“Stop. Okay.”
“Okay to my terms?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel straightened. “Okay it is.”
Why was I giving in so quickly? Because I wanted to. Because I always wanted to give in and now I finally could. I wasn’t a young girl on the brink of forging her own path away from near-poverty. I was my own woman and the woman I was wanted this. At least for a little while. I never realized how much I would come to miss his presence when I turned him away seven years before. This was my way of making up for lost time.
“Now onto the next point, Emma…”
I held my hands up. “No. You’ve won the food issue. Now, I really have to get back to work. I’m five minutes late as it is.”
He sighed, pouted, and then shrugged. “It’s postponed then.”
“Not postponed. Done.”
“Not a chance!” Gabriel reinserted his key into the panel. He pressed a button on the doors promptly slid open. “You’re my next campaign, Emma. I won’t give up until you say ‘yes’.”
“Yes to what?”
“To everything. Now, shall we go?” Gabriel held out his arm and waited.
It was then I realized once and for all that nothing had really changed. My heart still yearned for the one thing she could never really have. Loving him was like trying to love the sun—I was destined to burn.
I reached out and linked my arm with his. I winced as if scalded.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
Gabriel’s smile simultaneously soothed my wound while making it ache.
CHAPTER THREE
“Emma, how much longer are you going to make me wait? You’re taking forever and everyone’s already gone. Emma? Emma?”
I stared at the computer screen, intent on scanning the spreadsheet and ignoring the lounging man who was taking up almost all the space in my miniscule cubical.
Several moments passed in expectant silence.
“Emma?”
I felt my chair rock forward. He kicked the base of it with his foot! I sat up straight and drew forth all the patience in my soul. “What is it, Gabriel?” I was very proud of how calm I sounded when all I wanted to do was smack his leg. Hard.
“How much longer? It’s already six.”
I huffed and spun around in my chair. You would never guess this man was a mostly self-made billionaire by the amount of whining I’d had to listen to for the past ten minutes.
“I shouldn’t have let you walk me to my desk. In fact, I shouldn’t have let you walk me inside period.”
“Why not?”
“Then you wouldn’t be here right now and I’d be able to work in peace.”
“That’s not a nice thing to say,” he pointed out, wounded frown inexplicably tugging at my conscience. Before I could mutter an apology, a wicked grin made him out to be a naughty boy indeed. “Besides, you didn’t ‘let’ me do anything. I was coming in here regardless. I own the building, remember? I can go wherever I please.”
“Yes, but I still regret it nonetheless.”
Earlier, I gathered several curious stares from the females populating Med-Tech when we both walked in from lunch. A few recognized Gabriel and immediately looked between us in speculation. He took it all in stride, barely acknowledging the growing attention and instead focused on me. It was high school all over again.
When we reached my cubicle, he took one look at it and asked, “This is where you work?”
“Yes.” I was pretty proud of my space. I was the first person in my family to have an office job. My mom had crowed in delight when I mailed her the pictures of my new space. (She didn’t believe in digital photography, preferring I send her hard copies of any important images.) I also purposely neglected to tell her I was in the building of my prom companion.
Gabriel continued to study the space with a frown. “Look how ridiculously tiny it is! You can barely move. Prisoners have more room than this.”
“Gabriel! Ssh!” I lunged forward and covered his mouth with my hand. His warm mouth kissed my palm. I felt the imprint burn right through. I snatched it back, fully aware of the tingle spreading across my body. Lowering my voice, I whispered, “I work here and I happen to like it very much.”
His smirk promised it wouldn’t be for long. Not wanting to chance him bringing up the ridiculous job offer, I said, “Besides, I’m sure the cubicles on your floor are the same size.”
“No, they’re not. They’re at least twice as big.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Of course.”
Gabriel stayed for another minute before promising to come back for me by six. When I asked him why, he rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten? You’re my date tonight for a fundraiser.”
I had forgotten. Formal events didn’t rank high on my list of wonderful things to do. “I’m not sure, Gabriel. I don’t really like—”
“You’ll like this one.”
I tried another angle, one that he couldn’t be mean enough to deny. “I don’t have anything to wear.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
When I opened my mouth to argue some more, Gabriel tapped me on the lips and ordered, “Get to work, Emma. I’ll see you soon. Don’t try to sneak out of the building. I’ve got eyes everywhere you know.” He walked away with a jaunty whistle, leaving me stumped and wondering how I lost control of the situation.
That was barely four hours ago. Now all Gabriel wanted to do was get me to stop working.
