Climbing the Mountain
The past fourteen days were a whirlwind. There were board and shareholder meetings for both Davonshire House Publishing and Vanity’s Pleasure. He sent a note to Guinevere every day with 26 ways he planned to make her happy and he had worked his way up to the letter O. The only O words he could think of were the orgasms he had not been having, which were only made worse by his end of the month trip to Chicago.
Renee in acquisitions seemed to have forgiven him whatever he had done wrong. Carol in accounting sent him an email that she was single again, and Shontae was now in charge of the shipping and receiving departments and had sent him a note with a date and time.
He was ashamed at the reaction his body had at just the thought of a few hours alone with Ms. Shontae Jackson, his Boo-Bear.
I wonder what cute pet name I will come up with for Guinevere.
He had considered for a brief moment when he came back from Asia, going back to Shontae, striking a new deal, getting a kid or two out of her and having some mind-blowing sex for the rest of his life. She was smart enough and had earned her bachelor’s degree by working hard and going to school at night. He was proud of her and what she had accomplished in the last four years. She was definitely attractive, he could make a life with her, and she would move to San Francisco and spend every waking day of her life pleasing him.
Naw … that was the old me. The new me wants a life partner.
He sat in the pod of a workspace designated for him and had to check the nameplate to see what his current job title was. He wanted to make sure he signed his resignation with the proper title. Gawain quickly typed the letter. It was straightforward, succinct, and to the point. He hit print and walked it into his boss’s office.
William Underwood jumped to his feet and started yelling, then he started to bargain, then to plead, and finally he offered him more money.
Weird. I make more than William in bonuses alone.
It was sad really, if he thought about it. His job was always about money. He had taken the job to make a lot of it and had made a heap for the company. And, sadly, in the end, it all came down to money. He was not valued as a person, but a person who made them money.
Gawain wondered if that, too, was an issue for Guinevere. She was worth a great deal of money and did not need to work ever again in her life. He felt weary and terrified in the same instance.
Maybe if I simply got away for a few days….
He was going to play in a new sandbox. As he left William’s office, word spread through the company and Carol in accounting ran up to him and made a shameful display of herself, which left him feeling numb. Peeling her from his body, he was equally off put when Tamika at the desk made a lewd comment that caused his eyebrows to rise, while Renee and Julia waited in the lobby seeking a last romp on his way out.
What the hell is this about?
He made it to the parking deck to his rental car and found Shontae waiting beside it. “I always thought you were going to come back,” she told him with sad eyes. “We had one fight and you left me.”
“No, Shontae. You dumped me, threw several things at my head trying to split it open and accused me of being a man who used sex to control you.”
“You never came back. I never thought you wouldn’t come back,” she said again as she placed her hand in the middle of his chest.
“That was the problem, Boo-Bear, you never really knew me all.”
“I tried to give you everything I thought you wanted…I even went out of my way to cook you every type of peas known to man.”
“You gave me everything I needed at the time,” he pulled her into a quick embrace. Gawain planted a friendly peck on her forehead. “…And, I hate peas. I always threw them away.” He moved her to the side, and climbed inside his car.
Yes, he was definitely in love to walk away from all that good loving. On his way to the airport he phoned Chuck, asked him to lay in a flight plan to Puerto Rico, and told him he would be arriving in Phoenix in a few hours.
He was backing away from everything for a minute to clear his head and creating his final assault on the cave.
37
Preparing a Favor for the Knight
Guinevere checked her email and there was nothing. Panic filled her when she realized she had not heard from Gawain in days. She checked her cell phone and found that he had not called. She dialed his landline and a woman’s voice said to leave a message. It didn’t list his name or when the call would be returned. “Gawain, I haven’t heard from you. Can you call me when you get a minute?”
The past 14 days had been a whirlwind for her. She closed out the data compilation protocols for GGU285, submitted it the FDA for review, made some phone calls to Raleigh and Atlanta, set up a few meetings, and even priced a ranch in Texas. She was doing all of these things to be with him and now he was backing away.
Or was he hurt and no one knew to call me?
You are thinking negatively again.
Think positive.
She would give it one more day, then she was going to call his sister or mother or brother!
Guinevere asked him to bring his A-game and he did. He asked her to reciprocate and she did, but she felt uncertain that she had given enough. He sent her a beautiful string of pearls, a mock open-ended plane ticket, all sorts of goodies from each stop he made in Asia, and she had sent him some postcards and a few books. Who reads Wuthering Heights anyway?
She ran to her closet, pulled down her best quilt, threw it in the dryer with a dryer sheet, and while it tumbled, made preparations to get to the post office before work and send it to him.
Gawain did not know that in her free time to relax she made quilts. She added a note on a card that said, “Q means never quitting.” She made it to the post office in the nick of time, paid way too much money to send it express mail, but felt at the end of the day that it had been worth it.
She would give him two days, then she was calling his mother.
