The CEO and the Girl From the Coffee Shop (9 page)

Gabriel
decided to pretend not to notice her uneasiness. "And to answer
your second question I prepared some seafood chowder. It's a little
heavy for the time of day, but I had a hankering." Scooping out two
portions of the chowder Gabriel made his way over to the table and
set a steaming bowl of it in front of her and then sat down
opposite of her with his serving.

"Smells.
Amazing. My grandmother used to make the most delicious seafood
chowder.'' Beth picked up her spoon and dipped it in. Bringing the
steaming hot chowder to her mouth, she blew on it gently, aware
that Gabriel's eyes were glued to her.

"I say shame
on anyone living in New England who can't prepare a chowder."

Beth cringed
as she lifted guilty eyes up at him.

"Present
company excluded, of course." Gabriel chuckled, watching her for a
reaction, but not touching his utensils. Apparently, he had no
intention of eating until he had her opinion on the food.

Plopping the
spoonful of chowder in her mouth, she felt like moaning from the
amazing favours of the creamy soup and the perfectly cooked chunks
of lobster and fish. "This is delicious." Gabriel's grin widened.
"Almost as good as my Grams," she added with a wink. "So what's in
it?" She scooped up another portion and popped it into her
mouth.

Gabriel
frowned. "Why don't you tell me. Let's test that little palate of
yours."

Ahhh
shit!
she sighed.
Okay, I can do this...
"Lobster."

"That's an
easy one. Go on."

"Clams."

He nodded.

Beth scooped
up another helping and thrust it into her mouth savouring the
creamy mixture. "Scallops."

"Two more then
I want to know the seasonings in the broth."

Beth's eyes
widened. Was he fucking serious? She felt like reminding him once
more that she was not a chef and had never had skills in the
kitchen. How was she supposed to know?

"It's very
important to be able to distinguish tastes in food and be able to
pick out the flavourings. It will greatly improve your skills when
you are able to identify and break down a recipe simply by tasting
a dish."

Beth nodded.
Okay, she got that. Here was the problem. She spent most of her
life living off of frozen quickie foods, most of which bore only a
slight resemblance to what he'd consider real food. But they were
cheap which was why she bought them. Just realizing this reminded
her that he was way out of her league.
But he likes you,
the
voice at the back of her mind responded to her self-doubt.

Deciding to at
least give it a shot she scooped up another bite. "Haddock."

He nodded.
"Very good."

As much as
she'd have liked to give credit to her palate for that answer it
was more of a logical guess than anything else.

"Alright, the
final fish then we move onto the broth." He scooped up a spoonful
and began to eat as he kept his eyes glued to her.

Damn, damn,
damn
. She had no clue, not even a guess. After a couple of
minutes trying to decipher she shook her head, giving him a wry
smile. "I don't know."

"Alright. What
vegetables?"

"Potatoes."

"Alright, that
was a given, but good."

He made her
feel like she was in high school again, trying to ace an oral exam.
She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. "Onion." Another given
answer.

He nodded.

She gave him
an apologetic smile. "If there's any other vegetables in there I
can't taste them."

He beamed at
her with a reassuring nod. "Seasoning."

"Salt and
pepper."

Gabriel rolled
his eyes, as if to say she was stating the obvious, but nodded.

She had no
idea from there. Didn't her Grams always put thyme in hers? She
eyed Gabriel closely as though if she looked at him long enough the
answer would appear on his forehead for her to see. She sighed,
"Thyme?"

He laughed,
"Your grandmother's recipe?”

She opened her
mouth to protest, but instead she nodded guiltily. "Yeah."

"Well, finish
up eating. Try some of the salad and biscuits," he ordered grabbing
a biscuit himself, slicing it in half and buttering it up.

"Well, did I
get it right?" She sincerely wanted to know. His enthusiasm for
cooking and her sudden need to please him made it impossible for
her not to want to know.

