"Do you normally make-out with the people you're hired to kill? It doesn't strike me as very professional."
"Put the gun down," Gabriel panted, not answering her.
"Why on earth would I do that?"
"Because you're not going to shoot me," Gabriel rep...
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Gabriel was pissed.
For the past four days, Ash had been avoiding him. Ever since her date with Sterling, if he walked into a room, she walked out. If he tried to say something to her, she said something to Levi. She spent hours and hours staring off into the distance, deep in thought. Gabriel wished he could read minds. Every time he asked her what she was thinking, she just replied, "nothing."
It was so. Fucking. Frustrating.
She had stopped playing games with him, but now she wasn't interacting with him at all. She didn't seem upset about what had happened in the bathroom, just indifferent. Which somehow felt even worse.
Not like she seemed to care how he felt. He was clearly a distraction for her, someone who was skilled in bed and could satisfy her, but not the kind of person she would ever end up with. No, she was destined to be with someone like Sterling - wealthy, connected, educated. Someone who could talk about Sart or whatever the hell his name was.
Not someone like Gabriel.
He normally would be okay with casual sex, but not with her. Every moan, every whimper, ever gasp was so ridiculously addictive. The more he had her, the more he wanted her. Which is why he couldn't let her manipulate him, the way she had at the restaurant. He had given her exactly what she wanted.
He wouldn't do it again.
It was the day before Huxley's party and they were all eating dinner together - some healthy stir fry that Ash had made. Gabriel had just got off the phone with his parents, who were apparently having a great time with Rin and were still furious with him. He had delayed telling them everything by claiming it wasn't safe to do over the phone. It wasn't true, although they seemed to buy it. But talking with them had only worsened Gabriel's already sour mood.
Thank god for Levi or the two of them would have been sitting in painfully awkward silence. Gabriel tuned out Levi's babbling and fiddled around with his dinner.
"And that's why Marvel is better than DC," Levi concluded.
Gabriel gave him a look, while Ash stared at the corner of the room, clearly lost in thought about something.
"Seriously? Ash, you're a nerd. You don't have an opinion on this?"
Ash turned her attention to Levi and shrugged. "Where is Marvel?"
"Where is...not DC the city Ash! DC the comic book company," Levi said, exasperated. "I forgot about the fact that your parents forced you to live under a rock. Gabriel?"
"No opinion," Gabriel muttered, pushing his food around his plate.
"What is up with you two? You're acting like zombies. Ever since you came back from the restaurant..."
"I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well," Ash said suddenly. "Excuse me."
Levi and Gabriel watched as Ash retreated to her bedroom. As soon as she was gone, Levi turned to him.
