Mine to Take(16)

She straightened. Already she could feel herself tensing up in response to his nearness, which was irritating in the extreme. “I hope you left poor Lindsay alive. I don’t think he was expecting to be grilled quite so intensely.”

Gabriel lifted a shoulder. “He’s still breathing. You have a problem with me asking questions?”

“No, but we don’t often have investors who want to know every single detail.”

“Details are important. Especially where money is concerned. And most especially when it’s my money.”

“Fair enough. You have more you want to see?”

“Not today.” The winter sunlight gilded his hair in stark contrast to the darkness of his eyes as they swept over her, assessing.

“Good,” she said, trying to ignore the accelerated beat of her heart. “Then you won’t mind if we go inside now. In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s cold.”

He didn’t move. “I owe you an apology, Honor.”

For a second, she wondered whether or not she’d heard him correctly. “Excuse me?”

“Do you really want me to say it again?”

“Actually, yes. I think you should.”

The corner of his long mouth turned up, the hint of a smile softening the brutally handsome cast of his features. “You like to push the boundaries, don’t you, sweetheart? I’m apologizing. For my behavior yesterday. I was out of line.”

Honor tried not to let her shock show. She didn’t think Gabriel Woolf was a man who apologized a lot. Or even at all. “Well, thank you. And yes, you were.”

Another opaque sweep of those dark eyes. “Will you let me make it up to you?”

She gave him a wary look, not quite sure how to take this apparently penitent, sincere side of him. “How?”

“I was wondering if you’d like to go for a ride with me. Shake out the cobwebs a little. Leave business behind for an hour or so.”

“A ride? On what?”

“What do you think? I have a bike.”

“You’re kidding.”

The opaque look faded, a glint of wickedness in the depths of his eyes that should not have been as seductive as it was. “What’s the matter? You don’t like my bike?”

It wasn’t so much the bike—though riding on the back of that huge black machine seemed a little insane—as the thought of wrapping her arms around him, of her legs on either side of his, that fantasy she’d had in the cottage the day before. Such temptation …

“I have no feelings about your bike either way,” Honor said, staunchly ignoring the vision in her head. “But it’s cold and I don’t have the appropriate clothing.”

“And if you were to have appropriate clothing?”

“It’s a moot point since I don’t.”

Gabriel glanced through the trees toward the main building of the hotel. “Okay,” he said in a neutral voice. “Your loss.” Without another word he turned and began striding back along the snowy path to the hotel.

Honor stared after him. What? Gabriel Woolf accepting a refusal? Without even trying to get her to change her mind? Irritated with the strange discomfort that sat in her gut, Honor began walking up the path after his tall figure.

First an apology and then the offer of going out with him. Odd. Didn’t seem like his usual modus operandi. Up until now, he’d been blunt to the point of offensiveness about what he wanted and he certainly hadn’t liked her refusing him.

A man who got his way. That was Gabriel.

So why had he accepted her refusal without a word? More to the point, why did she care? She didn’t want to go for a ride on his big black bike. Not at all.

Perhaps he didn’t really want you to go after all?

But then why would he have asked in the first place?

Honor frowned and shrugged away the thoughts. God, it seemed way too teenage and desperate to be analyzing his intentions so thoroughly. She was a professional woman in her late twenties with her own business and quite enough other things to worry about without being fixated on a man as dangerous and so obviously wrong for her as Gabriel.

A couple of minutes later, Honor stepped back into the hotel foyer, shivering in delight as the warmth of the central heating chased away the winter chill. Gabriel had vanished, God knows where, but she wasn’t about to go after him. Her feet were uncomfortable in the snow boots Lindsay had found for her to borrow on their trek over the hotel’s grounds, and all she wanted to do was get the boots off and sit in front of the fire at the cottage.

“Ms. St. James?”

She looked over to see Heather smiling at her and tapping a couple of extremely large bags sitting on the reception desk. “These came for you.”

