Chapter 20
Gabriel
If this is what hell feels like then be my guest because I am in my own living hell at the moment.
I was warned the risk of obsessing over someone who likely does not feel the same is like drowning, but she is worth taking the risk.
I will drown as the happiest man ever for just having the chance to be in her presence. She might be a quiet soul but if she is comfortable in a place, it will be like she is radiated by the sun, smiling the brightest.
My brightest smiles.
And if I catch that twat Logan Bennett set an eye on Elena again, then a bloodbath will happen within the meeting room. He should keep his eye on his fucking presentation.
Not on her.
We are discussing the last important points to the project that we have in the works for the last couple of months, blueprints, and everything else tied to it. “If this is all we have to discuss, then I will be delighted to see the finished blueprint in six months. Seems like enough time, right?”
“Six months?” Ajola asks, she has worked for this firm for the last decade and may be one of our most important workers especially when it comes to our blueprints. “It is possible but also at the same time not. Most of us have to work on other projects and that also includes accounting and the marketing firm for the hospital and all the above. It would be really stressful.”
“But it is manageable, right?”
“Yes, but-”
“Six months, Miss Manovi.” I cut her off. As much as I hate doing this, this project needs to move fast. We don’t know how much time we have left before a person decides to smear the name of the company with bad rumours.
“Yes, sir.” She huffs. Disappointment written all over her face.
I dismiss everyone from the meeting room, every one of them sprint out of their seats as fast as they can and in a minute everyone is gone, leaving behind an empty room.
Except for Logan. He is still talking to my wife.
“Didn’t I dismiss you?”
He looks up and she turns her head to me as I am standing behind her, not a very pleased expression is written on it but that is completely okay. I can work with that.
“Maybe you did, but as you can see we are having a private conversation.” She tells me through gritted teeth and as much as I can see that, I can also take notice of him drooling all over her and I do not like that.
At all.
Strike two, I have already mentally written down both strikes for this guy for flirting with my wife and it will not end pretty for him on the third one.
“In my meeting room,” I say, my gaze moving from her to his and he looks as if he is scared. “Leave.”
He nods once and starts walking out the door before she stops him.
“Wait. If we can’t have a private conversation here, my number is written here. Text me the details.” She rips a page out of her notebook, the same page she wrote her number down and gives it to him.
Her number.
“Are you sure?” He asks her, hesitant if he should take the number.
“Absolutely.”
“Not.” I tell him and walk over to them and rip the paper out of his hand.
“Excuse you.” She rips the paper out of my hand, struggling as I keep a firm grip on it. “Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Gabriel. I am trying to be civil with Bennett here and to do that, I need to chat with him.”
“You can do it during work hours.”
“Even if I could, it is none of your concern who I give my number to.”
“It is.”
“How come?” She challenges me.
“I think I will leave.” Logan announces.
“Do that.”
“No. He will not leave.”
“He is already gone.” I tell her and she turns around to look for him but just in that moment, the door behind shuts in a slam.
“Gabriel seriously?”
She may not be very amused with the idea of us in a relationship, fake or not, but no way in fucking hell is she going to talk with another guy. Not when I can stop her.
Guess she is going to learn the hard way that now that I have claimed her, she isn’t able to move on.
“Did you forget that you are wearing my ring?”
“What the hell does a ring have to do with anything? It’s just for show.”
“See, this is where you are wrong.”
“I am? So, this whole thing between us isn’t fake?”
“No. Because when you are wearing my ring, you are mine. Don’t ever fucking talk to that guy or any other again or he will be gone.”
“Fine, if this is how it is going to be.” She huffs, anger boils up in her voice. She fidgets with the ring on her left ring finger and tries to take it off but it is pretty tightly secured on her. “Then I won’t wear the stupid ring until the weekend. Happy now?”
“No. No way in hell you are taking off that ring.” I grab her wrists and stop her from further pulling the ring out and she looks up to me with a neutral expression that soon changes.
“What happened?” Her face scrunches in a confused expression and one that also seems hurt. “You were so sweet with my parents yesterday and all of the sudden you are this… possessive .”
“Because I am. My love, I don’t fucking care if that ring was meant for show, the moment I laid my eyes on you and devoured those lips of yours at the club. You are mine since that night and I don’t fucking care if we have to do it the hard way for you to fucking understand. If I have to drag away every single guy then I will.”
“So last night was an act?”
“Isn’t this whole arrangement just an act?”
“You just said it isn’t. You are so confusing.”
“Then let me explain it to you better.” I growl in a low voice and step closer to her, trapping her between me and the meeting table.
Her breath hitches when she tries to take another step back but the table is stopping her. I tilt my head and lean closer to her and I am being turned upside down by her scent. A scent that follows me around.