He clucked his
tongue off of the roof of his mouth and then gave her a wink.
"Can't tell ya. But I'll let you know when you're ready." He
pointed to her near empty bowl. "Now finish up I have a big day
planned for us."

She groaned
inwardly, itching to toss one of the biscuits at him, but they
looked to scrumptious to waste in a food fight. As she finished
eating she couldn't help but wonder what he had in store for
them.

****

"What I would
like to know, is in what world, this constitutes work?" Beth raised
a cynical brow at Gabriel as he took aim and once again missed
capturing the neck of the glass bottle with the red ring.

Gabriel
straightened up and smiled over a Beth, who was reclining against
the counter of the ring toss booth, at the annual Portland fair
watching him in amusement. "Well, considering you've been forced to
stay here twenty minutes and counting while I fail repeatedly to do
this, I would constitute that as work." Pulling out his wallet he
dug out another bill and handed it to the middle-aged, toothless
male carnie manning the game and was rewarded with another pail of
rings.

Beth pointed
to the bear hanging from the game station ceiling. "You realize you
could have easily paid for one for well less than it has cost you
so far to attempt to win."

Gabriel
huffed. "Yeah, I know," he grumbled, tossing a ring and growling as
with a faint
ting
sound it went flying off of the bottle top
and onto the floor with the rest of his failures. But it was now a
matter of principal more than anything. The large pink teddy bear
hanging from the ceiling of the booth taunted him. He'd be damned
if he was going to walk away without Beth having that bear. He
ignored the fact that she seemed more interested in teasing him
than the prize.

He tossed
several more rings, each one making an annoying ting before adding
to his pile of failures. This was getting ridiculous and he knew
it.

Beth pushed
off of the counter and wrapped her arms around him from behind,
kissing the back of his neck. "I think we found the one and only
thing that Mr Reynolds can't do," she whispered in his ear.

The feel of
her lips on his neck, made him want to forget the fair, take her
home and introduce her to more
intense
activities, but he
pushed down the urge. He wanted to spend more time with her, in a
carefree and fun environment, because admittedly he was having some
confusion over what he wanted from her.

Beth was
sweet, sexy and as he was finding out today an extremely fun woman
to be around. She was the type of woman that he could seriously see
himself being with, for the long run. The sex had been phenomenal
the previous night and hopefully she would be open to a little more
diversified play tonight.

But for the
moment he needed only one thing... To win that damned bear...

Noticing her
amused grin he stepped back from the counter and motioned towards
the bucket which had a few rings remaining. "By all means, let's
see what you have."

She looked at
the bucket, up at him and then back to the bucket. Taking her
bottom lip between her teeth she took a moment before nodding. "You
promise this won't bruise your male ego if I land this?" she asked
pulling a ring from the bucket.

Crossing his
arms over his chest he shook his head. "Not in the least baby. Show
me how it's done," He teased not really expecting to see her pull
it off.

He watched in
amusement as she lined up her toss, taking careful aim and with a
flick of the wrist the ring went flying through the air and
effortlessly landed around the neck of one of the bottles towards
the middle.

Gabriel's
mouth dropped open, but quickly turned into a grin as the carnie
announced that they had a winner and pulled the large pink bear
from the hook and handed it to Beth. She hugged it tight to her as
she turned her back to the booth to smile up at Gabriel.

She looked so
sweet and delighted with herself that he couldn't have felt envious
if he wanted to. But that didn't mean he couldn't tease her a
little bit. "Okay, so spill. How did you manage to win that?"

Her grin
widened telling she wasn't entirely innocent. She shrugged. "Lucky
I guess."

Slipping an
arm around her waist he pulled her close to him and they began
walking from the booth. "You're lying. You know something I don't
know." The guilty giggle solidified the theory for him, now he had
to know. "Spill it and I'll buy you a corn dog."

Laughing
freely, she slipped her free arm around him, and gave him a partial
hug. "Boy, do you ever know a way to a girls' heart Gabe."

