Page 82 of Clinically Delicious
“Probably going to end in disaster?”
His mouth curved. “Possibly.”
“Then why?”
“Because I can’t stop thinking about you,” he admitted, his voice rough and honest, and completely devastating. “Because you’ve been driving me insane for weeks. Because every time you walk into a room, I lose the ability to focus on anything else.”
Oh my God.
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
“Because,” he continued, his hand cupping my face again, “I’ve spent my entire adult life being controlled and professionaland doing the right thing. And for once, just once, I want to do what I actually want.”
His eyes held mine.
“I want you, Cate.”
I’m going to pass out. Actual fainting. Right here in the hallway. Gabriel Lyon is going to have to perform CPR on his nanny because she can’t handle him saying he wants her.
What a way to go.
“I—” I tried, but my voice was shaking. “Gabriel, I—”
“If you don’t want this,” he said quietly, “if you want to leave and pretend this never happened, I’ll understand. I’ll never mention it again. We’ll go back to being professional.”
Liar. We both know that’s a lie. There’s no going back from this.
“But if you stay,” he continued, his thumb stroking my cheek, “if you come with me right now, I need you to understand something.”
“What?” I whispered.
“This isn’t just tonight.”
What?
“This isn’t just physical. This isn’t just—” He paused, searching for words. “I don’t do casual, Cate. I don’t do temporary. If you stay, if we do this, I’m all in.”
Oh my God.
Oh my God, he’s serious. Gabriel Lyon—controlled, professional, emotionally distant Gabriel Lyon—is telling me he wants something real. With me. The disaster nanny who broke his daughter’s arm and can’t go five minutes without saying something embarrassing.
I looked up at him. At his dark eyes and his messed-up hair and his mouth that had just been kissing me like I was oxygen, and I realized something terrifying: I wanted this too.
Not just the kissing, though the kissing was definitely a factor.
Not just the physical attraction, though that was also very much a factor.
I wantedhim.I wanted Gabriel Lyon—complicated, intense, secretly-soft-with-his-daughter Gabriel Lyon. I wanted to stay. I wanted to see what happened next. I wanted to stop running from things that scared me and actually take a chance on something that felt right. Even if it were insane. Even if it were inappropriate.
Even if it was definitely going to be complicated.
Fuck it.
“Okay,” I whispered.
His eyes widened slightly. “Okay?”
“I’ll stay.”