“Really? I’m not expecting anything.” Slowly, she walked over to the desk and examined the name on the bags. Hers. Frowning, she pulled open the edge of one and peered inside. Something black and leather was folded up. Her frown deepened. “Where did these come from?”

“A courier brought them in first thing this morning.”

There was store branding on the front of the bags but she didn’t recognize the name. Weird. She looked in bag number two. More leather and something shiny in dark blue. Reaching into the bag, she slowly withdrew the shiny thing. A motorcycle helmet.

“Oh,” she said, understanding beginning to dawn.

“Now you can’t say you don’t have anything appropriate to wear,” said a deep voice from behind her.

God, how did the man manage to move so quietly?

Honor turned and found herself catching her breath yet again.

Gabriel stood behind her, a black motorcycle helmet casually held in one hand. He was wearing his leathers and she still hadn’t forgotten how incredibly sexy he looked in them, even though she quite desperately wanted to.

“What are these?” She waved a hand at the bags.

“A couple of things to wear in case you change your mind about a ride.”

“But I already told you I’m not going on a ride with you.”

“You said you didn’t have anything to wear. Now you do.”

Honor silently wished him to hell. Sadly, he remained standing there. “I have work to do,” she managed, somewhat lamely.

“That’s not the best excuse I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s not an excuse.”

“Isn’t it?” He raised one straight dark brow. “There’s nothing to be scared of. Just you and me and some fresh air.”

She hated the way he kept challenging her as if she was a kid who needed to prove herself. Because she wasn’t a kid. She was a grown woman who didn’t have to prove anything to anyone.

But when was the last time a man kept you on your toes like this one?

She couldn’t remember. A long time. Mainly because she preferred easier men.

Against her will, excitement began to kindle in her gut. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said in what she hoped was a level tone. “I’m not scared.”

Gabriel’s mouth curved as he walked over to her, and she couldn’t help tensing up as he came close. He slid his arm around her waist in an easy, affectionate movement, urging her up against his big, powerful, leather-clad body. “Baby, I’ll keep you safe. You know that.” His voice was dark and rough and full of warmth, that smile playing around his mouth.

All for the benefit of the receptionist, naturally. Keeping up the lie he’d perpetrated about them being lovers. It made her want to slap his face and push him away but that would reveal way too much. But deep in his eyes, that challenge glinted. Like he knew how much she hated this and wanted a response from her. As if he relished it.

Adrenaline spiked in her bloodstream, a dangerous rush, and before she quite knew what she was doing, she’d put her hands on his chest and was rising up on her toes, brushing that cruel, smiling mouth with hers. Answering his challenge.

And as soon as she’d done it, she knew it had been a stupid move. Incredibly, ridiculously stupid.

A bolt of something elemental and wild shot straight down her spine. Like summer lightning or the howling force of a hurricane. For a minute she couldn’t move, standing there, her hands pressed to his chest, her mouth touching his, turning to stone as the wildness between them began to grow in a chaos of sparks and flashes of electricity.

Then the voice of reason said very clearly in her head, no.

Honor drew back, fighting for breath, trying to be calm while everything inside her was still whirling from the tornado that had struck. There was shock on Gabriel’s face, and something else, a glimpse of something as desperate and hungry as the chemistry that had ignited between them.

She’d surprised him then.

Satisfaction gripped her and even though she was still trembling inside, she kept a cool smile on her face. “Of course you’ll keep me safe, darling,” she said, allowing a touch of sarcasm to rest on the endearment. “I suppose I’d better check and see what you got me.”

She turned around, not wanting to look at him again quite yet, busying herself with the bags, conscious of the receptionist’s fascinated gaze on the pair of them.

You kissed him, you idiot. He’s a potential client and even apart from that, he’s far too much for you to handle. What the hell were you thinking?

She hadn’t been thinking, that was the problem. She’d just responded to his unspoken challenge without a thought, wanting to push him harder, revel in the wild surge of excitement at testing him.