Page 1 of Always Been Mine

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A clapof thunder jolted Beatrice awake.

Disoriented, she took in her naked body under the cool satin sheets. She smiled like a cat who’d had her fill of cream. Pure feline satisfaction. A night of wild sex with Gabriel Sullivan would do that to you.

She frowned at the empty space beside her.Where is he?

Her brows furrowed deeper when a streak of lightning and the ensuing rumble followed too closely behind it. Damn spring storms. They better not delay their flight to Barbados in the morning.

Beatrice swung her legs to the floor, stood and slipped into a robe. Eyeing the open suitcase laid out on the floor, she remembered the whirlwind development of their relationship in recent weeks. She’d been seeing Gabe on and off for the past four months. It was only in the last three weeks that the dark-haired former Navy SEAL finally staked some sort of claim on her. Well, really staked a claim. Beatrice had been having drinks with a male friend when he rudely butted in and asked to speak to her.

He laid it out. He wanted their relationship to be exclusive.

This four-day trip to Barbados was a way of cementing the definition of said relationship: Gabe and Beatrice were a couple.

Shaking her head at how easily he had changed her rules about dating someone who was currently serving or had served in the military, she went to look for her man.

She descended the stairs of her two-story row house and found him in the study, standing by the French windows with the phone to his ear. His voice was low and gruff. He heard her come into the room; lightning illuminated his grim face and tight mouth.

Something was horribly wrong.

“I need to go,” Gabe spoke into the phone. His whiskey eyes were black in the darkened room, but she could feel them drinking her in. “I’ll see you in a few.”

“Is everything okay?” Beatrice asked anxiously as he ended the call.

Gabe lowered his gaze. Striding past her, he exited the study, crossed the living room, and mounted the steps leading to their bedroom.

A familiar knot of abandonment tightened her gut, freezing her where Gabe had left her. Taking deep breaths to calm down, she followed him upstairs.

The sight that met her in their room unleashed her worst fears. Gabe was pulling out his stuff from the meticulously packed suitcase and was shoving them into his black duffel.

“What are you doing?” Beatrice asked hoarsely. “Our flight leaves in six hours. Are we canceling?”

Gabe paused; the muscle tic in his jaw pulsed a few times before he finally looked at her. “I made a mistake.”

Beatrice forced herself to smile; sure she had misheard him. “What do you mean? You don’t like Barbados? We don’t have to go if that’s not your thing.”

“Us, Beatrice.” His tone was calm. “We’re not going to work.”

His statement doused her denial of what was clearly unfolding before her. He was ending it.

“Explain, Gabriel,” Beatrice said coldly. “Three weeks ago, you practically bulldozed me into a committed relationship. Now you’re wimping out? Uh-uh, a simple ‘we’re not going to work’is notcutting it.”

Gabe flinched, but didn’t respond. He pulled the zipper on his duffel and tried to get past her. She was having none of that and stood smack in front of him.

“I deserve an answer.”

Gabe’s eyes blazed at her. Wait, was he angry at her?

What the hell!

“You want the truth?” Gabe rasped. “I have a job to do.”

“You’re done with the SEALs or did you lie?”

“No. This is something else.”

“You’re working for Dad,” Beatrice whispered. The disapproval of her father regarding their relationship dawned on her.

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