She ignored the tiny part inside that was saddened by that realization.

“You enjoy the picnic?” Gabe asked.

“Mostly.” Allison stretched her arms forward and rotated her neck to loosen up. “The food was great, and the conversations—well, your Uncle George trapped me and told me a long story about a cold cellar that I never quite understood the punch line.”

Gabe nodded absently, staring at the road ahead of them.

Allison sat forward and looked into his face. Now for sure she knew something was wrong. Normally he would have laughed. Told his own story about his uncle. Gabe always did what he could to make her comfortable.

All he did was flick a glance her direction. “What?”

She couldn’t ask. She leaned back. “Nothing.”

The silence stretched uncomfortably. She had to work to keep from squirming in her seat.

Five more minutes and they’d be at her mom’s house, and the business of helping, and hiding her concern, would distract her from the worry she currently felt for Gabe.

He pulled off to the side of the road, down a narrow lane that didn’t lead anywhere close to her mom’s house.

“Where we going?”

Silence answered.

A moment later they stopped, truck bumper tight against a guardrail that was the only thing between the end of the road and the bend of the river. Gabe got out and didn’t wait for her, just stepped up to the edge of the embankment and stood there, arms folded, staring down the ten-foot drop.

His face in profile was expressionless.

Shit.

Allison slid over and out the door. She stood, hanging on to the solid metal, using it like an anchor. Gabe didn’t move, and her worry increased.

Screw it if this wasn’t her business.

She followed him, pacing forward warily. The same way she would have approached a strange animal in someone’s field. Gabe didn’t acknowledge her. Not when she stood right next to him. She threw caution to the wind and slipped an arm around his waist. Rested her head against him and looked into the swirling water below, searching for a clue of what to do.

He sighed. A chest-raising, body-moving motion. Then he dropped his arm around her shoulder and brought her forward, hugging her tight. Squeezing her to him, his face buried in her neck.

Allison held on, letting him cling. Her arms were free so she stroked his back, petting him. Soothing as best she could.

How long they stood there, she wasn’t sure, but slowly the tension faded from his torso, and suddenly she found herself airborne as he scooped her up in his arms.

“Gabe, good Lord, what…?”

He’d lifted her then dropped himself to sit on the grass with her still cradled in his embrace. “I’m a fool. And you’re in the wrong spot at the wrong time and too damn cuddly for your own good.”

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

It might not be her place to ask, but she needed to know. She cupped his face. Sitting in his lap, his strong arms around her—it was strangely nonsexual. She just wanted to know what had managed to upset this man she had been spending so much time with.

Her friend—at least she hoped they were becoming better friends.

He caught her hand and pulled it from his face. He didn’t let go, though, keeping her fingers trapped in his. “Had a fight with Ben. Nothing unusual about that. Only—”

He tugged her against him again and swore lightly.

“I know you two don’t get along.” Allison hugged him, trying to give him whatever it was that he needed. Tough, when he wasn’t giving her many clues.

“Understatement of the year. Ben and I have a mutual ‘ignore’ policy.”

Allison nodded. “But you wish things were different.”

He finally made a sound that was kind of like a laugh. “I don’t know what I wish.”

“You’re a guy. This is emotional stuff. It’s tough for you to talk about it, right?”

This time he did laugh. He also let her go, and she scrambled off his lap to kneel on the grass beside him.

“It’s in the rules. I can’t talk about emotions,” Gabe deadpanned.

“Right. I forgot. You want me to talk about them for you? Like call out a list, and you check off one by one what you can’t say but you’re feeling?”

There was a flicker in his eyes—something sad and haunted—before he shook his head. “I didn’t mean to dump on you. Just didn’t want to go to your mom’s place all tensed up. I’m okay now.”

“Liar.” Allison bit her lip at his expression. “Well, you are lying about being fine. And I get that you don’t want to talk about what’s upset you. But tense I can help with. Give me a second.”

She scrambled to her feet and raced back to the truck, reaching behind the seat for the blanket she’d tucked there earlier.

He gave her a confused look. “What are you doing?”

