As he felt the warm spray of the shower flow over his naked body, he considered what his next move should be. He had already told her that he wanted to date her, so there was no use trying to play it off now. The only thing backtracking would succeed in doing would be to get them back on bad terms, which would have defeated the whole point of having asked her out to begin with. This is something that I’ve wanted for a long time now, so I should just thank my lucky stars and accept it. Elena isn’t the worst woman that I could have ended up with, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a great time with her last night. With or without the sex, I can see myself wanting to spend more time with her.
He turned his head slightly when he heard the door to the shower slide open to reveal a sleepy looking Elena. Her blonde hair, which she usually kept neatly brushed, was disheveled from slumber. Gerard felt a shudder of affection at the sight, turning his back toward the spray of water so that he could turn to face her. “Good morning, beautiful.”
She giggled gently at that, offering him a gentle smile as she stepped into the shower with him and slid the door shut. “Good morning to you too,” she said sweetly, leaning up on her tiptoes so that she could press a kiss against his lips gently. “I see that you are running a bit late this morning.”
“Happens to the best of us,” he said, shrugging gently as he moved out of the way of the spray of water, allowing some of it to course down onto Elena’s skin. He swallowed hard as he watched her supple skin begin to glisten with water, feeling some of his blood begin to flood between his legs.
“Here I thought that Gerard Donahue could do no wrong, but it turns out he’s a mortal just like everyone else,” she said teasingly, closing her eyes as she allowed the water to flow over her hair, wetting it down so that she could wash it with the shampoo sitting on the shelf beside her.
“I never claimed to be anything more than human. I can’t help it that people make you out to be bigger than you are when you are as successful as I have been,” he said dismissively, helping to wash down her body as she washed her hair. He was grateful for the distraction, though the desire to have his way with her again wasn’t going away no matter what he did. Had he not been on such a time crunch to get to work he might have done it, but he needed to get going soon. She would always be here for another round when he got off work later.
“So, how are we going to go on our mini-vacation when you have to work?” she asked finally, having just finished rinsing the rest of the shampoo she had used out of her hair.
“I am going to tell them that I plan to leave the country for a few days to consider a prospective business contract if anyone asks. Nobody usually questions me about where I go, but just in case they do I have a backup plan,” he said, turning off the water and sliding open the door to the shower.
They dried themselves off and walked out to the living room where Gerard’s clothes were waiting for him. Elena didn’t even bother getting dressed as she watched him, and once he was fully dressed she moved up to him to wrap her arms around the back of his neck gently, kissing his cheek. “Have a good day at work, Gerard,” she said sweetly, her hands moving to straighten his tie.
“I will try to,” he said with a smile, pulling his phone from his pocket and quickly dialing the number for Simon and telling him to come pick him up at Elena’s house. He was glad that his driver didn’t ask any questions, instead assuring him that he would be there within twenty minutes. Then he placed a call to the office telling them that he was running a little late and would be there as soon as he could.
“It must be hard to be as powerful as you are,” she said with a teasing look, walking naked over to where her coffee maker sat and flipping it on. “So many people have to answer to you. Doesn’t it get tiring having to lead them all?”
“No one ever said the life of a leader would be easy. You just have to take things as they come one day at a time and not allow yourself to get overwhelmed by things,” he said dismissively, pulling a small toothbrush from the inner pocket of his suit and using it to quickly brush his teeth. “Besides, when you work with the kinds of skilled people that I have in my company, you very rarely have to worry about things once you assign tasks out. My employees pride themselves on getting their work done efficiently and correctly, which saves me a lot of headache at the end of the day.”
A text message suddenly blipped on his phone, letting him know that Simon had just arrived. He gave Elena a gentle hug, promising her that he would see her again once he got off work. Before he left, he paused by the door so he could speak. “Why don’t you take care of planning out a trip for us? I’ll cover the costs, but book us a flight and whatever ahead of time. You can just text me the details once everything is said and done.”
“Will do!” Elena exclaimed excitedly, waving goodbye to him as he closed the door, the sound of the lock clicking into place a few seconds later letting him know that she was now secure within her home.
“Did you have an enjoyable evening, sir?” Simon asked in a knowing way as he held the door open for Gerard, a small smile playing at the corner of the Englishman’s lips.
“I certainly did, Simon,” Gerard replied, choosing not to pay too much attention to the obvious amusement that his driver was showing. “Thank you for asking.”
He stayed silent for the majority of the ride, choosing instead to focus on the things that he would need to do today. There was a board meeting in a few hours that he was expected to go to, not to mention the fact that their recent merger with another large company meant that there were still documents that needed to be signed. He shook his head in wonder at just how complicated these sorts of things could get, but he knew that he would be able to deal with it. He prided himself on his ability to work under pressure; it was one of the things that made him such a good secret agent.
The fact that Charlie had not yet tried to even contact him was also slightly strange to him. Charlie was a man of his word, so when he had said they could take the week off Gerard knew he had meant it, but he didn’t think that Charlie would evoke a radio silence for that entire time as well. Maybe he didn’t want them to think that he was trying to pull them away from their vacation ahead of time. Maybe the older man had decided to take a step back from missions for a week himself. It had to be hard to oversee an organization like his, after all.
