Beauty and the Feast

by Julia Barrett

  “C’mon,” he said, sticking a hand out to her.

  “Where we going?” she asked in a very tired voice.

  “Nap time. Back to bed.”

  “But Gabe, I’ve got so much to do. I can’t.”

  “One hour. Sleep for one hour and you’ll feel a lot better. C’mon.”

  He pulled her to her feet.

  “You’re not going to carry me again, are you?” Eva asked, suspicious.

  “Tempting as it is, I’ll let you get up there under your own power this time. C’mon sweetheart, let me tuck you in and you can give me an assignment, anything. I’ll take care of whatever you want… as long as it’s not cooking. I’m a lousy cook.”

  Eva gave in and kept her hand in his. That simple act spoke volumes. Gabe knew he’d won her trust. She was his. She trailed him up the stairs. Just like he’d done the week before when she’d been injured, he fluffed the pillows beneath her head and covered her with a sheet. It was still too warm for a quilt.

  “Make sure the picnic tables are arranged away from the fire pit and the barbecues, and spread the chairs out on the deck and around the pool. In an esthetic fashion, please. Oh, and I guess you’d better pick up the platters that we knocked off the dining room table. Thanks, Gabe,” Eva mumbled before she turned onto her side and closed her eyes. She folded her hands and tucked them beneath her cheek. She was asleep within seconds.

  Gabe watched her for a few moments. Asleep or awake, Eva Raines was breathtaking. And she hadn’t a clue. She was the least pretentious woman he’d ever met, but at the same time, she was definitely the most sensual, by far the most fiery. She was everything he wanted in a woman, more specifically, in the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He had never expected her to fall into his lap like this.

  Gabe harbored no illusions about why most women were attracted to him. He knew he was considered a catch. He was thirty-three years old. He was a successful businessman, rich, athletic. He figured he was handsome enough. Some people considered him arrogant. Over the years, he’d learned that arrogance in a man could be attractive to a woman, if a man had the substance to back it up. If there was one thing growing up poor had bequeathed him, it was substance.

  When it came to women, Gabe had set the bar high and until now, he simply hadn’t met a woman who could come close, even in spiked heels. A beautiful woman on his arm was one thing. A beautiful woman in his bed could be quite exciting, for an hour or two. A beautiful woman in his life was a horse of a different color. He’d wanted Eva Raines before he’d even laid eyes on her, and from what she’d admitted, she felt the same about him.

  Gabe realized that his sister was right. It was time he settled down, although he didn’t think life with Eva would be exactly settled. She was quite a handful. Gabe appreciated that about her. The other women he cared about, his mother, his sister, and his two nieces, could all be described as a handful. He didn’t expect any less of his woman, the woman who would be his wife. He reached for a lock of Eva’s wavy hair. Lifting it gently so as not to disturb her, he rubbed it between his fingers. He closed his eyes and held the soft tresses against his lips for just an instant. He inhaled. Eva’s hair smelled spicy and just a bit like chlorine from his pool. Gabe liked the smell. He decided to pull the quilt up around her shoulders in case she got cold, then he went downstairs.

  Gabe smiled as he retrieved the large plastic platters that she’d sent flying off the dining room table. He stacked them into a neat pile. He followed Eva’s instructions and arranged the picnic tables she’d rented, making certain nothing was too near the temporary fire pit she’d had constructed. Her foresight and attention to detail impressed him. As far as he could tell, she’d thought of everything. Some of his employees could learn a thing or two from Eva. Like an option quarterback, she was very good at sizing up a situation and adjusting her game. She could probably make something out of nothing, Gabe mused, spin gold from straw. The important women in his life had always had that gift, which was what had allowed his family to survive after his father left them without a word.

