Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (54 page)

“That would be absolutely no fun Brandy.  I will eventually find a woman that loves me the way my wife never will.”

“Yeah, yeah.  Let’s go.  Your list is starting to give me the creeps.”

Gabe chuckled.  “I find it rather funny myself.”

He followed her out of the bathroom.

“You really are nasty Gabe.”

Gabe switched the lights off and followed her out of the bar, locking the door and testing it to make sure that it was locked securely.  “So Brandy, have you put any thought into having a threesome with two men?  Todd seems to like you.”

“Todd likes Chloe.  She’d be better off sleeping with him.  I keep trying to tell her that, but she won’t listen.”

Gabe chuckled.  “Thank you darling.  I knew that you wanted me all to yourself.”

“Like any woman will ever have you all to herself.  Your wife certainly doesn’t.”

“When I find the right woman I will be faithful to her.”

“How are you going to know she’s the right one?  Some woman is going to tell you that you need to divorce your wife.  You’re going to tell her no or play it off and not do it.  Leslie is the one that you really want.  You just don’t think she loves you enough.”

“Why don’t you love me Brandy?” They had paused next to her car.

She sighed.  “I know that you’re never going to leave your wife.  There will always be some excuse with you.  And I just don’t feel that way about you.  I thought at first that maybe I could, or would eventually, but it’s never going to happen Gabe.  We have great sex, but I won’t ever love you.”

“What’s the difference between powerful love making and love itself?”

Brandy lit a cigarette, wishing that Gabe would shut up.  “I guess that a lot of times really good sex can lead to two people falling in love, or falling in love can lead to really good sex, but not always.  I like you.  I appreciate all the things you’ve done for me.  Yes, there are sparks between us.  I can’t deny that because my body obviously enjoys the things that you do to it.  But there’s something missing between us and it will always be missing.  Don’t lie to me and tell me that you really think you’re in love with me.”

“I do believe that I could live happily with you for the rest of my life and make love to you every night.”

“So you could get it up for me.  Big deal.  Even if you left your wife for me, which would never happen, it wouldn’t mean that you’d stop screwing around.  I want to be with someone that I love. Someone that will be faithful because they love me so much that I’m all they need.  I’m not the woman that you’d be faithful to.  And I’m not going to pretend that I love you when I don’t.  You get me off.  I get you off.  That’s it.”

“You make it sound so cheap Brandy.”

“It is cheap Gabe.  You pay me more than you should.  You pay half my bills and give me money whenever I ask for it.  I’m your whore.”

“You are not.”

“Yes I am.  Now can we go?  It’s getting cold out and I want to take a shower.”

“I don’t want you to think of yourself as my whore.  I don’t think of you that way.”

“Yeah, okay.  You say you love me and you wouldn’t even stay with me all night if I asked you to.”

“Would you like me to stay with you tonight?”

Brandy sighed, regretting that she had brought it up.  Her bed seemed really empty sometimes, but it didn’t mean that she needed Gabe to share it she thought.  He had a family.  She didn’t want his company at all anymore most of the time, let alone all night.

“No.  Go home to your son.”

“I could stay with you if you wanted.  Leslie has taken Christian to visit her parents again.  Don’t you remember the day when you seduced me in my office you wanted me so badly?”

“That was because I got out of rehab and you spent days making me drive your truck so that you were sure I could pass the driving test and didn’t offer to screw me once.  We had a lot of sex before I went to rehab.  I came out horny as hell.” 

That had also been due to the really hot counselor that worked at the rehab center, but Brandy wasn’t really in the mood to argue with him anymore.

“Let’s go to your house.  I’ll stay with you tonight.  I’ll even cook you breakfast in the morning.”

“I hardly ever eat breakfast.  I thought you knew that.”

“You should eat more.  You’re too thin.”

“Yeah right.  I remember when you said my ass was getting fat and wouldn’t screw me for three days.”

“I was teasing you.  You know that.  You were the one that brought it up in the first place.  That was when Christian was sick.  I didn’t stop having sex with you because I thought your ass was fat.”

