And she responded automatically, curling her fingers into his sleeves and parting her mouth for him. His hand was shooting up her thigh before he could stop the motion. Once he encountered her underwear, he broke the kiss and said, “Tell me what to do next. You want control, right? Take it.”
“Put your hand on me. Move the thong out of the way.”
Obeying, he had his fingers inside her quick. The friction built as she rode his hand and he watched, selfishly taking pleasure in the knowledge that he was the one who made her speechless with arousal.
As her orgasm crested, she rocked onto his hand and hit his shoulders, but he wouldn’t stop until he felt her walls grip around his fingers and heard his name fall from her lips.
Silence followed, until she finally crawled off his lap and flopped back against the passenger seat. “My God. I came in a Bugatti.”
What would they do when the gala was over and there was nothing to keep them apart?
Chapter 8
“A clairvoyant.”
Gabrielle waited for Kimberly’s reaction as they sat in the parlor of the Parker family’s splendid Spanish Colonial estate. Kimberly had been so busy upon her return to Belleza that she hadn’t given Gabrielle an opportunity to confess anything before now. Kurt and Ilene Parker were hosting a casual dinner at home, and Gabrielle couldn’t decline on account of she was overflowing with guilt.
The Parkers’ estate was only a few miles from the resort, but for Gabrielle the drive had taken an eternity to complete. Every second inched up her dread, because she knew what she’d have to do. She would have to put on her big girl panties and cop to what she’d done. She had made a mistake and didn’t believe the security who’d given her discretion when she’d all but begged for it deserved to lose employment based on her lapse in judgment.
Robyn was there, as was Kimberly’s fiancé, Jaxon Dunham. Jaxon, the heir to the Dunham fortune, was too suave for words and though Gabrielle’s clothes weren’t too shabby, she felt underdressed whenever she was in the same room as he. Conversation had been smooth yet tense. Everyone had the same thing on their mind: the string of kooky incidents. Yet no one had broached the subject until Gabrielle had said, “People are still talking about a so-called hex on the resort. I think that if the majority believes in this, the best solution would be to recruit a clairvoyant.”
“A what?” Kimberly had responded.
And now they faced each other and Kimberly was slightly shaking her head as though to gauge whether or not Gabrielle was kidding her.
“You’re not serious right now,” Kimberly decided.
“I am. I’ve already contacted one. Her name is Annie.”
“What?” Robyn chimed in. “A clairvoyant named Annie? Don’t know, it just seems she’d be named something more…mystical.”
“This one is supposed to be the real deal. She’s been on TV—”
“Ah, there’s your gold standard,” Kimberly cut in.
“In documentaries, I was going to add. She’s published books, has impressive research credentials. I don’t believe there’s a real curse, but when in Rome…”
“We’re not in Rome,” Robyn said. “We’re in California and I know there have been reports of paranormal activity across the country, I’d hold off on calling Annie the Clairvoyant. What do you think, Kurt? Ilene?”
Kimberly’s mother sat on a plush armchair. “I think there are too many unknowns to make smart accusations.”
“Which is why I have a different solution. One a bit less woo-woo.” Kim faced her parents. “I’ve hired a private investigator. He’s already scoped things out and reported back to me some findings. Unfortunately for us, he doesn’t see a connection between the fire and the fake reviews and the kitchen mishaps. He thinks it’s all coincidental. Odd, but coincidental.”
“How does that help us out?”
“Maybe it’s peace of mind, if you want it,” Kimberly suggested. “If not for the staff, then at least for the guests. We don’t want droves of people canceling reservations. It could kill our business.”
That made Gabrielle think that someone wanted such a result. With the Belleza folded, someone would profit. “Someone has an ax to grind deep.”
Robyn jerked, and while Jaxon checked if she was okay, Gabrielle glanced at her, brow furrowed. Why was she on edge?
“What came of your look into that incident at the Pearl?” Jaxon asked his fiancée. “An intruder, right?”
“Right. Our security’s in place for specific functions and the night watchmen were there to report something like that. The culprit could’ve been caught then and there.”
