The Rebound Pact (25 page)

When Gabrielle opened the door, looked from Lacy to him with a confused expression, h
is ex gave Gabrielle one of her signature nauseating looks. What a way to ruin his good mood.

“Oh, it’s you, I was just leaving,” Lacy said
to Gabrielle, acting as though she’d been here for a while.

“Don’t start inventing things, Lacy, you just got
here. And you should be leaving,” Holden interjected.

The last thing he needed the night he was putting his heart on the line
, was for Gabrielle to believe he and Lacy were still a thing.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes and then looked pointedly at Lacy. “
You obviously have some issues. I was driving behind you all the way up the road.”

Whoa!
Score for Gabrielle!
Holden broke out in a grin. His woman walked around the cars and towards him. Damn, her legs went on forever, and the sexy dip of her shirt revealing her shoulder was completely distracting.

Anger flashed on Lacy’s face, lit up by his porch lights.

Gabrielle climbed the stairs of the porch and stood beside him.

Time to bring this bit of craziness to an end.
“Lacy, I’m not really sure what you’re doing here, but I think it’s best you leave. Please don’t come back or I’ll have to get a restraining order.” Holden kept his voice level. He hated having to issue an ultimatum to Lacy. But he couldn’t have her just showing up whenever she wanted. Making threats.

The woman opened her mouth to say something then snapped it shut again.

“What do you need?” he asked, hoping to prompt her into either speaking or leaving.

She glowered. And at that moment he felt
more bad for the child she was carrying than anything else. “My lawyer is drawing up papers.”

“You mentioned that before, but I don’t think you should waste any money on legal matters. You have no claim to Belle Ami.”

Gabrielle took his hand in hers, a subtle show of support.

“It’s not about Belle Ami,” Lacy spat.

He raised his brow. “Then what it is about?”

“The baby.”

Gabrielle let go of his hand. All the sudden he felt pretty nauseas. Why the hell would she be talking to him about the baby? “That baby is not mine, you said so yourself.”

“Only to hurt you.
You were always gone. I got lonely.”

His stomach plummeted and his mind went numb. Gabrielle
stiffened beside him. He was going to be a dad? Staring at Lacy’s bulging belly, images of infants, birthday parties, bottles and sleepless nights passed through his mind. The thought of a baby didn’t turn him off so much as the thought of it happening with Lacy. It wouldn’t work. The kid would grow up in a broken home, and as much as he hated to put a child through that, he wasn’t going to get back together with her. She was a liar. He shook his head. There was no way that baby was his.

“We’ll have to do a paternity test,” he said. He couldn’t just take Lacy at her
word, the woman had lied through her teeth since he’d met her. And he’d been so head over heels he’d fallen for it.

“Fine.
But the results will tell you conclusively that you are the father. Come October, you’ll be paying child support.”

He shook his head, still a little stunned.

He turned around and went into the house, Gabrielle still by his side. He shut the door and leaned against it, his eyes closed.

“Holden,” Gabrielle’s voice was soft. Outside the Mercedes thundered down the round and with it the sound of gravel flying.

“That woman has been nothing but trouble,” he said.

“I know.”

“What am I going to do? What if that baby is mine?” Things would end with Gabrielle She hadn’t signed on for this. Dammit.

“
You’ll cross that bridge when you come to it.”

She’d said,
you
, not
we
. That was a hint he had no problem picking up on. And one he didn’t like at all.

“I gotta go. Morning will be here before we know it.
Lots to do.” She pulled away from him, leaving him with a cold, sick feeling in his stomach.

Holden held onto her hand.
“You just got here.”

Gabrielle
nodded, a painful smile touching her lips. She withdrew from his grasp. “I know. But…”

Pain sliced through his heart. “Don’t say it, Gabrielle.”

“It has to be said. I...a few weeks ago I wasn’t ready for relationship, but then I found you again. I talked with Max… and I didn’t think much of what he said until now. You and Lacy have a lot of things to work out. And a baby?” She shook her head, tears glistening in her eyes. “I’m not ready for that. I can’t.”

Fuck!
He wanted to bang his head into the wall. Everything he’d dreamed of, the woman he’d dreamed of, was crashing down around him in a pile of shit. He’d never wanted it to end. This couldn’t be how it was.

“Goodbye, Holden. I’ll see you in the morning.”

His mind whirled, he couldn’t just let her walk out on him, not again. Seeing her every day at work would be an unbearable torture if he knew he couldn’t bring her home afterwards. Her shoes clipped the wood as she took a step away from the door he still leaned on.

“Please don’t make this any harder than it is,” she fairly begged him, clutching tight to her purse with one hand, the other grasping the door handle. “I just can’t put my heart out there. If the baby’s yours
, you might decide to try again with Lacy, for the baby. I don’t want to be caught in the middle of that.”

“
No. I would never do that.”

“I don’t know that. You don’t know that. I don’t want to be here when you decide.”

“Wait, don’t go.” He shook his head, crunching the numbers in his mind. In his gut he was positive that baby couldn’t be his. “I think… I
know
I can’t be the father.”

She shook her head, eyes widening a little. “What? How? You haven’t done the paternity test. Just let it go. We have a restaurant to open tomorrow.”

Suddenly, he had it all figured out. Blood thrilled through his veins. He pushed off the door, grabbed Gabrielle by the shoulders. “No, listen. She said the baby was due in October. There is no way I’m the father. Nine months before that is January. I hadn’t slept with her since the beginning of December. We were…fighting. I wasn’t even here. I got to Italy on New Year ’s Day. I was gone for about three weeks and when I got home and found out what she did…it was over.”

