Heart Ache (Bound by a Touch Novels #1) by Morgan Kearns Read Free Book Online Page B

that’s a great new shampoo you’ve got. Where can I get me some of that?”
    Gabby was quickly losing her patience. She huffed a breath out her nose. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I didn’t get a new shampoo. This is Nikolai’s scent.”
    “ Nikolai’s scent ?”
    “ All I know is: I went to sleep. Had fabulous dreams. And then woke up smelling like … him!”
    “ I would love to wake up smelling like—” Marie exhaled on a husky growl, her eyes returning to the window. “— him .”
    “ Stop it!” Gabby stood again, pacing from one end of the planter to the other. She tugged her hair to her own nose and inhaled, unable to get enough of the intoxicating smell. “It’s not just my hair; I could smell him everywhere .”
    Black brows wiggled suggestively. “ Everywhere ?”
    “ Be serious, will you?”
    “ Fine. Sorry. But I don’t understand.”
    “ That makes two of us.” Gabby let her frustration escape on a groan.
    “ I mean it’s not like he was really there.” Marie’s tone suggested she thought Gabby belonged in a padded room.
    “ But what if he was?” Did she actually believe it was a possibility? She sniffed her hair again. Maybe. She kicked at some red bark that had escaped from the flowerbed. She jammed her hands into her pockets and chanced a look at her friend.
    Marie looked at her like she was fitting her for a straightjacket.
    “ I feel like I’m going crazy.” She blew out a breath, puffing her cheeks. “Nikolai is all I can think about. I’m supposed to be marrying Jayson for hell’s sake!”
    “ Why are you marrying Jayson?”
    The accusation caused her to stop in her tracks. She glared at her friend.
    “ Because I love him?” It sounded like a question and she cringed at the uncertainty in her voice—and in her heart.
    “ You love him?” Marie nodded. “What about Nikolai; do you love him ?”
    “ It doesn’t matter.” She started pacing again, making another circuit around the planter box.
    “ Why?”
    “ Because he could never feel that way about me.”
    “ How do you know?” When Gabby held her tongue, Marie stood and grabbed her by the arm. Dark eyes flashed. “You can’t marry one man if you’re in love with another.”
    “ But I can’t continue to pine away for a man who may never love me in return, either. Jayson is a good man. He’ll be a good husband … and he loves me.”
    “ What if he —” Marie glanced up the five floors to the windows that would be Nikolai’s office. “—does love you?”
    Her head tipped back as she followed Marie’s line of sight and wondered if Nikolai was watching her from behind the dark tinted glass.
    “ He has never given me any reason to believe that he sees me as anything more than his assistant.”
    Marie shook her head and rolled her eyes. “What do you want me to say?”
    “ I gue- … I guess I just needed to talk it out.”
    Her cell rang. She smiled when Nikolai’s number flashed on the caller id.
    “ Let me guess,” Marie said sarcastically, “it’s not Jayson.”
    “ How did you…?”
    “ Because you don’t smile like that when he calls.”
    She scowled then answered sweetly, “Hello?”
    “ Gabrielle,” the silky voice purred her name, causing delicious warmth to engulf her.
    “ Yes, do you need something?”
    “ I just wanted to let you know that I’m leaving for the day. I’ll see you … tomorrow.”
    “ Okay.” Disappointment emanated in her voice, vibrating through the rest of her. “Tomorrow then.”
    The line went dead and she sighed.
    Marie shook her head. “I don’t know what to tell you, but it seems to me—”
    “ I need to see Jayson.”

 
    Chapter Five
     
     
     
     
    The Law Office of Jayson McDade.
    Gabrielle reached out and traced the placard on the wall next to the door. She still wasn’t sure what she was going to do when she saw her fiancé. She’d been so sure when driving across town, but now that she was here … not so