“You don’t tease a woman about her ass being fat Gabe.  You’re married.  You should know that.  I bet Leslie would take your head off if you teased her about her ass being fat.”

“I’m sure you’re probably right.  Let’s go love.  We have a long night ahead of us.”

“Yeah.”

Brandy got into her car.  Gabe followed her back to her house.  He delivered on his promises to her, but she was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction again after he left the next morning.  She knew that Gabe didn’t love her and probably never would.  She wished more and more that she’d never come to Brunton.

Chapter 5

The new year dawned and things stayed much the same.  Brandy continued to sleep with Gabe and she continued to feel like his whore instead of his mistress.  She still asked him for money when she didn’t need it and he still gave it to her without question.  She’d put aside a lot of it, and had a nice amount in the savings’ account that she had opened.  She thought that maybe she’d give it to Joey for college if he wanted anything to do with her by then, or use it to make her eventual escape from Gabe.

On her birthday, Gabe paid for a private party with male strippers because she teased him and told him that was what she wanted more than anything else for her twenty-first birthday.  She found it to be quite an enjoyable show.  Chloe seemed to as well, but Brandy’s mood soured when Gabe tried to talk her into a threesome with one of the strippers.  She didn’t talk to him for a week afterwards and renewed her vow to find Mr. Right.  One of the strippers had given her his phone number, but she figured he was much more of a Mr. Right Now than a Mr. Right.

A few days after she’d decided to talk to Gabe again, Brandy was asleep on her couch when a knock at her door awoke her.  She sat up and groaned, thinking that it was probably Brenda.  She reached for a cigarette and lit it on the way to the door.

When she opened the door, it wasn’t Brenda standing on the other side, but Gabe.

“Hello beautiful.”

“Hi Gabe.”  She yawned as she let him into the house, wishing she could go back to sleep.

“Come on love.  We’re going for a ride.”

“Where are we going?”

“To my house.  I want to make love to you in my bed.”

“No way.  That’s gross.  You have sex with your wife there and she has sex with who knows how many other people there.”

“The sheets are clean Brandy.  I just changed them myself.”

“It’s still gross.  Besides, I have a perfectly good bed right in there.”

She pointed towards her bedroom.

“I know you have a perfectly good bed.  I paid for it remember? Let’s go.”

“No way.  It’s just too weird Gabe.”

“It’s not weird.  Sex with you is a beautiful intertwining of our bodies, no matter where we do it.  Let’s go Brandy.”

She could see that he meant it.  She didn’t want to piss him off, but she thought that he was taking it too far.  This was even worse than all the crazy places in the bar he’d insisted on doing it and the time he’d demanded she give him a blow job in his office when she was working alone with Sabrina.  She thought she’d never hear the end of that one from Sabrina.  She’d hated the bitch even more after that.

“What do I get out of it?”

“The pleasure that my body always gives your body.  A pleasure like no other.  Is that not good enough?”

“To do it in your bed?  No.”

“I’ll give you two weeks without Sabrina.”

“You probably gave her a vacation.  Not good enough Gabe.  I want $5000.”

Once the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back.  Her thought was, wow, I really am a whore.

“Fine.  I’ll give it to you tomorrow when you come into work.  Now let’s go.”

“Are your kids home?”

“No, the nanny has Christian and Jessa.”

“She just barely had the baby, and the nanny is already taking care of her?”

“A lot of women with money are like that Brandy.  Sometimes I think that if we found a decent enough nanny that wouldn’t get chased away by Leslie’s stupid antics, my kids would be better off with the nanny than with her.  Come on Brandy.  Let’s go.”

She sighed, but went to the bedroom and slipped her feet into her tennis shoes.  She followed Gabe out the door, locking it behind them.  The ride to Gabe’s house was silent and she was glad.  She didn’t want to think about what would happen if Leslie was home.  Whenever she’d seen Leslie’s stand out bright red hair in town anywhere near her since she’d been sleeping with Gabe, she’d gone as fast as she could in the other direction.

