“I can’t.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“I don’t trust anyone with this wine.”
“Fair enough.” She wriggled her toes as her throbbing feet started to unwind. “Then give me the brand attributes you’re going for. How do you normally name your wines?”
He shrugged. “We’ve been using American landmarks for the Napa wines. The Devil’s Peak, Yellowstone, etc. But I want something special for this one. Something out of the ordinary, because the wine is out of the ordinary.”
“Key descriptor?”
He slid a reproving glance at her.
“One word.”
“Ethereal.”
“Fancy word coming from a man.”
She sank farther down in the water and brainstormed in her head. Ethereal. Special. Heavenly. Celestial. A smile curved her lips. “How about the Angel’s Share? There is just something so magical about that expression. Your wine is that rare. To be coveted.”
She watched him turn it over in that analytical brain of his. There was nothing knee-jerk about Gabe. Ever.
“Maybe it’s been used before?”
“Not that I know of.” He gave her a thoughtful look. “I like it. It’s exactly where I wanted to go with the brand. Aspirational...”
She shrugged. “It’s a great n— Ouch.”
“What?”
“Cramp,” she breathed, squeezing her eyes shut as a tiny ball of excruciating pain seized the arch of her foot.
“Give.” He held out his hand.
“Mmm, no.” The ball seized tighter. “God.” She shoved her foot at him. “Make it stop.”
He pulled it onto his lap and ran his fingers over the soft underside of it. “Where?”
“The arch,” she croaked. His fingers moved to the curve of her foot and found the lump. Started kneading it out with a firm pressure that was so painful she almost snatched it back. But then the knot started to give under his fingers and she sighed and leaned back against the tub. “Don’t stop.”
He didn’t. Kept kneading her flesh until the ball of tangled muscle was gone. “That could be enough,” she murmured.
He took her other foot in his hands. “You’re a mess,” he said gruffly.
“My boss is a taskmaster.” She sighed as he dug into her sole. “You’ve done this before.”
“Feet are a highly erogenous zone for women.”
Her stomach curled in on itself. She bet he knew where they all were.
“I took a massage course once.”
“You took a massage course?”
“A girlfriend decided we should do it together.”
“Right.” She closed her eyes and tried not to imagine him kneading her flesh—all over. Susan was right. It would be a beautiful thing.
“Have you thought more about my suggestion?”
His smoothly delivered question made her eyes fly open. “I’ve been too busy to think about it.”
His gaze darkened to a smoky, sultry green. “Liar.”
She met his stare head-on. “You have a big ego.”
He pressed his fingers into her arch and she yelped. “Relax,” he murmured. “Out of curiosity, if you were to agree to one night, how would you like it, Lex? Hot and heavy or long and drawn out?”
Her insides seized. “I don’t think so, Gabe.”
“We’re just talking,” he drawled, eyes glittering. “Hypothetically, of course.”
She should have shut him down, but she couldn’t resist a challenge. And then there was that curiosity about him that was burning her up.
She gave him a thoughtful look. “I like both. But I think I’d start with long and drawn out.”
He nodded. “Good choice. It’s been a while, after all, hasn’t it?”
“Excuse me?” She tensed and tried to pull her foot away, but he held it firm.
“When’s the last time you were on a date?”
She was not admitting it had been a while.
He smiled. “Exactly as I thought. So theoretically, if I were to be the one to break your slump, I would move my hands up over your calf like this and work those muscles, too, first this leg, then the other. Make sure you were loose, relaxed.”
She swallowed hard as his fingers kneaded the tight muscles of her right calf. Dear Lord, that felt good.
“Then,” he continued, “when I was sure you were in the zone, I’d move over there, slowly, making sure you knew my full intentions. You’d give me that fight-or-flight look of yours. I’d wait until you bit your lip in that way you do when you want to be kissed, because you would want to be kissed. That would be my cue to give you one, and I would, but only a teasing, fleeting pressure. Just enough to generate heat. When you’d gotten into it, I might want to taste that bottom lip myself.”