She shook out the sturdy picnic cloth, placing the cushiony fabric on the grass beside where he sat. “You’re still tense. Take off your shirt and I can at least massage out a few of the knots.”

Gabe eyed the blanket warily, then nodded, rising on his knees to strip off his shirt and undershirt.

Allison pulled a small bottle of hand cream from her purse triumphantly. She dropped the bag to the side and turned to deal with Gabe.

Oh damn. He’d laid himself out on the blanket like she’d asked, resting his head on his hands. The position showed off his muscles beautifully—shoulders, biceps, and the firm bands that wrapped around his torso down along his waist.

A slick of sexual tension stroked her spine. A massage might help get rid of his tension, but it was going to increase hers.

“You ready?” Gack. Her voice sounded far too high-pitched and unnatural.

“Yeah, I guess.”

She knelt at his side and warmed up the cream before putting her hands on his shoulders.

For the next fifteen minutes Allison’s mind raced as she worked her hands over Gabe’s back. Her thumbs along his spine, fingertips digging into the hard bulges that slowly relaxed. She slipped lower, wondering why she was doing this to herself. What had started as an offer from a friend to another was making all kinds of more-than-friends ideas pop into her head.

No. They’d made it clear that this was about helping each other. The little bits of teasing they’d done at the start of their time together—she’d made sure that was put aside. Just ignored any of the sexual attraction she felt for the man.

But right now? Good Lord, she was getting turned on.

She’d straddled him shortly after she began, and now she sat on his legs, the edge of his jeans the barrier line for “go no farther”. Only she wanted to. Wanted to pull down the fabric and let her hands wander all over his warm skin. Wanted to press hard into his ass muscles and curl her fingers around his naked flesh.

Wanted what she shouldn’t want.

She swallowed and tried to ignore the lust. Focus instead on the sights and sounds around them.

Only the rush of the river and the nearby trees weren’t nearly as mesmerizing as his body. She smoothed her palms all the way up to his shoulders, wishing she were brave enough to lean down and set her teeth to his skin.

Suddenly she was no longer sitting on his thighs, but lying on her back as he loomed over her.


It was the little noises she made that finally broke his control.

He’d been riding hard on his frustrations as much as possible, not wanting to punish her for what Ben had stroked to a high pitch. Holding on to her and accepting her comfort had seemed like an innocent thing. Until she put her hands on him and all that adrenaline was directed away from anger at his impossible life. Now the fervour was firmly centered on his cock, and she was the reason for the change of locations.

He held her trapped, her dark hair spread out on the blanket as he examined her face for a sign he was about to get rejected. Little puffs of air escaped her lips, her chest rising and falling way too fast for someone who’d simply been giving a chaste rubdown.

She stared up, pupils dark and wide. Their bodies tight together, his groin solid to hers in a way that couldn’t possibly let her fail to recognize the state he was in.

She licked her lips, and this time he was the one who groaned in frustration. In need.

“Tell me no,” he whispered.

She caught his head in her hand, fingers threaded through his hair to hold him in place. “No.”

Then she dragged him toward her and lifted her lips.

The connection between his brain and his body shut down for the second time that day. He took the kiss she offered. Took her mouth and lips, their teeth knocking for a moment as they both went a little wild. Frustration, fire from whatever source, they both took and gave and goddammit if it wasn’t exactly what he had to have right then.

Allison squirmed, opening her thighs wider to let him settle tighter between her legs. He matched his hips and his tongue, pulsing slower now, making firm enough contact to tease them both. She dragged her hands through his hair and down his back, fingernails scraping over the territory she’d been rubbing so enthusiastically earlier.

When she clutched his ass, planted her feet on the ground and rose to meet him, he was caught wanting to take this way further than it should go.

He rolled them slightly, breaking their kiss. Keeping her against his body but pressing his lips to her face, to the hollow of her neck. “I should stop.”

“We should stop. Oh God, yes, Gabe…ahhh…” She held on too tight for her words to push him away. He sucked on her neck again, and she jerked as if he’d put a brand to her skin.