The Rebound Pact (24 page)

Gabrielle wrapped her arms around his neck, through his hair, massaging his scalp.
She swayed into him. His body molded perfectly to hers, and she couldn’t stop herself from touching the honed ridges of his muscles. Holden held nothing back, skimming over her belly, her breasts, pinching her nipples, gripping her ass, grinding his hard length against her.

“I want you,” he whispered against her lips.

“Yes,” she said back, sucking on his lower lip.

“But we can’t…”

“I know.”

He groaned and kissed her harder, deeper. Her entire body thrummed with delicious sensation, with need.

“When things settle down…” he said, his mouth trailing over her chin to her ear. “I want to go away with you. Paris, Italy, maybe even Fiji.”

His words sent her mind reeling.
They hadn’t had their talk yet, but he was telling her here and now that he wanted more.

“Oh, yes. Let’s go away together.” She pressed her lips to his neck, tugging his t-shirt down a little
to kiss the spot of flesh on his chest just below his neck.

“I don’t know what’s happening, Gabrielle.” He lifted her up and placed her on
his desk, her legs around his hips. He stroked his hands over her thighs, kissed her lips.

She wanted to tear off her pants, rip open his jeans…

“I don’t know either. I just know that without you…these past few days have been agonizing.”

His forehead rested on hers and he took a moment to gaze into her eyes.
“Exactly.”

A knock sounded on the door
and Holden quickly set her down. Gabrielle straightened her hair and clothes.

Holden answered the door to
Belinda, who stood in the hallway with a couple of wine bar attendants.

Gabrielle hope
d her face wasn’t as hot as it felt.

“What’s up?” Holden asked.

Belinda nodded. From the humor dancing in her eyes, Gabrielle could tell the woman knew exactly what they’d been doing behind the closed the door. Dammit! This was not good. Even if Belinda did seem to find it humorous. Embarrassment heated her cheeks.

“
We were just going to grab some rosès for this afternoon’s berry and rosè tasting, and wanted to know if you had a preference for which bottles?”

“Yeah, sure.”
Holden waved his hand toward the hallway. “I set them aside this morning in the refrigeration room.”

Gabrielle couldn’t even speak. She’d
nearly been caught making out with her boss. She was totally embarrassed. They were supposed to keep the PDA at a minimum, but this past week had seen that choice fly out the window.

O
bviously, they were completely out of control.

When they got out into the hallway, Holden leaned in close, his soft breath tickling her ear. “See if you can come by tonight.”

Chapter Seventeen

G
abrielle was thankful she wouldn’t have to think of a thousand excuses she could use to get out of the house after she got home from work, since Max had gone back to France the week before.

A night with Holden was
desperately needed. Not only to quell the insatiable ache between her thighs, but so they could have uninterrupted time to talk about their future. That needed to happen now. She couldn’t wait any longer.

Just the few things they’d said to each other, even if in the height of passion
, made her want to sing out loud with joy. She felt like someone put an entire plate of chocolate in front of her and told her she wasn’t allowed to have even one bite.

They were going to do this.
Finally.

Max was going to be a problem, but they’d work it out. If he loved them both, then he would understand.
Maybe.

The house was quiet, except for the ticking of her mother’s favorite grandfather clock.

She went upstairs, took a long, hot shower, then dressed in denim capris, beige wedge sandals and a one-shoulder dark navy top. She scribbled out a note that she went out with friends, once again grateful that Max had gone back to France. He would have dug into the note and then he’d figure out she lied. The man was a human lie detector test.

Thank goodness he hadn’t already hooked up her to his virtual polygraph. Her blood pressure spiked just from thinking
of telling him about Holden.

She d
abbed on a bit of honeysuckle perfume and sheer lip gloss. Her hair dried naturally in waves down her back. She looked casual but flirty. And when she got to Holden’s, she intended to keep her clothes on, at least until they’d had their talk.

Just as she reached
the bottom of the stairs her Dad and Max walked through the front door. She stopped herself from stomping her foot in frustration and instead plastered a smile on her face. “Hey. You came back already.”

“Yeah, I told you I wanted to be here for your opening night, and I didn’t want to be jet-lagged.”

Max had only been gone a week and the one night she planned on finally letting herself have some fun with Holden he had to come back. She swallowed a bitter retort. “I’m heading out. Don’t wait up.”

“Where are you going? We got your favorite salad from the deli.” Max held up a to-go box and shook it.

“Thanks, but I kinda have plans. Promise I’ll eat it tomorrow for lunch.” Her voice was an octave higher than usual, and she prayed Max didn’t pick up on it. She didn’t want to tell him where she was going either.

Too late.
He narrowed his eyes. “What plans?”

“Just with a friend, some friends.”

“Who?”

She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Why do I feel like I’m getting an inquisition here? I’m a grown woman. I can go out with my friends if I want to.”

His frown deepened.
“Why are you getting so defensive? I just asked you a simple question.”

“I’m not.” She
uncrossed her arms and tried to make her shoulders relax, because he was right, she was totally in defense mode.

Max stared straight into her eyes. She was sure he could see right through her.

“Are you going out with Holden?”