  Thinking of his father reminded Gabe that he hadn’t called his sister. He entered the kitchen and picked up the phone. He wanted to find out how Father Joe was doing and see if Lise had spoken with Quincy again. He wondered if he ought to bring the boy to California sooner. A teenage boy would be a big responsibility for his sister, especially now that she was pregnant again. He still hadn’t told Eva about his brother. He’d explained in a general way why he’d flown to Chicago so suddenly. Eva admitted she’d been worried something had happened to his mother or his sister, but the brother thing was very new and sounded odd, even to his own ears. He’d tell her tonight, when she was awake, if he wasn’t too busy exploring her all over again. Gabe’s cock seemed to be thinking along the same lines and he had to order it to stay down. Whoever claimed a man thought with what was in his pants wasn’t too far off. In Eva’s case however, Gabe’s brain and his balls were in agreement that she was the whole package and there would be no going back. She was his little chef.

  * * * *

  With Gabe’s help, Eva finished up around ten p.m. Everything was ready to go. The briskets and the ribs would start smoking first thing in the morning. Eva didn’t have access to a real smoker, so her quick method would have to be good enough. She hoped for a nice smoke ring on the brisket nonetheless, and meat so tender on the ribs that it melted like butter in the mouth. The salmon would take only minutes. All the salads were finished, the beans and tamales ready to slow cook, the Western Cesar salad lacked only the dressing, the ingredients for the cornbread measured and waiting to be mixed, and the desserts were wrapped and in the freezer. She’d make the guacamole and the salsa and bake the chips in the morning so they’d be fresh.

  Eva watched Gabe wipe down the countertops in his kitchen. He may not know how to cook, but he followed her directions, he didn’t complain, and he was tireless. The man never slowed down. Eva felt her nipples tingle and she nearly closed her eyes as she remembered what she’d done with him just this afternoon. No, the man never slowed down, especially not in bed.

  Never, never, not even once, had Eva known that lovemaking could be so…so…otherworldly, so fantastic. She’d thought those sorts of feelings between a man and a woman happened only in her imagination, or books. Making love with Gabe had transported her, out of time, out of her body, out of this world. Making love with Gabe lifted her far higher than the most amazing food high she’d ever had.

  She’d been concerned about her own inexperience, worried that Gabe would find it unappealing, but he seemed to, well, to take immense pride in the fact that he’d given her the very first orgasm she’d ever had with a man. Eva had previously found sex pleasant, but intimidating. The few guys she’d been with seemed to be in a big hurry to get themselves off and she’d always felt insecure and self-conscious, as if there was something wrong with her because she couldn’t come in three or four minutes flat. She’d tried faking it a couple times, before she realized that faking an orgasm just didn’t work for her. Maybe the guy appreciated the fact that he thought he’d satisfied her, but Eva didn’t. Not by a long shot. She’d sort of become accustomed to the idea that she’d have to get off on food, and she’d put all her sexual energy into the food she made, the recipes she created, and her fantasies whenever she took the time to indulge in them. Gabriel Abbott was her fantasy come to life.

  Eva practically quivered while she stacked plates in the dining room, remembering how he’d carried her in here and entered her from behind, so rough, so forceful, so… so tender, all at the same time, as if he’d been making her a permanent part of himself, or taking a part of her, Eva didn’t know which. She only knew that she felt whole with Gabe. He filled her up. He soothed an ache she hadn’t fully realized she’d been feeling until he’d pulled out of her. Eva felt herself blushing. She wondered how swollen Gabe’s head would get if he knew that not only did she come at least half a dozen times with him i
nside her, she’d even come when he pulled out.

  The last time…my God…the last time, she’d awakened in his bed, smelling of sex and man, feeling warm despite the fact that she was only covered by a sheet, when suddenly, as she stretched, he was there, unbuttoning the green shirt she’d put on, his mouth tugging on her tender nipples, his stiff cock entering her, stretching her gloriously, rubbing her in exactly the right spot. She’d come violently but without a sound, her mouth buried against the side of his neck, sucking on his tender skin without even realizing what she was doing. She’d given him a hickey. Eva had never given anyone a hickey in her life. Gabe had laughed when she pointed it out and apologized. He claimed he would wear it with pride.

  Eva felt Gabe’s arms snake around her waist and he pulled her backward. She could feel his erection pressed against her bottom.