“You’ll have to take action,” Kurt said to his daughter.
“I know and I intend to.”
“What if the culprit wasn’t there?” Gabrielle asked. Her chest felt hot and her palms sweaty. “At the Pearl that night. Would you fire the watchmen anyway?”
“Gabby…?” Kimberly’s eyebrows rose and dropped. “Why the hypotheticals?”
“They—” she cleared her throat “—they’re not hypotheticals. The culprit wasn’t in the Pearl that night. I was there.”
“Oh, you were? Then that’s fine. Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“Because I wasn’t alone.” She glanced around the grand room that suddenly felt like a narrow tunnel. “I had a guest.”
“So late?” Robyn asked at the same time that Kurt Parker asked, “Who was the guest?”
“Geoffrey Girard was with me. We were looking at things for the gala at the end of the month, and then I was making a chocolate sauce. Uh, the sauce burned and some pans fell off the counter. That’s what alerted the watchmen to check in on things. One of them caught us…”
“Caught you looking at stuff for the gala and making sauce?” Kimberly blinked. “I don’t see the big deal about that.”
“Well,” Gabrielle said, hesitating and rubbing her palms on her knees, “he caught us kissing and he noticed that we’d let the sauce burn while we were making out.”
Robyn was leaning forward. “You said kissing. Then you said making out.”
“Yeah, kissing half dressed.” Gabrielle stood up. “I’m so sorry. It was a crazy thing to do, and I should’ve been using my brain. I know he and I shouldn’t have been there alone so late. And we shouldn’t have been making out on a counter and knocking things on the floor.”
“Okay, now we’re getting a clearer picture. A watchman got more than he bargained for on that shift, didn’t he?”
Gabrielle nodded. “Kim, please don’t fire those men. They didn’t report anything because it was me and I’d asked him for discretion. I didn’t want you and Robyn and everyone else to know what I’d done.”
“Don’t you mean with whom you were doing it?” her friend said levelly.
“Yes. I do mean that. I’m so sorry, Jaxon and Kimberly, for judging you the way I did when I first found out what might be developing between the two of you. Nobody asks for attraction that complicates things. I certainly didn’t. I’ve been trying to resist what I feel for Geoffrey, but I can’t do it.”
“Why didn’t you just tell us?” Robyn asked.
“Because I wanted to stick to my guns about the implied ‘no fraternizing’ rule. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite.”
Kimberly crossed her arms. She looked vulnerable for a quick second then was back to calm confidence. “You’re the one forcing yourself to adhere to that, Gabby. You’re the only one saying ‘live this way’ and then if you don’t, you paint yourself into a corner you can’t get out of.”
“She said she’s sorry and I’m accepting that she is,” Jaxon said to Kimberly.
“I know she is, but look, Gabby, you’re hurting yourself and this time you could’ve hurt those security guards by causing them to lose their jobs.”
“I realize that. Again, I’m sorry.”
*
Sometimes it was acceptable to play games in business, but never in relationships. Geoffrey wasn’t
out to deceive or be deceived. When he arrived a half hour early at the Pearl for his dinner with Gabrielle, he’d done it for two reasons.
One, he was eager to see her.
Two, he knew she’d get there early to have time to pop in on the kitchen, and he wanted to be there to remind her that there’d be a bit of role reversal at the Pearl tonight. She’d be a guest, not a chef. She wouldn’t come to the table and discuss a wine list or prepare a menu or trot to the kitchen to cook.
Tonight she’d sit in the dining room and experience having someone else cater to her needs. She was so devoted to her career that he knew her beautiful was more natural than it was man-made. She appeared high-maintenance but turned out not to be. It was all her. Authentically her.
But things were supposed to be different for this dinner. He wanted to be with her in an environment that she knew, but at the same time he wanted to have her to himself.
“What can I get you this evening?” the old bartender Jonah asked in a voice that was in the middle between cheerful and crotchety. The selection behind him glimmered, their contents tempted.
