Page 96 of Sanctuary

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Lori paused outside the elevator in the hotel lobby. “Wait here,” she said without looking at Gabe then headed toward the bank of iPads which served as the hotel’s AI reception desk. She needed some distance to cool down. Seeing Gabe standing in the alley in her dirty white T-shirt, scruffy combat pants, and work boots had almost exploded her resolve there and then. A super short and super sexy movie of Gabe taking her on the hood of the car with a strap-on had played in her head as she swept her gaze over Gabe’s insanely hot body.

A little time and a lot of anger had done nothing to reduce Lori’s sexual attraction, that much was clear.

She confirmed her reservation with the friendly machine, shamefully grateful that she hadn’t had to deal with a real person who would surely have spotted Gabe hovering in the hallway and made assumptions about Lori’s less than honorable intentions—even though Lori hadn’t decided on her intentions yet herself.

She activated only one keycard, made a mental note of her room number, and headed back toward Gabe. Either they’d be staying together, or she’d be leaving alone. Whatever happened, they didn’t need two keys. Gabe caught her eye, and Lori motioned for her to call the elevator. When she got there, she hit their floor number and then pressed the close button repeatedly as a well-dressed couple advanced toward them. The doors slid shut before they got there. Just as Lori hadn’t wanted the judgment of a hotel employee, she didn’t want loaded glances from other hotel guests either.

She didn’t speak as the elevator glided up to the thirtieth floor. In the small box, the musky scent of Gabe after a hard day’s work only served to ramp up her irritatingly active hormones, and she didn’t trust herself to say anything that wouldn’t indicate this was a booty call.

Even though that was exactly what this might turn out to be.

The elevator pinged to indicate its arrival, and Gabe motioned for Lori to exit first. She sashayed, one hundred percent on purpose, in the direction of the exact same hotel room they were supposed to have been in on Saturday night under very different circumstances. In the mirrored hallway, she could see that Gabe remained a few steps behind her, also very clearly one hundred percent on purpose. Her gaze was directed at Lori’s butt, so she exaggerated the swing of her hips just a little more.

When she got to the room, she handed Gabe the keycard. Gabe took it without a word, flashed it across the pad, and held open the door for Lori to cross the threshold first. Without looking back, Lori headed straight to the mini bar. Whatever it was she was about to hear, she was pretty sure a little kicker wouldn’t go amiss. She grabbed the ice bucket from the sideboard and turned around to hand it to Gabe. She’d stopped just inside the room and rushed over to take it from her.

“I don’t want to wait for room service,” Lori said. “Can you get that filled?”

“Sure,” Gabe said and left the room.

Conscious of the void that created, Lori took a deep breath and stopped questioning herself. Her session with Rae this morning had solidified what she already knew deep down: she was ready for whatever came next. She was ready to hear what Gabe had to say, and she could trust herself to make the right decision after listening to the sordid tale. Okay, so she was still feeling a little judgy right now, but she was being as open-minded as she could be under the circumstances and given her own experience.

And that was exactly what it was—her experience, but she wasn’t about to let that get in the way of what she was feeling for Gabe. Well, she was going to try damn hard not to anyway.

Lori took two heavy tumblers from the shelf and set them down before selecting the large bottle of Absolut from the fridge. Not so mini after all, thankfully. She cut a couple of slices of lemon and tossed them in the glasses then wandered over to the window, drawn by its view of Lake Michigan. The cloudy sky created a gorgeous palette of fire as the sun set, and Lori imagined Gabe’s arms around her waist as the light faded, and darkness settled around the city. Would they get to share romantic moments like that? Or had that ship sailed, and they would no longer even be friends?

She heard the click of the door, and Gabe returned with an overflowing ice bucket.

“Vodka?” Gabe asked, still standing at the edge of the hallway as if waiting to be fully invited in.

“Absolut,” Lori said. “Did you know that they’ve supported our cause since the eighties? They’ve donated tens of millions of dollars to LGBT centers. The one in LA got $2 million after the lesbian director Rix Reardon approached them for support.”

“I didn’t know any of that,” Gabe said.

Of course she wouldn’t know any of that. Lori only knew it because she’d read about it six years ago, and it had lodged in her brain, as everything was wont to do. Gabe looked lost and unsure of herself in a way that Lori had never seen before. She had to admit that she liked it a little bit; it made her feel powerful and in control, again in a way she’d never felt before. Gabe was over six feet tall and made of brick wall muscle, but right now, she was waiting on Lori’s cue. “I’ve put lemon in the glasses. Maybe you could add ice and pour.”

Lori took a seat in the huge armchair by the window. There was a couch, but she couldn’t risk being too close to Gabe. Not yet. Not until she’d heard and processed her story. She kicked off her shoes and tucked her feet under her. She watched Gabe cross the room, watched her open the bottle with ease and pour very generous measures for them both, watched the way her muscles shifted and flowed beneath the thin material of her shirt.

Gabe placed the glasses on coasters on the coffee table. She gestured to the pale cream sofa and then to herself. “I should’ve brought your blanket up from the car.”

“You could use a towel.” Or you could get naked and give me all the power. Lori bit her lip and tried to control her rampant sex drive. How had Gabe awakened something so base and almost uncontrollable within her where previous partners had failed? She’d never thought of them as failing though; she’d always just thought herself as not very good at it.

Gabe nodded and strode away to the bathroom. She returned with a graphite-colored bath sheet and draped it over the center of the couch, and then she sat on it carefully.

Lori picked up her glass and swirled the transparent liquid around, enjoying the hiss and crack of the ice cubes and the way they’d already begun to melt, a little like Gabe seemed to be doing as she waited in silence. “You wanted to tell me everything,” Lori said, focusing on the primary reason for being here.

“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do that. I know you’re probably going to find it hard to hear.”

“Is that why you didn’t tell me sooner? Because you thought I was too fragile to hear whatever you have to say?” She partially regretted her combative approach, but if she’d learned anything over the past year of therapy, it was that she should give her emotions the oxygen they needed. Squishing them down into the bottom of her heart and mind was as unhealthy as feeding a dog chocolate.

“No, that wasn’t it.” Gabe reached for her own glass and took a long drink. “I was too fragile to tell you, because I didn’t want to risk losing your friendship.”

Lori hadn’t expected that. Nor had she anticipated complete honesty and a total lack of ego. And the softness in Gabe’s gaze made Lori glad she was sitting down, or her knees would surely have given way beneath her. A butch carved from marble and filled with marshmallow…was that even legal?

“It was obvious from our first couple of meetings that you were a special person, Lori, and when you declined my advances, I just figured that I’d wait until you were ready.” Gabe glanced away, and she blushed. “I knew you were worth waiting for. But then you told me about your ex-wife cheating on you, and I was bummed. Not just for what you’d been through, but for what that signaled.”

“Which was?”

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