Undertaking Love (24 page)

‘What if I’d refused to let you in?’

‘Then I’d have had one hell of an interesting dinner.’

She laughed. Gabe had a way of making everything sound so uncomplicated, and right now, uncomplicated was good. She drained the last of her champagne and her stomach growled in noisy protest at the lack of food and overload of fizz.

She scooted back on the blanket and pulled the basket with her. ‘I’m starving. Let’s eat.’

‘You’re sure? You don’t need to rush out? Only, earlier you said...’ he trailed off with a knowing gleam in his eye.

She leaned back on her hands with her chin jutting out and eyed him beadily.

‘If you’ve spoken to my mother, then you know perfectly well that I don’t have plans.’

He shrugged non-committally. ‘She might have said something along those lines, yeah.’

He was practically laughing, but she could hardly blame him.

‘Right. So now that’s sorted, get down here and eat.’

He emptied the last of the champagne into their glasses with a mock salute, then joined her as she unpacked the basket on the stars and stripes. She stole a glance at him, long legs stretched out, his face tipped up to bask in the warmth of the sun. Thoughts of Helios, the hot and handsome sun god ran through her mind, and heat gathered between her thighs that had nothing at all to do with the afternoon sun that shimmered above them.

A couple of minutes later Gabe slid the pale blue china plates and cutlery from their straps inside the wicker lid, and Marla spooned generous servings of chicken salad onto them.

He tweaked the little flag on the container.

‘Tell me then. What’s ranch dressing?’

‘Heavenly. Kind of like garlic mayo, but better. Try it, you’ll see.’

Marla ate her first mouthful with closed eyes, an involuntary smile on her face as the familiar flavours reacquainted themselves with her taste buds. She was transported straight back to Saturday afternoon BBQs in the back yard – or in her friends’ yards, as was most often the case. Her own folks didn’t really go in for family dinners back then. They were never really inclined to spend their spare time together. Gabe handed her the open rib carton and licked sticky sauce from the end of his fingers.

‘These are seriously good.’

Marla could feel the food soaking up the alcohol in her belly, rescuing her from the brink of being far too tipsy for Gabe’s company.

‘Why were you so intent on spending your birthday alone?’ he asked.

Marla placed her rib bone down on her plate and looked at him levelly. ‘I like to be alone sometimes.’

‘I get that. But on your birthday?’

She sighed and reached for her glass. ‘It’s no big mystery, Gabe … it’s been a tiring few weeks, that’s all. Mom going to London for the weekend was too good an opportunity to pass up.’

He nodded and seemed to accept her explanation. ‘Your mum’s pretty full on.’

Marla laughed. ‘And there’s the understatement of the year. Joan Rivers wouldn’t get a word in edgeways with her.’

‘Has she always been that way?’

‘Pretty much. She goes at everything full throttle. We moved house a lot when I was a kid because she always searching for something or someone new.’ Marla shrugged. ‘Bit exhausting, really.’

Gabe’s eyes were troubled as she reached for the PBJ sandwiches and handed him one.

‘Brynn seems … interesting?’

Marla snorted. ‘That’s one way to describe him. He’s okay I guess, in a freaky, homicidal kind of way.’ She laughed shakily and bit into her sandwich.

He eyed the one she’d slid onto his plate with trepidation. ‘I’m not so sure I’m going to like this.’

‘Be brave. Trust me. It’s the best sandwich in the world.’

After a couple of bites, he set it down with a frown. ‘I guess now would be a bad time to mention my peanut allergy.’

‘Holy shit! Gabe!’

He burst into laughter. ‘Just kidding, no need dial 999.’ He looked at the PBJ sandwich again. ‘No, it’s … it’s interesting. Kind of salty but sweet at the same time.’

Marla nodded enthusiastically. ‘That’s the whole genius of PBJ.’

He leaned back on his elbows and stared at her. ‘In fact, Marla Jacobs, if you were a sandwich, I’d say you were a PBJ.’

The look in his eyes made her stomach flip. ‘Because?’

‘Well, for one, you’re American.’ He counted on his fingers and she nodded acceptance of the tag.

‘Secondly, you have strawberry hair.’

She screwed her face up, well aware that she was having what could definitely be classed as a bad hair day. ‘I’m not sure that’s really such a compliment.

‘Thirdly, you have prickly, salty edges that make you unpredictable.’

‘I’m darn
sure
that’s not a compliment.’

