The Touch (22 page)

Lexi’s brows climbed higher at that, she hadn’t thought about him in forever.  “What did he say about me?”

“He seemed to think that you should have been sent to a private school for the gifted, he even sent a recommendation to the
Halstead
Academy
against your mother’s wishes, but nothing ever came out of it.”

“Gifted because of my brains or because of my hands
?
” she gave him a sidelong glance.

“Your hands, though he did say you were an exceptionally bright child,” he smiled. 

“Okay, so what else?  What didn’t you want to tell me?”

“There were records from CPS about your custody situation when your mother left, and the eventual decision to let you live with your grandmother.”

“What’s CPS?”

“Child Protective Services.”

“Ah gotcha, okay…” she prompted him
.  N
one of it sounded too awful yet and none of it was anything she didn’t already know.  “Did you find out anything about what happened to my mother?”

The hesitation was much longer this time, “She checked herself into a mental health facility in
Lexington
,
Kentucky
.”

Lexi wasn’t sure what to be more surprised by,
the fact
that her mom was in a looney bin or that she was in
Kentucky
. 
Kentucky
won out, because she already knew on some level that her mother hadn’t been stable for a long time.  “What’s she doing all the way out there?”

“You have family out that way, second cousins I guess they’d be.  She stayed with them for a while before checking into the facility about six years ago.”

“Six years…” Lexi reached for his beer again, taking a healthy swig.  “I guess whatever it is she’s in there for isn’t getting better, huh?  I suppose that explains why I haven’t heard a peep from her since she left that night.”  Left in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye.  Gran had show
n
up the next day with a box of donuts and a watery smile, helping them pack up for the move to her house.  At least her mother had retained the presence of mind to call and make
some
arrangements for her children.  It could have been worse.  Hell, it could have been a lot worse if she’d stayed.

“I’m sorry,” Gabriel took the empty bottle from her hand and gave
her a comforting
squeeze. 

“Hey
,
it’s not your fault
,
”
a
half shrug was given.  Did it make her a bad person that she didn’t ask where the facility was that her mother was staying?  Lexi figured her mother knew how to contact her if she wanted to
.  S
he still lived in the same town and had her own website for
chrissakes;
she
wasn’t the one who’d disappeared.  That left just one more elephant in the room.  “Did you turn up anything unusual about my father?”  That had been a thorn in the back of her mind for her entire life, always there, but for the most part tucked away and forgotten. 

“No, I’m sorry
Lexi;
I only
have the bare bones on the man.  You were what… two years old when he died?”

“Three,” she murmured, trying to cast her mind back to that time and as usual, coming up blank.  At the age of three she should have been able to remember
something
about the man, but she had a total absence of memory.  Without anything of his left behind, there was
nothing for her to ‘
read
’
either.  There weren’t even any pictures to be found. 

“I could try to dig something up about him, I admit I didn’t look too much into his past,” he offered.   

Lexi shook her head, pulling her thoughts back to the present.  “How about we continue with the tour?”

“Ah sure, we can do that.  All that’s left is the bedroom.”

“The famous bedroom…” Lexi moved past him to stick her head around the corner.  “Just like I saw it in my vision, only messier.”   

“Sorry about that, I wasn’t expecting company.”  Gabriel kicked his discarded running clothes into the bottom of
the
closet, along with the expensive running shoes while she stepped into the room.  Again there wasn’t an overabundance of décor in the room, but the overall effect was tranquil and soothing.  A large window o
verlooked the pool and spa,
as he’d mentioned before. 

“Don’t worry about it, you’ve seen all of the skeletons in my closet
;
it’s only fair I get a look into yours, right?”

“I guess so,” he nodded with a wry grin.  “Just don’t expect me to air out my own skeletons any time soon.”

“Why D
etective, are you implying that you’re just as flawed as the rest of us?”

“Never admit to anything that can be used against you later in a court of law,” he held up a finger.  “Here, you should check this baby out,” Gabriel hopped up on the edge of the bed with an audible sigh of relief.  “I’ll bet you’d never guess this is a water bed, would you?”

“A water bed?  Are you kidding me?
What is this, the seventies?”
Lexi quirked a single brow, doing her level best not to laugh, but he still looked offended.

“What?  Check it out, it’s not like in the old days where it’s
nothing more than
a big water balloon, check this out… it’s almost completely motionless.”  Gabriel rolled first one way and then the other
and true to his words there was very little movement and no sloshing sounds
.

Lex
i stared at him as if he’d
started speaking in tongues.  “What’s the point of having a water bed if it’s completely motionless?”  Wasn’t that the whole benefit of having one? 

“Because there’s more give and it moves with your body.  My back never had it so good.  Really, try it out,” he patted the bed beside him.

“Are you trying to get
me into your bed
?” s
he asked, unable to keep the arch smile from returning. 

“That was the plan,” he grinned back, “is it working?”

God he was adorable.
  Even though there were warning bells pealing madly in the back of her head, telling h
er
she was definitely crossing a line here, Lexi couldn’t resist that honest smile.  “I can respect that,
” she nodded equably, climbing o
nto the bed.  To her surprise, the motion of the mattress felt almost sluggish and stopped almost immediately as soon as she lay still, not at all what she’d been expecting.  “Hey, this is kinda comfy.”

