Rock Hard (Rock Kiss #2)(25)

It would, however, be a little difficult to explain why she would soon be attending the wedding of the man she was “dating.”

“Ernest is my friend,” she muttered, stabbing her spoon into her ice cream. “It’s his birthday on the fourteenth.”

She should’ve known Gabriel wouldn’t let the subject drop.

“So you’re not dating?”

He didn’t have to rub it in. “No,” she admitted, then said something she wouldn’t even have thought about saying before a certain T-Rex entered her life. “Unlike you, I don’t change partners on a daily basis.”

“I don’t change partners,” Gabriel said, leaning back in his chair and eating a scoop of ice cream. “I’ve never had one of those.”

“Probably because that would require more than an endless series of one-night flings.” Charlotte froze as the words left her mouth—that had been a singularly discourteous thing to say to her boss.

“Don’t stop now, Ms. Baird,” he drawled, scooping up another spoonful of ice cream and holding it out to her lips.

She pursed those lips. He smiled, knowing she’d have to part them to speak. “I—”

He slipped the spoon into her mouth, the creamy dessert cold, the spoon warm from his own lips.

The intimacy of it made her stomach flutter. “That’s very improper behavior.”

“No argument,” he said, eating a spoonful. “Does it make you uncomfortable?” A serious question.

Charlotte wanted to say yes, and back when she’d first begun working for him, it would have unnerved her. But he hadn’t talked like this with her then—no, he’d been T-Rex. Now, though she tried to think of him as T-Rex, she saw Gabriel instead. “I can handle it,” she murmured, and when he smiled, added, “Don’t take that as support for further inappropriateness.”

His smile was slow, creasing his cheeks and bringing the silver into his eyes. “I’m afraid it’s too late.”

Charlotte looked down at her ice cream, her confidence running out all at once, as if a tap had been opened and leached it all out onto the floor. She didn’t play games with men, didn’t know how to; she wasn’t even sure if Gabriel was playing with her or if he was just passing the time.

A quiet buzz of sound that had become intimately familiar over the months she’d worked for him.

Pulling out his cell phone, he glanced at the screen and said, “Other side’s calling early.”

As she listened, he completed a complex international deal over the phone, pulling things from memory she’d have thought would be impossible if she hadn’t seen him do the same thing multiple times. The man’s mind was a steel trap—and he expected the same from her.

Since her laptop was formed of a large tablet and keyboard clipped together, she’d already removed the tablet section and pulled up the file with the buyout terms he was discussing. He glanced at it when she turned it to him, nodded, and made a finger movement that, from the context of the conversation, she translated to mean he needed to glance at another particular section. She found it, turned the tablet his way again.

He scanned the text, but she could tell he didn’t need the confirmation. The deal was done two minutes later, and Gabriel hung up with a smile. “Well, that went better than expected.”

Charlotte laughed. “You got everything you wanted.”

Eyes lingering on her face, he grinned. “Yes, I wasn’t expecting total capitulation.” He slid away his phone. “It seems I’ve kept you late for no reason.”

“It’s all right. You couldn’t have known they’d roll over.” Tonight’s overtime had been a real request. “I’ll call a car.”

Gabriel shook his head. “I’ll drop you home.”

It was the first time he’d made the offer. Every other time, he’d escorted her to the executive cab, then called to make sure she was safely home. Swallowing, she said, “No. You live in the city.” Only a few minutes away. “It’ll be an extra drive for you.”

“I could do with a drive after revving up for a negotiation that turned into a cakewalk.” Rising, he took her ice cream container and threw it into the trash along with his. “Come on, Ms. Baird. I promised early on that I wouldn’t bite.” A slow smile. “Unless you make the request, of course.”





11


LIONS, GAZELLES, AND BESPECTACLED MICE





CHEEKS BURNING, CHARLOTTE GOT up and walked out ahead of Gabriel, able to feel him behind her every inch of the way. It was probably what a gazelle felt like when she had a lion on her tail. A big, good-looking lion who’d almost convinced the gazelle he was harmless… right before the glint in his eye reminded her he had very sharp teeth.

“Your coat in the closet?” the lion asked.

Charlotte nodded, realizing she was mixing far too many metaphors where Gabriel was concerned. Nerves did that to her. Next thing you know, she’d be imagining a bespectacled mouse quivering in mingled terror and anticipation as it sat at a dinner table with a lion who looked ravenous. And suddenly the mouse was a woman who looked an awful lot like her, and the lion was a shirtless man with water running down the chiseled planes of his chest.