Page 2 (1/2)

This was a new side to her Gavin looked closer, suspected she was full of shit since he knew she had no feelings She was just bitter about losing Mick as a client

"You could have arranged to see s"

She studied her nails "My schedule has been kind of full"

"Bullshit You went into hiding after Mick fired you"

Her head shot up "I don’t hide Losing Mick was a giant financial hit I had to scrahed "You’ve uys I don’t think you’re hurting"

"Fine" She set her wineglass down and stood,to stare out over the ocean "You can believe whatever you want to since you’ve already et it over with so I can get out of here"

Gavin stood and caht you here to fire you?"

She faced him "Didn’t you?"

He was struck by the vulnerability on her face He’d never seen it before Elizabeth always had a hard edge to her, a confidence she wore that ht noasn’t there She was vulnerable, hurt, and afraid

Maybe it wasn’t an act after all He’d been convinced she wasn’t capable of actual e, and he didn’t knohat the hell to do about that

Moonlight danced across her hair, oddess lit by silver fire For the second tiht Gavin realized that Elizabeth was a beautiful, desirable woht of her as a vicious shark, which was a great place to file her in his head because she was the business side of his life Oh, sure, she was always great to look at, and he had to admit he’d adht of her as soht played with her eyes, he thought he saw tears welling up in the else lit up her eyes when she looked at hi he’d seen in er

Couldn’t be Liz was cold He’d seen her drive a three-hundred-pound lineue, take a cold-hearted team owner by the tie and squeezeLiz was ruthless and had no soul She would cut your heart out before she ever showed you she was vulnerable

He’d seen what she had done to Tara and her son, Nathan, and hadn’t once thought about hoould affect them She’d wanted to cut them out of Mick’s life Emotion and how they felt hadn’t entered the picture They were an inconvenience and needed to be re on for hiain his sympathy or distract hi clients was bad for business And Liz was all about business, all the time As far as he knew, she didn’t have a personal life She ate, breathed, and slept business twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week

So yeah Elizabeth, vulnerable? That was a freakin’ laugh Those tears wereit And the idea of her wanting hihtforith hi to play

"Liz, what are you doing?"

She frowned "Excuseto do here?"

She rolled her eyes "I have no idea what you’re talking about, Gavin You brought lass of wine and held it out to hihtlass and took it into the kitchen, finishing his beer along the way

When he came back outside, he found she’d kicked off her shoes and taken off her jacket Wind whipped strands of her perfect hair loose They flew in the breeze, wild and untamed

He’d like to see Liz wild and untaave orders in bed, too

He never thought about Elizabeth and sex in the same sentence, preferred to keep the two topics separate

So why now? Was it the look she’d given him earlier?

Dammit He didn’t want to think of her that way

She shivered and rubbed her arms

"Want your jacket?

"No I’m just cold by nature"

He could make a remark about that but decided to let it slide, handed her the wine, and poured hiht outside with hiet down to business and tell her why he’d brought her out here tonight

"I screwed up with Mick," she said, staring at the water, not looking at hiht I could control him, that I kneas best for hi to hi But he was in love with her, and I didn’t want hi up to him? They talked business, and soether, but theypersonal Ever

"Why didn’t you want his would change"

"What things?"