38
Limping Home
Gawain had received her message and chose not to respond. He had given her some days to realize, hopefully, what he meant to her. He said he would give her 26 reasons, but had stopped midway through. He was a catch and a prime prize, but she was also a Noble Prize worthy researcher. Asking her to give it up for love was a bit much, so he did not want to crowd her. But he also wanted her to be all in with the zest he felt for her and their potential life.
She had not traveled much and he looked forward to showing her the world. Even if she agreed to just spend 30 days, he could compromise on the New Jersey thing. Well, maybe … fucking Jersey … I’m not sure if there is that much love in the world. This dragon is kicking my ass.
He called Chuck to request a pickup the next day and picked up the copy of Wuthering Heights as he sat in a lounge chair on Condado Beach in San Juan. He was caught by the line, “I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.”
Gawain thought he should be sensible, but his ego was needed stroking. A beautiful cinnamon-colored woman walked over with a bottle of suntan lotion, asking for his assistance, and he thrust his book at her. “I’m reading and relaxing here…”
If the translation of her response was accurate, she called him something less of a man and doubted his ability to perform simple tasks.
Beyond caring, he just wanted to be left alone, at least for another day. His phone chimed and there was a message from Guinevere.
“Check your PO Box…. Missing you, Guinevere.”
I just bet she is.
In all honesty, he was missing talking to her, too. He gathered his things, made a dinner reservation, and headed to his room to shower and change for supper – alone.
I have spent so much time alone. This loneliness is eating me alive.
This was it!
I want her and dammit, I am going to go and get her!
39
Gawain was lying in bed in his old bedroom when the phone rang. He looked at it as if it was a doll in the corner coming to life. He picked it up after the third ring, “Ni hao.”
He forgot what country he was in and quickly recovered. “Sorry, hello.” A feminine laugh on the other end made him know immediately that it was her.
“Are you forgetting which country you’re in, my knight?” Guinevere asked him in a very sensual voice.
“Yes, the travelling has taken its toll on me,” he answered, lowering the tone of his voice an octave.
“I’ve missed you,” she told him.
“And I, you.” A pause hung in the air between the lines.
“There were supposed to be 26 reasons and you stopped at 13,” she whispered huskily into the phone.
“I had 26.”
Guinevere tried to maintain some calm in her voice. “Had? As in past tense?”
“Yes, I am changing my approach to slaying this dragon,” he told her with no emotion in his voice.
“What? I don’t understand,” she said, her voice rising an octave.
“Obviously you still have some concerns and I have asked a lot, so I am rethinking how I can make this transition easier on both of us.”
“Easier?”
“I am marrying you. I have waited for the right woman, and I am certain you are the one. I understand what all you do and what your work means to the world. I just have to impress upon you to what you mean to my world.”
Guinevere was quick with a response, “Of course I am twitchy. You have asked me to uproot my life, my research, my world to live in a fantasyland of love with you. No qualms, no questions? Do you know how many men have offered the same thing only to want to steal my work?”
Gawain was putting on his breastplate as he suited up for this battle, “I don’t want to steal your work, only your heart. I want to love you, as you deserve to be loved, and have you do the same in return. I want to wake up to your morning breath and pillow hair and serve you breakfast in bed. I want you.”
Guinevere softened her voice, “And I want those things with you and everything else. I want to wake up in your arms and drift off to sleep in your embrace after a passionate night with you. But can’t we do those things in New Jersey?”
“If I get cold and wet for too long, I get sick, deathly sick. Which is why I am only in Chicago a week at a time. I am rarely in San Francisco in the Winter either.”
He spoke softly to her, as if coercing her to bungee jump, “I can’t live in the cold, but maybe six months in Jersey, six months somewhere warm?”
“Gawain, that won’t work for me. Either we are husband and wife all year long, or we can remain friends,” she said the words but immediately regretted them.
“Fine. We will do it your way. I will call Chuck and I will be there tonight, and when I show up, I am coming to claim what’s mine.”
“Yeah, right, and you will just show up on my doorstep.”
“Or I can show up to the lab and have all of your employees wonder why you are making those weird noises in your office. It’s your call.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Wanna bet?”
Guinevere started to laugh at the thought of her on her desk making love. Gawain started to chuckle as well.
“So this is what it has come to…Gawain, I am terrified, but I am all in.”
“For some reason, I’m not scared. I seem to know you are the one.”
“How do you know?”
“I was asked by my friend Joshua what I was looking for in a woman before I started this online thing. And the funny thing was, I described you before I ever said hello online. All the way down to your job skills. I even read Wuthering Heights.”
“Are you serious?”
“Very. I actually read Wuthering Heights!” He laughed at the absurdity of this statement. “I mean I am an avid reader…but that…yeesh.”
Guinevere was getting all warm around her edges, “You really described me?”
“The only thing that could be more perfect if you were five foot seven and a about a size 12.”