“This may be an arrangement but,” I stop and she looks up to me from the side. Her eyes glisten with excitement at my words. I lean closer to the table and hold on to it with one hand, trapping her even more. My dick straining into the jeans digs into her stomach.
I move the strand from her face that was camouflaging her beauty away and stare deeper into her chocolate brown eyes.
Looking into them is like being showered in sugar and I have never been more okay with having a high sugar intake.
“But that doesn’t disregard the fact that you, are mine and I will fucking drive away any guy who comes close.”
“Why? We agreed to something and you can’t change the rules of a game, can you?” She raises her eyebrows at me with an attitude and God help if the door of the meeting room wasn’t unlocked. I would have bend her over my knee and fucked the brat out of her.
“Every winner changes the rules in order to win.”
“I’m not.”
“That’s because you are not looking to win. You are trying to get through the game.”
“And what game are we playing?”
“A game of attraction.”
“How should I play if I don’t know the rules?”
“That’s the thing sweetheart.” She gasps as I lift her up and place her on the table, her legs open and I stand between them. “There are no rules.”
“Every game has rules.”
“Not ours. Okay maybe just one.” I admit, trying hard enough to think of one while she is looking at me with those fuck-me eyes and it is so, so hard to concentrate when she is looking at me like that. Looking like that.
Her pink sundress has ridden up her thighs and barely covers her legs and she leans backwards against the table while her perfect breasts shine out.
“Tell me.”
“Try not to fall.” Because I sure as fuck am trying so hard not to but how can I stop myself when she is the one I am falling for.
“Challenge accepted, Harvey.” She looks at me up and down with those eyes and I am trying to fight back the urge to just ripe of that dress off of her perfectly made body and fuck her on this table. “Can I leave? I have a lot of paperwork to do.”
“The paperwork is done. How come you have some to do?”
“I can always find something to distract myself.” She shrugs her shoulders.
“Care to give me some tips. I’m struggling, sweetheart.” My hands rise up the skirt of her dress and she does nothing to stop as she just leans back with a poker face.
“Use your imagination.” She simply says before she rips my hand away from her thigh, pushes me slightly away and jumps off the table.
Not leaving before she gives me the shoulder shrug.
This woman, she will be the death of me. And I will enjoy every second as she ends my life with a perfect smile on her face that she always wears.
****
“I don’t want to accompany you to Venice.”
“You are one whiny child.'' I complain to Charles as he is trying to convince our mother that he has important business here and can’t attend the Venice charity auction that is hosted every year.
We all know who his important business is.
And as much as I would love to help my brother get the girl of his dreams, we cannot miss the opportunity for big sponsors and I have my girl to give a present to.
“Charles. It is official. You are coming to Venice. Be happy. Not everyone has this luxury.”
“Frankly, I don't care that I have this luxury. I am grateful and I thank all the gods for this but that still doesn’t convince me to come.” She blandly says to her and takes a sip of his whiskey while he keeps his eyes on her and I look over to her and she clutches the glass in her hand, slowly turning white from the grip.
“Mother.” I call out to her and she fades from her staring, her grip loosens up. “How about he stays the weekend and can leave the rest of the week.” I make a suggestion but she still shakes her head.
“Fine.” Charles shrugs his shoulders and leans back with a huff in his chair. He crosses his arms over his chest, his good mood that he came in with completely gone.
The relationship between Charles and our mother has always been questionable. You will ask yourself if she even loves him enough for him to see her as his mother. Quite frankly, the answer stays hidden to that question.
No questions asked that Charles isn’t the biggest fan of her and she is on the same page as him.
They have this weird relationship that can’t be put together into pieces. While I am loved by my mother, Charles is like the boy with mummy issues even if his mother was here his whole life.
I never questioned any of them further on why they act the way they do; it would just bring in a bad mood but I just know that something happened four years ago for her to hate him and him to despise her.
We are sitting outside in the garden of my mother’s huge mansion in Richmond. We always have this annual family meeting every second week whenever everyone is free and I am trying hard enough to ignore the angry tension flying in the warm summer air between them. I take in a breather and close my eyes. Before I can stop my thoughts from wandering off, I see her.
My woman .
She smiles brighter than the sunshine shining in the lake's water and her face glows like the stars in a night sky, making it impossible to look away from her.
I smile to myself as the warm sun warms my face and it feels like a breath of fresh air when I see her smile.
Fucking hell.
Something is so wrong with me.
This woman has me completely star struck and unable to stop thinking of her and her shining smile.
“How is it going with your fiancé?” My thoughts get interrupted by my mother’s high feminine voice and I peek an eye open to look at her as she has her wine glass raised as she looks at me with a dirty look.
Dear lord.
It’s no secret she isn’t a huge fan of Elena and is still waiting for the day I get back with Mio. I never got her obsession with her. Could be that she is from a rich family that has connections with her husband, and also the fact that she is a diamond heiress.
