Take Me On

  Dedication

  For my very dear friend Amanda. Thanks so much for all of your support, your inspiration, and for not being afraid to tell me when it sucks. I love ya!

  Chapter One

  March

  It was the day every little girl dreamed of, but Gabriella Ross suspected her dreams had been more elaborate than most. She’d always imagined herself in a ridiculously puffy confection of a wedding dress, walking up an aisle sprinkled with rose petals to meet the handsomest man on the face of the earth at the altar in front of hundreds of adoring guests. Her groom would only have eyes for her, and the two of them would become united for the rest of their lives, and doves would fly, and a choir would sing, and they’d live happily ever after. Piece of cake.

  Well, she had still imagined most of that until recently. There were no doves poised for release here today, no choir, no rose petals—but there were a couple hundred guests out there. Hopefully, most of them were adoring. And the church was gorgeous. She couldn’t have dreamed of a more perfect setting.

  Looking at her own reflection in the full-length mirror of her dressing room, Gabby saw a woman splotchy with anxiety instead of flushed with excitement. The dress was fabulous, but sleek and elegant instead of something appropriate for a princess in a fairy tale. And even her matron of honor/sister-in-law’s expertise with the foundation she was dabbing on Gabby’s throat and chest did little to camouflage the evidence of her out-of-control nerves. Minutes ago, she’d begun to look like she’d been slapped on both cheeks.

  “All right,” Kelsey said soothingly as Gabby took yet another shuddering breath. “Do you need some fresh air or something? Don’t pass out on me.”

  “We should’ve done what you and Evan did. Small, intimate…far, far away.”

  “It’s the way to go,” Kelsey agreed, intent upon her task. “I did the whole big-wedding thing for my first marriage. Once was definitely enough.”

  “You could’ve advised me of that before we started planning this three-ring circus.”

  “You wouldn’t have listened.”

  “True.”

  “Keep breathing.”

  Gabby nodded, exhaling slowly and fanning herself with her hand, for all the good it did. Her heart knocked erratically in her chest. She hadn’t eaten all day, despite Kelsey’s prodding. This was it, her special day, the day she’d dreamed of…and she was going to have a hypoglycemic episode and faint at the altar. She just knew it.

  Of course, the thought of Mark in a tux could snap her out of any funk. God, she couldn’t believe how lucky she was that he’d come along. Once upon a time, she’d cracked a joke at her brother’s birthday party about how she needed to marry a doctor before starting med school, and here she was, about to do just that—because she loved him, though, not because he was a doctor. She stifled a chuckle at the thought. Her brother Evan ribbed her about that little comment constantly. He had a memory like a steel trap.

  Besides, she was in med school now, almost to the end of M1. It would’ve been more sensible to put this whole thing off until the summer, but she’d always wanted to have a spring wedding. It meant delaying any kind of long, lazy, sultry honeymoon for a couple of months, but that was okay. They would get there.

  Kelsey’s gaze flickered up to hers as she stepped back and eyed her with concern. “You all right?”

  “Better now,” Gabby said, and it was true. She didn’t sway on her feet at the idea of walking up the aisle. The image of her future husband and the knowledge she was about to become Mrs. Mark Easton—and in a few years, Dr. Gabriella Easton—had instilled her with confidence. She just needed to keep him at the front of her mind and look at this wedding not as the culmination of a lifetime of girlish fantasies, but as a silly little thing she needed to get through to have everything she’d always wanted. It was all good. Life was wonderful.

  She gave Kelsey a big smile. Her sister-in-law looked ravishing in her black dress, almost the antithesis to Gabriella’s. Her dark hair was piled atop her head in intricate curls, and soft tendrils spiraled down around her face.

  “There’s that megawatt Ross grin,” Kelsey said warmly, returning the smile. “The deer-in-the-headlights look had to go, girl. I couldn’t let you go down the aisle like that.”

