The CEO and the Girl From the Coffee Shop (10 page)

"That didn't
really answer my question... Just because you're good at something
doesn't mean you have to like it. I was pretty good at my job at
the coffee shop and I hated every second of it."

"Good point.
But I had an obligation to fulfill."

Beth nodded.
She understood his reasoning, but it still felt so unfair for him
to be doing something he hated.

"And don't get
me wrong it's not all bad, I certainly can't complain from the
financial perspective and I am the boss so that certainly has its
benefits. It's just not what I'd hoped for myself." he shrugged.
"Money isn't everything."

"But it
helps," Beth countered.

Any further
conversation was put on hold as the ride finally filled and it
began to move at a steady, quick pace. The car they sat in, rocked
back and forth, allowing for a birds eyes view of the entire park,
thousands of coloured lights twinkled below them. "Isn't it
beautiful?" Beth asked with a warm smile on her face.

"It is,"
Gabriel confirmed.

Beth glanced
over at Gabriel, her eyes catching his and realized that it wasn't
the park below that he was referring to. She ran a shaky hand
through her hair. She was beginning to become familiar with the
look he was giving her. His look was dark, heated and sexy, making
her stomach do flip flops and her pussy ache.

"Gabriel..."
The ferris wheel came to a full stop just as their car topped the
ride. Their car rocked with the sudden stopping and Beth
immediately focused her attention on their surroundings and the
people in the other cars muttering their displeasure from the stop.
They could see everything. The fairgrounds and well into the city
of Portland. It was a breathtaking view. She glanced over at
Gabriel who was grinning. "You paid him to stop the wheel didn't
you?"

"Guilty."

She sat back
in her seat and snuggled closer to Gabriel, "How long do we
have?"

"Five minutes
was as long as he would stall it."

"Hmmm. Well, I
guess that rules out sex on a ferris wheel," she teased, turning
partway in her seat so she could look up at him. His whole
demeanour was relaxed and carefree. She liked it. At that moment
she was able to forget that he was her boss and she was his
employee, and that he was severely out of her league - a thought
that kept creeping into her mind.

"Well, Miss
Wilmington that is a very appealing idea. Perhaps I should have
offered him more money." He cupped her chin in his hand and lowered
his mouth to hers.

Beth smiled as
his lips touched hers. As usual, the simple touch of his lips set
her body aflame. With a sigh, she parted her lips to him needing to
feel more as she slid her hand around his neck, urging him to take
more. He obliged, his tongue sweeping past her parted lips to
caress hers. She ached to reposition herself over him, straddling
his lap, but the bar kept her seated and their contact
restricted.

"My God, what
you do to me Beth," he murmured, pulling his lips from hers
slightly as he touched her cheek.

What she did
to him? Then he must have had no idea her body's reaction to him.
Beth couldn't speak. She could only stare up at him. She felt the
same way. Why of all men did she have to find herself falling for
Gabriel.

When she was
growing up she had a tendency to bring home, as her mother would
call them, the riff-raf of the community. Men who were destined to
be incarcerated for some crime or who had a promising career as a
grocery store clerk. Her mother would tell her that it was just as
easy to love a rich man as it was a poor one. She never believed
it, but here she was with the most amazing man she'd ever met and
she was falling.

Before she had
a chance to respond his lips claimed hers once more, harder and
with more urgency than before. She fisted the front of his black
t-shirt, as the throbbing between her legs increased. "I want you
Gabe," she whispered against his lips.

He growled low
and deep, slipping a hand to the back of her head and fisting her
hair. She yelped, more in surprise than from the slight pain as he
gave her hair a jerk, exposing her neck to him. His lips touched
her neck, his tongue flicking at the sensitive flesh. She closed
her eyes and moaned softly as pleasure rushed through her.

Oh-my-God,
is this real?
It felt like a dream. Like one beautiful,
romantic dream, sitting atop a gigantic ferris wheel while such a
beautiful, amazing man touched and kissed her so expertly.
Gabriel's mouth made its way down her neck until he reached her
collarbone and as if on cue when he reached that point the wheel
squealed and jolted forward. Their time was up.

****

"I just have
to take a moment and make a few phone calls. I won't be long."
Gabriel released her hand and strode off towards the wing of the
house that contained his office, leaving Beth sitting on the sofa
in the living room the big screen 3D television in front of her and
the big pink teddy bear sitting in the armchair to her left.

Beth began to
flip through channels almost mechanically, but nothing was catching
her attention. Her thoughts were completely of Gabriel and their
day together. Maybe she'd been too hard on Gabriel. Maybe she did
mean a little more to him than a convenient fuck. Sure, he was
hardy in love with her, but he liked her - smitten even.

Just when she
found herself a reality television show that caught her interest
the doorbell rang. At first it didn't seem peculiar to her that
someone would be at the door, but by the time she reached the front
door it occurred to her that the person on the other side of the
massive oak door knew the passcode to get past the front gate
without being buzzed in.

Who in the
hell can it be?
She crinkled her nose as she flung the door
open and came face to face with a tall, slender blonde-haired woman
wearing a trench coat that fell to her knees. The woman looked
oddly familiar, though she couldn't quite place her. She had a
sinking feeling in her stomach however.

The woman
glared at her with open hostility, her eyes travelling up and down
Beth, making her feel extremely self-conscious about her ripped
blue jeans and tank top. "So you're the new help, I assume." She
brushed past Beth, without waiting for a proper invitation.

What the
hell?

"Where's
Gabriel?"

"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.

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.

She waved at
their burnt breakfast, in disgust with herself. "I can't even do
the job properly." She fought back tears threatening to well up in
her eyes.