Wild Forces: A Friends to Lovers Romance (O-Town Book 2) by Karen Renee (summer reads .TXT) 📕

dressed in shorts and a red t-shirt which accentuated her dark hair and green eyes but watching her lick her finger clean was torture.

I stood and took my plate to the sink. Seeing as she fed me, I figured the least I could do was wash the dishes. When I pulled the stainless-steel pot out to put it in the sink, Cassie asked, “What are you doing, Sullivan? You don’t have to do the dishes.”

Turning from the sink, I narrowed my eyes at her. “You cooked, I’ll clean, but seriously, Daughtry. Stop calling me Sullivan. You know me well enough—”

“What is the big deal, Gabe? You call me Daughtry all the time. What is this, a one-way street?”

I turned back to the sink and squirted soap into the water and got to work. “Not exactly. When I call you by your last name, your eyes tell me you like it. But I’m pretty sure you’re trying to push me away when you call me by my last name.”

“Whatever,” she said, and I heard her fork scraping her plate as she dumped the remnants of food and bones into the trash.

“So, I’m right?”

She put her plate down and leaned into the counter. “No. It’s your last name. You’re the one making a big deal about it.”

I chuckled. “You’re the one arguing with me about it.”

She grabbed a dishtowel and took the rinsed pot from me. “Fine. Gabe.”

The attitude in her voice made me smile, and I almost wished she’d called me Sullivan to prolong the bickering.

She wrapped up the left-over ribs, and put the baking pan next to the sink.

While I washed it, she asked, “So, you’re suddenly down with taking money from your mother? After me making some off-hand comment?”

I rinsed the pan, turned off the water, and snagged the dishtowel off her shoulder. “You never make off-hand comments, Cassie. You weigh all of your words and responses.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, but didn’t speak and I smiled. “See, you’re doing it right now.”

She huffed out a breath. “So be it, but I’ve been known to make off-hand comments before.”

“Maybe with your girlfriends or something, but not with me. And it’s exactly why I don’t like you calling me Sullivan. You’re doing it for some damn reason, and I’m pretty damn sure I don’t like it.”

“If you say so. But, you’re not switching the topic, man. What are you planning to do with the money? I mean, if it’s a business venture or something, I could introduce you to my dad or one of his business partners. He didn’t get where he is without learning some hard lessons, you know.”

I hadn’t thought of that. I didn’t know why she recommended her father, but I would need to talk to someone more knowledgeable about my plans. “You’re right, Cassie. How about you drop by my place tomorrow evening?”

Her lips twisted for a moment. “I have some things to do mid-morning, so I’m going to work late and will end up leaving late because of it. Can I drop by early in the morning instead?”

I smiled. “Absolutely.”

I DIDN’T CLIMB INTO bed until after one in the morning because I was busy putting together a rough business plan. All the shit I told Clint about Club Eclectic had me thinking about opening my own club. But when Cassie talked about donating the money from my mother, I realized, why start my own club from scratch when I could feasibly invest in an existing club and make it better? Pruitt could turn me down, and he may be determined not to have a business partner, but I would never know if I didn’t ask.

I didn’t need Cassie’s approval of my investment idea, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get her feedback. She wanted me to meet her father for his input, and I wouldn’t want to run this by him without her seeing it first anyway.

It had been a damn long time since I was excited about something, and I had forgotten how good it felt. Seemed I had Cassie to thank for that too.

16Move Along, Friend

Cassie

THE NEXT MORNING, I texted Gabe I was on my way, and surprisingly, he met me in between our buildings. He walked me along the breezeway toward his door, but we stopped when a short, dark-haired woman with an olive complexion came right at us.

“It’s about time I ran into you, Gabe,” she sneered.

I heard his sharp inhale, though the woman standing in front of us missed it.

She focused on me. “You can move along, friend. None of this concerns you.”

I did not like how she spoke to me. Gabe sighed, and I knew he was uncomfortable. Well, odds were good I would make him more uncomfortable.

Since I stood right next to him, keeping my eyes on her, I shifted to wrap my arms around Gabe’s narrow waist, forcing him to put an arm around me. “Oh, so sorry, but I think this does concern me.”

Her brown eyes narrowed. “Oh, please. Everyone knows you’re just the dorky friend.”

I smiled, though I didn’t mean it. “Smart people know, things change,” I said, as my hand went up to Gabe’s hard pectoral.

“You’re not fooling me,” she sneered.

Gabe’s free hand tipped my chin up. His eyes held a hint of playfulness, but at the same time they were dead serious. “See if this fools her,” he murmured before he kissed me, hot and heavy.

Good God. It was the drunken kiss, but ten times better since he was sober. I had to enjoy it while I could because it would be the last time I would taste Gabe, seeing as this was one-hundred percent show.

In a recess of my mind I heard stomping. Gabe pulled away from me. I opened my eyes to see his face an inch from mine. His eyes slid back to me and he grinned.

“She’s done. But we’re not.”

The forcefulness of his words hit me at the same time his lips did.