  “You’re blushing, Eva,” he commented. “Thinking about what we did on this table?”

  Eva could only nod.

  “Me too,” he said. “Stay with me tonight. Please. Stay.”

  “I can’t,” Eva replied, turning in his arms to face him. She leaned her head on his chest. “I have too many things to bring tomorrow, and I have to pick up the tortillas by seven.”

  Gabe lifted her chin and kissed her softly, rubbing his lips against hers, opening her mouth, running the tip of his tongue lightly along the edge of her teeth. “Stay anyway,” he urged her.

  “Um-um,” she answered, “You come home with me.” Eva was a little startled to hear the words come out of her mouth.

  Gabe was the only man who had been in Eva’s bed, and now he was the only man she’d ever invited to spend the night with her. He looked at her, as if checking to see that she meant it. Satisfied that she did, his face lit up with a grin and he lifted her off her feet and kissed her soundly.

  “Hold on one second,” he said, setting her down on wobbly legs. He ran up the stairs to his loft and returned shortly, pulling a sweatshirt over his bare chest and carrying a pair of leather sandals and a toothbrush in one hand. “Let’s go,” he said. “Your car or my bike?”

  Eva laughed at the eagerness in his voice. He sounded like a little kid in a candy store. “My car. I’ll need it in the morning.” She searched for her purse and dug out her keys. She shook them at Gabe. “C’mon, big boy, let’s get you to bed.”

  Gabe drew closer and grabbed her hand. He rubbed her palm up and down the front of his jeans. He lowered his mouth to her ear, “Big enough boy for you?”

  “Uhnnn…” was as much as Eva could manage. “Walk…out…the…door,” she croaked, “before we end up on the floor right here in the hallway.” She felt like she was underwater and gasping for breath.

  Gabe winked and he reached around her to open the front door. “Ladies first,” he said and he pinched her bottom as she maneuvered past him.

  “Gabe!” Eva squealed, and she bolted to the car. She looked back in time to see him hopping up and down, trying to get his sandals on. “Just come out barefoot,” she said.

  “I have tender feet,” she heard Gabe say.

  Eva laughed out loud. “An imperfection. Thank God, you have an imperfection.”

  “Hey,” said Gabe, joining her beside the car, “Don’t rub it in. I’ve always been tender-footed.”

  “That makes me happy,” said Eva, “Now I don’t have to feel so inadequate.”

  “Inadequate? You?” Gabe rolled his eyes, “Lover, you are so much more than adequate I could live off you for the rest of my life. You truly are my moveable feast. Now get your sweet ass in the car and let’s get home.”

  Home, Eva thought. Home with Gabriel Abbott.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Mr. Jamison, I’m glad you could join me.”

  “When one of my most important clients calls and asks me to meet her for a drink, how can I say no? How are you, Miss Lindstrom?”

  “I’m fine, Eddie. How are you?”

  “Busy, fortunately very busy,” the man replied.

  “Ah, then you haven’t been hurt by recent cutbacks?”

  Edward Jamison chuckled. “Whether times are good or bad, there are always cheating spouses. So yes, business is good, thank you.”

  “What are you drinking, Eddie?”

  “Just a sparkling water for me, thanks.”

  “Ah, I forgot. You never drink when you’re working. I take it you have a job tonight?”

  “Yes.” That’s as much information as Edward Jamison would share about one client with another. “What can I do for you, Miss Lindstrom?”

  Eddie had been sitting at the other end of the bar, watching her, for ten minutes. He’d already ascertained that there was a man involved. He also knew whatever her business was, it was personal. Over the years he’d become quite familiar with the signs of a woman scorned and Miss Lindstrom was wearing them like an overcoat. Stephanie Lindstrom had hired him on a number of occasions, generally to investigate the spending habits of new employees and potential partners, sometimes clients. Her father had introduced them. He and Jamison had maintained an association for many years. Usually Stephanie would meet with him discreetly in her father’s office during business hours, occasionally over lunch at an out of the way place, if it was more convenient for her. He’d never before met her in a bar at ten o’clock at night. It had never occurred to him he would do so. He assumed her father wouldn’t know anything about this particular business arrangement.