  Thank God for Kelsey. Gabby would be ever thankful that Evan had brought this woman into their family. She was more than a sister-in-law; ever since marrying Evan, Kelsey had become like the sister Gabby had always wanted but never had. Nope, just two annoying little brothers for her, even though Evan was an attorney now, and the baby of the family, Brian, was a successful business owner.

  “I hope Mark and I can be half as happy as you and Evan,” Gabby said, leaning in to give Kelsey a quick hug.

  Kelsey laughed. “That’s no thought to have on your wedding day. You should know you’ll be happy, happier than any other couple in the entire world.”

  “Well, of course. I know. We will be.” Right? Gabriella straightened and looked at herself in the mirror again. She only wanted to do this once in her life. But then, Kelsey had only wanted to do it once too. It had taken twice for her to get it right.

  “It’s work, I’m not going to lie,” Kelsey said. “As long as you have the right partner, though, that’s all that matters. I see that now. It makes all the difference.”

  Mark would be a great partner. He was…well, he was amazing. Brilliant. Caring. There had been moments when she’d questioned where she ranked on the list of things he cared about, but it had been selfish of her. He was one of the top cardiologists in Dallas, for God’s sake; he had other priorities too. She accepted that. And he had asked her to marry him, to spend the rest of her life at his side.

  Kelsey seemed to be opening her mouth to say more, but a gentle knock on the door interrupted her. “Come in!” Gabby called and smiled as Candace Andrews slipped into the room. Her little sister-in-law-to-be, since Brian had finally popped the question at Christmas. She wasn’t as close to Candace as she was to Kelsey, but she hoped to change that. The girl had been a miracle worker on Brian, and though Brian constantly threatened that they were going to elope, Gabby really hoped they wouldn’t. Seeing her tattooed, pierced baby brother in front of a large congregation vowing to love Candace for the rest of his life was something she would pay a substantial amount of money to see.

  “I was starting to worry,” Gabby teased. “Since you skipped out on the last wedding you were supposed to be in and all.”

  Candace halted in her tracks, putting a hand to her head. “Oh God! Don’t remind me. I still feel bad about that. I still hear about it too.”

  “I bet.” Kelsey laughed. Candace’s family was overbearing, to say the least. That Brian hadn’t run screaming from them yet was testament to how much he loved this girl.

  “What were you doing? Sneaking off to make out with my brother?”

  Candace smirked. “My hair is still fixed, isn’t it?”

  “Ah, young love.” Kelsey sighed.

  Gabby rolled her eyes. “Like Evan wouldn’t mess up your hair if he got you alone right now.”

  Now it was Kelsey’s turn to blush. “He totally would, yeah.” Hmm. Gabby had attended a number of events with Mark where an updo had been appropriate, but never once could she recall him messing it up for her afterward. Not that he wasn’t good in bed. She had no complaints whatsoever…except maybe that he’d never been so consumed with desire for her that he’d, oh…demolished her updo before they could make it to the bedroom.

  Honestly, she would’ve relegated that fantasy to teenager-ish fairy tales too…except that proof of its reality was right in front of her.

  Well, good for them. For her, there were more important things in life.

  “You know, it’s not like you’re…old lov
e or anything,” said the twenty-four-year-old Candace to the two thirtysomethings in front of her.

  “Oh, thank you so much.”

  As the laughter and chitchat went on, Gabby forced herself to participate, but her mind was with Mark. It was almost time. What was he doing? Was he nervous? It seemed improbable that a man who could perform lifesaving surgery without so much as breaking a sweat would get clammy palms over repeating a few words in front of a crowd, but she liked to think he would. Because he would be saying those words to her, and those words meant forever.

  She had a flock of hummingbirds in her stomach. And she wanted her mother, who was out wandering among the guests at the moment, ever the social butterfly.

  “Are you going to cry?” Kelsey suddenly demanded.

  “No!”

  “I probably am. Fair warning.”

  Another knock sounded. God, it was getting so close. Gabby glanced at the clock—ten minutes until showtime. Ten minutes. She glanced down at her chest, fully expecting to see her heartbeat through her dress. Hopefully, Mark wouldn’t have to resuscitate her at the altar, but at least she’d be in good hands.

