Mine to Take(28)

But he ignored her. Without a word, he turned on his heel and strode from the room.

* * *

“What’s happening, Honor?” Guy’s cool voice held an edge to it. “I thought I would have heard by now.”

Honor turned from the windows and walked back across the room, her heels sinking soundlessly into the thick carpet.

“It’s okay, Dad,” she said soothingly. “Woolf is going to come to the party.”

There was a silence down at the other end of the phone. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Gabriel had promised her and she was going to hold him to that promise, come hell or high water. “End of this week, we’ll have the money.” At least, she hoped so.

Another silence. Which wasn’t what Honor had been expecting. “Dad?”

“Yes, I’m here.” Her stepfather sounded less than excited. He wasn’t a demonstrative man but she’d expected more than this.

“This is good news, honestly.”

“Of course. Yes. And I’m … relieved, obviously.”

“Really? You don’t sound it.”

There was a noise in the background, a car’s engine. “Look, I’m going to have to go. When are you back in New York?”

She looked down at her watch. “Tonight probably.” At least she would once she’d finished packing.

“Tonight? Your mother said you were there for the week?”

Honor glanced at her mostly packed case. “I was, but … there was a work emergency. I’m needed back sooner than I thought.”

“Well, get in touch when you get back, okay? We need to discuss this.”

Honor frowned. Hadn’t they had enough conversations about this already? Still, maybe it was better not to press it now. Face-to-face was better anyway.

“Sure,” she said.

“Oh and Honor?”

“Yes?”

“Best not bring Alex up to your mother again. You know how upset she gets.”

Honor opened her mouth to protest, then shut it. There wasn’t anything to say. Guy tended to get protective when her mother was upset. “Yes, well. I’m sorry about that.”

“Something to bear in mind for next time, hmm?”

They spoke for another couple of minutes then Honor ended the call. If she wanted to be back in New York by that evening she had to get on the road before it got too late.

Walking into the bedroom, she took a last look through the drawers and bathroom before going over to the chair where she’d put her case, flipping it shut and clicking down the clasps.

She tried not to look at the tangle of sheets on the bed. Or think about what had happened in that bed.

The hard warmth of his skin as she’d traced the Gothic lettering of the tattoo on his stomach, the shift of muscles beneath her hand, the musky taste of him in her mouth, the sound of his ragged cry as she’d made him come …

Honor shivered. She’d felt so good making him shake like that. Making him cry her name. She’d only gone down once on a man before and it hadn’t been the most pleasant of experiences. But doing that to Gabriel had been … intensely powerful and more arousing than she’d ever thought possible. She’d felt so pleased with herself afterward.

Until he’d got up and walked out. And she still didn’t know why. Whether she’d given him the world’s worst blow job or whether it was something else. He certainly hadn’t liked her mentioning the words of his tattoo, that was for sure, so possibly it had something to do with that.

She set her jaw, lifting the case off the chair and putting it on the floor.

A moot point now anyway since she wasn’t going to be waiting around until he decided to show his face. She’d spent the morning hoping he’d come back but he hadn’t.

Which was fine. They weren’t in a relationship and he didn’t owe her any kind of explanation, even if she’d wanted one. And she didn’t. What she wanted was to get back home, get back to work. Get back to her life where she was the one in control. Basically anywhere where he wasn’t because it was better to be away from temptation than keep trying to prove herself against it.

Trying and failing.

Turning on her heel, Honor towed her wheeled case out into the hallway just as the front door of the cottage opened and Gabriel came in, bringing in a whirl of snow and cold air.

She stopped dead.

He was in his bike leathers, snow dusting his shoulders and glittering in his blond hair. And the cold that came in with him wasn’t only from the outside world. There was no warmth in the brown eyes that met hers, none of the heat that had been there last night. Only a detached, flat darkness that chilled her down to the bone.

He flicked a glance down at her case. “You’re going?”

