It Must Be Love

'By no stretch of the imagination would anyone ever consider this dress sexy.'

He shook his head. 'Maybe it's that black lace bra you're wearing.'

'If you hadn't been staring down my dress, you wouldn't know about my bra.'

'And if you hadn't been showing me, I wouldn't have been looking.'

'Showing you?' Anger cooled any lingering desire, and she no longer thought there was anything amusing about the situation. 'Are you saying that the sight of a black bra makes you lose control?'

'Normally no.' He looked her up and down. 'What's in that stuff you were burning earlier?'

'Orange and rose oil.'

'Nothing else?'

'No. Why?'

'Anything mind altering in all those weird little bottles you carry around with you? Spells or voodoo or something?'

'You think that you kissed me because of some sort of voodoo oil?'

'Makes sense.'

It was beyond ridiculous. She leaned forward and poked his chest with her index finger. 'Were you dropped on your head as a child?' She poked him again. 'Is that your problem?'

He unfolded his arms and grasped her hand in his hot palm. 'I thought you were a pacifist.'

'I am, but you've just pushed me past my…' Gabrielle paused and listened to the voices coming from the front. They moved toward the back room, and she didn't need to see them to know who'd walked into the store.

'Gabe is back here with her boyfriend,' Kevin said.

'Boyfriend? Gabrielle didn't mention a boyfriend when I spoke to her last night.'

Gabrielle tugged her hand from Joe's grasp, took a step back, and quickly studied him from head to toe. He stood before her looking exactly as her mother had described. Stubborn and determined and sensual. The jeans and tool belt were like a neon sign. 'Quick,' she whispered, 'give me that tool belt.'

'What?'

'Just do it.' Without the tool belt, maybe her mother wouldn't confuse Joe for the man in her vision. 'Hurry.'

His hands lowered to the front of his jeans, and he unbuckled the wide leather belt. Slowly, he handed it over and asked, 'Anything else?'

Gabrielle snatched it from him and tossed it behind a box in the corner. It hit the wall hard, and she spun around in time to see her mother, Aunt Yolanda, and Kevin walk into the back. She stepped out of the storage room and pinned a smile on her face. 'Hi,' she said as if nothing was out of the ordinary. As if she hadn't been making out with a dark, passionate lover.

Joe watched Gabrielle's straight shoulders as she moved from the small room. He quickly turned his back to the doorway and took a moment to rearrange himself. He didn't care what she said, there had to be some sort of mind-altering aphrodisiac in that stuff she burned all the time. It was the only explanation for why he'd completely lost his mind.

When he stepped from the storage room, he didn't recognize the women with Kevin, but the taller of the two bore a striking resemblance to Gabrielle. She wore her long auburn hair parted in the middle and pulled back on the sides, held in place with thin strips of beaded leather.

'Joe,' Gabrielle said, looking across her shoulder at him, 'this is my mother, Claire, and my aunt, Yolanda.'

Joe offered his hand to Gabrielle's mother and found it clenched in a tight grasp. 'It's nice to meet you,' he said as he gazed into blue eyes drilling him as if she could see through his forehead.

'I've met you before,' she informed him.

No way. Joe would have remembered meeting this woman. There was a strange intensity about her that he wouldn't have forgotten. 'I think you may have me confused with someone else. I don't believe we've met.'

'Oh, you didn't meet me,' she added as if that cleared up the mystery.

'Mother, please.'

Claire turned his hand over and stared at his palm. 'Just as I suspected. Look at this line, Yolanda.'

Gabrielle's aunt stepped close and bent her blond head over Joe's palm. 'Very stubborn.' She raised her soft brown gaze to him, then looked sadly at Gabrielle and shook her head. 'Are you sure about this man, dear?'

Gabrielle groaned, and Joe tried to pull his hand from Claire's grasp. He had to tug twice before she finally released him.

'When were you born, Joe?' Claire asked.

He didn't want to answer. He didn't believe in all that zodiac crap, but as she stared at him with that spooky gaze, the hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he opened his mouth and admitted, 'May first.'

Now it was Claire's turn to look at her daughter and shake her head. 'And a Taurus to boot.' Then she directed her attention to Yolanda. 'Very earthy. Loves good food and good love. Taureans are the zodiac's sensualists.'

'True hedonists. Great endurance, and relentless when focusing on a certain goal or task,' Yolanda added to the list. 'He's very possessive of his mate and protective of offspring.'

Kevin laughed, and Gabrielle's lips pursed. If the two women hadn't been discussing him as if he were potential stud service, Joe might have laughed too. Gabrielle obviously didn't see any humor in the situation, but she couldn't exactly inform her mother and aunt that he wasn't her boyfriend. Not with Kevin standing so near. Joe couldn't do much to help her out, but he might have tried to change the subject if she hadn't opened her mouth and insulted him.

'Joe is not the dark, passionate lover that you think he is,' she said. 'Just take my word on this.'

Joe was fairly certain he was a passionate guy. He was fairly certain he was a good lover, too. He'd never had any complaints. She just might as well have come right on out and accused him of being a lousy lay. He slid his arm around her waist and kissed her temple. 'Careful or you'll give me performance anxiety,' he said, then he chuckled as if even the thought of performing badly was ridiculous. 'Gabrielle's a little mad at me for suggesting that cleaning house and cooking is women's work.'

'And you're still breathing?' Kevin asked. 'I suggested she be in charge of cleaning the bathroom here at work because she's a girl, and I thought she would deck me.'

'Naw, she's a pacifist,' Joe assured Kevin. 'Aren't you, sweet cheeks?'

The look she turned on him was anything but nonviolent. 'I'm always willing to make exceptions for you.'

He squeezed her tight against him and said, 'That's what a man likes to hear from his woman.' Then before she could utter a word and accuse him again of being a demon from hell, he pressed his mouth to hers, trapping her anger with his kiss. Her eyes widened, then narrowed, and she raised her hands to his shoulders. Before she could shove him away, he let her go, and her attempt to push him looked more like a grasp to keep him close. He smiled, and, for a few brief seconds, he thought her resentment might overcome her belief in nonviolence. But being the true pacifist she professed, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Then she turned her attention to her mother and aunt and ignored him completely.

'Did you come to take me to lunch?' she asked.

'It's only ten-thirty.'

'Brunch then,' she amended. 'I want to hear all about your vacation.'

'We need to pick up Beezer,' Claire said, then looked at Joe. 'Of course you're invited. Yolanda and I need to check your life energy.'

'We should test him with your new aura-meter,' Yolanda added. 'I think it's more accurate than-'

'I'm sure Joe would rather stay here and work,' Gabrielle interrupted. 'He loves his job. Don't you?'

Aurameter? Jesus H. The nut didn't fall far from the family tree. 'That's right. But thank you, Claire. Maybe another time.'

'Count on it. Fate has given you someone very special, and I am here to make sure you take care of her gentle spirit,' she said, her gaze so directed the hair on the back of his neck stood up again. She opened her mouth to say more, but Gabrielle took her arm and walked with her toward the front of the store.

'You know I don't believe in fate,' Joe heard Gabrielle saying. 'Joe is not my fate.'

Kevin shook his head and let out a low whistle once the door shut behind all three women. 'You barely dodged that bullet, my friend. Gabe's mother and aunt are real nice ladies, but sometimes when they get to talking, I