Steamed 4 (Steamed #4) (3 page)

When I walked back into the kitchen I saw him trying some of
the chef's lunch items. He turned to me with a smile and said, “Did the
reporters scare you off my love?”

I laughed, “No, they didn't. I went to talk to Jared, which
turned out to be a waste of my time. My god Link, he was doing coke right there
on a desk in front of me. He just doesn't care anymore.”

Tears welled up in my eyes and he came to me immediately.

“Oh Gemma...”

He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight. He knew
exactly what I needed at that moment. I needed to be held, and I needed someone
to tell me that everything was going to be okay even if it wasn't.

“What's happening right now? What's happening to Jared? You
know him Link; you know he's not like this. What happened to him?”

“I don't know Gemma. I'm just as confused about this whole
thing is you are. I never would have thought my leaving the restaurant would
cause such a mess. Sometimes I wonder if it would've been better just to leave
the recipe with him.”

“No Link, he doesn't deserve it. It's your recipe and your
life. If you want to sell your recipe so that you can open up
y
o
u
r restaurant then you're
right. You wanted something for yourself you shouldn't have to worry about how
your former boss is going to react.”

“I know, but...”

“Link
it's
time for you to call a
lawyer. You need someone to fight for you and you need someone to defend you
when Jared goes on his rants. You need someone who is going to make Jared
stop.”

“Oh darling I'm way ahead of you on that.”

“What?”

He turned around and it was then that I noticed that there
was somebody else in the room. It appeared as if she had just come out of his
office and was watching us talk. She had a look of interest on her face and I
wondered who the hell she was.

“Gemma I want to introduce you to an old friend of mine and
she also happens to be a great lawyer. Gloria, this is my girlfriend Gemma.”

It was the first time he had called me his girlfriend.

“Hi Gemma it's nice to meet you.”

Gloria was stunning, and even that description was an
understatement. She had long, flowing, coppery red hair that made you instantly
think that she must have a wild side to her. She had emerald green eyes that
couldn't possibly be real. She was tall and thin with a bust size that put mine
to shame. Not only was she obviously beautiful but to be a lawyer she had to be
very intelligent as well. Being in her presence, I found her to be very
intimidating. I wasn't sure I really like the idea of she and Link working
together, and what I liked even last was the fact that they had obviously been
friends for a while. I wasn't used to being jealous. I was an attractive female
myself, but being in Gloria's presence made it really hard not to feel insecure.

“It's nice to meet you as well.”

“Gemma, I can assure you that I'm going to set things right
as soon as possible. But I can't promise that Jared will have a pot to piss in
once I'm through with him.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m bringing your brother down with everything that I got.
I'm going to destroy him for what he's done to Link. Being that it's your
brother, I thought you'd like to know.”

All I could do was nod. It wasn't like I had anything to
argue about. I had just seen Jared and I knew that he was in the process of
trying to bring Link down still. So why did the whole situation make me uneasy?
I didn't want Link to be ruined and I knew that Jared had to stop but the idea
of him being ruined as well hadn't occurred to me. I didn't like it one bit.

Chapter Five

After Gloria left I decided I should probably make an
appearance at work. It felt like forever since I had been there. I knew that
there could be a lot of work stacked up on my desk. I had a lot of flexibility
in my schedule but at the end of the day things still
needed
to get done
. I hoped that I would be able to focus on the tasks that
needed to get done. Would I be able to put all the nonsense I had jumbled
inside my head aside until I figured out my workload?

Link broke me out of my train of thought.

“Do you need a ride?”

“Yes, you picked me up at home remember? I only borrowed
your car to go see Jared,” I said with another smile. Ahhh, I wished we could
be back at the beach house together.

“Okay, let's go,” he said as he kissed me on the forehead.

We walked out to the car and I got into the passenger side.
I would just take a cab home after my
workday
. Link had enough going on without
shuttling me around. I would get some work done and then see my friends for a
bit and then head home for some bathtub time.

Once in the car, he grasped my hand and squeezed it. “You have
nothing to worry about Gemma. I want you to know that.”

I turned to him and smiled. He was so sweet and always so
concerned about my wellbeing. That was the kind of man you wanted in your life.

“Gloria is one of the best. She's going to take very good
care of me and soon this will all be over with.”

Why did he have to bring her up again? I had to bite my
tongue to avoid asking him if the two had dated before. Maybe not even dated,
they could have just slept together. The thought of it made me cringe inside. I
didn't like the fact that Gloria was currently in the picture. It made me
exceedingly uncomfortable. I hated the fact that Gloria representing him
bothered me. I was not the jealous type, but just looking at Gloria sent red
flags up. How could he have not at least tried to date a woman that looked like
that? Even though I wanted to ask him if they dated, I wouldn't allow myself to
do it. It made me feel stupid and insecure and I wouldn't allow myself to feel
that way. Things were going wonderfully with Link and I had no reason to worry
about him or our budding relationship. I pushed the insecurities down as far as
I could. It wasn't fair to Link. He deserved the best representing him and if
the best was Gloria then so be it.

Why was I even worried about Link? He was a good man and I
could never even imagine him hurting me in that way. There was nothing going on
between the two of them even if she was one of the prettiest women I had ever
met. I needed to remember that I was nothing to sneeze over either. I had been
known to snatch myself up a hottie every now and then, Link included. Sarah had
always wondered why I had never gone into modelling. The answer was that I
loved food too much. I shouldn't be letting Gloria get to me. I was one hell of
a catch and Link was just as lucky to have
me
as I was
to have him.

