Rush

EARLIER…
    Gabe Hamilton was going to burn in hell and he didn’t give a damn. From the moment
     Mia Crestwell walked into the ballroom of the Bentley Hotel where HCM Global Resorts
     and Hotels was holding its grand opening, he hadn’t taken his gaze from her.
    She was forbidden fruit. His best friend’s little sister. Only she wasn’t so little
     anymore, and he had definitely taken notice. She’d become some kind of twisted preoccupation
     for him. He’d fought it but found himself unable to resist her powerful lure.
    He wasn’t fighting it any longer.
    The fact that she was here, tonight, and Jace was nowhere around, only confirmed to
     Gabe that the time was right and it was time to make his move.
    He sipped at the glass of wine he held and listened politely to the group he was conversing
     with. Or rather that he was
mingling
with since he rarely engaged in anything more than polite pleasantries as he made
     his rounds through the crowd.
    He hadn’t known she was going to be here. Jace hadn’t said a word. Had Jace even known?
     Gabe thought it was likely he hadn’t because, not five minutes earlier, Jace and Ash
     had slipped away,a tall, leggy brunette between them as they headed to one of the luxurious suites
     on the top floor.
    Jace wouldn’t have bailed—even for a woman—if he’d known Mia would be here. But it
     was just as well Jace wasn’t here. It made things a lot easier.
    Gabe watched as Mia’s gaze swept the room, her brow furrowed in concentration as if
     she searched for someone. A server stopped and offered her wine, and she took one
     of the elegant, long-stemmed glasses but she didn’t put it to her mouth.
    She was outfitted in a killer dress that hugged her in all the right places, complete
     with fuck-me shoes and an upswept hairstyle that practically pleaded for a man’s hand
     to tug it down. Dark tendrils floated softly down her neck, drawing attention to the
     slender column that begged for a man’s lips. He was damn tempted to stride across
     the room and wrap his coat around her so that no one else would see what he considered
     his. Jesus, and if that didn’t make this even more insane. She wasn’t his anything.
     But that too was going to change.
    The off-the-shoulder cocktail dress drew attention to her breasts, and he damn sure
     didn’t want anyone else looking. And men
were
looking. Already she’d drawn the attention of others. They stared—like he did—their
     gazes predatory.
    She wore a delicate chain with a diamond solitaire around her neck, and diamond studs
     adorned both ears. Both had been a gift from him a year earlier. For Christmas. It
     gave him satisfaction to see her wearing the things he’d bought for her tonight. For
     him, it was one more step in the inevitable direction of her being his.
    She didn’t know it yet, but he’d waited long enough. He’d endured enough time feeling
     like the worst sort of criminal for lusting after his best friend’s baby sister. When
     she’d turned twenty, it had marked a huge difference in the way he viewed her, but
     he’d been thirty-four and he knew she was still far too young for what he expected
     from her. And so he’d waited.
    She was an obsession, and it made him uncomfortable to admit, but she was a drug in
     his veins he had no desire to cure himself of. Now that she was twenty-four, the age
     difference didn’t seem so insurmountable. Or so he told himself. Jace would still
     go ballistic—after all, Mia would
always
be his baby sister—but Gabe was willing to take the risk to finally taste forbidden
     fruit.
    Oh yes, he had plans for Mia. He had but to put them into action.
    • • •
    Mia took a cautious sip of her wine—a glass she’d only taken so she didn’t feel quite
     so out of place in a sea of beautiful, rich people—and she looked anxiously around
     for Jace. He said he’d be here, and she’d decided to surprise him by popping in for
     the grand opening of HCM’s newest hotel.
    Located in Union Square, it was modern and lush, obviously catering to an upscale
     clientele. But then Jace—and his two best friends—lived and breathed in that world.
     They’d worked damn hard to get there, but they’d achieved success beyond most people’s
     imagination, and they’d done it by the time they reached their thirties.
    At thirty-eight, they were touted as some of the most successful hoteliers in the
     world. But they were still just her brother and his best friends.