If You Leave: The Beautifully Broken Series: Book 2 by Courtney Cole Page B

guy with balls. You don’t need a guy whose balls are in your purse. Just sayin’.”
    “Ha, so says the guy whose balls are in Mila’s handbag as we speak.”
    Mila laughs as I give Pax an icy stare. He ignores it
and
my comment, while he chews on a piece of bread, totally unaffected by my glare or my accusation that my sister owns his testicles. I guess he’s secure enough in his manhood to not care.
    Turning my head slightly, I can see Gabriel’s dark shape from the corner of my eye and I almost flush again.
    Throughout this entire conversation, his smoldering stare has burned holes into me. It’s so potent that it almost feels like it’s actually touching me. Finally I’m unable to resist and I glance at him.
    He stares back at me, his eyes stormy and dark.
    What the hell is he thinking? Is he remembering the accident? Or is he remembering how scorchingly hot last night was
before
the accident? I stare at his mouth and I can’t help but remember how it tasted last night before his meltdown.
    Smoky, minty… like a man. I gulp.
    And then I die. Because with his gaze still connected to mine, he very purposefully slips his finger into his mouth, then pulls it out slowly, sucking it.
    Just like he sucked the taste of me off his fingers last night.
    Oh. My. God.
    My cheeks explode into flame and his dark, dark eyes glimmer with amusement. I stare at him as I realize that he’s fucking with me. He’s purposely trying to remind me of last night.
    The corner of his lip twitches and I know.
    I know that he thinks he won whatever little game he’s been playing.
    Eff him. Willing the color to drain away from my face, I give Gabriel my iciest stare, lift my nose into the air and turn back around to find Mila watching the interaction.
    “Who’s that?” she asks with extreme interest. I shrug.
    “Jacey’s brother. I just met him.”
    Mila raises her eyebrow. “You just met him?” She stares at me. “That seems doubtful. You keep staring at each other. You know him. Spill.”
    I scowl at my sister. “Why do you have to know me so well? I met him last night at a club in Chicago.”
    Mila chokes on her drink of water. “Seriously? You met him at a
club
?”
    And without any shame at all, she spins around in her seat to stare at him.
    Gabriel stares back at her with interest, then cocks an eyebrow at me. He’s sprawled out in his seat, his long legs casually relaxed. None of this is affecting him in the same way it is affecting me. It’s like he doesn’t care that what happened last night was disconcerting as hell. That pisses me off.
    “Turn around,” I hiss at Mila, yanking on her arm. “God. Do you have to be so obvious?”
    “I can’t help it,” she says, without turning around. “How can I not look at the guy who has you all worked up?”
    “I am not worked up,” I answer between my teeth, tugging on her arm harder. “Don’t make me manhandle a pregnant woman because then Pax will kill me. Just turn around.
God
.”
    She finally does as I ask, but she looks at me strangely. “What the hell, Maddy? Why are you so upset? It’s just Jacey’s brother, right?”
    There is a knowingness to her tone that makes me want to smack my sister, even if she
is
pregnant.
    “Yes,” I answer firmly, ignoring her tone and resisting my urge to inflict bodily harm. “He’s just Jacey’s brother.”
    “Well, in that case, I should go introduce myself. I mean, Jacey
is
our employee. It’s only polite.”
    And with that, Mila is out of her seat and across the room before I can stop her. She moves surprisingly fast for a pregnant girl. I’m left staring with my mouth open. Pax reaches over and snaps it closed.
    “She got you, Mad.”
    I look at him. “Pax, I swear to God. One of these days I’m going to kill her. It’s gonna happen.”
    Pax just laughs, entirely unconcerned.
    “Whatever. If you were going to kill her, you would have done it a long time ago. But you didn’t. Instead you protected her like a