Safe from Harm (Protect & Serve #2)(58)
“Fine. If you must know, I fell for you the day you came to help me move in to Charlotte’s,” she told him. “You were the most handsome boy I’d ever seen, the golden boy of Fairfield County—or so I was to discover.”
Gabe groaned. “God, I hated being called that.”
She leveled a gaze at him. “And yet you totally used that perception of you to your advantage. Don’t even try to deny it.”
He gave her a wicked grin. “Hell, wouldn’t you use it if you were an eighteen-year-old kid with a talent for getting his ass in trouble? Between my dad being sheriff and my brother Tom covering for me more times than I can count, I got away with more shit than any other stupid teenager should’ve. Somebody should’ve kicked my ass and taught me a lesson.”
Elle shook her head. “No one dared! You were smart, charming, handsome, awesome at everything you tried…”
He chuckled. “I notice you’re talking in past tense.”
“Oh, trust me, I had it bad for you back then, Gabe Dawson. But you didn’t even know I was alive.”
Gabe grunted. “Oh, I knew.”
He kissed the side of her neck, eliciting a little moan of need before she pushed him away. “But you ignored me!”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “Because you were too young for me. My dad and your aunt would’ve had a shit fit if I’d gone out with you,” he told her. “Especially after what you’d been through. Besides, I could tell you were the kind of girl who’d be able to see through all my bullshit. I was too much of an idiot to see that as a good thing. Now, back to this crush… When did it fade away?”
She stood on her toes to give a quick nip to his dimpled chin. “Who said it has?”
He looked down his nose at her, still skeptical. “Since you came back to town, you’ve acted like you wanted nothing more than to nut-punch me every time we were in the same room together.”
She shrugged. “Defense mechanism.”
His brows lifted slightly at this. “Come again?”
“Love to,” she quipped. When he chuckled, she gave him a saucy wink and draped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to receive her kiss.
“I think you’re avoiding the question,” he murmured against the corner of her mouth before drawing away.
She sighed a little sadly. “You broke my heart when we were teenagers, Gabe.”
“But I had no idea,” he reminded her. “You can’t convict me for crimes I didn’t know I was committing.”
“I know, I know,” she acknowledged. “I can’t explain to you the mysteries of the heart of a teenage girl.”
He groaned. “I wish someone had back then. God knows I didn’t have a fucking clue. But that was then.”
“The thing is,” she said, searching for the words to adequately explain why she’d resisted him for so long, “I’d heard the stories and rumors from while I was away at college and law school, witnessed firsthand the way women were constantly throwing themselves at you when I returned.”
“I’ll admit I went a little off the rails when Audrey broke things off,” he murmured. “But it wasn’t nearly as bad as what I’m sure everyone was saying.”
“I know that now,” she told him, “but at that point, it’s what I was hearing over and over. And I didn’t want my heart to get broken again. So I kept you at a distance, constantly telling myself you were a womanizer, a player. I wasn’t about to fall into bed with you only to be discarded like yesterday’s trash.”
He winced at her harsh perception of him. “So what changed?” he asked. “You weren’t taken in by any of my come-ons, that’s for damned sure.”
“You let me see the real you,” she explained, smoothing a hand lightly over his chest. “And I let me see the real you. That day at the courthouse…I realized I’d not given you a fair chance. Then what you told me during the argument we had after you kissed me… Well, I realize now I never should’ve judged you by what others said.”
“And now?” he prompted, his gaze so tender and hopeful Elle’s chest went tight. “You sorry you gave me a chance to prove everyone wrong?”
She took his face in her hands. “Not for a second.”
He suddenly lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his waist and peppering her lips and cheeks and chin with kisses.
“What are you doing?” she laughed as he carried her from the room.
“Well, I figure I’d better make sure you don’t have reason to regret giving me a second chance.” He paused, pressing her back against the wall as his hands slid under the hem of the shirt she wore. “And seeing you wearing my shirt has been driving me crazy since you walked into my office.”
She leaned her head back against the wall when his lips sought the hollow of her throat. “Gabe, I think you need to take me back to bed,” she said, her voice breathless. “Right. Now.”
*
Gabe felt Elle’s arms go around his waist and the warmth against his back where she pressed her cheek for a moment before releasing him. “How was your shower?” he asked, turning around to pull her close, disappointed to see her dressed in clothes from the day before. He hadn’t been exaggerating about seeing her in his shirt. It’d been sexy as hell.