Page 109 of Audacity

Has he brought me here for arole play?

He’s standing alone, though the two women to his right can’t stop staring at him. As I walk across what feels like the endless expanse of floor, a guy approaches me. I put up a hand to ward him off without even looking at him, and I keep moving. Gabe is still staring at me, his eyes roving over my face and my untethered tits and everything else I’ve put on display for him tonight.

‘I didn’t know it was Vicars and Tarts Night,’I say lamely as I reach him. ‘Good job we both dressed for it.’

He grins tiredly, sliding a hand under my hair and around my neck.

‘Is this okay?’

He’s back to asking if he can touch me.

I was his girlfriend for a few, blissful days, and now he’s back to asking.

I did that.

I nod, blinking away the moisture in my eyes. ‘Of course,’ I whisper, and then he’s tugging me into his arms and wrapping them around me, andGod, I needed this. I needed to be in his arms so badly. I belong here, and I don’t deserve to belong here, and I can’t bear it.

I hug him back, and we stand there for a moment, swaying slowly together. His body heat permeates my ineffectual dress, and his scent permeates my nostrils, and every fucking thing permeates my porous, broken heart. The heart that was once so strong and fierce and which now bleeds for this man.

‘I missed you,’ he whispers against my hair.

‘I missed you.’

After a couple of moments, he releases me and turns away, regretfully, it seems, to request two glasses of champagne from the server behind the bar.

‘Non est ad astra mollis e terris via,’he says as we clink, and I smile sadly.

‘Amen to that.’

‘I finally made a Catholic of her.’ He shakes his head.

‘You look stunning,’ he tells me as we drink. ‘Will you come downstairs with me in a minute? There’s something I want to show you.’

I nod, though I really hope it’s his dick and not his own bleeding heart, because I can’t handle that at all.

‘Before we do, I have something to tell you,’ he says. ‘I saw my family yesterday, and we had a long conversation. The foundation job is yours, just as it should be.’

I stare at him in amazement. What the actualfuck?‘There’s no way your parents are okay with me running it now that they know what I do for a living.’

‘Did,’ he corrects. ‘And I wouldn’t say they’re thrilled, exactly, but trust me when I say theyareon board.’

I only have one word. ‘How?’

He purses his lips. ‘Conversations were had around various points: your suitability for the role, which has never been in dispute, your character, to which Mairead and Brendan and I all attested, your superiority to Mum’s so-called respectable choice—Eleanor—and, let see, the double standards of them judging you and not me.’

His voice is sharper than usual. More commanding, less tolerant. He smiles, but it’s grim. ‘I reminded them that this bold new vision for the foundation came from you. And, for good measure, I threw in a reminder that I have the ultimate say as CEO.’ He shrugs. ‘I can’t do this without you, and I don’t want to. Simple as that. You and I are so opposite in our natures as to coincide perfectly. And, like I said, they came around. They even admitted that they may have judged you unnecessarily harshly, once I’d thrown a few Bible verses around to really ram the point home.’

I’m dumbfounded. This isn’t the priestly, mild-mannered Gabe we’re all used to. What he’s recounting sounds a lot like he’s just flexed his considerable power for the first time. Except, of course, that this is Gabe we’re talking about, which means that he hasn’t done it in the usual alpha-hole billionaire kind of way.

He’s done it in an inimitablyGabeway, from the sounds of it, combining that pastoral wisdom with this newfound sense of authority in a manner that’s so uniquely him.

‘And it worked? They caved?’ I ask incredulously.

This time, his smile is beatific. ‘I like to think I cemented my argument as I left with a politely-but-firmly-delivered reminder that they’d do well to stay on the good side of my future children’s mother. But yes, they rolled over eventually, and with a pleasantly surprising amount of grace.’

‘I can’t believe this,’ I murmur, rapidly shelving his comment about my bearing his children. There’s no way I’m goingthere. Still, my head is spinning with outcomes and possibilities. At no point over the past four days did I imagine the Sullivans would sign off on this. It sounds like Maeve and Ronan are far from my biggest fans, but whatever. Plenty of people dislike me. Plenty distrust me. The only way to win his parents over will be with results. Even if they hate me, they’ll be on board with my methods.

‘Don’t make any decisions yet,’ he urges. ‘I don’t want you feeling obligated to rush into anything. I just needed you to have all the facts before I took you downstairs.’

---