Playing Evelyn

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

“I still think my place is better,” Gabriel said as he took in his surroundings. We were in Henry’s apartment and I could tell that Gabriel was more impressed than he was letting on.

Henry wasn’t there at the moment but he’d given me a spare key and the combination to the door before dropping me off at school.

“Oh yeah?” I said, putting my hands on my hips and taking a quick look around the room with my eyebrow raised. “How so?”

He stopped looking around the condo and turned to face me, putting his hands on my hips to drag me closer to him. “Because I’m there,” he said huskily, bringing his face so close to mine that our noses were touching.

I swallowed, feeling that strange flip flop in my chest again but this time it wasn’t uncomfortable at all, in fact, it felt kind of nice and as I stared into his eyes, my mind was racing to find a definition for the feeling. The only one I could come up with was one I was not ready to face.

So I ignored it.

“Oh,” I said, pulling back a little and nodding in understanding. “That’s supposed to be some kind of bonus?” I teased, giving him a puzzled expression.

His eyes widened and he released me and put a hand to his chest in mock hurt. “You would actually choose this place over my house filled with younger siblings and a nosy mother? Why on earth would you want to live here when you could be suckered into cleaning mountains of dishes at my place?”

I laughed and his lips moved up into a smile. His eyes were soft as he wrapped his arms around me again. “Seriously though, I’m really happy for you, Evie. I can stop losing sleep worrying about you now.”

“You were losing sleep?” I asked quietly as his lips brushed lightly against the corner of my mouth.

“Yeah, almost ten minutes a night,” he said, moving his lips to cover mine.

I let out a little laugh that was more like a sigh. My brain was turning to mush and my thoughts were starting to scatter. “That’s so sweet,” I said breathlessly.

He stopped his kissing suddenly. I blinked up at him and gave him a questioning look. “I am not sweet.”

“You’re not?”

He shook his head, glaring down at me. “No way. Haven’t you heard about my reputation? I’m a womanizing, drug dealing, alcoholic with bad-ass good looks who rides a stolen motorcycle. Sweet doesn’t exactly fit the image.”

“You bought that motorcycle for fifty bucks and rebuilt it from the ground up. You are definitely not a drug dealer and I’ve never seen you touch a drop of alcohol. As for the womanizing,” I leaned in close and put my lips to his ear and said, “you wouldn’t dare,” after a pause I added, “sweetie.”

He growled and suddenly I was being tossed over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. I let out an embarrassing squeal as he moved towards the living room. “Gabriel,” I hissed putting my hands to the hem of my skirt, making sure nothing was showing. Suddenly the room was tilting again and I landed on the soft pillows of the gigantic white couch. “What the hell are you doing?” I asked staring up at Gabriel.

He shrugged. “Just showing you how ‘sweet’ I can be,” he said smugly, planting his hands on his hips and smirking at me.

My eyes narrowed and I lunged up to grab his t-shirt and pull him down onto the couch. After a brief struggle, I ended up on top of him, straddling his legs with my hands planted on his chest and my breathing coming a bit faster from the effort. “Who’s sweet now?” I asked, sending him my own smug smile.