“You’ll be sitting your gorgeous ass in a chair or resting somewhere,” he growled.
Chloe shuddered at his command. Maybe she should be angry because he was giving her orders, but his voice was so wonderfully concerned, and his comment about her butt being gorgeous pretty much negated any sense of anger she might have had. He was being protective, and his unnecessary concern for her well-being was kind of sweet. “I’ll do it your way for a little while,” she conceded.
“You’ll do it my way until I say different,” he snapped back at her bossily.
She smiled against his chest. He sounded so much like one of her brothers. “We’ll see,” she replied nonchalantly, enjoying the verbal sparring. When he held her so tenderly, comforted her so sweetly, it was difficult to argue with him.
The last several days had been rough, and part of her really did feel guilty that she was relieved that she wasn’t going to bear James’s child. But the loss of any child made her emotional. The child had been hers, too, a baby that would never be born. “Thank you,” she said spontaneously to Gabe.
“For what?”
He acted like he’d done nothing, when he’d actually done so much just by comforting her. “For listening. For understanding.”
“I can’t say I completely understand, but I’m worried about you,” he rasped in her ear. “I know I don’t understand your psycho ex-fiancé. What guy does something like that? What man does any of the fucked-up things he did to you? He’s not all there, Chloe.”
They were questions that Chloe had asked herself over and over again. And why had she ever accepted it as normal? She’d never had anything to compare James’s behavior to, but she did have brothers. None of them would ever be capable of treating a woman like James had treated her. It was like she’d just never connected the men because James had been her only boyfriend, and he was also a master manipulator. “I don’t know,” she finally answered honestly.
“I want to hurt him, Chloe. I want that more than I’ve ever wanted anything,” he admitted angrily.
“I know. My brothers would want to do the same thing. But I don’t want that, Gabe. I just want to forget. Lara and Natalie have taught me so much about what a normal relationship should be, and you’ve given me a new beginning. I just want to move on now.” Her life with James was finally over. “I want to be happy again.” Or maybe for the first time in her life. She’d been with James for so long that she wasn’t certain what “happy” in a relationship really was.
Gabe stroked her cheek. “You will be, sweetheart. I promise.”
The sincerity in his vow touched Chloe deeply, made her yearn to believe him. Heartache and anxiety had been her only two companions for a while now. She needed to find some new friends.
“Are you going to show me around the ranch?” she asked sleepily, her eyes starting to close. She was exhausted after a few nearly sleepless nights.
She had woken up this morning tired, but resolved to start a new life working with Gabe. The phone call from Zane had deflated her somewhat. Yes, she had already suspected James of betraying and manipulating her body as well as her mind, but having it verified had been a shock to her system.
“Later,” Gabe answered abruptly. “Right now you can rest.”
“I’m not sick,” Chloe argued, forcing herself to open her eyes. She’d taken this job, and she wanted to get started.
“Give yourself some time, Chloe. You need time to heal.”
“Then we can take the slow tour,” she said, actually feeling comfortable enough to joke with Gabe.
He stood up with her still in his arms. “After you take a nap. How much did you sleep last night?”
A few hours. “Enough,” she said evasively.
“That right there tells me it wasn’t much.” He moved through the large home and mounted a set of stairs.
“Let me down,” Chloe said, panicked. “I weigh a ton.”
Gabe chuckled as he sprinted up the stairs. “Sweetheart, any guy who can’t carry a little thing like you isn’t much of a man. Relax.”
He wasn’t even winded as he hit the top step. Chloe was stunned into silence. Regardless of what he said and the bulky, muscular size of his body, she was no lightweight. “I’m a veterinarian, not a medical doctor. I can’t fix your back pain from carrying me around,” she said in a self-deprecating voice.
He took one of the hallways at the top of the stairs and pushed a door open with his wide shoulders. “Good thing I’m not prone to back pain then,” he retorted.
Chloe looked around the beautiful space they’d just entered, marveling at how well and carefully decorated the bedroom appeared to be. It was opulent, yet understated. It was incredibly large for a bedroom, with a small sitting area near the wide windows and a huge sleigh bed closer to the door. The furnishings were a neutral shade with splashes of vivid color, mainly dark and medium blues in the accents, adding a homey feel to the room.
“This is gorgeous,” Chloe said frankly. “I love it.” It was the type of room she adored.
“Good. I thought you’d like it. This will be your room for a while,” Gabe answered casually as he lowered her gently to the bed.
“I can’t stay here. You have a small house for your vet, right?” That’s what he’d told her. The old resident vet had had his own house on the property.
“I’m refurbishing it. You’re going to be stuck here until it’s done,” Gabe said noncommittally. “It will take awhile for the crew to finish the house.”