Scandal Never Sleeps by Shayla Black, Lexi Blake

previous female companions didn’t eat a lot, much less show such enthusiasm. Eve was unabashed in her joy. She’d eaten every bite of her Belgian waffle that morning and relished in the fries served with their steaks this evening.
    All he had to do was feed the girl and she was putty in his hands.
    “Does your father miss you?”
    She went still, and he knew he’d stepped into something.
    “I’m sorry, Eve. He’s gone, isn’t he?”
    The question seemed to rattle her, and she sighed. “I lost him not too long ago. I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like yesterday. Sometimes it feels like forever ago.”
    “How about your mom?” He asked the question cautiously. He was so curious about her background, but she’d been serious about the no-last-names thing. He didn’t want to scare her off.
    She remained quiet for a moment, then turned her face his way. “She left when I was young. It was just me and my dad. How about you?”
    He was more than willing to discuss his background if it kept her talking. “Well, you know I grew up wealthy.”
    Her nose wrinkled in that cute way that let him know she wasn’t impressed. “Yes, I think being able to afford this super expensive suite for three nights is proof that you’ve got some bank, Gabriel.”
    He went still. “Wait. Um, I thought you were paying for this. I told them it was all you.”
    Her mouth fell open, her eyes widening in shock.
    Gabe let her off the hook with a laugh. “I was joking, baby.”
    “Jerk,” she huffed, but settled back in.
    He loved teasing her, too. “So like I was saying, grew up rich, but that is not a guarantee of happiness.”
    “Why did they send you to boarding school?” she asked.
    He was sure the concept was foreign to her. Eve’s father probably had been very protective. He couldn’t see her dad letting her reside in a different state nine months out of the year. “Because every male in my family for the last hundred years has attended Creighton Academy, and I wasn’t going to be any different, according to my father. My family came over on the Mayflower. My many-times-great grandfather was one of the first official US prisoners of war. Him dying in a Redcoat jail was a serious point of pride to my father.”
    She frowned, her brow creasing sweetly. It made her look like a grumpy kitten, though a sexy one. “I’m pretty sure I’m related to John Wilkes Booth.”
    “That is unfortunate. My mother would surely have forbidden me to see you.” He kissed her forehead. “Again, I’m joking. I’m merely pointing out that I had a reputation to live up to.”
    “That must have been rough. You weren’t allowed to be a kid, were you?”
    “No. I had to represent my family. My father was raised a certain way and he passed that on to me. He was distant, though I believe he loved me deep down. It’s funny how our perspectives can change as we age. Now I see he tried to connect the only way he knew how.” He hadn’t discussed this in years, and never with the honest insight he was sharing now. He and Sara spoke about their parents, but he never wanted to criticize them to her, so he hadn’t been completely open about his feelings. Maybe because he’d spent so much time naked with Eve, it felt so natural to open himself up. It seemed right to talk to her.
    “And how was that?”
    He smiled with the memory. “We flew. He started taking me up in puddle jumpers when I was six. Scared the hell out of my mother, but I loved it. I got my pilot’s license at seventeen but I was flying long before that. I was lucky I never got caught.”
    Eve caressed his chest, her touch soothing. “Wow, the biggestconcession I got from my dad was when he let me ride in the back of his patrol car and I let everyone think I’d been arrested. I was eight. I thought it made me look tough. Then I actually got arrested because of the Peter Jackson incident and it really ruined me forever.”
    “I can imagine.” He wished he’d been there for