Against the Fire (38 page)
Gabe just grinned. “You’re the architect.”
Mattie had thought it over for all of ten minutes before she had agreed. It had never occurred to her that she and Gabe could build a business together. That the success they achieved could belong to both of them.
She looked around the table at her very dearest friends. Sam and Tracy had eyes only for each other. Mattie believed that together they had found exactly what each of them needed to feel complete.
At the end of the table sat the evening’s special guests. Gabe’s brother, Jackson, a slightly taller, more chiseled version of Gabe, with warm brown eyes and the lean-muscled build of a cowboy, which being a rancher, he was. A beautiful brunette—his wife, Sarah—sat beside him, Jackson’s arm draped protectively over the back of her chair. Only Dev was missing, off on some new adventure.
Jackson and his family were staying in Mattie’s loft apartment during their long-overdue visit, since she and Gabe lived in his condo until their new, larger apartment was completed. Little Holly Raines, Jackson’s adopted daughter, was already tucked into bed, Rosa Ramirez babysitting until they got home from the club. Mattie figured the child couldn’t be in better hands.
Angel had made a full recovery. He had graduated high school in June and had just started downtown at El Centro Community College. He and Enrique were still best friends. The young painter’s show had been a tremendous success. The artwork Gabe had purchased, a brilliantly colored painting of the projected park, now complete, with the mural on one wall, hung in the dining room of the condo. It had already more than doubled in value.
Whenever she was needed, Mattie still volunteered at the Family Recovery Center, but her life was fuller now and she and Gabe often spent weekends in the Hill Country at his Rolling Acres ranch.
Life was ridiculously good.
And tonight, once she told Gabe her secret, it was going to be even better.
He stood up just then, grabbed her hand and hauled her to her feet. “All right, honey. Time to sing for your supper.”
“What?” Mattie shook her head. “No way. I’m a married woman now. I don’t need to get up on stage.”
“I think you do.” He turned to the others. “What do you guys think? Do we want Mattie to sing?”
They all clapped and cheered.
“Give us a song, Lena,” Aaron teased.
Emily grinned. “I don’t know. It’s her birthday. Maybe she’s getting too old to belt one out like she used to.”
“Come on, Mattie,” Tracy coaxed. “It’ll be just like old times.”
Mattie groaned.
“Tell you what,” Gabe said. “I’ll go first.”
Her eyebrows went up. “I thought you couldn’t sing.”
“Can’t carry a tune in a bucket. Which means once I’m finished you’ll have no excuse.”
Mattie laughed. “All right, you win. Let’s go.” They walked over to the DJ, each picked out a song and Gabe walked up on stage. He looked so sexy up there and watching the women drooling over him like a juicy piece of meat, she wasn’t sure this was such a good idea.
Then the music began. A Ray Charles song was the last thing she would have expected Gabe to choose. The orchestra music swelled. His gaze fixed on her face.
“I…can’t…stop…loving you… It’s useless to say.” He sounded like a bloodhound howling at the moon and everyone at the table cracked up. Everyone but Mattie, whose eyes filled with tears.
Gabe kept singing and everyone kept laughing, but the beautiful lyrics were meant just for her and her throat closed up.
She knew why he wanted her to get up and sing. He knew how much she had always loved doing it and he never wanted her to feel as if she had given up anything when she had married him.
The truth was, Gabe had given her the part of herself that she had always been missing.
Gabe’s song came to an end—thank God. As he came down the stairs to where she waited, she cupped her hand against his cheek, went up on her toes and kissed him. “Thank you.”
Gabe kissed her back. “Your turn,” he said a little gruffly. “Knock ’em dead, honey.”
Mattie made her way up onstage and the music started. She had chosen the song she had sung the night Gabe had seduced her in the hall. The night her life had truly changed.
She picked up the microphone, tossed back her curly auburn hair and began to sing. She was wearing the short white skirt and turquoise midriff top she’d had on at the barbecue, but she had changed into a pair of strappy, high-heeled sandals before coming to the club. Tapping her foot to the music, she waited for the intro, then fixed her attention on the man she loved.
Swaying to the beat, she let the mood sweep her up, let herself feel the rhythm of the fast disco song.
The crowd went wild.
And from the scorching look in Gabe’s blue eyes, hot love was exactly what she would be getting when they got home.
The second chorus was nearly drowned out by wolf whistles, catcalls and cheers. She found her old confidence and began to really enjoy herself, strutting back and forth across the stage, tossing her hair and generally having fun.
When the song came to an end, applause erupted. Mattie bowed and blew a kiss, then left the stage. At the bottom of the stairs, Gabe stood waiting. Instead of leading her back to their table, he caught her hand and tugged her toward the stairway leading down to the basement. Halfway along the hall, he opened the door to one of the storage rooms, dragged her inside and closed the door.
Moonlight poured in through the high basement windows, lighting the solid line of his jaw and the indentation in his chin. When his eyes found hers, she could read his desire, his hunger. Her mouth went dry as he backed her up against the wall.
“Gabe…”
Claiming her lips in a scorching kiss, he shoved up her skirt and cupped her bottom in his big hands. Hot, wet kisses followed. Deep, burning kisses that took away her breath.
“I’d have you right here if our friends weren’t up there waiting,” he said as he nibbled the side of her neck.
Mattie slid her hands into his silky dark hair. “Then I think…think it’s time for us to go home.”
Gabe chuckled and kissed her. “Nice slow lovemaking tonight?”
Mattie laughed. “You know the answer to that.”
His eyes gleamed. She liked it hot and hard.
He kissed her deeply one last time. “You know how much I love you?”
She combed back his hair. “You’ve made me so happy, Gabe.” She went up on her toes and kissed him full on the lips. “And by the way, I love my birthday present.” The pretty little sorrel filly he had given her last weekend at the ranch. “She’s beautiful.”
“I’m glad you like her.”
Mattie’s heart trembled with love for him. “I’ve got a present for you, too.”
He eased back to look at her. “You do?”
Taking his hand, she rested it against her stomach, still flat but soon round with their child. “He’s right in here. Or maybe he’s a she.”
Gabe’s breathing halted. “Tell me this isn’t a joke.”
“No joke.”
“You’re serious? You’re pregnant?”
She nodded, grinned. “In about eight months, you’re going to be a daddy.”
Gabe let out a shout that rang in her ears, captured her face in his hands and kissed her long and deep. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, honey.”
“I love you, Gabriel Raines.” She let him take her hand and guide her toward the door leading out into the hall. “One of these days we’re going to finish what you keep starting in here.”
Gabe laughed and kissed her. “That’s a promise.”
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed Mattie and Gabe in Against the Fire, the second book in my Raines Brothers trilogy.
Devlin’s story is next. The handsomest of the Raines brothers, with Gabe’s same dark hair and blue eyes, Dev is also the wildest and most determined to remain a bachelor.
Even tall, sexy Lark Delaney with her wild, cherry-cola hair and passion for life isn’t going to tempt him. But Lark has come to him for help, and since she is the friend of a man who once saved his life, Dev has no choice but to agree.
Lark has promised to find her sister’s little girl, a child given up for adoption when her sister was only sixteen. It seems an easy enough task to Dev. But when they discover murder is involved and the little girl is missing, the job takes on a whole new set of terrifying problems.
On top of that, Dev is beginning to fall hard for Lark, and that is the last thing he wants to do.
I hope you’ll look for Against the Law, the last book in the trilogy.
All best wishes and happy reading.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8429-0
AGAINST THE FIRE
Copyright © 2011 by Kat Martin
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