Page 40 of The Heiress's First Date

She giggles, sounding utterly delighted by my predicament. “I can’t get enough of you, Alexander Hunt.”

That just makes me groan again. “Keep talking like that, and I’ll be forced to bend you over this table.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” She smirks, those pretty pink lips enchanting me. “Were you serious about tomorrow?”

“You know I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t serious. My plane leaves at nine.”

“Then I’ll be on it.”

15

GABE

“So the other day, when you said Alex is straight...” Kingston says as we stand on the back deck of my beach house.

I had a feeling we were going to circle back around to this topic.

It’s a beautiful day. Clear with a soft breeze. The meeting with the designer was more than I could have hoped for. And King had a lot of interesting perspectives.

“Yeah.” I know what he’s getting at. At least, I think I do. But it’s not something I’m going to verbalize. Not yet. Not until I know where he stands.

Although actions are always a strong indicator of belief. And if that’s the case where he’s concerned, then he’s definitely been sending some looks my way.

Hot. Needy. Inquisitive looks.

“Meaning you’re not,” he hedges, voice quiet and careful. Then he glances at me from the corner of his eye. Just a quick look, checking my reaction.

I can appreciate how he poses it. A curiosity. Yet not the slightest hint of condemnation. On the whole, Kingston Saint is incredibly laid back, almost to a fault. But he obviously takes action when it’s needed. And we have a mutual on our enemy list. Lucinda Winthrop.

“I’ve never really put a label on it.” Which is the truth. Because Alex has always been straight in my mind. In his interests and the occasional hook-up.

Whereas I felt like I was launched into a potpourri of possibilities as my business took off. Even before that, really. My time in college was so unlike anything I’d ever experienced back home.

I soaked it up like a sponge.

“Me either, now that I think about it,” he says. “I was friends with a couple. We went to parties and hung out a lot. Things got heated at a club one night. We were too young, but the bouncers didn’t care. The owner, however, didn’t want to lose his licenses.”

He smiles at the memory, staring down into the overgrown flower bed.

“We were hiding in the stairwell. She kissed me. He kissed her. The next thing I knew, he was kissing me.”

“And the rest is history?” I ask. It’s startling how similar our stories are.

The corner of his mouth hitches up in an easy grin.

“Pretty much.”

“How long ago was that?”

He purses his lips, thinking. “Over a decade.”

So he’s had plenty of time to figure out who he is. Being bisexual is not a passing fling for him. I don’t know why that settles something in me. Maybe because I’m already super aware of how much younger he is. How it feels like I’m racing up to that point in life where most people are settling down or already well-settled.

Settling hasn’t been on my radar.

At least not in the traditional sense. Alex and I have always been tight. Hell, I think we were entrenched pretty much the moment I moved in with him in college.

Once I got past the shock of my life of going through hell and then meeting my guardian angel all in one year, I was in. And I was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. We’ve hung on to each other through success, fame, failure, betrayals, and so much more.

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