He nodded slowly, raising his eyebrows at her, and said nothing. Imagine.
‘Thank you for this evening,’ she said now, with more than a hint of sadness in her voice. She paused for a moment, adjusting the tie on her headscarf, and added, ‘And for defusing that situation with my parents. I’m not so good at dealing with...all that.’
Gabriel nodded gently again and turned to face her, dropping to his knees. ‘They love you, you know.’
‘I know,’ she said, studying his eyes. He was unsure what else to say in the moment, but looking at her now, wanting to sweep her up in his arms again but knowing he shouldn’t, was killing him.
‘Gabriel...’ she started, her eyes weary but also determined, as if she was trying to make a decision that might have far-reaching consequences if she chose wrongly. But he was already leaning in, already cupping her face, and she was responding. He felt an explosion of emotion as his lips met hers, a deep warmth that seemed to travel right through him, radiating from his legs, arms and hands to his heart, till all he could feel was her. She was the total opposite of every other woman he’d been with, and her disability had nothing to do with it, he realised with a groan against her lips. She had a rebellious streak, and an independence that only he seemed to be able to break through to the soft, vulnerable woman inside.
Ana’s hands moved up to wrap round the back of his neck as he deepened the kiss and Gabriel’s heart raced in his chest as his breathing grew shallow with desire. She made him feel alive and needed. Even when her indefatigable ambition and drive for success blinded her to what really mattered, he saw how much she needed him emotionally, more than physically. Ines hadn’t needed him at all. In fact, they’d had nothing in common besides one night that had given them both the greatest gift they’d never asked for.
‘I like kissing you way too much,’ he murmured against her mouth as the trees whispered overhead. This sense of being needed was something he hadn’t felt for a long time. Now that Pedro was on the scene, filling his shoes, even Javi didn’t seem to need him as much any more.
Nope, don’t think about that now.
He felt her mouth part against his again and it made him forget all his insecurities. He focused only on the feel of her skin, soft yet firm beneath his fingers, and the way her lips moved so perfectly with his, just picking up where they’d left off.
Ana sighed against his mouth as he pulled away to look into her eyes. They were heavy with emotion now, but she smiled softly and nodded towards the exit. ‘Walk me back?’
That kiss, Ana thought as they entered her apartment. Well, so much for trying to be friends. It had felt as natural as breathing to kiss him back.
It was dark inside. Flicking on the lights, she spotted some dishes still piled in the sink ahead of her in the kitchen. Thinking better of it, she flicked them off again, leaving on just one that lit a less embarrassing pathway up the stairs. That kiss had rendered her powerless to resist him and, even if she had to be brazen about it, or regretted it afterwards, she wasn’t just going to stop there.
‘Let me,’ he said now, as if reading her mind. He motioned to the stairs, then swept her up in his arms again, heavily nudging the front door closed behind him with his foot in a dramatic statement of his intentions.
A chair lift had been installed to help with this part, but why let technicalities get in the way of romance? Suppressing a giggle, she let Gabriel carry her; he was good at it by now, and she enjoyed the way he swept her up with less care this time, letting passion override the need to treat her carefully.
When he lowered her onto the bed this time, she didn’t even care about what she might look like, free from her chair and unable to move very much below her waist. It didn’t mean she couldn’t feel. Contrary to what a lot of people thought, she could still feel everything a man might do to her, and as her nervous giggles dissipated she found she was tingling in places that she’d been longing to feel tingly in since their last encounter. Oh...gosh.
‘Oh, Gabe...’
Ana closed her eyes and melted into him, giving in to all the feelings flooding through her as Gabriel explored every inch of her body with his hands and tongue, lips and teeth. He was more than happy to help her. He seemed to move intuitively after just a few minutes, as if he’d been paying close attention before, memorising what made her most comfortable, which positions meant they could go further and deeper.
Kissing him, making love to him in her bed, was everything she’d been replaying in her head since they’d made love the first time, and more. How could she even have tried to forget the way he’d made her feel—as if everything else just melted away?
‘You feel so good,’ he mumbled against her into her hair, pressing deeper. The deeper he went, the more she wanted.
She was starting to need him. It had been beyond sexy, the way he’d been with her parents—softly reminding them what they should already know about her, without the need for an altercation. His gentle, calming energy and easy-going nature was a balm to her stressful reality, so to hell with feeling insecure or needy. To hell with pushing him away.
Soon, they were both breathless with exhaustion, falling apart with stars in their eyes, letting out a laugh in awe as they lay side by side on their backs.
‘We should probably talk about this,’ he said after a moment, lightly tracing the curve of her waist with one hand while his other arm lay protectively across her body. He seemed to take a breath before speaking and Ana couldn’t help but wonder if he felt the same way that she did—as if they were on the edge of something beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
‘I don’t want to,’ she told him quickly, not wanting to break the spell.
‘Really?’
‘Really. We know all the reasons this shouldn’t work, Gabriel...’
‘But it does work,’ he said under his breath.
She sighed softly, nodding a silent acknowledgement.
There were no words that would help this thing make any more or less sense. They had something incredible that seemed to run deeper the more she tried to deny it. So maybe it was time just to stop denying it, she decided.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ANA PAUSED IN the clinic’s doorway. The rain was picking up, not that it could dampen her mood in the slightest. No sooner had she wheeled her chair outside for a short lunch break than someone took her umbrella clean from her hands.
‘A lady should never have to hold her own umbrella,’ Gabriel said, appearing from nowhere and flipping it open over her head. Laughing, and feeling the familiar thrill of anticipation as he took her other hand, Ana followed his lead down the street and around the corner into the park, while he sheltered her from the rain all the way.
The last few days had started to blur for Ana. While Gabriel had started working with Bruno again this week, he’d still managed to put in a couple of shifts at the clinic as well. The droplets picked up in intensity, smacking hard at the ground and shaking the leaves in the trees all around them, but Gabriel didn’t seem fazed, and at this point Ana knew she’d go anywhere with him. Well, within reason—she had a line-up of patients to see in less than thirty minutes, and so did he.
‘You’re early for your shift,’ she said now, pulling out a bag of the tiny, delicious home-made empanadas Rosa had brought with her to her check-up this morning and offering him one.
‘I was hoping to catch you at lunch,’ he said, taking a bite and motioning her further into the park, where they stopped under her favourite tree, watching the rain.
‘What is it?’ she asked, suddenly suspicious. Things had been going so well lately, both with him and with work, and she had barely given another thought to the fact that they’d put their friendship on the line to pursue this. Was he having doubts now? The thought made her heart start to thump.
‘Javi wants to know if you’ll come to the ‘pawrents’ day’ thing at the park,’ he said, looking at her sideways. Between bites of his snack, he explained how Javi really wanted her to demonstrate the trick they’d been practising. Savio had learned to leap onto her lap in the wheelchair on command, as well as how to retrieve items from the fridge and bring them to her. Ana was pretty proud of her part in all this over the last few days, and spending more time with Javi as well as Gabriel and the dog had started to feel like a lot of fun. She’d never been part of a unit like this before.
‘It won’t be the same if you don’t come,’ he said.
‘No pressure, then.’ She smiled, while her heart continued its thudding, this time with joy and disbelief that, somehow, all of this was happening to her.
‘I know it’s happening when the clinic is open, but Ebony can cover now.’
Ebony was the part-time locum Ana had finally found who was able to cover whenever Gabriel’s shifts with Bruno clashed with the clinic’s.