Gabe?
He normally cringed at the nickname that his pal Pete used, but the
way she said it, it didn't sound so bad and having her arms wrapped
around him as they walked didn't feel too bad either. Perhaps there
was something to be said about having a normal relationship. He had
yet to figure out what in the fuck this was; he pushed that problem
to the back of his mind. Why was he forced to define something
straight away anyhow?

"So what do
you say? Fill me in." He steered her through the mainway to the
concessions stands. The day was slowly giving way to the night,
turning the fairgrounds into an array of colourful lights and
blaring music.

"Well, since
you're offering a corndog. My older brother worked as a carnie for
a couple of years. He told me all the tricks to the games and
whenever the fair was in town he'd take me after hours to play the
games, showing me how to beat them."

"Okay, so how
do you win the ring toss?"

"It's all in
the wrist baby."

Gabriel
frowned. "Be more specific."

She crinkled
her nose up at him. "Nah. Once you tell me the secret behind the
chowder then maybe I'll tell you the secret behind the ring
toss."

"Gabriel
Reynolds eating a corndog, now that's a sight," Beth teased taking
a bite into hers. It was delicious.

Gabriel
laughed. "Well sometimes we just have to break down and rough it."
He dipped the tip of his in a tiny bowl of ketchup. "I was once
told that if you have to cover your food in condiments then it's
not really food."

"Hey, I never
said it was quality. Just that it was fucking good." Beth gave a
little chuckle shifting her gaze back to her corndog.

"Okay, you
win." He took another bite from the dog. "It is a pretty tasty
change,” he finally admitted with a little smirk on his face. He
pointed to her half eaten dog as he pulled the remaining piece of
his corn dog from the stick and popped it into his mouth. "Eat up.
We have the double ferris wheel to ride in a moment."

Beth looked
over at the two rotating wheels of the double ferris wheel and a
shimmer of excitement rushed through her. She loved the rides.
They'd been on everything at the park and were saving that for
last. She was really surprised at how much fun Gabriel really was.
And the looks of appreciation that he received from many of the
women at the fair didn't go unnoticed by her as well. It made her
blood boil to see other women looking at him.

He wasn't hers
and he never claimed to be. By his own admission the kiss had been
"no big deal." Did yesterday change anything? If it did he didn't
let on. Again, she reminded herself not to get emotionally
attached. He was her employer. An amazing fuck. And now a good
friend. Until she knew otherwise, she needed to keep those things
in mind.

Taking the
last bite of her dog, she tossed the stick and ketchup in the
overflowing garbage can and they made their way hand-in-hand across
the fairgrounds towards the wheel.

"So how did
you learn how to cook?"

"Well, I've
always loved cooking and had no interest in business, though my
parents insisted I get involved with the running of the company at
an early age. However, instead of going to one of the Ivy League
schools and taking business like my parents - my father especially
- wanted, I went to culinary school."

Well, that
would explain his ease around the kitchen
. "So why are you
running a company instead of your own restaurant?"

They got in
line for the ferris wheel and patiently waited as people were
slowly loaded into each car. When it came their turn Gabriel passed
something other than tickets to the attendant who pocketed it. He
then leaned in to whisper something to the teenage ride
operator.

Beth seated
her four foot tall teddy in the seat next to her as Gabriel slid in
beside her. Once they were secured, the ride jerked upward with a
squeal. If Beth hadn't grown up around old crankily rides she may
have been concerned about the maintenance of this particular
one.

As they began
to move for the next set of people to hop on he answered her.
"Well, I had almost completed the program when my parents died.
Their private plane crashed, killing them and the pilot. So I
didn't feel I had a choice. I couldn't bear the thought of some
stranger running the company that my grandfather founded and my
father loved. So I stepped in and had to settle for owning
restaurants rather then being in them cooking."

"Well, do you
even like running the company?"

He gave her a
wry grin. "I'm good at it."