Page 89 of Your Soul to Keep

Curving his hand around my waist, he drew me close and tucked my head under his chin. “My it and only, Shae-baby.”

The faintest wisp of engine oil, and that familiar, grounding fragrance that was uniquely Gabe surrounded me.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and burrowed into his chest.

My cheek rose and fell with his breathing, and I inhaled fully for the first time in days.

“I’m here.”

23

Point Made

Wespentthedayin bed, napping, making love, and watching movies with our limbs tangled together under the sheets.

As the credits rolled Gabe sighed and ran his hands through my hair. “We need to get up. They’re going to be here soon. And as much as I’d like to keep you here until the very last minute, I’m thinking you’d like to be dressed when you meet Zoe for the first time.”

I stiffened involuntarily.

“Shae,” he reprimanded, his voice low. “You have nothing to be concerned about. We were over long before you came back, and we were never anything to begin with.”

I pursed my lips. “You have a child together. That has to mean something.”

He snorted. “Yeah, it means I fucked her, and she got pregnant.”

I cringed.

Gabe’s hands tightened in my hair. “Shae—” he began impatiently.

“Would you like me to talk to you about how many times I ‘fucked’ my ex-fiancé trying to get pregnant?”

The muscles in his chest bunched.

“Point made,” he bit out.

“Good,” I clipped back. “I don’t want Dylan to be a constant reminder of what someone else gave you that I can’t. I want Dylan to just be Dylan. So don’t rub my face in the fact that Zoe warmed your bed for a lot longer than I have up to this point.”

He wrapped his arms around me, eyes squeezed shut, mouth twisted in distaste. “I’m sorry. Stop talking. It turns my stomach to even think about being with anyone else.”

I grunted grumpily.

“From here on out, Dylan was delivered by stork. I just happened to be here and signed for the parcel,” he teased.

I snorted out a laugh. “Now there’s a narrative I can get behind.”

Reaching down, he squeezed my ass cheek. “I have a narrative I’d like to get behind.”

“Oh, I know you do,” I retorted, twisting out of his arms and slipping from the warm bed. “You put it on my bucket list.”

I turned to speak but the words on my tongue died at the sight.

Gabe lay sprawled, glorious ink on display, one muscular arm folded behind his head. His sleepy, satisfied gaze ran up and down my body.

The man was the very definition of temptation.

I raised my knee to climb back in.

His eyes snapped to mine, a wide, knowing grin on his handsome face.

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