The Fate Date (Glengarry Curse #1)

12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Sabrina

T he kiss started as she expected. Firm, stiff lips met her own. She was being crushed against him with the force of his arms, his towering body pressing against her everywhere. She couldn’t breathe.

But then, gradually, he softened. His lips began to move, the pressure easing like he was testing the feel of her. Softly, his lips brushed against hers, coaxing her open tenderly. As his mouth began its gentle perusal, the hand around the small of her back loosened, his palm stretching open to rub up and down. His fingers on her cheek brushed her soothingly, something she never would have thought possible given his gruff exterior. What had started as kissing a brick wall was now thorough, searching, curious. And she was too.

That was the greatest shock of all. She wasn’t surprised by the fact that Gavin Glengarry could kiss. No, the thought consuming her was that she liked it. Her skin heated. Her breathing quickened. She felt the flood of warmth low in her belly. Her body responded by rocking into him, seeking the earlier pressure that had at first felt overwhelming.

But all too soon, his lips lifted off hers in slow motion, like he was begrudgingly going to end it and he was savouring the final moment. She couldn’t have that. She didn’t want to stop now, not when they were just getting comfortable.

She brought her tongue forwards to lick the seam of his lips. He opened on a gasp, allowing her entrance as she glided her tongue against his. He groaned, and she felt the vibration slip into her mouth and reverberate in her body. He tasted like red wine and thyme. He seemed to have forgotten his misguided plan to stop things because he pulled her close again. She could feel his hardness pressing on her belly and knowing that he was equally affected by her own efforts just made her redouble them.

One of her hands tugged his collar while the other arm flailed behind her, searching for the table. His hands came to her hips to hoist her up onto it, the sounds of plates and glassware clinking. Sabrina didn’t care. Didn’t even look to make sure she wasn’t seated in a pile of gravy. She was flooded by this intoxicating deluge of pleasure, and though she didn’t understand it, she knew if she broke the kiss even for a moment, she’d be met with Grouchy Gavin once again.

His hands came to her knees, spreading them wide as he stepped between them, the hem of her dress sliding indecently upwards. Fuck, why had she worn her Hello Kitty thong?

But all thoughts of her embarrassing underwear choice evaporated as his hands started to roam her thighs, his fingers splayed on top, and his thumbs stroking the insides up and down, higher and higher. A little further , her brain chanted with each stroke, wishing he’d slide them up to reach underneath her panties so that he, too, could feel how much she liked it.

His teeth nipped at her lip, playfully regaining her attention to the other parts of her body that were being thoroughly ravished. Those hands that had been full of filthy promises came back to her hips, pulling her to the edge of the table. He pressed himself more fully against her so that the hard ridge of his cock lined up right with her clit. Then he rocked forwards.

Their mutual groans had her delving her tongue further into his mouth and wrapping her legs around his waist. He pressed. She plundered.

That is, until her lust-fogged brain heard the sound of a voice clearing .

“Gavin,” she tried to say, unwrapping her pretzelled legs from his back, though her hips still rolled forwards.

“Gavin.” A deeper voice came from the entranceway to the dining room.

Gavin wrested his lips away and looked at her, dazed, for a quick second, before his head whipped over to where Ian stood.

Sabrina hopped down from the table and tried to pull her dress down in the most respectable way possible, which is to say, not gracefully at all. Apparently, Gavin had turned her legs to spaghetti, and they gave out in the process. He caught her by the forearm and pulled her into him for support, and ostensibly to shield her from Ian’s gaze. Her cheek pressed against the buttons of his dress shirt, feeling the thud of his heartbeat starting to slow.

“Sorry, boss,” she heard Gavin rumble.

“We’re in the sitting room when you’re…uhm…finished.” His words were laced with humour that had Sabrina’s cheeks heating. “Don’t break any of the dishes, it was our wedding china and Melanie will never forgive you.” And with that, he left the two of them alone.

