Haze

"That's not fair." Her finger darts into the air before she pulls it back. "You should have told me you were there."

"I should have but I caused that embarrassment. I was the one who requested that you be removed from the club. I actually insisted on it. I wanted to protect you."

She shakes her head. "That makes no sense, Gabriel. She said you chose me."

I rake both hands through my hair. "I went to the club that night because I wanted to fuck you, Isla. You had been in my office the day before. I'd been up all night aching, wanting. I had to get you out of my mind, so I went there."

Her head shifts slightly, but her eyes don't move from her lap.

"Sage had someone she thought I'd like but I felt nothing when I looked at her. Then I saw you. I didn't know it was you. All I knew was that it was a woman with the most beautiful body I'd ever seen. She moved unlike any woman I'd ever known. The attraction was immediate and intense. It was exactly what I felt when I walked into the boutique and saw you the day before. Everything around me disappeared at the club that night and then you turned and I saw your face."

"You told them to throw me out?"

"Yes and then I watched them do it," I confess. "I saw what happened. I saw how humiliated you were. I wanted to go to you, hold you. I wanted to take you home."

"That's why you kissed me before my birthday in this car." Her hand slaps the seat of the car. "It's because you knew I liked those things. You knew I wanted to be handcuffed."

Jesus, please. Please don't let this steal her from me.

I move to her then, because I can't stand the pain she's in. I wrap my arm around her. She doesn't resist. "I kissed you because I wanted to. I kissed you because I have never wanted to kiss a woman more."

She turns then, her eyes a stormy shade of blue that pierce into me. "No. You kissed me because you knew I liked to be handcuffed. You saw them on the club floor, didn't you?"

I reach for her chin, cupping it in my palm. I tilt her head back. "If I never cuff you to another bed, or draw a crop across your skin again, it won't change how I feel about you. That is not what this is. I love you, Isla. I love you."

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Isla

I rest my head on his shoulder. I'm not mad that he was at the club that night. I was there too, for the exact reason he was. I wanted to fuck someone. I wanted to forget things. We ended up in the same place, under very different circumstances, but it brought us together.

"Would you have told me, Gabriel?" I look up at his face. "Do you think that you would have ever told me?"

"I would have tonight." He traces his finger over my forehead. "I hated that restaurant. It was too close to the club. I knew there was a chance someone would walk in. I also knew the chances were slim that they'd say something but the secret was suffocating me. I intended to tell you."

"Did you see me talking to the dentist?" I drop my gaze back to my lap. "I was talking to a dentist that night."

"You were talking to an asshole," he corrects me. "When I saw you turn and I knew it was you, I almost tore you away from him myself."

His arms tighten around me. "What would have happened to me that night if you weren't there?"

He rests his head against mine, his lips pressing on my forehead. "I think about that sometimes but the thoughts that it provokes terrify me. I'd go to the ends of the earth to protect you."

I know that he would. I saw it tonight, in the way he looked at me. I heard it when he told me he loved me.

"I need you to know that when you left the club that night, I did as well." His voice is deep and gruff. "I went home. I thought about you the entire night."

My heart stutters for a beat. "Have you been back there since?"

I know the answer isn't my business. I shouldn't care if he went back the next night or any night after that. I should only care that he wants to be with me now, yet, I can't help it.

"I don't have any intention of ever going back to the club or that hotel room."

That's an extra assurance I never would have expected. "I'm scared to be too hopeful. I don't want to feel things and then have it taken away."

He tugs me into his lap, just as he did the first night he kissed me here. He cradles my face in his palms, his dark eyes pulling me in. "If this ends, I will break into two pieces. I will fight for this. I will do whatever I need to in order to help you understand that I cherish you, Isla. You tell me what you need, and I will do that for you."