‘Wait. There’s one more.’

She braced herself.

He lay on his side propped up on one elbow, the mirror image of her pose opposite him. His fingertips brushed hers on the blanket as he held her gaze.

‘Number four. You’re utterly delicious.’

Pow!

A nuclear lust bomb exploded behind her rib cage, sending slivers of awareness hurtling through her body in all directions. Her bare toes tingled, and goose bumps shot up all over her arms. It was too much of a sensory overload. Marla needed to put some space between them fast or else she’d jump his bones right there and then.

She scrabbled to her feet and made a dash for the back door, not brave enough to look back. ‘I, err, I need the loo. Back in a sec.’

In the cool, safe sanctuary behind the locked bathroom door, Marla stared at her reflection incredulously. ‘What the hell are you playing at?’ she hissed at her pink-cheeked, sparkly-eyed evil twin in the mirror.

‘Having fun with a drop dead gorgeous man. It
is
my birthday, after all,’ her reflection wheedled right back. If reflections could stick their tongues out, Marla had no doubt that hers would have at that moment.

‘You’re drunk!’

‘And you’re boring!’

Ouch. The slur pierced right through to the heart of Marla’s biggest hang up. She was mostly content with her life choices, with her decision to turn her back on love in order to protect her heart and her business, but it came at a cost. Life could be incredibly dull, and occasionally she battled with the urge to cut loose of her self-imposed rules and run amok for a few hours.

Evil twin sensed a chink in Marla’s resolve and pounced.

‘Come on! Where’s the harm? He’s handsome, he’s available, and he’s gagging for it.’

Marla closed her eyes, but she could still hear evil twin’s words just as clearly.

‘Just tell him up front that it’s a no strings attached, one day only, never to be repeated or spoken about again, special birthday deal, and that it’s back to daggers at dawn in the morning.’

Marla’s eyes flew open and she gasped in shock at the flame-haired harlot’s outrageous suggestion.

‘Who’s to know, Marla? And aren’t you just dying to know how his kiss feels?’

Marla all but whimpered.

‘Wouldn’t you love to feel him hard between your thighs? You would, wouldn’t you?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘God, yes. I really, really would.’

Her reflection winked at her. ‘Why are you skulking around in the bathroom, then? Get out there!’ Marla swallowed hard, then opened the bathroom cabinet and shook a condom out of the box.

She found Gabe flat out on the stars and stripes with a contrite look on his face and two freshly opened bottles of Bud on the grass beside him. He sat up as she skirted the edge of the blanket. ‘Marla, look … I’m sorry about just now. It was a stupid thing to say.’

She appreciated his apology, and let his silence hang in the air for a second as she quickly hid the condom in the basket and settled down alongside him. She reached out for her beer and clinked the bottle against his, then took a long swig for Dutch courage and looked him square in the eyes.

‘I’ve been thinking, Gabe. If
you
were a sandwich, I’d say you were Marmite.’

He did the tiniest of double takes at her abrupt shift in gear. ‘Yeah?’

‘Uh-huh.’ Marla nodded gravely. ‘People either love you or hate you.’

Gabe stepped up to the mark without missing a beat. ‘I see. And you, Marla? What’s your position on Marmite?’

‘You know what? That’s the funny thing.’ She propped herself up on her elbow and gesticulated towards him with the neck of her beer bottle. ‘Most days I can’t stand the stuff, and then very occasionally, I have to have it.’ She licked her lips. ‘I crave it, in fact, and nothing else will do.’

Gabe leaned in just close enough for Marla to feel his breath on her cheek. ‘And is today one of those days?’

‘I’m not sure,’ she said, breathless and powerful. ‘I’d probably need a tiny taste to help me make my mind up.’

He laughed softly, closing the space between them. Marla glimpsed the sweep of his dark lashes against his cheekbone as his eyes closed a second before hers, another second before his lips found hers.

Gabe’s warm fingers bumped along her jaw, their bodies aligning hip to hip as he kissed her long, slow and easy. He tasted of beer and sunshine, and the touch of his tongue against her lips turned Marla’s blood to liquid lust. She opened her mouth to welcome him in, but he nipped her bottom lip and pulled back. ‘So? Did you make your mind up?’ He soothed her lip with his thumb. ‘
Is
today a Marmite kind of day?’