When the limousine came to a stop in front of his office, he pushed the door open himself and climbed out, shielding his eyes from the harsh light of the mid-afternoon sunshine. Simon handed him his briefcase, which had been stashed in the trunk, and then Gerard made his way inside of the building. He was immediately met by one of the members of the board, a walrus-looking man named Oswald, who greeted him upon entrance. “Gerard, old boy. How are you?”
“I’m just fine, Oswald. Running a little late this morning, unfortunately, but I’m here now,” Gerard said apologetically, walking with Oswald toward one of the elevators.
“What kept you?” Oswald asked, pressing the button that would take them up to the floor where the meeting would take place.
“I decided to spend my night in the company of a woman, and I ended up sleeping in just a little later than I had intended to,” Gerard replied coyly, the memories of the night before causing him to smirk gently. “My new girlfriend was quite loathe for me to leave.”
“You’re finally dating someone? Good show! I was beginning to worry about you,” Oswald said, his belly jiggling slightly as he laughed.
Gerard smiled at that, glancing at his watch to check the time. There was still a while until their board meeting, but it would allow him some time to go over the proceedings with some of his assistants ahead of time. Let’s hope that today goes by quickly.
Chapter Ten:Elena
Just as Gerard had asked, Elena had taken the time that he had been gone at work to look into prospective vacation destinations. She went with her initial thoughts on going to Barcelona, figuring that Gerard wouldn’t mind a chance to spend a few da
ys on the beach. Plus, Barcelona had some very romantic destinations, which she was sure the two of them would be able to take advantage of now that they had become a couple. She chose to pay for the trip herself, figuring that at the worst that Gerard would reimburse her for it later. Humming gently to herself as she finalized her order, she rose from where her laptop was sitting and walked to her bedroom so that she could start deciding on what she wanted to pack. Since it was going to be warm there, she figured that there was no real reason for her to pack pants or other warm clothing like that, though she might decide to take a pair of sweatpants with her on the off chance they wanted to sit out on a balcony at night when it got cooler.
Feeling content with what she had accomplished for the day, she decided that she was going to kill time until Gerard’s return by going out to buy some food to prepare for their dinner tonight. Sure, she had plenty of groceries, but she figured that he would appreciate her taking the time to prepare some of his favorite dishes for him. He’ll be so surprised that I remembered his favorite foods. She thought with a giggle, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she threw on a clean pair of jeans and a white Journey t-shirt that her dad had picked up for her last time he went to one of their concerts. Grabbing her keys and wallet from where they sat on her nightstand beside her bed, she headed to the grocery store.
An hour later, she returned to the house with her trunk filled with bags of groceries. She had been worried that she was going to be forced to carry all the bags up herself, but fortunately, a few of her college-aged tenants happened to be going inside and offered to lend her a hand. She knew that they were only doing it because they found her attractive, but she appreciated the help nonetheless. Once she had said goodbye to them and closed the door, she went about pulling out all the items that she planned on cooking. No one will be able to say that I’m not a considerate girlfriend.
Time seemed to fly by as she was preparing everything, the chopping up of ingredients taking a good half an hour alone. She would pause occasionally to wipe up the sweat that was beginning to drip from her forehead with one of the clean dish rags she had handy before returning to what she was doing, smiling to herself all the while. She had queued up her Pandora app to play some music for her, her head tilting gently back and forth in time to some Daft Punk music. She could have been a bit faster when it came to chopping things up, but she didn’t want to risk cutting herself and ruining the hard work that she had already put into preparing everything. Patience, she figured, would go a long way here.
Once everything was cooking in the oven, she walked over to her couch and sat down with a weary sigh. Now all that was left was to wait, which was the easiest and most difficult part of the process. Easy because all the hard work had been done already, but hard because the mouth-watering scents soon began to fill her apartment, causing her empty stomach to rumble with hunger. She was the kind of person who usually only ate one meal a day, so this was the time of day that she would usually eat. She told herself to be patient, knowing that the end result would be more than worth the wait. Plus, it would mean that she would be able to enjoy Gerard’s company while she ate, which only seemed to sweeten the deal for her.
By the time five o’clock rolled around the food was done and ready to be eaten. It turned out to be a good bit of timing on her part since she had no sooner finished pulling the last of the dishes out of the oven when she heard a gentle knock on the door. She didn’t even have to look through the peephole at the top to know that it was Gerard, pulling the door open to find her boyfriend standing there with another bouquet of flowers held gently in his hand. “Something smells good around here. I take it that you went all out with cooking?”
“You could say that,” she said shyly, blushing at the sight of the flowers. She had never realized how much of a romantic he could be. “I decided that I would make some of your favorites to celebrate us hooking up.”
“An interesting reason, but not one that I disapprove of,” he said kindly, his eyes closing as he took a deep breath, drawing the different smells into his nose. “It seems like you didn’t leave a single thing out, judging by the smell of this place.”
