“I like men that I know personally. Men as a species I sometimes have issues with. Or maybe, more specifically, cultural traditions that allow them to get away with pretty despicable things that women would never be forgiven for.”
“Do you speak from experience?”
She slid her hand up and down the stem of the glass, the movement so erotic he felt the impact of it down in his groin. Ironic and inappropriate considering the topic of conversation. But then, he was a man. And she was very much a woman.
“Not anything close to what Maddy is dealing with, but I know what it’s like for men to make assumptions.”
“Jeff Campbell was making assumptions, wasn’t he?”
She nodded. “Yes, he was. And I was partly glad to cancel the contract because of that. I didn’t want to have to deal with another awkward conversation where I have to explain that a friendly greeting is simply a friendly greeting and not an invitation for sex.”
“You called me sexist for basically saying the same thing about women I’ve worked with.”
She frowned. “Well, you didn’t have any lingering repercussions for turning your PA down.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “You don’t think her showing up naked in my office was over the top? What if the roles were reversed?”
She grimaced. “Okay. Point taken. People can be awful. Both genders. But I am sorry that Maddy’s having to deal with this.”
“Me, too. She’s been through enough.” He didn’t usually talk about their growing-up years, or, more specifically, Maddy’s growing-up years. But it seemed fair that Lily understand since she was in the middle of everything.
“She moved in with me when she was ten,” he said. “My parents weren’t caring for her. Not properly. So I went and got her and brought her home with me. She stayed until she went to college four years ago.”
“You raised her?”
He shrugged. “More or less. I was twenty-five, nowhere near ready to be a father, especially not to my ten-year-old sister, but it was what she needed. And I know I wasn’t really a great substitute for a father. But I did what I could. I made sure she went to prom. And that her date—skinny kid, very annoying—got threatened within an inch of his life beforehand. A shocking number of high school students lose their virginity at prom.”
It was strange to hear Gage talking like this. Like a concerned parent. Like a man who had faced things she hadn’t even tried to imagine dealing with.
Lily’s heart clenched tight. She’d always assumed that Gage was just a carefree playboy. The kind of man who played around simply because he had money and power and no woman would say no, and no one would look down on him for simply doing what men did.
But, just like that wildlife preserve he hadn’t yet shared with the public, there was more to him. He’d raised a child. He’d been there for his sister when no one else had.
“For the record, she was back at ten o’clock on prom night,” he added.
“Does that mean you let her date live?”
“I did. But I wouldn’t have if he’d done anything to hurt her. Or if he’d taken advantage of her, or caused her pain in any way.”
She bit her lip. “Are you going to let Callahan live?”
“Weighing the pros and cons of it.”
“I didn’t realize that you’d been through that with her.”
He shrugged again, like he always did when things turned personal. “I did what I had to. I wanted to do it. I love Maddy.”
“It really makes sense to me now, why you’re doing this, why it’s so important for you to protect her. In a lot of ways you’re more like a parent than a brother.”
And again, she felt something shifting inside of her, felt some of her defenses weaken, begin to crumble. If he was nothing more than a carefree playboy, then it was easy to brush off her attraction to him. And while, clearly, he had strong playboy elements, he was also a good person. She liked Gage, she always had, but now she liked him more, and that complicated things, especially when the liking mixed with her steadily growing attraction for him.
She took another fortifying sip of wine and then realized that fortifying herself with the heat-inducing, slightly drugging liquid wasn’t the best idea.
“I’m tired. Jet lag,” she said. And lines were becoming muddled, thanks to the wine and the sudden revelation about Gage. “I should go to bed.”
Gage nodded. “Good night, Lily.”
Later, when she was in her bed, trying to fall asleep, she kept hearing that deep husky voice over and over again, telling her good night. And it was far too easy to imagine he was in her bed saying it, holding her close to his hard, hot body.