Imaginary Lines (New York Leopards 3)

So for a while we took turns telling them about the dinner party. Then they asked Abe about the team and life, and he let them interrogate him with good grace. I watched fondly, but tried not to reveal just how fondly; no way was I going to let myself lose focus and touch his hand or anything.

After Mom gave us all the neighborhood gossip, she asked, “You’ll be home for Thanksgiving?”

“Thanksgiving?” How had it gotten so close to that already? Hadn’t I just moved here, just started at Sports Today? Had that really been almost two months? “Yeah, I think so.”

“Oh, good. Abe, I talked to your mother yesterday a

nd she said you’ll be coming home too. It will be so good to see both of you again. We miss you so much!”

We hung up with goodbyes and love yous all around, and then I closed my laptop just to be on the safe side. I flopped back on the bed. “That could have been a disaster.”

He caressed my neck. “Good thing I didn’t get to the biting yet.”

I laughed. “What, are you a vampire?”

He leaned down and pressed a hot, hard kiss on my lips. “Way sexier.”

I traced the line of his throat with the tip of my nail. “I don’t know, those capes are awful sexy.”

“Only if you’re wearing one, and nothing else.”

I flushed but didn’t look away. “That could be arranged.”

He lowered himself until his mouth touched my throat, and I shivered and arched my neck as he ran kisses along the line of my throat. His teeth nipped at my skin, sparking desire all through me. Thought started dissipating, replaced by pleasure and want for more.

That can be arranged...

Only I wasn’t supposed to be arranged. “Abe, I report on your team!”

His voice gentled. “Is that what’s holding you back?”

And that I was scared. That I didn’t know how to navigate these waters. I mutely shook my head and frowned at the wall.

“Maybe I haven’t told you this.” His voice was light but his gaze was steady. “But I’m going to wait for you. As long as it takes. Even if it means waiting until you don’t report on my team anymore. I’m not going anywhere.”

My gaze swiveled toward him. “And why would you do that?”

Like lightning, he was in front of me, and he’d drawn me up right before him. His hands cupped my head, his fingers spearing through my hair as his gaze raked mine. “Why do you think? You think this just happened? That we just found ourselves lying on your bed by a series of accidents? Tamar, I’ve been trying to get your attention since you showed up here. I like you. I want you. And I’m going to wait until you realize that I’m not going anywhere.”

He made me feel like a storm had swept through me. My voice came out shaky. “You’re making it really hard for me to consider anyone else viable.”

He smiled. “I’m trying to make it impossible.”

I hesitated. My hand found his even though my gaze did not. His fingers closed around mine, warm and steady. I wanted desperately to believe them, that he wasn’t going anywhere. “Abraham...I like you.”

The pause was pregnant with a dozen years of emotion. “I know.”

I swallowed. The heaviness, the tenseness that had followed me the past few weeks as I tried to keep my emotions hemmed in slowly drained away. “Are you going to break my heart?”

“No.”

A strangled laugh broke out of me. “Do you promise?”

“Tamar. Look at me.”

I did, almost reluctantly. He studied me. “What are you afraid of?”

His expression, so earnest, so kind, seared through me. He regarded me with genuine curiosity, with the desire to calm me.