When we got to my work, Link leaned over and kissed me
goodbye. “Everything is going to be alright beautiful, trust me.”

I nodded and kissed him on the lips once again. I slowly got
out of the car, not looking forward to going into my office. I turned and waved
to Link, watching him drive away and hoping that he was right.

Chapter Six

Like I said, it felt like forever since I had been in my
office. Between meeting Link, dealing with my brother, and then our little mini
vacation, I had barely been in the office. I was successful though. I could
afford to take a little time off. I worked damn hard and had gone far in my
career in a short amount of time. Being in and out of the office for a few
weeks was not the end of the world.

When I walked into my office, my assistant was there to
greet me. She had a coffee ready
for me and it made me about
the happiest person in the world
. I had yet to have a coffee that day
with everything that had happened and I needed one badly.

“Hi Miss Johnson, how are you today? Did you have a good
weekend?”

“Oh it definitely could have been better Karen, no fault of
Link’s of course. I'm sure you have seen the news lately and saw that my
brother has caused a real shit storm in my life.”

Karen giggled and then stopped herself, “Yes ma'am. Sorry to
hear that you haven't had the best time lately.”

“Oh my luck is sure to turn around, I hope. Isn't that how it’s
supposed to work?”

“Sure Miss Johnson. Your mail is on your desk, you have a
meeting in a few hours and I left your updated schedule for you to review.”

“Thank you Karen, good job as always. I would like to lose
myself completely in work until my meeting, so if you will excuse me.”

“Yes ma'am, I will bring in all your current files and let
you get to it.”

“Sounds like a blast.”

Even though Karen had brought me in mountains of paperwork
to go through, I had a hard time focusing. All I kept thinking about was that when
all this was through either Link or Jared would be living a very different
life. Gloria had made it perfectly clear that it was going to be Jared that
would be going down. If that was the case, he would probably have some very big
regrets about the way he had handled everything. He was a successful business
owner, the owner of a very popular restaurant. Was it possible that he would
ruin it all, and end up with nothing? The very thought of that was so
heartbreaking that it took my breath away. I couldn't imagine my brother
without his restaurant. It would destroy him. But how could I feel pity for
someone who was so bent on destroying someone else's life. He didn't care who
he was hurting right now, so how could I feel bad for him? Still, he was my
brother and I loved him no matter what.

I started to realize that I was losing whole blocks of time
sitting there worrying. I couldn't seem to focus on anything. I was rereading
paragraphs, going over paperwork that I had already read. The whole situation
was becoming so annoying, and I wondered why had even bothered coming into work
that day. We need to get stuff done, but clearly I was not being very
successful at it. I should have just hung out with Link all day at the
restaurant, eating good food, enjoying good company. That would've been much
more enjoyable than trying to sift through all the paperwork and getting
nowhere.

Speaking of Link, thinking about him and Gloria working
together was also preventing me from paying attention to work. Why did his savior
have to be so gorgeous? Would it have been too much to ask to have his lawyer
be an
800-pound
woman?
I knew the way that guys thought. I had a brother after all. When we were
younger I’d been forced to listen to him and his friends talk about girls all
the time.

I had my head in my hands, numb from paperwork when Karen
arrived at my door. She was holding another cup of coffee in her hand. She
walked into the room and set it down before me.

“Oh Karen thank God, you're a lifesaver.”

“You're very welcome. It came in to see how you are doing
and also to let you know that your lunch has arrived.”

I looked up at Karen and I took a sip of my coffee and
everything in the world felt right again. There is nothing like the taste of
coffee; it just calmed me down right away.

“I think you must be mistaken Karen, I didn't order lunch.”

“Well I think that this handsome guy at the door would have
to disagree,” she said giggling. Suddenly Link entered my office with a paper
bag that smelled just heavenly.

Grinning I said, “Link!”

“Hey Gemma, I see you are working hard. That is a lot of paperwork,
I'm really glad that I work in a kitchen.”

I laughed, “Karen I would like to introduce you to my
boyfriend Link. He's the kind of guy that brings a girl some lunch when she's
having a bad day.”

“You're having a bad day? I thought I was the only one
having a bad day. Glad to hear I can come and cheer you up then.”

I looked at Karen. “Hold my calls, I don't wish to be
disturbed.”

“No problem Miss Johnson.” She looked at Link and said, “It
was nice to finally meet you Link.”

“Same here.”

Karen left should in the door behind her. I was going to ear
to ear when Link came to immediately and started deep kissing me. I felt
breathless all of a sudden. This was exactly what I needed. I should have
stayed at the restaurant with Link and did this very thing all day long.

He pressed me up against the wall and I felt his need for me
press into me. “I think we need to christen this office of yours my beauty.”

I smiled, “Is that right?”

“Oh yes,” he said as he kissed me deeply.

Chapter Seven

I wasn't sure how it was possible that my heart was beating
so furiously? Shouldn't I be used to Link by now? And yet it happened every
time that he was close to me. I thought my heart was going to burst through my
ribcage and come through my chest. I had never done anything so brazen before
and so naughty, not in my own office of course. I seemed to have christened
Link's place of employment and now he wanted mine as well. What would Karen
think if she knew we were fucking in my office? A smile played on my face as I
thought about it. I couldn't say no to Link, he was just too delicious and he
made my body hum.
 
I grew warm all
over. I was actually becoming incredibly horny as his tongue continued to play
with my own. We immediately started tearing off our clothes in between kisses.
The kisses became hot and fevered as if we thought it would be the last ones we
would ever experience.