Page 22 of Vicious Temptation

I nod, getting up. The entire atmosphere of the house is different from anything I’ve ever known, and it’s going to take me a minute to get used to it. I can see what he meant when he said at dinner that Agnes was more like family. If I hadn’t known she was his housekeeper, I would have thought she was an aunt or a grandmother, someone actually related to the family. Gabriel certainly interacts with her as if she is. And watching him with his children, the way he hugs Danny and murmurs something to Cecelia before they follow Agnes out of the room, makes me like him more than I did already.

There’s something warm and familial about all of it, a feeling that’s never been there in my own home.

Gabriel leads me out of the living room, and back out into the entryway. “My office is down that hall,” he says, gesturing to the left. “I leave the house for normal work days most of the time, though—I find I work better at an office in a different location. But if I’m home and you need me, and can’t find me, you’re welcome to come and knock and see if I’m in there. There’s also a movie room on this floor—” He leads me further down the hall, opening a door into a large, dark-wallpapered room with a huge sectional sofa and a television that takes up most of one wall. “Danny likes to spend a lot of time in here, but of course, there are limits on all of that. We’ll go over it, and Agnes can help fill you in if you forget anything; she knows all of their schedules. There’s movies, game consoles—” He shrugs. “Whatever entertainment you might want.”

I nod, looking around. It has a very old-school den kind of feel, but far more luxurious. There are two retro arcade machines on one wall, one Pac-Man and one Mortal Kombat, and an old-fashioned popcorn machine next to it, along with a small table that has a basket filled with boxes of movie candy. On one side of the room, there are built-in bookshelves full of movies and games, and a small refrigerator with sodas and other drinks inside.

“This is really cool,” I offer, turning around again to take in the room. “I would have loved to have something in our house like this when I was a kid.”

Gabriel chuckles. “I’m surprised there wasn’t.”

“My father isn’t particularly interested in fun.” I shrug, as if it doesn’t matter very much to me, even though seeing this makes me feel an odd ache for the kind of childhood I didn’t know to miss. “This is great, though. Do you use it, too?”

He nods. “Sometimes. I don’t often have a lot of spare time, but we’ll have movie nights. Occasionally, I like to play a game, but again—it’s hard to find time to get into anything. My work keeps me busy, and then, of course, Danny and Cecelia do too.”

“Well, maybe now that I’m here, you’ll have a little more spare time.”

Gabriel laughs a little at that. “Maybe.”

“There’s two bathrooms down there, as well as a spare room that’s empty,” he continues, gesturing down the hall. “I have a fully-equipped gym downstairs, in the basement—weights, boxing bags, all of that, if you’d like to see it.”

“I just like to run,” I admit. “I’ve never really gotten into anything else for exercise.”

“There’s a good path for that. Loops around the back of the estate.” Gabriel gestures towards the back of the house. “You can get a good run in, and no one will bother you. Agnes’ husband Aldo runs the groundskeeping, and no one he hires will give you any problems.”

“Thanks.” I give him a small smile. “So what’s in the rest of the house?”

He shows me the dining room, which looks out to a small garden behind the house, and we peek into the kitchen, where Agnes is walking Danny and Cecelia through the process of making homemade pasta. There’s a pool that Gabriel points out to me as well, letting me know there’s a hot tub, too, if I want to make use of it. He tells me where some of the other structures on the property are, including a greenhouse where he says Agnes has been teaching Cecelia to garden.

“There’s a reading room down here as well,” Gabriel says, leading me down the hall past the movie room and opening a door. “Cecelia and Danny come in here to do their homework sometimes during the school year. And it’s a nice place to relax. You’re welcome to use it, just like anything else in the house.”

It’s very similar to the living room, only with more bookshelves—two walls of them, floor to ceiling. The entire house somehow simultaneously has a feeling of being very luxurious and cozy all at once. Everything is clearly expensive—high-quality furnishings, sumptuous textiles, the entire house is spotless and full of that floral vanilla scent—but at the same time, it feels like a home in a way that mine never has, even though my father goes to some lengths to make it seem to anyone looking that we’re wealthier than we actually are.

I can easily imagine hiding away in here, or curling up in the movie room with a handful of snacks and an old movie, or going for a run around the estate. My childhood home has always felt cold, monolithic, but I can already feel myself growing more at ease here. And it’s only the first day.

Maybe I could be happy here, I think as I look around the room, and turn back to Gabriel.

“Your house is beautiful.”

“Thank you.” He gives me a half-smile. “I can’t take too much of the credit for it. I didn’t have much of a hand in the decorating, that’s for sure. But I wanted it to feel like a home. I don’t particularly like flashiness, or overt displays of wealth.”

“Except for the car,” I say without thinking, and immediately want to bite it back, because it feels too intimate. Like an inside joke, just between us. And I don’t know him well enough to make a joke like that, not really.

But he’s not offended. Instead, he laughs, a deep, easy sound that makes something tingle along my spine, a feeling that I don’t dare look too deeply into. “You’re right,” he says. “Except for the car. And the Ferrari isn’t the only one I have, either. Maybe I’ll show you some time—the garage off of the house holds a few of them. I have the rest parked elsewhere.”

“Sure,” I say offhandedly, because the thought of being alone with him in a quiet, warm garage as he shows me his favorite cars feels like another thing that’s too intimate for who we are to each other. I feel a flicker of unease, not because he’s done anything to make me feel this way, but because I don’t want that tingle that I felt running along my spine to return. I don’t want to feel any attraction to him. It’s confusing and unsettling, and those are emotions I absolutely, unequivocally do not need.

“Come on.” Gabriel motions for me to follow him. “I’ll show you your room.”

He takes me upstairs, to where the guest rooms are. “My room and the children’s rooms are on the third floor,” he says, gesturing upwards. “The guest rooms are on the second. I’ve set one aside for you, but if anything isn’t to your liking, just let me know, and I’ll see what we can do to move things around.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I say quickly—and it absolutely is.

The room he shows me is as big as my bedroom at home—maybe bigger. It’s fully furnished, as promised—there’s a fireplace along one wall, which I find absolutely delightful, and a large four-poster bed made up with crisp white sheets and an emerald green velvet duvet. The room is entirely done in shades of green and white, from the thick white rug on the floor next to the bed atop the hardwood, to the deep green velvet wing chair next to the fire, and a green and blue tartan armchair sitting between a bookshelf and the window, with a soft white chenille throw tossed over the back. There’s a desk, a dresser, and a closet, and I see a closed door to the far side of the room.

“There’s an ensuite bathroom,” Gabriel says, gesturing towards it. “Which is part of the reason I had Agnes fix this one up for you; I thought you would prefer that.”

“Definitely.” I turn in a circle, taking in the gorgeous room. Everything looks and feels as lush as the rest of the house, and I feel comfortable here. It doesn’t feel as if I’m out of place at all. “Thank you so much.”

---