Page 113 of Gabriel: Duke of Bencalor

Quinn snorted in agree­ment.

Know that I am so proud to be the fa­ther of the ex­tra­or­di­nary woman that you’ve be­come…with no help from me.

I love you. Al­ways have. Al­ways will.

Dad

He’d drawn a sham­rock with heart-shaped leaves af­ter his name, some­thing he’d done on ev­ery card he’d ever given her.

A hard, cold knot in her chest melted away, leav­ing a space filled with light­ness and warmth. Was that what for­give­ness felt like?

“Quinn?” Gabriel’s smooth rum­ble came from the door­way. She turned to find him dressed only in gray sweat­pants, his hair mussed from sleep.

“I love you,” she said be­cause she couldn’t stop her­self.

Joy lit his smile, and he opened his arms wide. “Te adoro, car­iño mío.”

She walked into his arms, lay­ing her cheek on the warm olive skin stretched over the mus­cles of his chest. His arms closed around her, and she could hear his heart beat­ing against her ear.

She had to tell him about her past. Dread wrapped a fist around her heart and squeezed un­til her breath seemed to stop.

Not yet.

She skimmed one hand be­tween them to cup him through the fleece of his sweats. “Let’s go back to bed.”

Gabriel pulled into the pri­vate park­ing lot be­hind Mikel’s of­fice. The mo­ment Quinn could get past the lift­ing door of the Spano, she was out of the car. She was pissed at him be­cause he wanted to talk with Mikel about adding more pro­tec­tion for her.

How­ever, she owed him for let­ting her de­lay their con­ver­sa­tion about her fa­ther and her past. She had pleaded to post­pone it un­til that evening. Cu­rios­ity and fear bat­tled in his chest. Quinn be­lieved her rev­e­la­tions would change his feel­ings. He re­fused to be­lieve she might be right.

He ex­ited the car and caught up with her as she tapped her em­ployee ID card against the elec­tronic lock pad at the back en­trance. “Quinn, you can be an­gry at me, but you can’t fault me for be­ing wor­ried. Ad­mit that you wouldn’t al­low your­self to ask Mikel for ex­tra pro­tec­tion. For me, it is easy.”

She made a ges­ture of de­nial but left the door closed. “I carry a gun. I keep my eyes open. I don’t need more body­guards.”

Now was not the time to tell her how sexy it was to watch her strap on her shoul­der hol­ster, even as the need for it drove a blade of panic into his gut.

“Do you think I need body­guards?” he asked.

Her gaze slid away from his. “It makes me feel bet­ter to know you have them. And yours cover me when we’re to­gether.”

He let her ad­mis­sion sit be­tween them un­til she met his eyes again with a rue­ful twist of her lips. “You win. But make sure Mikel knows this is all your idea.”

“Lo prometo. I prom­ise.” Even though there had to be a sur­veil­lance cam­era watch­ing, he bent to kiss her warm, soft lips. When she kissed him in re­turn, the tight­ness in his neck loos­ened. He hated that she was in dan­ger be­cause of him. He also hated to fight with her.

She tapped the lock pad again, and he pulled the heavy metal door open for her.

“Hasta luego,” she said with a lit­tle wave as she ducked into her of­fice a few steps down the car­peted hall­way.

Gabriel con­tin­ued to the re­cep­tion area, pass­ing the closed door of Mikel’s of­fice.

“Don Gabriel!” Emilia leaped to her feet. “We were not ex­pect­ing you.”

“I don’t have an ap­point­ment.” He waved her con­cern away with a smile. “With­out dis­rupt­ing his sched­ule, would Mikel have a few min­utes to speak with me?”

She threw a glance to­ward the hall­way. “Let me check with him. But first, may I of­fer you cof­fee? Some­thing to eat?”

“No, gra­cias. I just had break­fast.” A lie. He’d had Quinn, which was bet­ter than food. The sat­is­fac­tion of his re­lease and hers still flooded his veins with re­laxed en­ergy. He sat and stretched out his legs while Emilia dis­ap­peared down the hall.

He heard a door open and close and open again be­fore Emilia and Mikel walked into the re­cep­tion area.

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