She had to admit that Gabe’s house was nice when he pulled up to it several minutes later.  The house was huge and the grounds were well maintained.  She got a glimpse of an elaborate child’s swing set and tree house on the side of the house as she followed Gabe up the long driveway.  There was a flower garden and a small vegetable garden.  She blinked when she saw a set of tall plants off to the side.

“Yes, those are what you think they are.”

“Your wife grows weed right outside?”

“She has a medical license.”

“Oh.  Is she home?”

“I believe so, yes.  Why?”

“What if she sees us?”

Gabe laughed.  “Come on Brandy.  Leslie is harmless, except when you happen to be married to her.”

His smile faded as he opened the door.  She followed him down a short front hallway.  They were almost through the living when a sultry voice said “Gabriel, are you not going to introduce me to your pretty friend?”

Brandy tried to hide behind Gabe while still trying to get a good look at his wife.  Leslie was sitting in a leather recliner, her legs draped over the side.  She had a fashion magazine in her lap.  She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt but Brandy thought she still managed to look elegant and even more beautiful than in the pictures she’d seen and the glimpses she’d gotten of the other woman in town.  She had a small stud in her nose and multiple tattoos on her arms.  Her green eyes looked even brighter than in the pictures. Brandy had to wonder if the color came from contacts.

“Leslie, this is your probable replacement, Brandy.  Brandy, this is my bitchy wife Leslie.  Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ll be in the bedroom.  Don’t disturb me for the next couple of hours.”

Leslie snorted.  “Oh please Gabe.  You never last that long.  You barely know the meaning of foreplay.  Are you sure she doesn’t like women?”

Brandy hid even further behind Gabe.

“No, she does not. Let me know if Janice gets home with the kids early.”

“Her name is Janet, but you wouldn’t know that because you’re never home.”

“Whatever Leslie.”

“Don’t you want her to meet my children if she’s my replacement Gabriel?”

Gabe pulled Brandy towards the stairs.  “No Leslie, not right now.”

Leslie laughed.  “You’ll never leave me Gabe.  You don’t have the guts.  You’re nothing without me and you know it.”

“Yes Leslie,” Gabe said.

Brandy had to wonder if Leslie was a little crazy.  She could still hear the woman laughing as they went up the stairs and down the hall.  Finally, the laughter was shut out as Gabe pulled her into his bedroom and shut the door behind them.

When he flipped the light switch, she wanted to walk right back out the door.  The room was very feminine.  There was a trace of perfume in the air.

Gabe quickly set about undressing and had moved to undress her when she stopped him and said “I don’t think I can do this Gabe.  It’s too weird and I think your wife’s a little crazy.”

“My wife is probably a lot crazy.  She just hides it better on some days than others.  C’mon Brandy.  Let me show you how much I love you.”

“No Gabe.  I really can’t do this.  Take me home please.”

He turned towards the nightstand and pulled out a banded stack of bills, tossing it in her direction.  “That’s what you asked for and more.  Now can we do this?”

“No.  I didn’t really want the money.  I don’t know why I asked for it.”

She didn’t want to know why he had stacks of cash in his nightstand either she thought.

He moved to her and kissed her.  “Brandy darling, I love you.  My wife is nothing.  Don’t worry about her.  Now, I would like to make good use of my very nice bed.  Let me love you Brandy.”

She let him undress her, thinking that he was right about the fact that his bed looked nice at least.  The sheets were midnight blue.  She liked their satiny feel against her body.  She soon liked what Gabe was doing to her body too, and was able to almost forget the fact that they were screwing in the bed that he shared with his wife while she was downstairs.

Half an hour later, there was a loud knock at the bedroom door.

“Gabriel are you finished?  Janet is on her way home with the kids.  They’ll be home in half an hour or so.”

“I’ll be down in a bit.  Now go away.”

“I love you too, Gabe.  Try not to get this one pregnant.”

When Gabe had come to orgasm, he discarded the condom in the toilet and came back to the bedroom.  Brandy started to reach for her clothes but stopped.