  “Do you know Gabriel Abbott?” she asked without preamble.

  Eddie took a sip of his sparkling water. “I’ve never met the man, but I know of him. He’s the head of Abbott Industries, primarily a charitable foundation and the owner of Gabriel Vineyards. If I remember correctly, his wines have won several notable awards. He seems to be quite adept at making money.” Eddie paused for a moment. “He also has a bit of a reputation as a ladies’ man.”

  “I’m interested in his background,” Stephanie said, and Eddie noticed that her voice was carefully neutral, “Where he comes from, his family, who he’s seeing, if anyone. Skeletons in his closet… that sort of thing.”

  “May I ask why, Miss Lindstrom? In case there’s something specific I should be looking for?”

  “It’s simply a business matter,” she replied. “I just like to know who I’m dealing with.”

  Yeah, and I’m the Easter Bunny, thought Eddie Jamison. A business matter can be handled over lunch.

  “Where and when would you like me to start?” he asked.

  “Would tomorrow be too soon? Perhaps start with his current associates? I understand he’s hosting a party tomorrow at his home in the Napa Valley. I’ll pay you double your usual fees if you can have the information for me by the end of the week.”

  Dumped for another woman and Stephanie Lindstrom wants a name. “Unless he’s keeping some deep, dark secrets, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Stephanie gave him her hand. “Thanks, Eddie. I knew I could count on you. And I know I can count on your discretion.”

  In other words, thought Eddie, don’t tell my father. “Of course. Always. I’ll get back to you soon. It’s very nice to see you again, Miss Lindstrom. Thank you for the drink.”

  “Bye, Eddie.”

  “Goodnight, Miss Lindstrom.”

  Eddie left the bar and walked to his car. The job would be a piece of cake. From what he knew about Gabriel Abbot, he was on the up and up. He had nothing to hide. Stephanie didn’t give a shit about the man’s background, she wanted the name of whomever he was banging. Eddie shook his head. Women. Couldn’t just take no for an answer. Especially an ambitious woman like Stephanie Lindstrom. Eddie wondered exactly how tight she’d gotten with Abbott before he’d dumped her. He’d bet good money it wasn’t very tight. Abbott wasn’t really on Eddie’s radar because he didn’t poach on married women, but from what he’d heard about the man, he stuck with a woman for a few weeks, maybe a month or two, and that was it. Stephanie Lindstrom obviously assumed she would be the exception. Eddie g
uessed she was mistaken. Well, he’d do his job, he’d collect his money, and that would be the end of it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Eva was glad she had napped because sleep seemed to be the furthest thing from Gabe’s mind. She wondered just how many times a day the average man could make love because as far as she could tell from everything she’d read, Gabe was way ahead of the curve. And to her embarrassment, that fact didn’t bother her in the slightest. On the contrary, it thrilled her.

  Gabe’s hands never stopped moving over her body. It was as if he couldn’t get enough of her. Eva had never before been the object of such focused attention.

  “Do you mind?” Gabe asked. “I can’t seem to control myself when I’m this close to you.”

  “Um-um,” Eva murmured. “How could I possibly mind?

  When they’d arrived at her door, Gabe had already begun stripping her of her clothes before she even had it unlocked. He sat her, naked, on the couch, spread her legs, and buried his face between them, licking her greedily until she’d come against his mouth, trembling, whimpering, nearly purring like a cat. He’d just as quickly laid her down and buried his rock hard cock inside her. God, if she remembered correctly, she may have cried with pleasure. When Gabe climaxed, deep inside her, she’d felt the muscles of his buttocks contract beneath her hands as a raw sound, almost a roar, tore from his throat. He’d cried out, “Yes, Eva… fuck yes.” She’d felt the head of his cock press against her womb, hot, hard, thick, and oh-so heavy inside her.