"Ummm... He's-"
"Never mind. I'll find him." She waved a dismissive hand at Beth and took off in the way of Gabriel's office.
Beth watched the woman not sure if she should stop her, or let her go. She seemed to know her way around and she did know the passcode. So who was she? A tinge of jealousy reared up within Beth as she watched the other woman saunter off. With her curiosity getting the best of her she made her way up upstairs to her bedroom.
Once inside her room, she closed the door behind her, sat at her desk and booted up her laptop. She did a quick search on the internet for Gabriel. In particular, Gabriel and his dates. Sure enough, within a few minutes of searching a picture of Gabriel with the blonde woman appeared on the screen.
Chyna Petrova. Model, turned actress. Damn, damn damn. She continued her search, discovering Chyna was Gabriel's most recent fling, but they reportedly split several weeks ago. Well, why is she here and why hasn't he changed the code? Forgot maybe? Gabriel didn't strike her as the kind of man to overlook such things as forgetting to change security codes, but on the other hand maybe he just didn't feel it was necessary.
She was tempted to go downstairs, peek her head into his office and offer them coffee or refreshments. Isn't that what a good chef-slash-maid would do? But what if they were in the middle of something she didn't want to know about? She raked a hand through her hair and sighed. No, she'd do nothing. She'd read a book for a while and go to bed. Simple as that, getting emotionally and physically involved with Gabriel had been a bad idea and this proved it.
****
"You're a fucking asshole Gabriel Reynolds!" Chyna snarled storming out of his front door.
Closing the door behind Chyna, Gabriel let out a loud sigh of relief. Fuckin' finally! He was seriously having doubts he'd ever get her out of the house without calling security. Chyna wasn't the type of girl to take rejection well so when he'd decided to end the relationship, partly to sexual incompatibility issues, but mostly because she was a self-centered snob, she'd been less then thrilled, but she had seemed to have accepted it.
Until tonight.
He couldn't have been more shocked to see her strolling into his office, stripping off her trench coat to reveal she was naked underneath. She told him that she'd offer him whatever it took. She'd be his sub if that meant they could try again. He knew she could never be a sub and that still didn't fix the biggest issue. He really didn't like her all that much.
Why Beth let her onto the property without consulting with him first was beyond him, but he intended to find out. Doing a brief sweep of the main rooms and turning up empty on the Beth front, Gabriel took the stairs two at a time as he made his way up to the second floor and headed straight to her room. The door was open and the light on. Gabriel was pleased to see she had stayed up, despite it being past midnight.
"Hey Beth... I'm sorry about that interruption," he began as he strode into her room. Gabriel skidded to a halt as he caught sight of Beth curled up in a ball, still wearing her jeans and snoring soundly with a book in her hand. A warmness washed over him as he stood in the entryway of her room watching her.
The greedy part of him was tempted to wake her, but he simply didn't have the heart to. Walking as quietly as possible across the room he bent and took the book from her fingertips - some sappy romance novel with a steroid pumping goon holding a sword on the front cover - dog-eared the page she was on and set on it the night table. Grabbing the top of her knit blanket he pulled it up over her, to her chin, and then leaned down and kissed her on the temple.
"Goodnight baby," he whispered as he straightened back up and turned off her reading lamp. As he exited the room he didn't take notice of her eyes opening and watching him leave.
Chapter 9
Beth heard Gabriel come into the kitchen, but pretended to be too preoccupied with preparing breakfast to have noticed. His footsteps sounded behind her, and her heartbeat accelerated with each step he took. By the time he made it to her she could feel her heart thudding so hard in her chest that she was sure he'd be able to hear it beating.
Stay strong, you decided last night to keep this strictly professional from here on in, the voice at the back of her mind reminded her. She knew she made herself the promise, but his cologne was now reaching her nose and it smelt so divine. All Gabriel. She gulped down the lump forming in her throat.
"Good morning. I'm sorry about last night. You were asleep when I went looking for you." Gabriel wrapped his arms around her waist and nuzzled the side of her neck.
She stiffened in his embrace, to keep herself from melting into his arms. It would be so easy to just roll with it and lose herself in him again. She'd like nothing more than that actually. "Morning Gabriel,” she replied solemnly.
"I have a fun day planned for us after breakfast."
Gotta stay strong. "Is it business related?"
Gabriel stopped nuzzling her neck and took a step back from her. A part of her cried out in frustration as the sweet sensations that were beginning to get her wet and cause a fluttering in her stomach immediately stopped. "Beth, what's wrong?"
Taking a deep breath to gather the courage she needed to say what she needed to, she spun around to face him. Her resolve faltered as she noticed the concern in his eyes and expression. "I think us getting involved beyond an employer/employee basis is a bad idea and I feel its best if we-" she lowered her eyes to the floor between their feet.
He placed his index finger under her chin and tilted her eyes up to meet his once more. "Are you saying that because it's what you really want or are you just scared of what might happen between us?"
"Gabe..." Not wanting to discuss it any further or continue to have his dark eyes staring into hers she attempted to turn away, but he grabbed her upper arm and spun her back around to face him.
"Is it Chyna? Nothing happened last night between us. I seriously doubt she'll ever be back."
Why did he have to make it so difficult? His eyes coaxed her to tell him the truth and she found herself unable to keep from spilling what she felt to him. "I'm not like them," she murmured avoiding eye contact at all costs.
Gabriel's frowned deepened. "I'm not following you Beth."
"The women you date. I'm not anything like them. I'm your maid!''
He raked a hand through his short dark hair and shook his head. "We're been through this already. I want to be with you because you're not like them!" Smoke began to rise from the pan she had on the stove top behind her. "Fuck!" Leaning over her, his hard, lean body pressing hers against the countertop, he turned off the stove and removed the burnt food from the heat.