“So, are you done yet?”
“No.”
“Emma, it’s practically empty around here. Nobody else is working.”
“You don’t have to stay, Gabriel.”
“But I want to.”
“Then please do it in silence.” I lifted an eyebrow and waited a beat before turning my chair back around.
As soon as I refocused on the computer screen, he complained, “You really haven’t changed, have you? You were always so damned fussy about your work in high school too. Every single time I tried to get you to cut class and join me for a better tasting lunch, you always said you couldn’t because of work.”
“And you weren’t fussy enough, Mr. I-Slept-in-Class-All-Four-Years.”
I imagined the self-satisfied grin plastered on his face when he casually remarked, “Oh, it was totally worth it. Trust me. Besides, I think I turned out alright.”
“Of course, you did. You already had a nice leg up in life, Gabriel. I can’t say the same and that’s why I have to work like a dog, understand?”
“I only came in with something like ten million or so. Barely a splash of cash. I made the other 997 million on my own,” he muttered under his breath.
“Come again? I didn’t quite catch that, Mr. Gordon.”
“Nothing.” Gabriel cleared his throat. “Can I ask one more thing?”
I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling. “Ask your one more thing and then let me work in peace, okay?”
“We really will need to leave within the next ten minutes. Can you do that for me?”
I sighed and spun back around in my chair. I glanced down at my watch, mentally calculating what I needed to finish and how long it would take. “I can be done with this in three but only if I have absolute silence.”
“Deal.” Gabriel zipped his lips shut, crossed one long leg over the other, and clasped his hands over his knee.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re such a little kid.”
“Only for you. Oops! I’ll be quiet now.”
Still chuckling, I returned to my work. I checked the final rows of figures, ensuring all the data had imported properly without any dropped fields. Everything had to be right because tomorrow I was going to take the mountains of data and translate it into a series of graphs that would showcase how each of the products had performed last quarter.
I loved numbers and so I truly enjoyed my work.
Just a few seconds short of three minutes, I saved and closed the file. “Done.”
Gabriel immediately shot out of his chair. “Ready?”
“Let me shut down the computer and then we can go.”
“Hurry.”
I had barely managed to turn off the monitor when Gabriel took hold of my arm. “Come on, Emma.”
“Why are you in such a rush?” I barely managed to grab my purse before he completely hauled me out of the cube.
Gabriel looked over his shoulder at me and grinned. “We have to get you ready for the ball, Cinderellie.”
I struggled to keep up with his long-legged stride. “Gabriel, slow down.”
“No time.” He stopped and scooped me up in his arms. I cried out in surprise. Gabriel tossed me in the air and I let out a shrill scream.
“Put me down!”
“Nah, I like where you’re at. Although I think you deafened one of my ears.” He tossed me up and I screamed again. “You’d better hold on or I’ll keep throwing up in the air.”
I put one hand high on his shoulder. It wasn’t good enough.
“Tighter, Emma. Tighter…tighter…too tight! Way too tight!”
I relaxed my grip around his neck while lecturing, “Gabriel, I work here! Someone might see us!”
“Nope. No one’s here to see you try to strangle me.” He turned in a full circle, showing me all empty cubicles and darkened offices. “See? It’s Friday. Everyone else is out living their lives.”
“Except me, huh?”
“Well, yes, but not anymore because I’m here to save your night.”
I groaned and spoke to the heavens. “Why do I think I’m going to end up regretting this?”
“What’s there to regret? We’re two high school acquaintances who happen to work in the same building—”
“Which you own.”
“A pesky detail that has no bearing on the story, Emma. So there.” He strode down the hall and out a side door I’d never noticed before. Gabriel correctly read my surprised expression. “You see, this really proves my point that you’re just too serious. You need to get out more. Explore. Live. Learn all the doors to your office space. Don’t let the man hold you down, girl.”
“Gabriel, honey, you are the man. And I still say you’re not serious enough.”
“We’ll just have to agree to disagree, won’t we?” Gabriel whisked me into a thankfully empty elevator. “The Girl from Ipanema” played overhead. He hummed along, really getting into it. I started humming too which encouraged him to sway from side to side with me still in his arms.
God, I didn’t want it any of it to end. Gabriel made me feel alive and connected to the world around me. He was the color to my colorless, passion to my passionless.
The song ended too quickly. Although I loved feeling his body against mine, somebody had to be the grownup. It probably wouldn’t do well for his reputation or mine to be seen this way. Still, I wished I could keep playing with Gabriel a little longer. “I think you can put me down now.”