“I only made four dishes, but I know that the quality is going to more than make up for the quantity,” she replied casually, leaning up to give him a gentle kiss before taking the offered flowers, giggling gently as she wondered where she was going to put them since her vase was currently filled with the bouquet he had sent yesterday. She suddenly remembered that she had another vase sitting in a box in her closet; a souvenir from the last time that she had been to Paris on holiday. She figured that would be more than sufficient for the flowers, and soon the vase in question was sitting on her living room table, offering a nice touch of freshness to the room.
“Well, now that I am here, how about we take advantage of the delicious feast that you’ve prepared for us?” Gerard said, pulling off his tie and draping it carelessly over the back of the couch along with his suit jacket. “I’m starving.”
Elena nodded with delight, pulling two plates out of her cupboard and offering one to Gerard. He took it gratefully and stood before the stove, stroking his beard lightly. “Man, this all looks so good. I don’t know what I should try first.”
“Maybe you could try the bacon wrapped pork roast? It gave me quite a bit of trouble when I was trying to keep it from falling apart, but I think I managed it just fine. It probably is going to fall apart the instant you cut a piece off, though. Nothing I can really do about that,” she admitted, rolling her shoulders in a casual shrug.
“To be fair, I don’t think I’ve seen a bacon wrapped roast that hasn’t fallen apart when you cut it,” Gerard said, setting his plate on the counter top so that he could pick up the sizeable knife sitting beside the pan and slicing a thick chunk of the roast off. He set it carefully onto his plate, then sliced off another piece for Elena, going so far as to set it carefully onto her plate for her as she held it out to him.
“I went ahead and reserved the tickets for our flight as well as renting the hotel room. I decided that I want to go on a trip to Barcelona, and I figured that you probably wouldn’t object to that. I hope you don’t mind,” she added, glancing over at him to gauge his reaction.
“Barcelona, eh? Not a bad choice at all. It is one of the few places that I’ve never actually gone. If you remember, when we were supposed to go together on a mission a year and a half ago Charlie suddenly decided to send me to Rome instead,” he said conversationally, serving himself some food from the other dishes before sitting down at the kitchen table to wait for her.
When the two of them had both made their plates and took a seat at the table they could finally begin to eat. Elena watched with anticipation as Gerard cut a small piece from the roast and lifted it to his mouth, letting out a small sound of approval. “This might be the best roast I’ve ever had.”
Elena blushed at that, waving her hand dismissively. “You are just saying that,” she insisted, secretly pleased by his obvious praise.
“I never say things that I don’t mean,” he said seriously, though a small smile tugged at his mouth as he inclined his head slightly. “Well, at least not in situations like this. It’s a different story when I am on a mission.”
Elena nodded at that, not needing to say anything. She knew exactly what he was talking about since she understood only too well the level of subterfuge that was required in their line of work. Still, it was flattering to know that he thought so highly of her cooking, and she decided to just take his compliment for what it was. “Thank you. I was worried that it wasn’t going to turn out the way I was hoping it would.”
“Well, it seems to have turned out just fine to me,” he said smiling, offering her a bite of roast from off his own fork, which made her blush even brighter. She still ended up taking the offered morsel though, going so far as to offer him a bite off her fork to make them even. Elena couldn’t remember the last time she had felt as wanted as she did with Gerard, and i
f he was treating her this well only one day into their relationship she couldn’t wait to see how he would be as their relationship went on.
Chapter Eleven:Gerard
The next day, a little after two o’clock in the afternoon, the two of them made their way to the airport in Gerard’s limo so they could catch their flight to Barcelona. Gerard had made sure that Simon had packed him a suitcase worth of clothing for his trip, being very careful to tell him exactly what kind of things to pack. Simon was a dependable man, but Gerard couldn’t trust him to get everything right without at least a little help. When he had been looking over the items on the way to the airport, however, he had been more than content with what he saw.
The flight itself was rather uneventful, aside from a crazy man with a knife leaping out of his seat halfway through the flight and trying to take the plane hostage. Unluckily for the would-be hijacker, Gerard had woken up in a slightly bad mood, and the man’s idiotic rantings had done nothing to improve it. He would have been content to not get involved had the man not made a comment about Elena. That, Gerard had decided, was simply one step too far. Before the hijacker had time to respond, Gerard had been out of his chair, his fist slamming straight into the man’s jaw with enough force to send him flying halfway across the plane.
Once the hijacker had been safely restrained by one of the in-flight security personnel and calm had been restored to the other passengers, Gerard had decided to take a nap. He hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, so he figured that using roughly one hour to rest a bit wouldn’t hurt him. He knew Elena was probably not too happy about flying with a sleeping companion, but since she had been the reason he had been up so late, he figured she really didn’t have a reason to complain. Before he drifted off, however, he felt her hand reach over to gently take his. He smiled at that and gave her hand a gentle squeeze as he relaxed, eventually dozing off for a bit until the sensation of the plane descending caused him to wake up.
Daddy In Charge_A Billionaire Romance Page 25