Honor braced herself for an argument. “Yes. I know you wanted a week, but I’m not sure staying longer is going to be in our best interests.”

“Fine. Leave the bill with me. I’m going to be leaving today myself.”

So, no argument then. Why was that so inexplicably disappointing?

“I can settle my own bill, thank you,” she said coolly, ignoring the feeling. “I trust our agreement with regard to the investment is still good?”

The look on his face was absolutely unreadable. “Yes. You’ll get your money.”

“Great. Well, I’m sorry I can’t stay but…”

“As you say, it’s not in our best interests.”

“No. And I have quite a lot of work stacking up back in New York.” She gripped the handle of the suitcase tightly as tension charged the air between them. “Well, good-bye then, Gabriel. And thank you.”

“For what?”

“For considering Tremain as an investment.” And because he was just so damn impassive and she wanted some kind of reaction from him, she arched an eyebrow and added, “What else could there be?”

Something flickered in the darkness of his eyes. Then it was gone. “Nothing. I’ll see you again in New York to finalize the details.” He reached for the cottage door and opened it for her. “Drive safe.”

She wanted to say something else. Something about the night before. Something about this morning. But she didn’t know what and he gave her no clues. It was like he was a stranger.

He’s always been a stranger, you fool.

Of course he was, and yes, she was a fool for feeling so disappointed. The night before should have satisfied her craving for him and she definitely shouldn’t want more. It was over. Done with.

She would move on and so would he, strangers still.

Honor gave him a polite smile.

And walked through the door and out into the snow.





CHAPTER TEN

The morning after Gabriel returned from Vermont, he walked into his office on the fortieth floor of Woolf Tower to find someone already sitting in the big leather chair behind his desk.

A small, fine-boned woman dressed in black stovepipe jeans, an Iron Maiden T-shirt, and a battered, black leather jacket. She wore black platform boots with big silver buckles, currently positioned on top of the heavy oak desk he hardly ever used. Her pale hair was tucked beneath the black beanie she favored, her charcoal-gray eyes made to seem even darker by thick black eyeliner and mascara.

“Hello, Gabe,” she said flatly.

In no mood for games, Gabriel slammed shut his office door. “How the hell did you get in here?”

“She’s a hacker, she can get in anywhere.” Zac’s cultured tones came from behind him and when Gabriel turned, he saw the other man leaning up against the wall, his arms folded.

“For fuck’s sake,” he said, not bothering to hide his annoyance. “Haven’t you two ever heard of the word ‘private’?”

“Your secretary was obstructive.” Eva leaned back and put her hands behind her head. “And I couldn’t be bothered waiting.”

Gabriel stalked over to the desk and stood in front of it, staring at the woman sitting in his chair, who stared back unflinchingly. Her flat look reminded him strangely of Honor, which he really didn’t need right now.

“You couldn’t have called me?” he asked.

“No. I don’t trust the phone.”

A fairly typical Eva response. There weren’t many things Eva did trust, Zac the exception. “How did you know I’d be back today?”

“Zac tracked your bike.”

“Zac what?”

“Relax, Gabe.” Zac strolled over to the desk from his place by the door, apparently unconcerned he’d been found out and that Gabriel was pissed as fuck about it. “We did it via your phone. Eva wanted to get in touch with you urgently and we needed to know where you were. Saved us a trip to Vermont at least.”

Gabriel stared at him. “There’s a line, Zac. And you just fucking crossed it.”

The other man’s amber eyes didn’t so much as blink. “This is important. You’ll want to hear what Eva has to say.”

Jesus, he had to calm the fuck down. He’d thought that long, cold ride back from Vermont would have gotten his head back on straight, put things into proper perspective again. He assumed it had since he hadn’t thought about Honor once until just now.

But Eva and Zac getting amongst his shit wouldn’t normally have made him feel so on edge. Yeah, he’d be pissed but it was their usual crap and most of the time he went with it.