Free Kissed by Elizabeth Finn Page A

even now that I was watching her from across the room, if I was upset about that, happy about it, or relieved. When David approached me with Gabe, I finally figured it out. I was pissed the hell off. I clamped my teeth down hard as I looked at her. She wasn’t supposed to be here, and she damn well knew it.
    Her mask was a simple filigree of woven black satin-wrapped wire. The deep brown of her eyes twinkled under the gallery’s lights, and every time she blinked, her long lashes drew my attention in. Of course her mouth had that ability too, and I found my eyes barely knew how to leave her once she was standing in front of me. It was odd how I could want to do nothing but look at her and yell at her at the same time—maybe touch her too.
    “Keegan,” David said stiffly and without a shred of kindness.
    David looked like an idiot with his mask on, and I harrumphed and shook my head in irritation. I, on the other hand, had refused to wear one, avoiding the schmuckery altogether. But Gabe made her mask look incredible, not that I wouldn’t prefer to see her entire face.
    “Gabrielle, you look lovely.” I turned my attention to her, studying her eyes as she stared back defiantly.
    “Careful now,” David said quietly. “We’re incognito tonight. She can be any completely appropriate date I want her to be, and no one will be the wiser. I think I’ll tell everyone she’s a forty-three-year-old genetic engineer specializing in agriculture who spends her time curing world hunger. Think anyone will believe me?”
    Gabe’s chest rose and fell deeply, and her jaw was suddenly tense. He’d offended her, but she wasn’t going to say anything. She wasn’t paid to have opinions, after all, but God what I wouldn’t give to hear her voice her anger at David now.
    I hummed, and when I stepped up to David to move past him, I angled my head toward his. “Watch yourself. My patience, as well as that of your sponsors, is wearing rather thin.” My focus shifted to Gabe standing next to him, and my heart sped for a moment. Her eyes were wide as she watched me. I nodded subtly before I forced myself to walk away.
    I gave them space for nearly an hour. Gabe danced with him, she was introduced to others, and others still seemed to already know her, given the body language and the way they approached her. She’d been around him too long, and he’d kept her entirely too visible. It would be one thing if the damage were limited to what he did with her behind closed doors, but it wasn’t. And it all amounted to a bloody fucking nightmare for me.
    This man was a train wreck of insubordination, and there was too much money riding on his ability to behave like the man he publically purported himself to be. And yet, oddly, I was still holding on to the truth of what had happened between Gabe and me weeks prior. Were I holding on to it for any logical, calculated reason that would be one thing, but…I wasn’t. It wasn’t my job to make this decision about Gabe, but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what I was doing. I knew I could tell David I’d slept with her at any time; it would certainly make a statement. But I simply didn’t want to, not that I wouldn’t enjoy sucker-punching him in the balls.
    Frankly, David had no business being a leader of any sort, and power was not something he would ever handle appropriately without completely losing whatever shred of humbleness he might still possess, but then Washington was quite full of those. He sure as hell was not a good investment, in my opinion.
    He’d been too rich for too long, and after Mommy and Daddy died in a tragic car accident when he was still in his early twenties, his bad habits had simply been allowed to go unchecked. His father had known how to handle himself in the public world—at least I’d learned as much so far. But without the expectations of family keeping David in line, he’d devolved. And now I was supposed to fix the unfixable mess.
    When Gabe walked