“Perfect.”
“Did you just describe her or the relationship?” Charles jokes next to me with a chuckle as he says it.
“Both.” I admit and I hear my mother scuff next to me.
“What’s so special about her?” she asks.
“Everything.”
“Don’t waste too much time on her. She will be history and as much as I love reminding you, Mio is still single.”
“Mother,” Charles defends me and I kick his foot to stop him from saying anything further.
“I don’t know what your weird fixation on Mio is, but you are wrong. She is it, mother.”
Charles chuckles and I hurt his foot to keep his silence. He may still think that this is an arrangement but this is the realest fake relationship I have ever been in and I wish she would drop the shield she protects herself with. I will protect her with my shield from all the danger that is coming her way.
“And you already know that?”
“I wouldn’t have asked her to marry me if it weren’t the case.” I wouldn’t have asked her for this favor if it weren’t the case for me falling for her. “Mio and I were never engaged and that is what makes this relationship different. With her I am certain.”
She rolls her eyes at my speech and gets up from her seat to get a refill on the wine.
“Great speech. How long did it take to memorise it?”
“Not long.”
“Right, because you have a sharp mind.” He mocks the last words in a deep voice, which is supposed to sound like me but he sounds like a whiny child instead. Which is him.
“Because I meant them.”
His laughing stops as the words register in his small brain and he looks at me with a shocked expression.
“Holy shit.” He murmurs. “Is my big brother falling for her?”
“Starting to.” I admit, not afraid to confess my feelings for her to my brother.
He blinks once. And then again before he smiles in a bright smile that I don’t witness enough. Especially with my mother around.
“I’m happy for you.” He says and holds out his hands for me to take and I chuckle, taking my brother's hand in mine. He pulls me to him, wraps an arm around me and before I can say something he hits me against my shoulder in encouragement.
“How is this dress?” Nicole steps out of the house after God knows how long and presents us with the third dress of the evening, trying to gather our opinion on which one she should wear to the charity auction.
I look at her and the light blue dress that she is wearing perfectly complements her eyes that are like the sea. She resembles her father a lot in her facial features.
Soft bone structure but a sharp jawline and almond shaped eyes that compliment her blue eyes.
“I liked the pink one more.” Charles says.
“Are you trying to attract attention to yourself like a prostitute or what? Take the dress off.” Mother says as she stands next to me and Nicole’s smile falls into a hurtful expression and the sad face on her makes me feel like my mother pulled the trigger on me. I love my sister and just like Charles she always had a problem with our twenty-one-year-old little sister.
“Mother you can’t say shit like that.” I throw at her.
“Whatever.” She huffs and plops down back to her seat and I watch as Nicole walks away with her eyes threatening to break out in tears.
I take a quick angry look at my mother before I storm out of the garden into the house into Nicole’s bedroom. I stop in front of the door, hearing a light sobbing behind it. I reach for the handle but it won’t budge open as I twist it.
“Nicole?” I call out to her with a nickname I gave her when she was born.
“Go away, Gabriel”
“Open the door please?”
“No. I just want to be alone.”
“Please?”
I hear something behind the door and then she opens it, her eyes bloodshot red from crying. She wipes the dried tears away with the back of her hand as she sniffles. “Oh Nicole.” She falls into my arms, full on sobbing as I wrap my arms around her.
“Why does she hate me so much?” She says between the sobs and my heart breaks at how broken she is at our mother’s words.
“She doesn’t hate you.” I reassure her. “She just has a different way of showing her love to us.”
“Not you. She treats you like her golden boy. Like you are her wonder child.”
The truth in her words hurts to admit. My mother never had an evil eye directed to me. Always treated me with love and respect and then there is Nicole and Charles.
I don’t utter another and just snuggle her closer to me because any other word I would say would come out as wrong and she is already upset as it is.
“If it makes you feel any better, I think the pink one is the best option.” I tell her and my chest vibrates as she laughs. She pulls away and picks up the dress from the bed to present it again.
“You don’t think it’s too much?”
“I think it’s the dress that made you the happiest to present to us.”
“Yeah because it was the sluttiest one and made mum the maddest. She is okay with Mio basically almost wearing a bikini to a gathering but with the cut-outs on this one she is mad.”
“But it made you the happiest to show us. Just wear it and don’t listen to your mother's comments. Just blur them out.”
“How?” She sniffs as she wipes her nose again with the back of her hand, turning it red from the friction.
“Imagine her as a potato when she is talking mean to you and I promise you, it will make you laugh. An angry potato is so fun to imagine.”
“Potato mama it is.” She nods and smiles at me. “Thank you Gabe for cheering me up and choosing a dress.”
“Gabriel.” I correct her.
“Potato po-ta-hot. All the same.”
I shake my head at her in disbelief and she just laughs.