  Since her mouth had gone so dry she couldn’t muster the voice to answer, Kelsey got the door. Gabby chugged from her water bottle like a parched desert traveler. Her good friend Tina—third and final bridesmaid—slipped inside. She had Gabriella’s bouquet, a gorgeous spray of lilies and roses. The only snafu of the day was that it hadn’t been delivered with the other flowers. “Got it!”

  Gabby gave a thumbs-up, still drinking.

  “She’s freaking out,” Kelsey explained softly, taking the flowers. But before she could close the door behind Tina, Evan appeared in the doorway, and Gabby slowly lowered the water bottle from her lips.

  She didn’t know why her heart gave a few more thrashes and plummeted to her stomach. Maybe it was seeing him at all—he was a groomsman; he should be in Mark’s camp. Maybe it was the line that always appeared between Evan’s dark brows when he was troubled, which wasn’t often. It was there right now in full force.

  “Hey,” Kelsey said on a rising note of confusion at seeing him. “Wasn’t expecting you over here. Everything okay?”

  Alex, Evan and Kelsey’s two-year-old son, toddled past his parents into the room and headed straight for Gabby, arms outstretched. She tore her gaze away from her brother and scooped Alex up, burying her face in his thick black hair and clinging to him like a lifeline while it seemed everyone was shifting uneasily now. Even Candace had moved over to Gabby’s side.

  Evan’s gaze flickered past his wife to Gabby. Something was wrong. Oh God, something was terribly wrong. “I need to talk to her for a minute. Alone, if that’s okay.”

  As everyone filed out, they cast nervous glances back at her. She did her best to return a carefree smile, but most likely it came out weak and desperate.

  Evan shut the door. He turned to look at her. Gabby’s pulse throbbed in her neck; she could feel it. “Evan, what is it?”

  Something in his green eyes broke for her. He didn’t have to say anything.

  It began to occur to Gabriella Ross that she wasn’t getting married today.

  Or probably any other fucking day.

  Chapter Two

  June

  “Dude, she’s spiraling.”

  Ian Rhodes glanced over at his boss, who was staring out the front windows of Dermamania. Following Brian’s gaze, Ian watched the lithe brunette stalk across the street toward their establishment. He didn’t see any spiraling there. He just saw a tall, beautiful woman with a purposeful scowl on her face, whose stride was so forceful that her hair lifted in quick bursts of wind with each step. Big, dark sunglasses shielded her eyes in the late-afternoon glare.

  “Who is that?” he asked.

  Brian had been drying his hands after finishing his last piercing job. He threw the towel in the bin behind him now with a sigh. “My sister.”

  “The one you said got jilted at the altar a few months ago?”

  “Do not fucking mention it.”

  “Or she’ll scratch your eyes out,” Ghost supplied from the computer at the counter.

  Okay, that might be cause for spiraling. “Understood,” he said, unable to look away. The closer Gabriella came—he knew her name because Brian had mentioned it before—the more apparent it became that whoever the bastard was who subjected someone so gorgeous to such abject humiliation was a damn fool. Unless there were some severe character flaws there—but then they shouldn’t have gotten as far as the altar in the first place if that were the case.

  “And it’s apparent she’s spiraling at this moment because…?” Ian asked as she drew closer. There didn’t seem to be anything too outwardly alarming about her appearance.

  “Because she’s here. Hey, Gab!” Brian called brightly as the door flew open and she rushed in.

  Damn. Damn.

  Brian had never mentioned his sister was a knockout. But then, that might’ve been a little weird. Her hair was a warm chestnut brown, long, thick and silky enough to catch the overhead lights. She had a dancer’s body, and it was shown to its full effect in a skintight tank and cutoffs.

  He didn’t dare glance at her legs. If he did, he knew his gaze would get trapped there and she’d catch him looking, and that wouldn’t be good. Especially in front of her brother. His boss. What he really wanted to see, though, were her eyes.

