Gabe’s hands covered the tops of her bare thighs, giving a gentle squeeze as he lifted his gaze to meet hers. “You are,” he commanded. “Right here, wearing my shirt, while I make our food. You’re going to need your strength.”
Her eyes widened with shock, arousal. “Don’t you have work to do today?”
He did. He’d gotten an email late last night about a client that was threatening to pull out and go elsewhere because they’d heard of the scandal surrounding the Walsh name. Gabe had already put his best man on the job and planned to follow up himself later today. That client wasn’t going anywhere and neither was Chelsea.
“Right now I have a sexy woman wearing my clothes and I plan on stripping her and showing her how very thankful I am that she believes in me.” He covered her lips with his for a quick kiss, a kiss that promised more. “But first, we’re eating.”
“I won’t argue with you about that.” She raked her hand through the top of his hair. “My cooking skills aren’t what they should be.”
Gabe jerked back. “The heiress of a steak empire can’t cook?”
She lifted one slender shoulder, causing his shirt to slide down farther, exposing creamy skin he couldn’t resist touching. Gabe curled his fingers around her shoulder and stroked his thumb over her collarbone.
“I mean, I can cook steak,” she amended. “But most other things terrify me. Mixing ingredients, that’s the hard part. Steak is simple.”
“Your restaurants have the best steaks, so don’t say it’s easy,” he retorted. “Nobody even compares to what you guys do to a hunk of beef.”
Her smiled widened. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“I call you sexy and gorgeous, but I compliment your family’s meat and you get all soft.”
Chelsea tipped her head to the side. “I’m a simple girl.”
Gabe laughed and shook his head as he turned away to look in her fridge. Chelsea Hunt was not simple, not by any stretch. She was as complex as his jumbled feelings for her.
There was no room for feelings, not unless they stayed superficial. Chelsea was fun, she was sexy and she wasn’t looking for anything long-term, either. In short, they were perfect together, at least for now.
“So how long is this going to last?”
Her question threw him off, but he remembered Chelsea was nothing if not logical. He thought about his response as he cracked the eggs over the edge of a bowl and then whisked them to a nice froth.
“Done with me already?” he asked, purposely dodging the question.
“I’ll at least let you feed me before I kick you out. But I may keep this comfy shirt.”
Gabe threw her a glance and a wink. “You’re all heart.”
And he didn’t even want the shirt back because it looked a hell of a lot better on her than him.
“I don’t think our hearts are getting involved here.”
Good answer. Because their hearts couldn’t get involved here.
“I’d say last night was...fun,” she continued.
“Fun?” he repeated, whisking the hell out of the eggs. “It was spectacular and you know it. And your screaming and the scratches on my back prove you had more than fun.”
“Fine,” she amended. “It was fabulous and I wouldn’t mind doing it again. So long as we’re still on the same page about this not getting too serious.”
Her words grated on his last nerve and annoyed the hell out of him. Gabe wanted to do the whole this-isn’t-a-serious-relationship talk and she’d totally beat him to it. At least they were on the same page, though. Wasn’t that what mattered? Shouldn’t he be thanking every last star that she wasn’t clingy and wanting more?
“There’s no reason we can’t go on seeing each other in this capacity,” she added.
“Capacity? You mean having sex?”
“Yes. Just until the wedding.”
His hand stilled on the whisk and the bowl as he turned to face her. “You’re putting a deadline on sex?”