Wild Forces: A Friends to Lovers Romance (O-Town Book 2) Karen Renee (best value ebook reader TXT) 📖

buildings down and headed to Cassie’s apartment. I had little doubt my brother was home and waiting for me, but the only person I wanted to talk to about this situation was Cassie.

Cassie

I LOOKED OUT THE PEEPHOLE and sighed.

Three days. Seventy-two hours reprieve from Gabe Sullivan was as long as I could get.

He looked rougher than normal. The usual light in his eyes noticeably absent, so I opened the door to him.

The smile on his face held half its usual force, which worried me.

“Come on in, Sullivan. Long time no see.”

His lips pressed together and I realized his beard had filled in more. I didn’t think I was a beard kind of girl. Then again, I could be any kind of girl if it involved Gabe.

I shook my head because that was pathetic of me, and I needed to be stronger.

While I locked the door behind him, he moved to the breakfast bar, leaning his forearms on it. “You got any brown liquor?”

“Uh, maybe,” I said, as I moved to where Kaylee kept the liquor. I made a mental note to box the bottles up for her since it had probably slipped her mind.

I found a bottle of Captain Morgan and turned to Gabe. “Spiced rum work for you?”

“It’ll damn sure beat what Dad ordered at Long Horn. Pour me three fingers.”

I grabbed a glass and poured a drink for him.

“Is there an occasion?” I asked as he took a generous swig.

He smiled, but it looked malicious.

“You could say that. My dear mother has an inheritance she plans to split between me, Brock, and Vamp.”

I nodded slowly. “And that calls for brown liquor instead of say, champagne?”

He leaned away from the breakfast bar and moved to the couch, so I followed him.

Once I sat down he gave me a sideways glance. “You’re not drinking.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know what we’re drinking to, so maybe I’ll have one in a bit. You know, when you’ve filled me in some more.”

He lifted his glass my way and nodded. After he swallowed another sip, he spoke.

“It was hard not having a mother around,” he shook his head. “No, that’s not right. It wasn’t hard. Dad made sure there were female role models around. My Auntie Sandra, his mom, and once or twice a serious girlfriend would hang with us. None of that made up for how much I hated not having my own mother around though.”

“Okay,” I drawled.

Gabe had kept a very tight lip about his mother, up until recently. With this much information coming from him, I didn’t want him to shut down because of anything I had to say.

He finished the rum, and held his glass out to me. “Do you mind? If I pour it, I might dump half the bottle in here. And, while you’re at it, Daughtry, pour one for yourself. I’m not in the mood to drink alone.”

I came back to the living room with his drink and a Diet Coke with a splash of rum in it for me.

He leaned toward me, the playful glint back in his eyes. “Lemme smell your drink. I don’t trust you, Cassandra.”

I couldn’t tell if he was blitzed yet, but he was definitely feeling good.

“I don’t think so, G-Rock. You need to keep to yourself tonight. But feel free to get whatever’s on your mind off your chest, okay?”

He grinned mischievously. “You mixed your metaphors, Daughtry. Shame, shame. Thought you knew better than that.”

There weren’t any metaphors being mixed, but I knew better than to argue with him.

I grinned and rolled my eyes. “You were saying, it pissed you off not having your mother around.”

He lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, but now here she is, and she’s throwing around two hundred and fifty Gs to boot. What am I supposed to do with that?”

My eyes widened. No doubt, he could do a lot with a quarter of a million dollars. While I didn’t know just how intoxicated he was yet, I knew telling him how to invest that much money would be lost on him in his state.

He leaned toward me, nudging my shoulder with his. “Huh? What am I supposed to do?”

I looked at him. “There’s a lot you could do, but it wouldn’t hurt to sleep on it for a day or seven.”

He chuckled. “Or seven. You’re funny, Cassie-Cass.”

And there was my proof. He could not be reasoned with in this state. I sipped my drink, and put it on the coffee table.

“I wasn’t being funny, Gabey-Gabe. But that’s all right.”

Gabe finished the rest of his spiced rum and put the glass back on the coffee table. When he leaned back on the couch, he slung an arm around my shoulders.

His body leaned into mine. “Need to lay down, Cassie.”

I tried to move away so he could do that, but his hand tightened on my shoulder.

“No, you lay down, too. Snuggles.”

Snuggles? Then again, there wasn’t much difference between this and when he persuaded me to watch movies with him. He shifted and I moved so he would have more room on the couch. His other arm went around my waist, pulling me snug to him, and he put his head on my shoulder.

“Comfy?” he asked.

My nerves were making me tense, but I lied. “Yep.”

“Good.”

His hand at my shoulder moved to my neck. I looked over to see he’d raised his head and his eyes looked different. Not drunk, though they did shine like he’d had one too many, but intent and determined.

He lowered his head and kissed me. Everything froze. My mind, my heart, and my lungs. His tongue prodded at my lips, and I opened for him. He tasted of spiced rum. So much spice, I wanted to revel in it, but this was wrong.

I twisted my head away. “Gabe, no.”

His hand at my waist came up to cup my cheek. “It’s just kissing, Cassie,” he said against my cheek. Except my name came out ‘Cashie.’

“To you it is, but to me it isn’t. I can’t