They stood like this, her shielded in his arms for another beat before she was the one to break the spell. “Well, that was…convincing.”

He let out a ragged breath as he studied her, eyes wary.

“Let’s go, Tink.” His arm came to the small of her back to guide her forwards. They rejoined the group, amid some smug looks and nudging from the other guests. That’s what she had wanted right? For them to appear more believable as a couple?

Sabrina found it hard to focus on the conversation for the rest of the evening. Her eyes kept gravitating to Gavin, who looked relaxed. He was even smiling, which was a gorgeous distraction in itself. Sabrina gaped while he asked the other guests thoughtful questions, the kiss having apparently caused a personality swap, like some sort of erotic Freaky Friday .

She had made out with Gavin Glengarry. No, scratch that. She’d almost orgasmed dry humping him on his boss’s kitchen table. And she was disappointed it was over. Gavin. Glengarry. Her fake date. Her business coach. The man her mother’s legacy was riding on. And she wanted to ride him . She’d always found him attractive, it was an objective and honestly, kind of unfair, fact of life. The Glengarry brothers should be a rugged Calvin Klein commercial in that lavender field next to their house. But she’d never considered acting on it before. Or that it would feel that good if she did.

She looked over to notice Gavin’s top button was missing. Had she done that? The extra bit of skin on his chest, as he leaned back and talked, made her stomach clench. She’d never experienced this kind of magnetism before, certainly not with Duncan. For the first time she was a bit relieved that he’d broken the engagement—they’d never had this kind of chemistry.

Looking around the room, she ascertained she wasn’t the only one susceptible to Gavin Glengarry, aka. Secret Agent Sex God 0069. Melanie pushed her hair back behind her ear, eyes fixed on the tiny bit of chest hair peeking out from Gavin’s collar. Effie sat up straight, poised and leaning in his direction. Ian seemed pleased with whatever work “evaluation criteria” they were discussing about their research and development projects, and Alfred was slowly turning red.

“I think it’s naive to ignore intellectual property permissions at the expense of timelines,” Gavin said calmly, taking a sip of water.

Alfred spluttered. “You have to take a risk sometimes, if you don’t move quickly in the technology sector you get left behind.”

“True, but it doesn’t excuse due diligence. I’d prefer to fund a project that meets all the criteria, even if it takes a bit longer, than take a chance on something that could be a huge financial liability for the company later. ”

Ian piped in, as a moderating force, “A bit of both is important—but as Gavin has said, we’ve built the company on reliability. It’s a given when people seek out our solutions. It separates us from the competitors.”

It looked like Alfred was going to argue some more, so Sabrina decided to cut in before a disagreement undermined Gavin’s progress. Was it weird to think that she was proud of him? She knew that this was outside his usual comfort zone, and she felt like others were finally getting to see his confident side. It was also the perfect opportunity to stoke the flames of her own rivalry, the only way she knew how—with a smile.

“Effie, I’m so glad to have met you before the retreat. I was feeling a bit nervous about meeting all of Gavin’s colleagues. It’s nice to know I’ll have a friend there at the big event.” She batted her lashes and watched for the reactions. Effie’s lip curled. Melanie cooed in the background. Alfred gave a tight smile. Gavin barely concealed his smirk.

Effie retaliated, “I’m already familiar with a lot of the board, with my aunt being the chair, and Alfred’s devotion to the company. He’s always wanted to involve me in his career success. He would never hide me from his work.”

Before, the words might have dug at Sabrina’s confidence, but now she felt imbued with a reckless streak. “I know, I’m the guilty party. Gavin wanted to introduce me to people ages ago, but because of my professional work in communications I keep a low-key profile personally. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone though, especially with Gavin stepping into the role of CFO soon.”

She dropped the bomb on the room and let it splinter. Gavin shook his head, his full, crinkly smile visible behind his glass.

Alfred cleared his throat. “As one of the candidates, you mean.”

