Page 34 of Purchase Power
“I didn’t say anything, Mr. Gabriel.”
“You were thinking it. I know you well enough to know what you’re thinking.”
“Mr. Gabriel.” Candace stopped at the opened doorway. “If you really knew what I was thinking, you would have fired me years ago.”
He snorted at that.Probably.That’s what made Candace so great, though. She knew all the inner-workings of the Gabriel household. She knew the history between Noah and Stacey. She knew why Tonya Gabriel almost never came by to visit her son or Stacey. She definitely knew what Lucy was doing there, and she probably had a lot of thoughts about it.
That’s what makes her great. She knows all this, but doesn’t openly judge us.Perhaps Candace appreciated her paycheck more than anything else. She was paid handsomely, after all. Full benefits. A retirement plan. She would have to be truly angry at some grave injustice to quit or get herself fired. Hell, Noah wouldn’t let her quit. He’d give her whatever she wanted to stick around. She could live off the property for all he cared if she still stopped by every day.
She was more like a substitute aunt than he thought, apparently.
Candace was back not five seconds later. Noah ignored her in favor of his emails at first, figuring she had forgotten something in the room. Yet her voice tentatively announced, “It has come to my attention that you have a guest, Mr. Gabriel. He has already helped himself onto the premises, so this is your fair warning.”
“Huh?” He barely looked up in time to see that smarmy grin of David Hayes appear over Candace’s head.
“Noah! My man!” As if he didn’t see her at all, David nudged past Candace, who wobbled on her feet and left the room with a small huff. “How’s it going? Have you recovered from your birthday weekend yet? Sober enough to say hello to your ol’ pal David?”
David was one of the only people either not employed by Gabriel Manor or a member of the family who could come and go as he pleased. No wonder he showed up at the door, somebody let him in, and he waltzed to the exact door he knew to be Noah’s personal office. Why, he even had the dignity to show up before Noah’s official work hours started. Which said a lot, since it was ajauntfrom the city that early in the morning.
“I’ve been sober since Saturday.” Noah motioned to a chair David had long decided to sit in like a king. “Although I do feel like a truck has hit me at the moment. What are you doing here? This early in the morning, all the way out here?”
“What if I told you I spent the night up the street from here?” David pressed a finger into his friend’s desk. “With a lovely young widow who has recently buried her rich ass husband?”
Noah rolled his eyes. “I was wondering who would move in on Astrid first.” Astrid Evans was either truly in love with the old geezer who croaked, or she played a smart enough con to get access to half of his estate when he died – the other half going to his estranged daughter, of course. “So, you and Astrid Evans?”
“Nah. It’s not like that. Could hardly stand her when she was talking and not…” David made sure the door was closed before continuing. “Humping.”
“You’re such a gentleman.”
“And a scholar.” David inched his chair forward. While Noah’s desk was plenty big for all of his apparatuses and some extra space, it still wasn’t enough to put some decent distance between him and David. “Speaking of the ol’ wham-bam, how’s it going with your new lady friend? What was her name again?” David pretended to think about it. Like he didn’t know! “Lucy. Like Lucille Ball.”
“Is that the only frame of reference you have for that name?”
“Hardly. My grandmother was named Lucille, but I don’t want to think about her on the other side of your ragin’ hard-on, friend.”
Usually, David’s crude talk didn’t bother Noah, who had been hearing it for years. This was the man who indulged the “bro” side of Noah, the one he left behind in college after pretending to be a frat guy for a whole two months. It fit his personality about as well as growing a beard and living out of a van.
Well, he had a small beard now. A light wash of facial hair that extended from ear to chin. Not enough to call a proper beard, but Noah enjoyed the way he looked in the mirror as opposed to cleanly shaven.
“I’d rather hear about the woman you secured the services of,” Noah said.
“Bought. You can saybought,man.”
Noah preferred to not and never say he did. “Whatever. How’s that working out for you? You were way drunker than me when you took the plunge.”
“Yeah… about that.” David scratched the top of his head. How drunk was I, exactly? Because I feel like a goon now.”
“Wait…you’rethe one with buyer’s remorse?” That was so unlike David, who had happily “purchased” a woman before and claimed to have loved every day of it. He had more than enough money to squander on enterprising young ladies willing to sell their time and skills for a few million. Wasn’t like the woman he admired enough to buy was homely, either. She wasn’t even the youngest. Or the oldest. Right in the middle of age and beauty. Her biggest selling point…
Well, her biggest selling point had been…
“I didn’t realize she was a virgin!” David tossed his hands into the air, that boyish charm giving way to manly regret. “I was drunk and thought she was a submissive woman who might like it a little rough.”
Noah wasn’t a gasper, but he may have been inclined now. “You didn’t…”
“I haven’t touched her, mate. I’m too nervous. Can you believe it?”
“Is that why you were practicing on the recently widowed Astrid Evans? Making sure you’re in prime form when you take that young lady’s virginity and put it up on your mantle with everyone else’s?”