Oh my God, he’d asked…

She couldn’t lie, and yet she hadn’t wanted it to come out this way. She sighed deeply, looked to her dad for a little help. He only nodded.

“Yes.”

Max stared hard at her. He fisted his hands on his hips. “What the fuck, Gabrielle? I thought I made myself clear.”

She pressed her lips together, trying to sort out a retort other than a string of curse words.
While Max had no problem using his gutter tongue in front of their dad, she was a little more conservative. “You are not in charge of my life. I’m a grown woman. I can go out with whoever I want. The fact that Holden and I have decided to hang out together, does not change anything for you.”

“It changes a shitload!”

“How? How exactly will two people you care about having a good time ruin your life, Max?”

He blanched.
“Because it could turn out to be a total disaster.”

“It could turn out that way with anyone. And it did. Look at Holden and Lacy, me and Len. Do you think that we could possibly get any worse than that?”

He stood there staring at her, and she could almost see the sparks going off in his head.

She raised her eyebrows. “You need to get a girlfriend. Stop worry about my love life.”

For the space of at least eight breaths, he was silent. He shook his head and said, “Ouch, Gabs. Ouch. I thought you’d be able to respect boundaries. Holden is a player. But he’s also my best friend. Some things are best left the way they should be. And you two together is not right.”

Gabrielle glared at her brother, feeling rage zing its way through her blood. “How do you know? Maybe we are right together.”

“You’re just a rebound for him, Gabs.”

He’d hit closer to home than she would ever let him know.
Her fears about her place in Holden’s life were only strengthened by her brother’s words. “Now who’s saying something hurtful? You don’t think I’m good enough to be more than a rebound for Holden?”

Max looked contrite for a moment, but then anger flashed anew on his face. “You know that’s not what I meant. Stop trying to turn this around.
”

“Then what did you mean exactly?”

Max’s lips were thin with his anger. “He’s not good enough for you, Gabs.”

“And Len was? Don’t you think I might know what’s good for me?”

“No, Len was a class A jackass—and no sometimes I don’t think you do.”

“Well, news flash, brother dear, I’m a grown woman. If I see something I want, I’m free to go after it. Holden’s what I want, and I’m not going to let you stand in my way.”

Max’s hands fisted at his sides and she was seriously concerned he’d hop into their dad’s car and drive over the Belle Ami to put his fists to use.

“Like I said before.
Get a life of your own, and stay the hell out of mine.” Gabrielle shouldered past her brother, stormed out the door and slammed her way into her car.

How dare he talk to her like that? Act like she was nothing more than a piece of ass for Holden? How dare her own feelings react to his harmful
words. The relationship with Holden had started out as a rebound. No strings. But over time it’d turned into something more. At least on her end. Biting her lip and trying to thrust her brother’s words from her mind, she backed out of the driveway.

Holden didn’t know what the hell happened at the winery this afternoon, but he felt like he could run for twenty miles and not get tired. Energy flowed through him. He felt rejuvenated, lively, totally
stoked.

He looked out the window
. Except for the lanterns that lit his drive and the security lights on the outside of the winery, all was dark. The last of the wine tasters had left the hour before and Belinda and her crew had gone home. Holden had headed home for a shower to scrub the day’s sweat off of himself. Damn it was a hot one out today.

Caught up in the frenzy that was their make-out session
in his office, his inhibitions had gone, leaving his confession, his admission that he never wanted to be apart from her, that he wanted to go away where there would be no interruptions. And he couldn’t wait for her to arrive so he could tell her again, and tell her even more—that he’d fallen deeply, madly in—

He jerked, his cell buzzing in his pocket.

Max.

Either Gabrielle was on her way or Max was calling to threaten
him with a horrendously painful death. Then again maybe Max was only calling to invite him out for drinks, and he’d have to turn him down—come up with a
very
good excuse as to why he couldn’t hang out with his best friend whom he never saw. Seemed almost easier to take the painful death.

He answered after the third ring. “
Hey, Max.”

“Are you happy, man?” Max’s voice was filled with venom.

“What are you talking about?” He wasn’t sure why he asked. Holden had a pretty good idea of why Max was calling.

“Screwed my little sister.
I hope it was good for you, because next time I see you, I’m nailing your balls to the floor.”

Fuck
… “Listen, Max—”

“No, you listen. You fucking lied to me, and you fucked my sister.
Dude, that is just jacked up. You hurt her, and you’ll wish you’d never lived.”

Holden sighed deeply, a fist o
n his counter. “She’s not like anyone else, Max. Gabrielle means a lot to me. I’m not going to hurt her.”

The line went dead. Dammit. Holden slammed down the phone and ran his hands through his hair, then rubbed his face.

Shoving away from the counter, he went to wait on the front porch for Gabrielle. Within minutes her headlights lit up the gravel drive.

But the car that came into view wasn’t Gabrielle’s. It was a silver Mercedes convertible. The top was up, and the windows tinted, so he couldn’t see who it was
—but he had a fairly good idea and he wasn’t too happy about it. Another set of headlights lit up the drive. Lacy climbed out of her car, and slammed the door moments before Gabrielle’s Prius pulled alongside the Mercedes.