“Oh yes,” Sabrina waved her hand in the air, “I know that, but Gavin’s been doing the interim role so well these past few months, I’m sure it’s a formality.” She turned to Alfred then. “Gavin said you’re enjoying your new research and development responsibilities. It seems like everyone is finding their new place.” She smiled and sipped her port.

The battle lines were drawn. She’d staked her side. She would not let these people intimidate her any further. She was going to that retreat—yes for the money, and her commitment to Gavin, but there was also a part of her that wanted to stick it to these two; she wouldn’t let them make her feel insignificant any longer. Gavin gave her a wink from across the room. She felt her face flush. Maybe there might be more to explore there too?

***

T he gravel crunching under the tires and the rhythmic squeak of the windshield wipers were barely audible over the heartbeat thudding in his ears. He made a right from off the long driveway onto River Road and she turned to him.

“Well, you know them best—do you think they bought it?”

A smile, full of disbelief and excitement, stretched slowly across his face. “Yeah. I think they did.”

“Yess,” she hissed.

“Woo!” he yelled, like some frat boy, slamming his hand on the steering wheel.

Sabrina giggled. “We truly are terrible people.”

“Welcome to the dark side, Tinkerbell,” Gavin said.

“And the best part is that Alfred is out $500.” She rubbed her hands together in glee.

Gavin laughed, “You’re really pissed about that, huh?”

“Aren’t you? I can’t believe he said those things about you.”

“I can.” Gavin was a tough manager, and perhaps hadn’t been approaching his leadership responsibilities with enough tact. He’d always reasoned that social niceties were a waste of time, but it would appear that particular strategy might cost him in the long run.

Sabrina nudged his arm a little. “You did great tonight. I was pleasantly surprised.” Gavin lifted a sardonic eyebrow at her. “Thoroughly impressed,” came her effusive compliments. And damn if he didn’t like them. He had turned things around, but not just for the job.

“You were right you know.” He cleared his throat.

“Sorry?”

“Your spreadsheet tips and uh, about…” How did he say this so it wouldn’t make things awkward? “About the uh…touching.”

Touching. He’d gone with touching. Like that adequately summarized almost fucking her on his boss’s dining room table. Gavin shifted in his seat wishing his cock would read the room. These past few weeks of suppressing his desires, avoiding her touch, had unleashed the side of him that always pushed things to the limit.

“Yeah, that was quite the kiss,” she said, reading his thoughts.

An icy vice gripped his chest, making it difficult to breathe. Had he offended her? Taken things too far?

“Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but I think you may have been right about the touching business. Let’s maybe keep all future physical gestures PG,” she elaborated.

“I completely agree, I’m sorry if—”

“No,” she stopped him. “Please don’t be sorry. I haven’t kissed anyone in a while and I….” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her turn bright red as she cupped her face in her hands.

“First base only from now on. In front of others,” he said, trying to both help her and sum up this excruciating topic of conversation.

She turned to him, relieved. “Great. Like you said. We don’t want to confuse our business arrangement. ”

Gavin chewed on the side of his cheek. He recognized his earlier words, but they irritated him now. The way she’d moaned as he’d pressed against her—that hadn’t felt like “business” anymore.

“I’m glad you were there tonight,” he admitted, once again trying to steer his thoughts in another direction. “And from now on I will defer to your expertise on all things fake relationship.”

“I’m definitely going to need that in writing.”

“Nope, it’s a verbal agreement.”

“I’ll take a video of you saying—”

“Not happening, Tinkerbell.”

She laughed and relaxed into the seat beside him. “Let’s debrief the night, put some structure to it. ‘Two Stars and a Wish’.”

“Is this another astrology thing?”

“No, it’s something we did at summer camp. Two stars are for what went well, the wish is something to improve for next time.”

There was no way he was going to answer that honestly. The first star would be for the way she’d kissed. The second for how she’d wrapped her legs around him to press him closer. And the wish…

Instead, he said, “Two stars for me were your advice and the way you managed Effie and Alfred at the end of the night. God it was priceless.” And a huge fucking turn-on. “Wish is that I wasn’t so stubborn at the beginning of the night. I thought I’d leave the social aspects to you, but we’re a team. I need some more practice, but you can count on me going forward.”

