Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [104]
But they had done more than make love for those two days. They had also talked. She’d shared with him fond memories of things she and her grandmother had done together and how hard she had taken her grandmother’s unexpected death from a heart attack. She’d also talked about her strained relationship with her father. Just from listening to her, Gabe knew that her father’s infidelity had hurt her deeply and had disillusioned her thoughts on the whole aspect of love being true and pure.
They had talked about it, and although she had listened to his take on things—that she should not let that one episode cloud her mind and heart to true love—he had a feeling she already had. She had also told him the decision she had to make regarding whether she would go home for the Fourth of July. Gabe had tried convincing her that the thing to do was to resolve the issue between her and her father and move on to rebuild their father-daughter relationship. But she felt that as long as her mother did not know about what had happened, she was caught in the middle.
As Gabe turned into the restaurant’s parking lot, he thought about the weeks that lay ahead. Sage had spent a few nights with him, and he’d even stayed overnight a couple of times at her place. But since her friend Rose Wood would be arriving tomorrow, Sage felt she should spend the night at her own place a lot more since she would have a guest.
He understood that but didn’t too much like it. He had grown accustomed to those mornings he would wake up and find her in his bed. She gave all new meaning to the phrase, morning delight.
Gabe saw her the moment he walked into the restaurant. She was sitting waiting for him in the lobby. Her face lit into a smile when she saw him and immediately crossed the room. “Hi.”
Not being able to help himself, he leaned down and brushed his lips across hers. “Hi. Have you been waiting long?”
She shook her head. “No, I just got here. I had a meeting with Langley Mayhew.” At Gabe’s arched brows, she laughed and said, “And no, he didn’t get out of hand. I think you effectively put an end to any ideas he had regarding me when you insinuated we were lovers.”
Gabe’s lips tilted into a smile. “We are lovers.”
Sage nodded, unable to argue that point, especially considering all the things they did while alone in the bedroom. “Yeah, but we weren’t at the time,” she reminded him. “But trust me, Mayhew was a perfect gentleman today.”
“And if he ever stops being a perfect gentleman, you’ll let me know, right?”
Sage looked up at Gabe when she heard the seriousness in his tone. She held his gaze and saw something that suddenly took her breath away. In his eyes as well as his mind, she belonged to him. The night she had declared that he was the man in her life had pretty much established that fact. It wasn’t that he was insanely jealous or anything of that sort, but he was a man who believed in taking care of and protecting what was his.
And she was his.
She had to acknowledge that she was his in a way she had never belonged to Erol, even after being with him for five years. Erol had been traditional, but there was nothing traditional about Gabe, especially in his lovemaking techniques. There was no limit to what he would do. In the bedroom there was no taboo on anything just as long as they both were comfortable with it.
“Are you hungry?”
His words invaded her thoughts. “Yes, I missed breakfast this morning,” she said, smiling, knowing he knew the reason why. She had spent the night with him, and when she’d