Page 28 of Undercover
The spot on my throat where he’d licked me felt different from the rest of my skin, hotter and almost throbbing. I wanted his mouth right back there, and then lower, and—really anywhere he wanted to put it.
I wanted my mouth on him even more. Lower. Everywhere.
It took twenty minutes from Gabe’s place to pulling up to the valet stand in front of the Middleton Marine corporate office, way out on Shelburne Point. The glitzy lights they’d strung up looked a little incongruous in the peaceful rural surroundings. The sun had just started to set over Lake Champlain, though, and the view was going to be spectacular. I didn’t want to be impressed, but I couldn’t help a flash of insecurity.
Fuck it. I wasn’t even here as myself. Just Alec, Gabe’s seedy sort-of boyfriend, here to be moral support, from his perspective—and from mine, to snoop around the offices and see if I could sniff out anything suspicious.
If they judged me as not up to the Middleton standard, I couldn’t take it personally.
Gabe wasn’t actually my boyfriend.
Remembering that didn’t seem so easy when I gave the valet my keys and Gabe slipped his hand through my arm and smiled up at me, as natural as breathing.
“Ready?” he asked once we were out of earshot of the attendants and heading up the walkway to the main building. “Because I’m not.”
I pressed my arm against my side, trapping his hand in between. “Ready. How much interference do you want me to run, anyway?” Because I might be here under false pretenses, but that wouldn’t prevent me from helping Gabe fend off his family if they acted like assholes. The two were in no way mutually exclusive, and I wasn’t so sure I could stay silent if he needed defending.
“You won’t have the chance,” he said with a grimace. “They’ll be just as passive-aggressive to you as they will be to me. You’ll be busy staring awkwardly at Dave while he says something you can’t possibly respond to without causing a scene. You wait and see. He’s really, really good at it.” Gabe paused, and then added, “I’m really sorry. I probably shouldn’t have brought you.”
No, no, fuck no. None of that. A fresh wave of guilt smacked me over the head. Jesus, he was doing me a huge favor by bringing me here tonight, even though he didn’t know it…and the fact that he didn’t know it made it even worse.
“Hey.” I stopped, pulling him to the side of the pathway so we wouldn’t block other arriving guests. Two couples, all dressed to the nines, were coming up behind us, chattering away. I could swear one of the women had called the other Muffy. “Look at me.” I tipped his chin up with a finger, savoring the momentary contact with his soft skin. His huge gray-blue eyes regarded me seriously, like he meant to hang on every word. I’d never wanted to kiss someone more than I did in that moment.
Fuck it. I leaned in and pressed my lips to his, the softest brush. It felt like his mouth clung to mine. I definitely didn’t want to pull back.
“Look. I can take care of myself. I’ll be polite, I won’t embarrass you, but I’m not going to stand there silently fuming either. Okay? You give me a signal, and I’ll get us out of there. And anything they say will slide right off my back. I promise.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He stretched up, his rosy mouth coming closer, and I stiffened—Christ, if he got me going now I’d be hard again, and I didnotneed to walk into his family’s schmancy party at half-mast, no matter how metaphorically appropriate it might be to an event at a yacht manufacturer.
But he didn’t really try anything. Just pressed his mouth to mine in a fleeting kiss like the one I’d given him, only all the sweeter for knowing he was the one kissing me, just because he wanted to.
The quartet of guests passed us as he pulled back, and maybe-Muffy smiled and made anawwsound.
My eyes met Gabe’s, his lips twitched, and then we were both trying to suppress our laughter.
It broke the moment, thank God, because about three seconds and another kiss and I’d have dragged him into the bushes to have my wicked way with him. Unfortunately, we headed for the wide-open double doors instead.
Tasteful jazzy music that made me feel like I’d walked into a giant elevator spilled out, along with voices and the usual bustle of a party.
“Here goes nothing,” Gabe muttered, and led me in.
I’d scoped out the facility using Google Earth and the photos on the company website, and I’d tried to get a feel for the exterior layout on the way in. But I hadn’t been prepared for the size of the interior. The building had three stories, but two stories of it were combined into one cavernous space, part showroom and tonight, part ballroom. It might’ve been used for actual manufacturing at other times, but with the fancy rental dance-type flooring and profusion of flower arrangements and elegant cocktail tables all over the place, I couldn’t tell for sure.
A waiter appeared out of nowhere with a tray of champagne glasses, and I snagged one. Gabe took two, held up a finger, and downed one in three long swallows before putting the empty back on the tray and nodding the waiter on his way.
“What?” he said when he caught me looking at him, eyebrows raised. “Mybrotheris here.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Fair enough. How will I recognize him? Are his horns long enough to show through his hair?”
“Ha fucking ha,” Gabe said, “but seriously. He’s awful. And I can’t avoid him. He and my dad need to see me at least twice each or they won’t believe I showed up and stayed long enough to be polite.”
I swallowed half my own glass of sparkling wine. Not bad, a little sweeter than I liked, but I could deal. And a glass or two wouldn’t impair me.
“Then let’s mingle.”