“That’s exactly what I was trying to tell you,” his hand slid across the comforter, coming to rest beside hers, but not quite touching.  “Next time you should listen to my good advice.”

“Next time I will… when it has to do with the comfort of beds,” she promised, rolling over onto her side to face him.  Tracing her gloved finger along the edge of his hand, Lexi realized the flutter in her belly had nothing to do with apprehension or fear; instead it had to do with wondering if he still wanted to kiss her
.
  Still more wondrous was the realization that she wanted him to. 

“I’m happy to be your bedtime advisor,” his grin softened, eyes trained on their adjoining hands.  “I also make a mean pasta, I’d be happy to provide any advice on that too.”

“Now there I don’t need any help.  I’m pretty sure I’ve cooked every kind of pasta known to man, it’s a staple for us starving artists.”

“I feel a challenge coming on… my pasta versus yours… How about we try a pasta cook-off, Saturday night?  I’ll even offer you the home
court
advantage if you want it, or we could always have dinner here if you think it might be too crowded at your place?

“I thought we agreed to table anything like that until after the case is solved?”

“We don’t have to eat at the table, I could serve you dinner in he
re, you seem pretty comfy to me,
”
Gabriel deadpanned.

“You know what I meant; I thought we agreed to hold off on anything more between us for now?”        

“You’re the one who agreed, not me.  I just pulled a strategic retreat.  Besides, you’re the one who invited yourself into my apartment tonight.”

“I did, didn’t I?”  Lexi caught her bottom lip in her teeth, “You’re the one who invited me into your bed though.”

“Onto.”

“What?”
s
he blinked.

“I invited you onto my
bed;
you’re the one who wants to get into it.”

“Okay mister exact words, have it your way,” she laughed.  “I’m the one who wants to get into it.”

“I have absolutely no problem with that,” he smiled, reaching out to brush a strand of hair away from her forehead.  His fingers hovered just a hair breadth from touching her cheek.  “Are you sure it’s okay if I touch your bare skin?”

Lexi nodded, pressing her cheek to his palm.  “As long as you don’t touch my hands, it should be fine.”

“I can definitely work with that.”  Gabriel’s hand
sank into
her dark tresses to cup the back of her neck, drawing her closer until their breath mingled.  Lexi’s
fingers
slid up the smooth contour of his chest to rest on his shoulder, her thumb stroking the side of his neck as he pulled her close. 
More than ready for his kiss this time, h
er tongue darted out to moisten her lips before his mouth brushed against hers, tentatively
,
as though he expected her to pull away at any moment.  Pulling away was the last thing Lexi was thinking of
.  S
cooting
closer
,
she let him know without words that this was what she wanted
.
 
He
was what she wanted.
  Growing bolder, his tongue swept out to beg entrance and her lips parted to
accept
him
, a soft sigh of pleasure escaping her at the intimate contact
.  Making out like a couple of teenagers, Lexi let her hands roam
over the contours o
f his back while she
explored
the dark secrets of his mouth. 

This part she was completely comfortable with and Gabriel was a good enough kisser to make her forget about what came next.  Consequences… none of that mattered when he kissed her like that.  All there was for now was the feel of his hands skimming over her body almost reverently, the rasp of his cheek against her skin and the unique taste of him that mingled with her own to make something new.  Something that drove her to chase after his mouth when he shifted position, not wanting to lose this new feeling. 

But inevitably, through no fault of his own considering the signals she was giving him, he pushed her outside of her comfort zone. 
A ribbon of panic went through her when his
touch moved
to the strip of bare skin at her midriff, and she clamped her hand on his, breaking the kiss.

“I thought you said it’s okay if I touch your bare skin?”

“It is...” 

“Then what’s the problem?”

That was a good question, and for the life of her Lexi couldn’t figure out what on earth made her stop him.  Deciding to go with honesty, she relaxed her hold on his hand.  “I don’t know.  But maybe we should try that dinner together
,
before we skip to the making out on the bed part?”

“I could send out for pizza if you want to eat first,” he smiled lazily, his eyes half lidded.

“You look like you’re about to pass out, maybe we should save this for a night when you aren’t so tired?  You don’t want to disgrace yourself, do you?”  Lexi couldn’t help but tease a little; he looked like he could easily fall asleep at the drop of a hat. 

“Disgrace myself?” Gabriel pulled back to give her a disgruntled look.  “Bite your tongue
woman
;
I’m not
that
tired.”  To illustrate his point, he buried his face into her neck with a growling kiss.  Lexi squealed as his whiskers tickled her sensitive skin, giggling as he nibbled his way up to her ear.  Her hands found his equally sensitive sides and she discovered something very, very dangerous. 

Gabriel was ticklish.     

Now it was his turn to trap her hands, convulsing as she tickled him mercilessly. “Okay, okay, you’re right.  We should table this for now,” he agreed, doing his level best to keep a dignified expression.  “How about we order that pizza?

“Oh
,
now you want to stop, h
uh?  Talk about a sore loser…”
Lexi shook her head with a disgusted sigh even as she relaxed her hands.  “I could eat though.”

“Great, I’ll order the pizza, you find something good to watch on TV.”  Releasing his hold on her, Gabriel held out his hands to pull her up off the bed.