“I guess you are going to have get packed pretty soon, because in bare feet I am five eight and I am a size 10 depending on the cut?”
“Shut the front door.” She was perfect. Perfect for him. “Guin, I turned in my resignation last week.”
Guinevere was shocked. “You turned it in already?”
“Yes and took a vacation…. I do have a question that I have been dreading asking,” Gawain said.
“And that would be?”
It had been on his mind, but he needed to know, “Hmmm, I don’t know how to phrase it without sounding crass.”
“Just say it, because I may have the same question.”
Gawain asked, “Am I going to have to bring a weapon to get rid of your maintenance man, or tool guy?”
Guinevere was perplexed, “My sister, Cecily, kept asking me about a maintenance man, and I told her we have one in the building, but usually my father does all of the repairs around my condo when he is in town.”
Gawain burst into laughter. “No, sweetheart, a guy who takes care of your physical needs. He provides you maintenance.”
Guinevere’s voice went down an octave, “Maintenance on what?”
Gawain cleared his throat and waited for her to understand.
“Ooooh, I am so embarrassed,” Guinevere exclaimed. “No I don’t have one of those.”
“So what do you do?”
“Well, I tried to get some phone sex once, but the guy I was seeing was not having it,” she said with some sass in her voice.
Gawain wasn’t amused. “What do you do about life, your needs?”
“I work and I run, I learned to do yoga since you do it as well. I mean…what do you do other than poke the mattress? Do you have a honey in every city?”
“Nope, I am a one woman kind of guy. I work. I run. I do lots of yoga. I tried to date, but most of them had nothing to say or they just wanted to get me into bed.”
“Wow, you have that problem too?”
“Yes. And no, not every man wants to go to bed with every willing woman. I have traveled the world for the past 18 years. It is my job to spot emerging trends and markets and make a profit. I know more about lingerie than any man should. I know more about books and paper than any human should. I don’t want to talk about the latest sale at the mall or the deals they have at Target.” He paused for a minute, “I don’t think I’ve ever been in a Target.”
“And I provide you conversation outside of the norm?” she asked unbelievingly.
“Have you ever mentioned shopping or going to Target? No one has ever given me a cactus as a gift and I grew up in Arizona. The past 11 months have been wondrous in ways you cannot imagine and I have never felt so alive. I traveled this year and was anxious to get home so I could talk to you. I have had to do research on subjects you mention. For the first time in many years, I am living for me. I can only imagine how wonderful it will be to walk through the front door, drop my keys and walk into the room, and there you are. Or to show up to take you to lunch.”
“I know how you feel. I get all tingly when I hear your voice. I race to the post office to see if you sent me anything. That stupid plane ticket taunts me at night, and lately I’ve become WAY too comfortable with that stupid effing shirt. I even gave it a name. I call it DJ.”
Gawain was frowning at the phone. “That is just sad.”
“I know right!”
“You have the man, you don’t need the shirt.”
“I am working on my fears.”
He needed to know, “What is your biggest fear?”
“That I give it all up and in 30 days you are bored and move on.”
Gawain was coming to terms with his decisions, saying them aloud helped move him and his planning forward. “I just quit my job. Where will I move on to?”
“You are part owner of two
companies,” Guinevere told him.
“Well, yeah, there is that. I’m a figurehead actually. I don’t do much other than show up at board meetings, review numbers, make some suggestions and deposit a check.”
“Pretty much the same here,” she said to him.
“I have a question: how did you know to call me here?”
Guinevere absently ran her fingers across the edge of her desk. “You would have called me if you were heading to New York. You love horseback riding but hate the spicy food your brother’s housekeeper cooks, the condo is making you cagey, and the only place you seem to really be relaxed is at your parents. Something just told me to call.”
“So you can feel it, too.…”
“Yes … and I am giving in to it.”
“I have some things to finish here today on this bedroom remodel, getting it ready for your arrival. Then I have a quick stop to make and I can be at your doorstep by Thursday. Sooner if you want.”
“I am on my way to Atlanta tomorrow which is why I was calling. And why are you getting a room at your parent’s house ready for my arrival.”
“Atlanta? Great.” He took a sip from the bottle of water. “This room is a dude’s room and bathroom. There is nowhere for you to put your stuff. So I bought new furniture and redid the bathroom, so when I bring you to meet my parents, it’s a room that is shared by man and his wife.” He changed the subject, “Tell me about Atlanta.”
Guinevere found herself smiling, “I was offered a position with the CDC and can open a new lab to do some cutting edge research on HIV. So I am going to interview and tour the labs.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“I want you to meet me in Atlanta on Thursday.”
“I will be in Centennial Park by the fountain on the quilt you sent me.”
“You have the quilt?”
“I am lying on it now. I love it. I think it should go on the guest bed in the new house that I am going to buy you.”
Courting Guinevere (The Davonshire Series Book 1) Page 20