Page 39 of His to Love
“Gabriella?” the familiar, masculine voice asked.
I blushed ten shades of pink before I turned to face Malik.
“Hello,” I lifted my hand in a limp wave. If the flour could have swallowed me whole, I would have been thrilled. I watched as his eyes dipped and scanned my body. His lips twitched, fighting a smile, but it broke through when he met my timid and embarrassed gaze.
“You’re a wreck,” he stated simply. It lacked the reproof my father’s voice would have had, and I smiled despite myself.
“I’m not very good at staying clean.” I blushed further at the innuendo.
Behind me, I heard Clarissa’s soft chuckle, and I looked away from him. I could hear him approach, though, and I stiffened when his hand rested on my hip.
Perhaps I should have made a sign announcing my desire for personal space. He clearly had no issue stepping over appropriate boundaries. “It’s good to see you, Gabriella,” he murmured and then brushed his lips against my cheekbone. “I’ve thought about you.”
I swallowed thickly, unable to respond. Mostly because there was no polite response, none that would also be truthful, I could offer him.
Licking my lips, I turned toward him, forcing him to drop his hand from my hip. “I didn’t expect you here today.”
“It was a last minute decision. Something has come up that your father thinks I should be made aware of.” He glanced at his watch and back to me. “I should get to his office, I just wanted to see you first. But I’ll still see you next Saturday, correct?”
“Mmhmm,” I muttered when his hand reached out and brushed against mine on the counter. He didn’t hold it, just ran his fingertips down the back of my hand before he stepped back.
The man was magnetic and attractive. He also knew how to turn a woman on, which was obvious by the pulsing I experienced in places I would rather have not in front of him. It couldn’t be helped, though. Yet beyond that, I felt nothing for him but physical appreciation.
“Saturday,” he said, nodding in my direction as he approached the doorway.
“Saturday,” I repeated, and watched him disappear around the corner.
“Well, now that is a man who knows how to please a woman,” Clarissa said, her voice full of mirth.
I couldn’t deny her words, I simply didn’t want to be the one he wanted to please. “I’m not interested. Not really.”
“I know, my dear. But perhaps before you let him know that, you can get some of what he’s good at first.”
“Clarissa!” I cried, laughing at the same time. She was a scandalous old woman and I absolutely loved her for it.
“What?” She shrugged. “It is the twenty-first century. Women in my day couldn’t say that, much less enjoy the thought of it, but if you want your freedom so badly…go for it.”
I didn’t entertain the thought longer, even though I couldn’t stop laughing at the crazy woman. Shaking my head, I wiped my hands clean on a towel. “That would only send mixed signals and who knows, if I were to enjoy…as you might say,” she flashed me a wink and I laughed again, “my father would pull out some archaic rule that says then we must marry, or something similar.”
“True. The reward might not be bigger than the risk.”
I flashed her a look and whispered, “But I bet it’s big.”
Her eyes widened at my joke, and then she smacked my hip with a towel. “Go on with you. Get out of here before I don’t know what to do with you anymore besides lock you in your room.”
I backed up, putting up my hands palms out. “I’m gone, I’m gone.”
“And go have fun. You’re young.” She shouted the last words just as I walked out of the kitchen and headed toward the front door. I shook my head again, thankful that even with the interruption from my dad and Malik that I got to spend the day with Clarissa. I hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time, and I couldn’t deny that her parting shot was absolutely true. I was still young. I should be out having fun.
And there was only one person who I wanted to have fun with.
My lips twisted as I realized how pathetic that was. Then I pushed that thought to the back because, despite the fact that I really wanted to hear from Tyson, I still had the business card from my dad. While I might not have wanted to use my family connection to get a job, I’d be a fool for dismissing an opportunity like this one. So at least something good had come out of my trip home.
I was just pulling out of my parents’ driveway onto the main road when my phone began ringing from its place in the cup holder.
Without looking, I grabbed it, unlocked it, and answered.
“Hello?”