“What did she mean; try not to get this one pregnant?”

Gabe sighed.  “When Chloe and I first got together, we thought she had gotten pregnant with my child.  It was a false alarm, but Leslie has never stopped giving me shit about it.”

“You’ve been sleeping with Chloe this whole time?”

“You must understand Chloe.  You thought you were in a bad position when I hired you.  It was nothing compared to what Chloe was going through.  You and Chloe are different types of women Brandy.  You may have been a party girl when you were a teenager.  You may have had an abortion and put your child up for adoption.  Your ex may be a drug dealer, but Chloe was basically homeless and giving blow jobs and letting her body be used for hits of meth when she came to me.  She also had an abusive boyfriend who had attempted to give her an at home abortion with a coat hanger and almost killed her.  Chloe was a mess when I met her, nothing like the beautiful woman that you see today.  I am very proud of what I have helped Chloe become.  She is very grateful to me.  I can’t say that I turn her away from my bed when she wants to share it.”

Brandy wasn’t sure that Gabe was telling her the complete truth about his relationship with Chloe, but she shut her mouth and got dressed.  By the time she had her shoes on Gabe was trying to escort her out the door.

“Come on Brandy.  I’m not ready for you to meet my children.”

When they went down the stairs and through the living room, there was no sign of Leslie.  For that Brandy was glad.  She didn’t think she could take another run in with Gabe’s wife.

A few minutes after he pulled out of the driveway, Gabe got a phone call and his attention was suddenly on whoever he was talking to.  Brandy was glad for that, too.  She wanted to go home, take a shower, and go back to sleep.

She also told herself that she would look for another job. 

Gabe dropped her off at the edge of her driveway, barely bothering to say goodbye as he drove away.  She’d heard him say something about his daughter being sick and meeting someone at the hospital.  It made her feel guilty for taking him away from his kids again, even if it had been his idea.

She was glad Brenda wasn’t around.  She let herself into the house, flipping on the living room and the kitchen lights.  She took a quick shower and then returned to the living room, making herself a can of soup and a mug of cocoa.  She curled up on the couch then, and watched movies until she was ready to fall asleep.

The next morning, she did look for a job.  The prospects didn’t look very good though.  There were two places that were willing to hire her, but one was part time.  They both paid much less than what she made at Gabe’s Place.  She didn’t know how she was going to pay her rent without Gabe.  It dismayed her to realize that she didn’t know how much her rent was since he’d been paying it since she’d moved into the house.

She asked Brenda how much her rent was, and was told that it was $750 a month.  Brenda’s house had one more bedroom than hers, but Brandy’s yard was much bigger.  Her house was in better shape overall, so she was a little scared to know what her rent actually cost.

When she went into work that night, she was glad that Gabe wasn’t around, and neither was Sabrina as he’d promised.  It was a peaceful night since the bar was slow and she spent a lot of time talking to Chloe.  It surprised her how openly the other woman was willing to talk about her past.

Much of what Gabe had told her was true.  She had been a homeless meth addict when he’d hired her.  She said that Gabe had put her through rehab four times and had taken care of her for months before he’d put her to work in the bar.  She didn’t mention the abusive ex-boyfriend that Gabe had mentioned or her false alarm pregnancy, so Brandy didn’t bring either up.

  Brandy tried to get the other girl to scheme with her to come up with a way to get Gabe off of both of their backs, but Chloe refused and then changed the subject.

She didn’t see Gabe for the next week and for that she was glad.  But on her day off he showed up on her doorstep.

She opened the door and stepped back to let him in.  He shut the door and pulled her to him for a long kiss.

“Hello my beautiful Brandy.  I’ve missed you.”

“Gabe, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yes darling?”

“How much is my rent?”

“What difference does it make?  I don’t have a problem paying it.”

“I don’t like the idea of you taking care of me.”

“Why does it bother you?”

“It makes me feel like a hooker.”

“You’re not a hooker.  You’re a well taken care of mistress.”