Rock Hard (Rock Kiss #2)(31)

Hot pink on her cheeks, her head jerking up. “That’s not—”

“Appropriate?” He leaned in close enough that it was pure torture not to bridge the final inches, taste the gold-dusted cream of her skin. “Should I stop?” He had to make dead certain they were on the same page. Because he was her boss, and because he wouldn’t do the same thing to her that some f*cking bastard clearly already had.

The choice had to be Charlotte’s.

Huge hazel eyes met his before she got to her feet in a quick movement. “We should go.”

Gabriel rose with an inward smile. She hadn’t said no—and she was still holding his jacket around her. It was a start.





13


T-REX GIVES GOOD ORGASMS





CHARLOTTE CALLED MOLLY AFTER dinner, desperate to talk to her best friend.

“Charlie!” Molly’s excited face filled the screen of Charlotte’s laptop, her friend’s black hair a wild tumble around her head and her thin, royal-blue sweater sliding off one shoulder. “I’ve been dying to hear everything since your text!”

Charlotte rubbed her finger over a nonexistent spot on the bedspread, the laptop on her thighs. “I overreacted.”

“Wait.” Molly held up her phone. “It says here that T-Rex touched you. Are you telling me that was a lie?”

Rolling her eyes at her friend’s dramatic gasp, she said, “He put his coat around me… and kind of played with my hair.” God, she felt like a teenager saying that. “Just the strands at the side,” she clarified quickly when Molly squeaked.

“He played with your hair? Don’t tell me you don’t know what that means.”

Charlotte’s skin burned, her toes curling into the sheet. “Okay, it was maybe a signal.”

“Well, I suppose he could hardly drag you into his office and do bad, bad things to you.”

Charlotte’s panties went damp at the idea of being behind closed doors with a Gabriel who was no longer acting as her boss. A Gabriel who surely would do deliciously bad things to a woman who gave him the green light.

If that woman wasn’t a timid mouse.

Groaning, she dropped her face into her hands, giddy delight replaced by frustrated despair. “I had a flashback.”

Molly’s expression, when Charlotte looked up again, had changed from glee to gentle encouragement. “What happened?” asked the friend who’d walked with Charlotte through the darkness, who had seen the scars firsthand.

Drawing in a shaky breath, Charlotte forced herself to speak. “Gabriel said something in fun, but it was something Dick used to say.”

She hadn’t been able to say Richard’s name aloud for a long time. It was Molly who’d reduced him to Dick, and in so doing, stolen his power, or that had been the plan. Charlotte hadn’t quite managed to strip him of power in her mind, but she was getting there. She no longer had nightmares where she thought he was in the house, and she could get a full night’s sleep ninety percent of the time.

“What did T-Rex do afterward?” Molly asked, the white lines around her mouth telling Charlotte her best friend’s fury at Richard hadn’t abated an iota.

Charlotte thought of the warmth of Gabriel’s jacket, of the way he’d been so delightfully inappropriate with her. “He was wonderful.” The fact that the ride back had felt strained and awkward was her fault, not his. She’d been so angry and tense; the sudden flashback had come right when she’d begun to think she might have a shot at a life untainted by the ugliness of that brutal year.

“What am I going to do, Molly?” At least she had the long weekend to figure that out—with Monday being a public holiday, she wouldn’t see Gabriel till Tuesday.

“Given his goal-oriented nature,” Molly said solemnly, “I bet T-Rex gives good orgasms.” A waggle of her eyebrows that made Charlotte splutter with laughter. “I say let him have at it. It’ll be good stress relief for you.”

Knowing she was bright red, Charlotte pointed at the screen. “Not funny.”

“I wasn’t being funny. Didn’t you once tell me to go home with a rock star and have wild monkey sex?” Molly’s grin was wide. “Clearly, that turned out well for me. So follow your own advice, Charlie. Have wild monkey sex with your very hot boss.”

Charlotte couldn’t think about being naked with Gabriel without hyperventilating, so she said, “You doing okay?” Molly and Fox had recently dealt with a horrible invasion of privacy situation, and while Molly seemed to have come through it strong and unbeaten, Charlotte liked to check up on her friend.

“I’m good.” Molly touched the screen in an affectionate period to her words. “But don’t think I’ll let you change the subject.” She put on a mock-stern face. “You’re happy—I can see it. Be happy, Charlie.” A deep smile. “You don’t have to force yourself to be different. From everything you’ve told me today and over the past few months, Gabriel Bishop seems to like you fine just as you are.”

Charlotte continued to think about her friend’s words long after they ended the call.

Be happy.

It had been a long time since she’d been truly happy. But today, prior to the flashback that had filled her mouth with the metallic taste of fear, she’d felt like the Charlotte she’d been before Richard. That Charlotte had been shy too, but she hadn’t been scared; she’d been full of hope.