Geoffrey tried to avoid linking his father’s past with choices he could control for himself. There was no one hundred percent positivity that he’d become dependent on alcohol, as his father had been. There was no guarantee that he’d lose sight of what he valued, would destroy those he loved, in a vortex of addiction. Nevertheless, he said to the bartender, “No thanks, Jonah.”
“You have a story, don’t you, Mr. Girard?”
“Yeah.” Geoffrey relaxed into a gruff chuckle. “I’d say you have about three times as many stories as I do.”
“You know, that may be right. I’ve lived your life two, maybe three times, going by the look of you. That makes me a good listener, though. So give me something to listen to so I can feel useful.”
Ironically, someone approached the bar requesting a complicated drink, and the elderly man fixed it with startling precision and style. He got applause and a healthy tip for his trouble.
“That blew her away,” Geoffrey said, shaking Jonah’s hand. “You did the damn thing.”
“That’s what I do. The damn thing.” Jonah huffed a laugh. “Okay, so you’ve finagled a date with my favorite chef, have you? Oh, I have this way of knowing what happens around here—sometimes before it happens.”
“Especially when you have a hand in making it happen, like when you got me to meet her to begin with.”
“That’s fair.”
“It’s a dinner.”
“You mean a date?”
“We’re not calling it that.”
“Bull. It’s a date. Now, then. Your first in-public, appropriate location date with her? No after-closing funny business this time?”
Geoffrey smoothed his suit lapels. That’d been Gabrielle’s idea, but the technicalities weren’t all that important. “Right, Jonah.”
“Ah, okay. What do you like about her? Can’t say she’s a typical girl you catch sashaying here in Belleza or in Palm Springs and the like. Some of our own get swept away in the glamour California’s supposed to be all about.”
“You’re not impressed by much, are you, Jonah.”
“Too old. What’s your excuse?”
“I’ve seen too much.” Geoffrey didn’t reject the glass of ginger ale the bartender set in front of him without being asked. “Bad stuff, a lot of it. It leaves scars that can’t be fixed.”
“I understand. What makes Gabby someone you want to take out? I’d say you were a very busy man and spend your time sagely.”
“It’s what you said. She’s a different kind of woman. Natural, three-dimensional. Smart as a friggin’ whip and compassionate, too.”
“And you like the look of her?”
“Yeah. Can’t get her out of my head.”
“That, my friend, is one of the world’s unexplained wonders. You’ve seen too much, you’ve got those unfixable scars, but she’s in your head anyway and you feel hopeful.” Jonah smiled. “She’s unique, that one. Strong-willed. A weak man won’t do for her.”
Geoffrey looked around the dining room. Talking about her made him ache to see her. “I’m the man for her. She’s for me, too. She doesn’t want my money. Know how many women have passed through my life just to dip their hands into my money? It’d be sad if it weren’t so screwed up.”
“Treasure,” he thought the old man murmured.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Well, I’m sure it’s not just the money they want. Popularity?”
“Guess so. No choice of my own, but I was recently named one of LA’s most eligible bachelors. It was the equivalent of putting a personal’s ad on a billboard. It’s made life a bit more hellish.”
“Sorry to hear that. I can see how the ladies would be smitten with a man like you. You remind me of a reincarnation of James Bond. Anyone ever tell you that?”
Geoffrey frowned. “No. Can’t say they have.”
“Young people. Your imaginations are too limited. I blame those new phones everyone walks around with. If people got a chance to miss their electronics, they’d start to rely on their imaginations more. That’s my theory, anyway.”
“Sorry, but I can’t test that theory for you. I need my phone.”
“All right. Just don’t stare at it while you’re on a date with my gal.”
“I can promise you that won’t happen.” When she was around, he found it tough to look at anything else.
“Good. Then all I can say is, if you’re lucky enough to have Gabby’s love, don’t let it go. The thing is, you have to deserve it.”
*
“We never said this was a date,” Gabrielle told her friends as they gathered in her bedroom to help her get ready for the dinner she’d agreed to have with Geoffrey at the Pearl. “I swear, if I’m needed I will be cooking food in that kitchen before anyone can say boo.”