Marla lifted her eyelids and looked into his eyes, which, interestingly enough, were the exact colour of Marmite. She saw raw desire that he made no effort to hide, and an erotic intensity that shrank the world down to a bubble just for them. The bottom dropped out of her stomach with need as she snagged her leg over his thigh and rolled him on top of her, her hands already beneath the edge of his T-shirt. She felt his stomach muscles jump with shock at the touch of her fingers. He felt like hard, warm silk. ‘This is one of those days when I want to eat the whole damn jar.’

Gabe’s appreciative groan rumbled through both of their bodies, and this time when he kissed her he held nothing back. His hands held her face steady as he branded her with his mouth, a crazy hot kiss that left Marla reeling. More intimate than any sex she’d ever known, Gabe’s kiss laid him bare and vulnerable. His tongue stroked hers, learned her mouth inside and out until she dug her nails into his shoulders and murmured his name in shock. She’d waited forever to be kissed like that, and she hadn’t even known it. His skin was sun-warm beneath her fingers, and he snaked an impatient hand down between them to yank his T-shirt over his head, giving her unfettered access to his body.

Marla feasted her hands and her eyes. He was exquisite, all movie star shoulders and firm, golden skin with a fine smattering of dark hair that trailed down his chest. She dragged her dress straps down, desperate for the glide of his naked skin against her own. His mouth followed her hands, hot against her neck, damp across her collarbones.

Gabe caught hold of her wrist when she twisted an arm beneath herself. ‘I want to do that.’ He licked the dip between her breasts and unclipped her bra with one assured flick.

‘Jesus fucking Christ, Marla.’ He slid his thumbs over her nipples as he held her in the palms of his hands. Marla lost her head, caught up in him completely as he teased her with his mouth and his hands. She wound his hair around her fingers and held him against her, but he caught hold of her wrist for a second time when she moved to reach for the buttons on his jeans.

Heat gathered between her legs as he glanced up with his lazy, lopsided smile and shook his head. ‘Slow down. I’ve got one more birthday present for you first.’

She lifted her hips to help him as he tugged her rumpled white dress off and flung it aside, his tongue already on the curve of her stomach as he scooted down to kneel between her knees. He bent his head low, a silk ribbon of kisses along the edge of her knickers.

Marla sucked in a sharp breath as his fingers cupped her, lava hot and territorial. ‘Take them off, Gabe. Please. Take them off.’

He didn’t need to be asked twice, and what followed was hands down the most erotically intense few minutes of Marla’s life.

Gabe was tender and filthy dirty all at the same time. He explored her with his fingers and his tongue, building her up but never quite letting her fall over the edge. She felt rather than heard the incoherent sexy words he murmured as he licked her, magic vibrations, erotic electric shocks that lit her from the inside out. Marla arched, greedy to get more of her into his mouth, and Gabe read her signs well. He didn’t take his mouth away for a second as his fingers moved inside her, deeper each time until her only thought was now, now, now. He held her steady when she tensed and cried out, and soothed her with endless, barely there kisses until she unclenched her muscles and laughed low with spent appreciation.

‘Happy Birthday, Marla.’ His stubble grazed her inner thigh as he grinned. Marla loosened her grip on his hair as he nuzzled her skin.

‘Thank you. I think that was my favourite present of the day.’

Gabe slid up the length of her body and kissed her, the taste of her sex in his mouth, his forearms either side of her head on the stars and stripes. Desire kicked in again hard as his weight settled over her, his back silk and steel beneath her fingers as she committed his contours to memory.

‘Still hungry?’ He grazed her earlobe with his teeth.

‘Mmmm. Starving.’ She turned to look in his eyes. ‘Take your jeans off.’

He stood and stepped out of his clothes, uninhibited by her bold eyes. Not that he had any need to be shy. Marla bit her lip and stretched across to retrieve the condom she’d stashed in the basket.

‘I’m pretty sure I didn’t ask Eve to include this in the picnic.’ He raised his eyebrows as he took the foil packet from her and ripped it open.

‘No. That’s my own contribution.’

‘Siren.’

He reached for her again, and surprised approval flashed in his dark eyes when she rolled him onto his back and straddled his thighs. Marla gazed down at him, struck by his louche perfection in the gilt afternoon sun.

‘Angel Gabriel.’ She whispered, and trailed her fingernails down his chest as he rolled the condom on. It was Gabe’s turn to strain for more as she moved over him, used him shamelessly to stroke her own pleasure back up to boiling point. His chest heaved, and his coal dark eyes begged her to finish what she’d started.