Rock Hard (Rock Kiss #2)(87)

A little scream. “Let me down.”

He did as she asked. There might be times he’d playfully hold her prisoner, but this wasn’t the right time for games. “Why are you mad? I’m trying to look after you!”

Pulling her tank top back on, she stomped off to the kitchen. “I want you to listen to me! Dr. Mac has only met me once. I know me! I know I’m ready!”

He watched her pull open her freezer, take something out. “What are you doing?”

“Defrosting a stew I made.” A glare. “Don’t expect to get fed next time you come home at a ridiculous hour.”

Warmth and anger combined inside him. Home. He liked her talking of them as being at home. He was also still pissed at her for trying to force him to hurt her. “What if we do this and it destroys all the healing you’ve done so far?”

“I’m not that weak.” She stabbed the buttons on the microwave, set it to humming. “If I fall, I’ll pick myself back up.”

“I don’t want you to fall!” he roared.

“You’re an overprotective Neanderthal,” Charlotte muttered but came over to cup his face in her hands. “I’ll talk to Dr. Mac tomorrow, and then you can go and talk to him. But we are doing this.”

“When did you get so bossy, Ms. Baird?”

“Self-defense against a certain T-Rex.”





33


SNARLING AND GROWLING AND A BAD-TEMPERED T-REX





GABRIEL WAS NOT IN a good mood the next day. He’d had to leave Charlotte again last night when all he’d wanted to do was hold her in his arms the whole night through. He’d barely slept, his mind raging at the fact that it was only a few more days till that piece of shit who’d hurt her would be out in the world once again.

He wasn’t sure he could stop himself from hunting down and killing Richard.

Then as soon as he arrived at work, he had to handle a holdover f*ckup from the previous CEO’s reign that had suddenly taken on new life.

“When are you moving into the apartment?” he asked Charlotte in the car on the way to Dr. Mac’s, the doctor having squeezed them in during what should’ve been his lunch break. It was the first time they’d had a chance to speak about anything other than fixing the f*ckup.

“We’ll talk about it after the visit.”

Once at Dr. Mac’s, Charlotte went in and he paced the waiting room until the receptionist gave him the evil eye. Scowling, he went outside and forced himself to deal with his e-mail as he paced. When Charlotte came out, her cheeks were hot with color and her eyes sparking. Gabriel didn’t ask what had happened, just went straight in to see the doctor. “Did she yell at you too?”

Dr. Mac chuckled. “A little, but it’s good for her. Sit, Gabriel.”

“I can’t.” He was too wound up. “She tell you what she wants me to do?”

“Yes.” The doctor rose to come stand with Gabriel. “She’s right in one way—she does know herself far better than I do, and I think the incident with the letter was a significant breakthrough.”

Gabriel blew out a breath. “It f*cking kills me when she gets that scared look in her eyes, Doc.” Like being stabbed over and over.

The doctor patted his arm. “You’re a strong man.” Solemn eyes. “Now you have to be strong enough to help her through this next stage of her healing. She’s made the choice, and we have to honor it.”

Muscles tense, Gabriel nodded.

Charlotte glared at him as he stepped out of the doc’s office. “Well?”

He kissed her smart mouth, needing the contact. Arms unfolding, she spread her hands on his chest and rose on tiptoe to sink into the kiss.

“Ahem.”

Gabriel barely stopped himself from snarling at the receptionist. Wrapping his arm around Charlotte, he led her out to the car, which he’d parked in front of the villa.

“Fine,” he said, “we’ll do this at your pace. But I reserve the right to call things to a halt if it’s breaking you.” He put his fingers over her lips when she would’ve spoken. “I can’t hurt you and live with myself, so just deal with it.”

Eyebrows drawing together, she bit at his fingers. “Do you think I want to hurt you?” she said, and tugged on his tie until he bent to her. “Next time you tell me to just deal with something in that tone of voice, I will throw more than a muffin at your head.”

He kissed her again, thrusting his tongue deep and pressing her against the warm metal of the car, his emotions raw. It was only the screech of tires on the road past the shrubbery hedge that had him pulling back. “Go for it,” he said, taking in her swollen lips with intense satisfaction. “I like fighting with you.”

“I’m moving in with you.” She smoothed out his tie, that fire still in her eyes. “We’ll be fighting more often in the future.”

His bad mood was gone in a heartbeat. Pressing into her with his palms braced on either side of the car behind her, he smiled. “Game on, Ms. Baird.”




SIX HOURS LATER AND a trip to Charlotte’s place to move some of her stuff over, and Gabriel leaned against the doorjamb of the spare bedroom as Charlotte finished her phone call. “What did she say?” he asked, knowing Charlotte had finally managed to touch base with the woman who would’ve been her landlady if Charlotte hadn’t decided to move in with him.