Page 33 of Knot For A Moment

I glanced at the bulletin board to make note of the rehearsal spaces in case they changed, and they had. Along with a very particular note that there would be forty-five minutes for lunch.

A smile tugged at my lips. I guess it worked.

Sweet tobacco and vanilla wrapped around me, so much stronger than it had two days ago, and an arm reached around me to pin a new piece of paper to the bulletin board. I had absolutely no idea what it said.

Gabriel stood behind me, pulling back from the board and looking down at me. “Hello, Sloane,” he said quietly.

“Hi.”

He smiled, and now, this close to him, I saw his eyes were a warm green that erased whatever was left of my morning chill. “I promise I wasn’t trying to corner you or waiting to catch you here.”

“I… I didn’t think that.”

Once again he glanced in either direction. There wasn’t anything wrong with being scent-sympathetic. But I was very aware of the appearance of it. Gabriel knew it too. Suddenly having the newest principal as a scent match could look strange.

“Could I speak to you for a moment?” The words were soft, but his eyes were heated. His hands flexed like he was resisting reaching for me.

I looked at my phone. There was still time, and now that Ash and I were okay, I was desperate to know the others. Part of me wasn’t sure it could be as seamless as last night and this morning had been with Ash, but I wanted to find out. “Yeah.”

All that heat shifted into warmth I wanted to drown in as he smiled. Then, lower. “Only if you want to, Sloane. There’s no pressure here.”

Anxiety fizzed in the tips of my fingers. More anticipation than nerves. “It’s okay,” I breathed. “I do.”

Gabriel inclined his head, and I followed him away from the studio wing and into the administrative one. I almost never came over into this wing unless I needed to fix something with payroll or my contract. It was mostly empty this early.

We didn’t run into anyone, thankfully. There would no doubt already be rumors about myself and Asher in the shoe room. And maybe us leaving the studio together yesterday. The ballet world was a vicious place for gossip, and no matter my fearlessness when it came to dance, I preferred my private life to stay private.

He gestured to an open door. “My office is upstairs, but I don’t want to keep you from rehearsal.”

I shut the door behind us gently. “I’m not sure what Asher has told you about me—” My voice died in my throat when I turned. This wasn’t Gabriel the Executive Director, this was Gabriel theAlpha.

“Ash has never said anything remotely bad about you. Even when he was in the dark and wanting to know why you’d disappeared. But it seems like things are better now?” There was a teasing sparkle in his eye that I liked.

“They are.”

He was older than Asher by a few years, and if I saw him on the street, I never would have said this was his job. Black henley with sleeves pushed up to the elbows and dark jeans that seemed too casual for SCB but worked for him. If everyone was a little more casual around here, I wouldn’t care. Everyone could afford to loosen up a bit.

That included me.

We stared at each other, and I had no idea what to do. This small, warm room filled with his scent. I wanted to drink it in. I wanted to feel him against me the way I felt Ash.

I swallowed. “I am… not great at this. I have no idea what to do or say, but I want to know you. All of you.”

Gabriel’s eyes darkened with heat. “May I touch you?”

My heart skipped a beat. “Yes.”

Reaching out one hand, he trailed his fingers down over my arm, heat sinking through my thin sweater. “I’m sorry we had to meet the way we did.” A quick smile. “Or rather, that we scented each other the way we did. I would have preferred less of an audience.”

“Are you going to show me why?” It was both a dare and an invitation. Everything about Gabriel told me the cool and calm Executive Director was a mask and fire burned underneath it.

Fuck me, I wanted to burn.

Gabriel tugged on my sweater just hard enough to get me to step closer. That was all he needed. One arm swept around my waist, the other guiding my face up to his.

No hesitation and no questions. He kissed me slowly and deliberately, hands holding me against his body exactly where he wanted me. Unhurried. He didn’t have to say the wordminefor me to feel it. I was his, and he would take the time kissing me any way he liked. The realization made me want to move—to press closer—and the way he held me prevented that.

The sharp sweetness of his scent swirled, tongue tracing my lips in an unspoken request to dance with mine.

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