"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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She was Gabriel's girlfriend.
Just for one night, she told herself. She could definitely spend a few hours with Gabriel if it meant he would stop trying to melt her heart. Not like that would work anyway. But she hoped it would make it easier for them to work together. And he said he would do all the work, so she really had nothing to panic about.
And yet...
She didn't like this. Gabriel looked far too confident when he had suggested this, like he knew one date would never be enough. Like he was irresistible.
Heis irresistible.
Ash shoved that thought away as quickly as it had popped into her head. Where in the hell had that come from?
Why are you so worried about this date? Gabriel has seen how manipulative you can be, he knows you lie constantly, you even told him you don't think you're capable of love. He still wants to go out with you anyway. So why panic? If you can't feel anything for him, then you can do this and be done with him.
The only reason it makes sense to worry is if you don't think you can make it through this date without wanting a second one. And that would mean that you think you can fall for him.
Or that you already have.
Ash's eyes went wide. No, that wasn't possible. She was calm, cool, collected. She had no feelings for him because that would be stupid. And she wasn't stupid.
"You are thinking way too much," Gabriel murmured, startling her as he wrapped his arms around her from behind while they stood beneath a cherry tree. The delicate white blooms hung above them, suspended by an intricate system of branches and twigs.
"We're just looking at trees," Gabriel added. "It's not rocket science."
Ash wasn't sure what Gabriel meant by "rocket science," but if he meant aerospace engineering, she would have preferred that.
Gabriel turned her around. "What can we do? To shut it off?"
"My thoughts?" Ash asked.
Gabriel nodded, his deep brown eyes unsettling her.
"Nothing," Ash answered in defeat.
"Nothing?"
Well...sex, Ash thought to herself. But that hardly seemed appropriate right now.
"Nothing that would be useful in this context," she responded.
A nearly imperceptible smirk quickly passed across Gabriel's face, so fast that Ash wasn't convinced it had even happened.
"Then maybe shutting it off isn't the answer," he thought aloud. "Maybe we need to refocus you."
Refocus on something other than the bronze-skinned Adonis looking at her like she was the only person who existed in this sea of people? Sure.