Gabrielle frowned, confusion marring her features. “Then why would she try to trick you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe her man left her. Maybe she wants me back. Does it matter? I’m not interested in any other woman but you, Gabrielle. I…” He took a deep breath, caressed her cheek, his heart beating a staccato, his ribs vibrating from the pressure. He had to plunge in deep. Come clean. “I love you.”

S
hock registered on her features. Eyes wide, her mouth forming an O, she shook her head. “Don’t do this, Holden. Not now. We were just a rebound.” Tears glistened in her eyes.

“It may have been a rebound in words, but all along it was a way for me to get closer to you. I’m serious, Gabrielle, I love you.” H
e caressed her cheek. “I thought the stars had finally aligned when you snuck into that frat room. When you undressed, slid against me and rocked my world. And then again when you sauntered into the winery, I knew I couldn’t let you get away.”

She closed
her eyes, leaned slightly into his caress. He wasn’t sure if she was going to respond, but then her eyes snapped open, filled with sincerity. “Me, too… I tried. Really tried not to get more involved than a rebound. Thought all the feelings I was having was just because of what happened with me and Len.” She shook her head. “But it didn’t work. I kept coming around to how much I wanted to be with you, every waking moment and not just to mess around. I wanted all of you. I love you, too. But… all that doesn’t matter. There’s still Lacy.”

“I’m with you, Gabrielle. No other. Not now. Not ever.”

“You’re with me?”

“Yeah, you.
Even if you did think I was another guy.”

She laughed, the sound of merriment lifting him. Holden pulled her flush against him.

“What about my brother?” she asked.

“He’s pretty pissed.”

“Yeah…”

“We’ll talk to him in the morning. Right now, I just want to kiss you.”
He dipped to kiss her. In that kiss he said he was sorry, he said he loved her. Their mouths crashed together in a tangle of tongues, a whisper of breath and soft lips. He wasn’t going to let her go anywhere. What they had together was too good. Holden couldn’t believe he’d almost lost her again.

Heat sizzled, tension ripped through them, making the air in his foyer crack and sparkle. They both ripped at each other’s clothing, eager to join as one after such emotional turmoil and their subsequent declarations of love. The
y stood flush together, naked chest to soft breasts, hips to hips, thighs to thighs. Even their toes touched. Gabrielle wrapped her arms around his neck, lifted her leg around his hip.

“Make love to me, Holden.”

“Not here,” Holden said. This time was different. He carried her up to his room and laid her down on the soft comforter. “I want to make love to you in my bed.”

Gabrielle smiled up at him, all that had transpired still sinking in. Holden slid beside her, his weight making the bed dip.

“I’ve wanted you in my bed for so long,” he said, his voice gruff.

“I’m glad to finally be here.”

Their lips met, only a lingering tenderness as their emotions and need took hold, making their kiss demanding, feral. Holden’s hands were everywhere, stroking, caressing, building the fire that already burned within her. Likewise, she touched him, massaging, gripping and driving him slowly insane. They couldn’t get enough of each other, as if they hadn’t been taking every opportunity over the past few weeks to get nekkid.

This was different. This was life changing.
While they may have hooked up for selfish reasons to start, they were now wholly in it for each other.

Hopefully
, forever.

Holden explored
the length of her neck, her head thrown to the side. But she wanted to taste him, too. She nudged him away so that she could lick the place where his pulse beat beneath his ear, nipped at his earlobe and skimmed her teeth over his chin. Holden groaned, his fingers holding firm to her ass, massaging her.

“Gabrielle…you make me feel so out of control.” He pressed his erection against her slick sex, making her shiver and push her hips up toward his.

“I want you inside me,” she murmured, kissing his shoulder and massaging firmly down his back until she gripped his muscular ass.

“And I want to be there.” He fumbled with a drawer in his nightstand, pulling out a foil packet. Within seconds, his shaft was fully embedded inside her, filling her with unimaginable heat and pleasure.

“I love the way you feel,” she said.

“I never want to leave,” he answered.

Holden set a steady, rhythmic, torturous pace, bringing her to the height only to wind down before her body broke apart. Sweat made their bodies slick, their breaths came hard as both were completely powerless to the passion that consumed them. With one tug of his teeth on her nipple, Gabrielle lost it. An earth-shattering orgasm ripped through her—different somehow with their admissions of love. She arched her back, cried out his name, bucked her hips. Holden reacted immediately, pounding into her, his forehead pressed to hers and a low growl on his lips. He shuddered violently, this thrusts slowing until they both lay still.

As though their orgasms took their power of speech, they
lay silent, their bodies still connected, eyes locked on one another.

Gabrielle broke the silence. “You’ve liberated me, shown me what I truly want out of life.”

Holden smiled, kissed her tenderly on the forehead and then on the lips. “You have no idea how much you’ve done the same for me.”

“I can finally be myself. And be okay with that.”

“You should be, you’re the most wonderful person I know. My favorite person.”

Gabrielle laughed. “Max may have a problem with that.”

“I’m not going to share a bed with him either.” Holden laughed. “Max may be my best friend, but you’re my soul mate.”

Gabrielle threaded her hands through his hair.
“Do you know how long I’ve wanted to hear that?”

“Not as long as I have.”

She grinned, tugged him down for another kiss. “I doubt that.”

“
Doubt all you want, baby, but I remember wanting to kiss you when my lips might get caught in your braces.” He nibbled on her lower lip with a chuckle.

“A fantasy I had often.”
They kissed a little more, between laughs, then Holden went into the bathroom to clean himself off. When he came out he had a devilish look in his eyes.