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“Do you like your stuffy, princess?”
His question derailed my thoughts, popping the bubble of my growing anger. I took a deep breath not wanting to let go of my frustration but knowing I needed to. Hugging Bruiser I took strength in his soft squishiness.
“Yes, I love him, Gabriel. Thank you for the gift. Now, what did you do?”
“What do you call me?”
“Daddy.” I filled the title with as much frustration as I could.
“I’m going to need you to be more specific, little girl. I've done a lot of things in the last twenty-four hours. Including pausing getting a tired Little into bed to do a shopping trip because she insisted that the puppy behind the glass looked so sad in the store. That she needed to give him a home.”
Had I really done that? I knew I was not at my best when I was tired, but demanding that Gabriel buy me a stuffy was bratty on a level I wasn’t comfortable with. I should have felt guilty. I looked down at my new friend and considered apologizing, but his adorable blue eyes looked back at me and I couldn’t. He was too cute to be stuck behind glass. So soft, everything a perfect stuffy should be.
“Thank you for getting me Bruiser, Daddy.”
“You’re welcome, princess. Now what had you storming in here, forgetting your manners?”
I hadn’t forgotten them; I’d just felt they hadn’t been appropriate for our current situation. It was time to be not so Little and get the information I needed.
“Why do I have an email from HR saying that I've been temporarily transferred to the concierge staff?”
“That was fast.”
Gabriel’s response hit me like a punch to the gut and my anger rose up like a sea monster ready to destroy Tokyo. “I'm to be on call for you?”
“Yes.” He said the word slowly as if he was starting to understand there was something wrong but hadn’t yet figured out what.
I held up my phone, shaking it at him. “I had to read this stupid thing ten times before the words made any sort of sense. And all you have to say is, yes?” The conclusions I'd drawn made my stomach swirl with killer butterflies. “Are you trying to buy me?”
The horrified look on Gabriel’s face gave me a small amount of comfort. My anger metamorphosed into hurt and tears prickled at my eyes.
“No, princess. Come here.” He held open his arms.
It was tempting to ignore the offer but even though he was the cause of my pain I needed the comfort. His arms wrapped around me tightly. The feeling being surrounded by his strength helped, but my anger kept me from relaxing as I rested my head against his chest.
“Why would you hire me? Can’t you see it's weird? Like you're paying me so I don’t have a choice but to spend time with you.” Why would he think I would want that? Just the thought of being paid for our time together made me uncomfortable.
He picked me up and carried me over to the couch and instead of feeling safe, I felt trapped. I was tense as he cuddled me against his chest and gave me a kiss on the head.
“I'm so sorry, princess. That was not my intention at all.” He sighed. “I should’ve talked to you first. Truth is, after seeing how miserable your job made you last night, I thought you’d be happy. I told you how crazy my schedule is going to get over the next couple of weeks. I did it because I’m selfish and I wanted to steal all your time for myself. So I asked Rocco to see if he could get you reassigned. I never for one moment thought you'd think I was trying to buy you.”
I simultaneously wanted to punch him and kiss him. A weird war of thoughts was being caught inside my mind. It was over-the-top sweet that he'd done something so ridiculous to monopolize all of my time. I hated my job, well, more to the point I hated my boss. The idea of spending the next month with Gabriel without having to deal with any of the messed-up crazy that was my usual life was like a dream come true.
Unfortunately, the way he’d done it made me so angry I wanted to pound my fist against his chest. Why hadn’t he talked to me before messing with my job? I don't know what I would have said. But at least I wouldn’t have felt like he thought I was some sort of commodity that could be purchased.
“If I'm working for you, anything we do together will feel dirty. Like I have no choice.”
“Oh baby, I'm sorry. That's not what I wanted at all. I was trying to give you choices, not take them away.”
I wanted to believe him. Wanted to believe the look on his face that said he was horrified by the idea. How could he not see that he’d backed me into a corner where there were no good choices? If I said yes and we had sex, I’d feel like a prostitute. If I said no, not only would Seth be angry with me, but now the casino management would as well. I’d either lose my job or they would make it so that I had no choice but to quit. Only one option didn’t leave me possibly homeless in less than a month.
“We have to break up.” The words felt like glass in my throat.
“No.” The responding roar was so loud it made my ears hurt.
“Yes. As long as you're paying me, we can't do stuff together. And if you change your mind about paying me now, Seth will find a way to punish me for not satisfying a guest. I need my job.” My eyes burned with unshed tears. Why couldn’t we have met after I’d made the switch to full-time author? I doubted a man like Gabriel would be willing to wait.
He tipped my chin up and the smile on his lips made no sense. “Stuff? And what stuff couldn't we do?”
