Rush (Breathless #1)(79)

“Take it, Mia. I wouldn’t give you anything that would harm you. And since I can assure you that you won’t be randomly drug tested at the office, you’re perfectly safe to take it.”

She smiled as much as her headache would let her and then took the pill. She drank half of the glass of milk before swallowing the pill, and then she drank down the rest, handing the glass back to him.

“Get comfortable. I’ll make us something and we’ll eat in here,” he said.

Content to let him wait on her hand and foot, she tugged the blanket up to her chin and then laid her head in the nest of pillows he’d arranged. If this was going to be her treatment every time she pissed him off, she’d have to make sure she did it more often. Not that she even knew what he was angry about.

She was just starting to feel the effects of the medication he’d given her when he walked back in carrying a breakfast tray. The pain had eased and in its place warm euphoria sludged through her veins.

“Feeling better yet?” he asked in a low voice as he sat beside her.

“Yeah. Thanks. You’re very good to me, Gabe.”

Their gazes locked and held for the longest time. Then his lips thinned. “You likely won’t say that after I tear into you for that stunt you pulled last night.”

She sighed. “What did I do? Granted I don’t remember much, but when I got to my apartment you were there and you were pissed. Why?”

He shook his head. “I can’t believe you’d even have to ask that.” When she tried to speak again, he held up his hand. “Eat, Mia. We’ll discuss the matter once you’ve finished and are feeling better.”

He handed her a plate with a toasted bagel and cream cheese and a small bowl of diced fruit.

She stared dubiously at it, unsure whether her stomach would take anything at this point. She took a tentative bite of the bagel, deciding dry bread would be more appealing than the moist fruit.

As soon as she took that first bite, her stomach roared to life. She hadn’t eaten the evening before and then all that alcohol on an empty stomach? No wonder she’d been so trashed.

“Starving,” she mumbled.

He sighed impatiently. “Did you even eat last night before you drank that much alcohol?”

She shook her head, bracing herself for his reaction.

“Damn it, Mia.”

He looked as though he wanted to say more, but he shut his lips together in a firm line and then directed his attention to his own breakfast.

She was honest enough with herself to admit she took her sweet time eating even though she wanted to consume everything in one bite. The longer she took to eat, the longer it would be before Gabe tore a strip off her hide.

“You may as well finish up,” Gabe said. “You’re only delaying the inevitable, Mia.”

She grumbled under her breath, and then leaned forward to put the plate on the coffee table. “I guess I don’t understand what you’re so pissed about. So I had a little to drink. I’m sure you’ve done the same a time or two.”

He put his own plate down and then sat forward so he could stare into her face. “You think that’s what I’m pissed about?”

She shrugged. “Either that or because I went out to the club with my friends. Either way, your reaction seems extreme.”

“Extreme.” He sucked in his breath, simmering with anger. He shoved a hand through his hair and shook his head. “You have no clue, do you?”

“Enlighten me then because I’m lost.”

“I knew you were going out, Mia. Why you couldn’t have just told me the truth to begin with I’m not sure. Did you think I wouldn’t allow you to go? I know you have friends.”

“Is that why you’re angry? I don’t know why I didn’t just say exactly what I was doing, Gabe. Maybe I did worry you wouldn’t want me to go.”

“Hell no that isn’t why I’m furious,” he bit out. “I get a call from my driver because he was never called to pick you up. Nothing. You weren’t at your apartment so I could only think you’d taken a cab. You and your friends, out to a club. No protection. Getting into some cab with God knows who and then coming home drunk off your ass, alone, in a cab, at two o’clock in the damn morning.”

She blinked in complete surprise. That wasn’t at all what she thought he’d say.

“This isn’t about me controlling you or you needing my permission to go out, Mia. It’s about you being careful. It’s about me being worried out of my mind because I had no idea where you were, if you were safe. You weren’t answering my calls or texts so I couldn’t even send the driver to where you were to wait on you. Hell, since you weren’t answering my calls or my texts, I was imagining you dead in a dumpster somewhere!”

Guilt hit her hard. Damn it, he was right. He’d been worried—really worried about her—and she’d been out drinking and having a good time while he worried about her being hurt—or dead. Ugh.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I didn’t think. I mean, it didn’t even occur to me.”

He frowned. “And you came home by yourself. What if I hadn’t been there, Mia? Would you have even made it to your apartment or would you have fallen and passed out on the sidewalk?”

“Caroline went home with someone else,” she said quietly. “He got me the cab.”