Page 22 of Claimed By the Boss

Her cheeks looked a deepershade of red. “Don’t you trust me?” she asked.

“I trust you. I don’t needto see it.”

“We’ve not talked about …what we’re doing,” she said, glancing down on the floor.

Fuck this. He didn’t givea fuck if she was pregnant, and that was the scariest truth out of everything.What he cared about was having a good time with Nora.

“Come here,” he said.

She stepped right into hisarms and he kissed the top of her head.

“I trust you.” And thestrangest thing of all, he meant every word he said. He did trust her.

“Thank you. I trust youtoo.” And she went on her tiptoes and kissed him back. “I don’t know what youexpected, but I know what it is like to be let down by the people closest to you.I wouldn’t do that to anyone. I swear.”

He stared into her eyes,and all of Trudy’s words came rushing back to him. It was bullshit.

“Come on. I want to takeyou to dinner,” he said.

Gabriel did have everyintention of taking her straight back to his apartment and fucking her brainsout, then ordering takeout. However, he knew she was not a big fan of the wholetakeout plan, so now he would treat her to dinner and then take her back to hisplace and fuck her brains out. The plan sounded great to him.

ChapterSeven

Nora didn’t see theirrelationship lasting long. Sure, the sneaking around was a lot of fun. Gabrielhad gained himself a lot of privacy in the last few years of his life. She hadheard the gossip around the office about the women he dated, and the wild lifehe used to live. He was like a completely different person as far as she knew.

Then of course, sheexpected only to be “flavor of the week.” Only that week turned into two. Threeweeks rolled by. A month. Two months. Three months. And they were stilltogether.

When he had to go away onbusiness trips, she went back to her old apartment. The moment he came home, hewas there, picking her up, and taking her back to his place. She kept on top ofher rent, as she refused to give up her independence.

No one but Trudy knewabout their relationship. She had caught them kissing one lunchtime, and Trudyhad announced she was back. Gabriel had told her not to worry.

There were severalpromotions that came open within the company, but she decided to focus on hernew job role, which she did happen to enjoy. She didn’t realize how quicklypeople passed up the job of working in the mail room. There were a lot ofpeople who quit, and others just moved on either in the company, or ontoanother job.

She was entering fourmonths of a whirlwind relationship.

On Friday lunch, she madeher way to his floor, stepped off, and much to her surprise, found Trudy there.

“Hello,” Nora said.

Gabriel tended to sendTrudy to lunch, or have her run some errand that would then consist of hereating lunch elsewhere. Nora had felt so bad in the early days, until Trudy hadtaken her to the side and told her that she loved what was happening.

She had a feeling Trudyhad hoped more would come of her and Gabriel. That was not going to happen. Shehad told the older woman the same thing, but Trudy said she had an eye for thiskind of thing, and it was very much going to happen.

“Nora, you’re herealready.”

“It’s lunchtime andGabriel told me to not be late.” She glanced toward his office and paused.

She was not used toGabriel having people in his office. Being the boss, she knew he had a lot ofvisitors, but this was one of the ex-girlfriends. A supermodel.

Nora took a deep breath.“He’s busy,” she said.

“No, you don’t have toleave. He will be done in a minute. Don’t worry.”

She was not going to sitwaiting for the boss to be done with an ex-girlfriend. Nora couldn’t help butglance at the woman and feel every ounce of insecurity because why was Gabrielwith her?

“I’ve got to go.”

After their first kiss,she had felt this panic, this fear. It had slowly died within her, but now, asshe truly got a good look at one of Gabriel’s exes, she didn’t get it.

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