Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [72]
Sage considered his words for a moment. “And I will be using the guest room?”
He nodded. “If that’s the way you want it.”
“It is.”
“Then, that’s the way it will be.”
A couple of hours later, Gabe stood in front of the huge window in his living room as his gaze took in the panoramic view of the canyons and snow-capped mountains. He leaned his head back and sniffed the air. There was the smell of the burning wood in the fireplace and an unmistakable scent of a woman.
The scent of Sage.
The seductive fragrance of her perfume sent a powerful shudder through him when thoughts of the shower she was taking in the guest bathroom stood out in his mind. After taking her home, he had sat patiently in her living room while she had gone into her bedroom to pack. She’d reappeared less than twenty minutes later with an overnight bag.
During the forty-five-minute drive from her apartment to his home, they had talked about a number of things, making sure they kept the topic of their conversation off of them. She had told him of her indecisiveness about going home for Mother’s Day because of the way she still felt about her father, and about Rose Wood’s decision to come for a visit in a few weeks.
He, on the other hand, had told her how he had come to own the house and how Christopher’s wife, Maxi, had done all of the decorating of the place. He’d also told her about Christopher and Maxi’s son, Christopher Max, and how at eleven months old he had started walking last week.
As Gabe watched a family of squirrels dig their way through the snow in search of food, it suddenly occurred to him that other than Maxi, no woman had spent the night here. Then, brushing his fingers against the cold windowpane, he went still, stood almost frozen in place, as he stared at the feminine reflection that suddenly appeared in the glass. With the lights down he could see that Sage had entered the room behind him and was unaware that he knew she was there.
Gabe’s heart began beating rapidly in his chest, and he decided not to turn around. When she was ready to let him know of her presence, she would.
In the meantime, he would enjoy her beautiful reflection since it hadn’t dawned on her yet that she was being watched.
Sage had walked out of the bedroom with the intention of letting Gabe know she was there. But the sight of him had taken her breath away. He had changed clothes, and it was the first time she had seen him in anything other than business attire. It was hard not to appreciate the sight of a well-built man, especially from behind.
Even beneath his knitted sweater she could detect broad shoulders and a strong, muscular back. Then there was the firmness of his buttocks that looked pretty damn good in a pair of jeans. The way the denim material fitted over his backside left nothing to the imagination. Everything she saw was unmistakably actual visual perception and not something that was based on mere make-believe fantasy. This wasn’t reality in motion but was reality standing still. To put it more bluntly, Gabe Blackwell definitely owned a great-looking tush. She’d never been one of those women who were attracted to a man’s hind part before, but the way Gabe looked in jeans was enough to make her appreciate the fact that she was a woman with good vision.
And all of this was from the back. Heaven help her when he turned around and she saw the front.
Knowing that she couldn’t stand there and secretly ogle him all night, Sage moved a few steps into the room. She wasn’t sure if it was the heat being generated from the fireplace or if Gabe had turned the heating unit up a notch, but she suddenly felt hot. Hotter than she’d ever felt before.
She looked down and saw a half-filled glass of wine sitting on the coffee table next to her. Evidently, it was wine Gabe had started drinking but never finished. She picked up the wineglass and brought it to her lips.
Gabe watched Sage