“That’s expected,” Robyn said. “The Pearl is your baby. We understand that now, and Geoffrey probably does, too.”
“Do you think I don’t know how to date? Is that why this is so difficult for me?” she wondered.
“I think you were burned by watching how people moved in your family’s world. Guys went after you to get in good with your parents and get connections. It burned you and that’s not your fault. But, Gabby, Robyn and I aren’t going to stand in your way of being happy with Geoffrey. If he’s the one for you, we’re just here to give you advice and stop you from derailing everything, if we can.” Kimberly sat at Gabrielle’s vanity, sniffing her assortment of perfumes.
“Ha.” Gabrielle made a face, which Kimberly could see through the mirror.
“If you keep food off your dress and refrain from making that face over dinner, you’re golden. All right. So, on this nondate, do you want your scent to say ‘look, smell and want but don’t touch’ or ‘touch, touch and touch’?”
Gabrielle considered her options as she shimmied into the strapless black cocktail dress her friends had helped her find at an exclusive eveningwear boutique the night before.
“Think it over,” Kimberly said as the doorbell rang. “Finish getting ready and I’ll answer the door. Is he picking you up here at the condo?”
“No, I’m supposed to meet him at the restaurant. But I want to get there early so I can pop in on the kitchen and see how everyone’s doing.”
“Don’t you think they’re going to be nervous enough to be preparing your food?” Robyn asked. “You’re very particular.”
“Perfection is what the Belleza wants.”
“True.”
Kimberly returned with an intimidating-sized male at her side. “You’ll never guess what the wind blew your way. He’s a stray, Gabby, but he’s just so adorable.”
“Don’t anger the beast,” Stu said, but he was grinning. He turned his clear blue eyes to Gabrielle. “Chef Royce, you look smashing.”
“And look, he’s bearing fruit,” Robyn said, pointing to the large crate in his arms.
“Our supplier said you requested every citrus they could offer. Three samples of each. Chef Joon said the two of you will be working on the signature dessert here until it’s time to bring the pastry team into the loop.”
“That’s right. Could you take that to the kitchen?”
“You really do look smashing.”
“Chef Merritt, you said that already.”
“I know. It’s just that I’m accustomed to you in Pearl-wear and that grunge-chic look you’re always rocking. Demure looks sexy on you.”
“The last time you called me sexy, we were singing that The Mamas & the Papas song at that rundown pub in London. We were so awful that somebody paid us to stop singing, saying the building would collapse if we kept on.”
Laughing, he carried the crate off and Kimberly called after him, “She’s almost ready for her nondate with the boss. Would you mind fixing her a nice mild drink, please? She’s a little nervous, but she’s covering it up pretty damn well.” She winked at Gabrielle. “We’ve been friends way too long for you to fool me with your C plus acting skills.”
Stu came back with a clear drink as Robyn asked, “Gabby, are you still packing that old condom you won at that adult-themed carnival we went to that time?”
“Yes.”
“Somebody give her something. I don’t think she’s ready for a baby just yet. Can you imagine, though? A dominant alpha dad plus a dominant and alpha mom would make one hell of an intense kid.”
“Yo. I didn’t say I was going to sleep with anyone. And who says I’m alpha.”
Kimberly, Robyn and Stu all turned to stare slack-jawed at her.
“Okay, go home. All of you.”
“Even me?” Stu asked, swallowing down the drink, since she’d dismissed him.
“Not you, smart aleck. I know you have a shift at the restaurant.”
“You concentrate on staying out of the kitchen. Don’t micromanage while you’re on a date, woman.”
Gabrielle finished getting ready quickly after they all cleared her condo. She blasted The Rolling Stones and took a moment to take inventory of the fruit that the restaurant’s suppliers had sent over. She and Nicola Joon would need to set aside a day, at least, to experiment with the citrus offerings, but she had all the faith in the world that the signature dessert would be perfected in time to unveil at the Dunham Foundation’s gala in September.
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