She closed her eyes as he dug more firmly into her calf. “You with me?” he murmured.
“Yes.” Her voice was low, thready, nothing like her.
“Bene. Next, I’d put my mouth to that sensitive spot at the base of your neck, where your pulse is, because I know that works for you. Another one of those erogenous zones...and, in this hypothetical scenario, it’d be racing and you’d have that trickle of sweat dripping down into the cleft between your breasts, just like you do now. Which would prove irresistible to me, since I’m a big fan of that part of the female anatomy. I’d relieve you of your bikini top shortly after that.”
“Gabe—” She licked dry lips. “I think that’s enough.”
“Don’t you want to know how it ends?”
“No,” she croaked.
“Just a little more.” His eyes gleamed with humor and something, darker, primal. “So then I’d be aching to get my hands on you and I would put my hands on you. I’d take those beautiful breasts of yours into my palms like I did in my office, but this time I’d use my mouth on you and you’d arch into me and moan.” He lifted his broad shoulders. “At this point you’d be begging for me to touch you in other places and we’d pretty much have to make a call as to whether we go all hot and steamy and you let me—”
“Enough,” she broke in shakily. “I get the picture.”
“You sure? I was just getting to the good part.”
She waved her hand at him. “Who are you, anyway? Where did conservative Gabe go?”
He shook his head. “Never conservative in the bedroom, Lex.”
God. She pulled in an unsteady breath. “When, exactly, were you planning on stopping, just out of curiosity?”
His gaze burned into hers. “I wasn’t.”
Heat slammed into her, hard and fast. She had the shocking feeling if she’d let him continue he could have made her do things...experience things completely out of her control. Just by talking to her...
She sank her fingers into the concrete ledge, poised to run for her life. Gabe’s hand came down on hers. Her heart careened into the wall of her chest as she stared at him.
“Stay. I think I’ve had enough.”
What? He levered himself out of the tub and flashed her one of those blinding smiles. “I’m going to go make sure no one’s using that name.”
She stared after him, pulse pounding, stomach in knots. Had he really just done that? Had she really just let him do that? She winced as another cramp hit her left arch and reached down to massage it.
Gabe was right about one thing. This had to end, one way or another. The scary thing was—her wild-child alter ego seemed to be making an extended appearance.
* * *
A loud thump woke Gabe.
He jackknifed into a sitting position and glanced at the clock. 2:00 a.m. What in Cristo’s name had that been?
A string of curses filled the air. Alex?
Heart in his mouth, he ran to the door, whipped it open and headed for the stairs, terrified she’d fallen down them. A glance down the winding staircase found her sitting at the bottom, holding her right arm cradled in her left. Merda.
“Stai bene?”
He ran down and knelt in front of her. Her face was white, her slim body trembling. His heart thumped hard in his chest. “Stai bene?” he asked again. She stared vacantly back at him. He was speaking in Italian. “Alex,” he murmured, taking her shaking hands in his. “Did you hurt yourself?”
She recoiled like an injured animal, a panicked light filling her eyes. “Stay away from me.”
What in Cristo’s name? He took her by the shoulders. “Lex, are you okay?”
She ripped herself away and sprang to her feet, the wild-eyed look of a hunted animal in her eyes. “Get your goddamned hands off me.”
He froze, heart pounding. “Lex,” he said slowly. “What’s wrong? Did you fall?”
“Stay away from me!” She backed into the corner and wrapped her arms around herself. “You have no right to touch me.”
His heart rose in his throat. “I think you need t—”
“Y-you c-call my f-father right now.” She waved her hand frantically at him. “You c-can’t keep me here.”
A tingling feeling went through him. Something was very wrong here. “I don’t think I can do that, Lex,” he said calmly. “It’s the middle of the night.”
She came at him then, nails like talons. “You bastard,” she screamed, digging them into his arm. “I didn’t know anything about it. You can’t keep me here. I want to go home!”