My mood plummeted—along with my stomach.
Even though I kept the smile plastered to my face.
Being friends had never been an option.
I’d been instantly attracted to Gabe. His gaze on me had switched me on like a lightbulb—even in the desperate state I’d been in.
He was the first man ever who had the ability to rattle me completely with just one look from his laser-blue eyes.
The same laser-blue eyes locked on me now from across the room.
Burning with an intensity that singed me even from the distance.
“Gabe?”
I blinked, not sure if I was hallucinating. Did I conjure him up by thinking about him?
I blinked again. But his image didn’t waver.
He looked the same, but also different. A little rough for wear. Barely healed scars and discolorations from blue to yellow marred the flawless skin above his heavy beard.
Had he been in an accident?
But something in his eyes had changed, as well.
He looked darker.
Angry and lethal.
He crossed the room in huge strides, then stopped right before us.
He looked from Liam to me, and back again.
His gaze landed on Liam’s hands that were still on my waist.
In a low warning, Gabe growled, “Remove your hands from her, or I’ll remove them for you.”
Liam’s hands stayed on my waist for a second longer.
Gabe snarled, and bared his teeth, like a wild animal right before the attack. “Touch her again, and it’s the last thing you ever use your hand for.”
It wasn’t an empty threat.
Dominant power radiated from him in waves: dominance and barely contained violence.
Liam pulled away, alarm written all over his face.
He studied first Gabe and then my face.
His eyebrows arched in a silent question.
Is he for real?
I swallowed hard and braced myself. “Liam, meet Gabe, Gabe, meet Liam.”
Neither of them took their eyes off of me.
Until they did.