  As if reading his mind, she pushed her shades to the top of her head. Dark green stunners swept over Ian then, assessing and dismissing in one smooth motion. His breath nearly choked him in that split second.

  “This makes, what, exactly once that you’ve graced us with your presence?” Brian grinned and boosted himself up onto his counter.

  “You’re the one always bugging me and Evan about getting some ink,” she said. Now that Ian could see her face in its entirety, he knew the only thing marring that gorgeous skin was the dark circles under her big eyes. She held out her slender, inkless arms. “Here I am.”

  “Are you shitting me right now?” Brian asked. Ghost watched the exchange with amused interest.

  “No. I’m not shitting you.”

  “What brought this on?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yeah.”

  Gabriella rolled her eyes. “After all these years, and all your smart-alecky bullshit, you’re actually going to balk when I finally give in?”

  “Well…” Brian seemed to be choosing his words carefully, and when he began saying them, they sounded rather pointed. “It’s kinda like a one-night stand. It might seem like a good idea in the heat of the moment, but the consequences are yours to deal with for the rest of your life.”

  She stared at him for a couple of seconds and burst out laughing. Her even, white teeth were a striking contrast to her dark-cherry lips. “Jesus, Brian.”

  “Seriously. I don’t want you to do it now while you’re…” He trailed off, at a loss.

  “While I’m what?” she demanded.

  “Obviously pissed off about something,” Ian interjected, unable to hold his tongue any longer. Brian cast him a warning glance, and Gabriella turned the full force of her piercing eyes on him. A lesser man might have wilted under that stare. It only made his blood pump hotter.

  She gave him more regard this time, not even attempting to hide it as her gaze danced down over the ink on his arms, then back up to his face. “It’s that obvious?” she asked.

  Ian shrugged, trying to seem uninterested. “You were stomping pavement out there like it was someone’s face. Someone you really don’t like.”

  Yeah, he was inching ever closer to the edge, and Brian and Ghost looked like they were preparing for a nuclear explosion, but she only took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Looked back at her brother. “I’ll have to work on that, then.”

  “And you seriously want ink.”

  “I do. I’ve always thought about it, you know. I haven’t been as dead-set against it as Evan. Now seems as g
ood a time as any.”

  “And you aren’t going to hate me later for letting you do it?”

  “I’ll only hate you if you tattoo ‘Kick Me’ across my back or something.”

  “Oh, I’m not going to do it,” Brian said. All heads snapped toward him, and his sister’s expression fell.

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “You must be out your damn mind if you think I’m gonna be any part of this.”

  “But you’ve always—!”

  “I’ve always teased that you should get ink. I’ve never said you should let me give you ink. Hell, I probably would write ‘Kick Me’ across your back.”

  She stepped forward to smack him on the arm. “You would not.”

  “Nah, but still. You can get it here if you want it, but I’m going to recuse myself. Sorry.”

  “Then who would do it?”

  “There are two more than capable candidates right here—”

  “No way, dude,” Ghost cut in. He shook his head at Gabriella. “No offense, but from what he’s told me, you scare the shit out of me. And you’re the boss’s sister. That’s pressure I don’t need.”

  “—or Tay or Starla or Janelle would be more than happy,” Brian finished.

  “They’ll probably say the same thing,” she fretted.

  Ian had been enjoying the back-and-forth without giving much thought to the matter, focusing mostly on her mouth as she spoke. But it slowly began to sink in that he was likely the only candidate to do this for her. The new guy. He really liked his coworkers, but there’d been no small amount of hazing since he started three months ago. And it was apparent now that he would probably get tossed the jobs everyone else would rather not do…and no one else who worked here and vaguely knew Gabriella Ross would want anything to do with this project, it seemed.

  Was she really that scary?

  “I’ll do it,” he said.

  “There you go,” Brian said to his sister. He leaned over far enough to slap his hand against Ian’s back a couple of times. “He’s your guy. Go hash it out.” The dude looked thoroughly relieved.

  “Brian, I really wanted you to do this.” Gabriella’s voice sounded tight, and she glanced at Ian. “No offense.”