading up to this wedding.”

“I was very sorry to hear you were ill.”

Finally she gave me her gorgeous face
again.  The words were sarcastic as hell, but at least I got to look at her.

“Yeah.  I had to go to Ireland for this horrible job.  Worst assignment ever.  I got lo
st in a frightening storm and thought I was going to die.  And then…once I made it to shelter, my boss was an asshole of such epic proportions my body just succumbed, I guess.  He couldn’t decide if he wanted me to stay or go, and I think, was suffering from a case of insanity.”  She pretended to ponder by tilting her head and nodding.  “Yeah, completely insane I’m sure of it, poor man.”  Another spoonful of soup.  “I had to drive away from his estate with a raging fever the next morning, but I escaped with the help of a kindly servant.”  She stonefaced me.  “Mr. Finnegan was his name and I’ll never forget him.  The insane boss?  I’m trying to forget I ever
met
him.”  She took a healthy swig of her drink and sighed dramatically.  “It’s been really difficult for me because he keeps showing up in the same places as me.”

Ouch.

I shook my head.  “I want you to know I feel really badly about that.  About all of it.  The part about making you wait in the storm, being an arsehole, about scaring you, and most of all, for not being the one to take care of you when you were ill.”

“Why?”

“I’m not a monster, Gabrielle.  I hate that you felt the need to flee my home, and me, when you had a fever.  You could have crashed your car and been killed on the road.”  If she only knew how much the thought of anyone being hurt as a result of my actions really bothered me.

She lowered her voice
.  “No, I mean why didn’t you let on to the others that we’d met before?”

“
It seemed the gentlemanly thing to do.”

“
Ha,” she scoffed.  “You, a gentleman?  That’s a stretch, don’t you think?”

“Probably, but for you I’ll make an exception.”

She frowned, biting one corner of her luscious bottom lip.  I wanted to lick it.

“I think you’re beautiful.”

Her gaze flickered over my face and I think, my hair, but she didn’t say anything.  I didn’t have to wonder if she liked what she saw.  I could tell she did.

“
I tried to apologize to you by phone.  Several times.  If Langley had given me your address it would have been in person.”

“
I told you I was sick,” she snapped.

“
Yes…and now you’re better.”

She glared at me and drank more of her blueberry mojito.  I wanted to stick my tongue in her mouth and taste
the lingering flavors.

“And there’s something else you need to know,” I told her.

“You flunked out of Being a Human 101 but aced Assholery III?”  The sarcastic sneer on her lovely lips was sexy as fuck and I couldn’t help laughing at the witty comeback.

“
You’re coming back with me to Donadea after this wedding, Miss Hargreave.”

“
It’ll never happen, Mr. Ever—”  She lost the rest of my name in mid-speech and swallowed hard.

My cock liked that.  A lot.

“I love to hear you address me as
mister
,” I said, “and we’ll work all that out later, lovely thing.”

My inner Dom was switched on instantly and ready to go off somewhere private with the submissive goddess in Miss Hargreave
and take things to the next level.

But she wasn’t ready yet, and I had more work to do first.

She looked like she was about to bolt.

“There isn’t going to be a
later.
”

“Oh, there will be, I promise you,” I
said, looking right at her mouth.  “I can see you’re just as affected, sweetheart.  There’s nothing to be ashamed of admitting to your desires.  It’s totally normal and you should stop fighting…this,” I said, waving my hand back and forth between us.