The sight of her smile reflected in the windshield made his chest heat.

“Thank you. And I agree. I think we might need another test run at this fake dating thing. My stars…hmmm. The apple pie gets an honourable mention.”

“An asteroid belt?”

“You’re such a nerd.”

“Says the girl who tracks the planets. ”

“My spreadsheet saved our asses tonight, or don’t you remember admitting that earlier.”

“It’s not in writing, so…”

She threw herself back onto the seat with her usual boundless energy, sighing loudly.

“OK, my wish was that I’d done more research on my ‘job’,” she said, using air quotes. “I wasn’t expecting Alfred and Effie’s needling. I’ll be better prepared next time. My stars were winning over Melanie and the way you seduced all the women after dinner.”

“Sorry?”

“You were so confident talking about your work stuff. It was really nice to see you so comfortable. Effie and Melanie were practically salivating.”

He hadn’t realized that his relaxed state had been so apparent. The kiss in the dining room had bolstered him. He’d walked into the sitting room on a high. The rush of adrenaline had made him feel more brazen than usual, and having Sabrina there across from him, her lips still plump from his kisses, only made the feeling last longer. It was like an ember that had always been inside him, only she’d stoked the flames.

That confidence rushed to the forefront again.

“Were you jealous?” His voice sounded more gravelly than usual. Seductive.

“You wish,” she said. “I know it’s all an act.”

Right. Their “business arrangement”.

“Besides, I know the truth.”

Gavin slowed to a stop at a red light, now that they were closer to the downtown core of the city.

“And what’s that.” Gavin’s blood pulsed in anticipation. Being with Sabrina, trying to guess what she might do or say next, excited him. He’d stuffed away his thrill-seeking tendencies, held off from his irresponsible nature for so long and now it was coming back to bite him in an adorable, beautiful, and unassuming package. She made him feel more alive than he’d felt in a decade, but there was a catch—it made him a little more impulsive too.

“A relationship with you would be death by spreadsheet,” she said.

“That bad, huh?”

“I’d have to learn to speak a whole new language of judgmental grunting and heavy sighing.” He knew she was teasing, but he didn’t feel like that man so much when he was around her. He felt lighter, freer, a little less uptight.

“Well, it’s a good thing we only have to put up with each other for another two weeks, right?” he said, taking the turn onto Wellington a little fast.

As she was apt to do, she picked up on his subtle changes. Her intuition frustrated him, made him feel like she could read his thoughts when he didn’t really understand them himself.

“Hey, I was joking. You’re not the worst. We’re simply opposite.”

The word curdled his blood.

They had a lot of dissimilarities, was all. He shook his head, trying to erase the memory of the word to no avail. A silly crush on a tiny astrologer he could manage—but fate—that was a whole other demon he was not prepared to face.

“We’re not opposite.”

“Oh, come on…”

His head was spinning, so the words came out more harsh than he intended. “I get it, I’m judgmental, critical, unpleasant, and antisocial. You’re not.”

“Gavin, no, I was joking around. You’re—”

“Do me a favour, Sabrina, don’t romanticize me.” He let his cool facade take back over, like he’d trained.

“I’m not…” She took a deep breath. She looked shaken, lost in the vortex of his sudden mood change, but she should know better. He should know better than to think he was anything but those monikers .

“Look, it was a stressful evening,” she said. “Maybe we can talk when I see you next?”

“No need.”

“We will talk about this.”

Gavin stayed silent. Though he had clearly hurt her feelings, it was a lot better than any chaos the curse would inflict on her life if the relationship between them became anything more than professional.

He pulled up outside the shop, and she got out of the car and slammed the door in his face, as he deserved. Forcing himself to swallow the apology that was gurgling in his throat, he signalled and drove home. Alone.