“Yep,” she confirmed. “An agreement that benefits both of us…”
“But some twice as much as others,” Gareth added flatly.
Hazel bit her lower lip and signed. “That’s a promise you should keep,” she whispered.
“Oh, I will,” he replied darkly and so softly that Penny couldn’t hear him. “I have plans.”
He could have sworn she shuddered, but Penny distracted him. “Wonderful. I’m glad to hear you’ve had a satisfactory discussion,” she said happily.
Gareth choked a little and leaned forward, coughing, while Hazel said, smiling broadly, “Oh, yes. Very satisfactory. Was there anything else, Penny? Or did you just want to make sure we still had all our limbs?”
“Yes. I was wondering if you two would like to join Fox and me for dinner tonight to celebrate his contract?”
“I can’t,” Gareth said, his gaze drifting to Hazel. “I have plans.”
“Me too,” she said apologetically. “I have an important meeting. It’s going to be difficult and long. I’m certain I’ll be too exhausted for dinner afterward.”
Gareth had to suppress a laugh.
“Oh, too bad. Another time then?” Penny suggested.
“Sure.” Hazel smiled and strolled past her out the door before turning back. “But I’ll happily call if I have time tonight after all. My meeting starts at seven. Not a second later. And if my appointment isn’t there…I’d be happy to call and we can go out to dinner.”
“Oh, I’m sure your appointment won’t fail to show,” Gareth drawled.
He’d have to make sure he finished work on time today.
Chapter Sixteen
Social conduct for hate-free inter-colleague teamwork
Short: SCHIT
Additional clause X-3:
This is a sex arrangement. It's not for sleepovers or cuddle parties.
Hazel carefully rolled out of Gareth’s bed, which was roughly the size of his ego, before he could pull his arm tighter around her shoulders.
He had fallen asleep. Apparently, his night spent under the ominous coffee table had not been restful. As stipulated in the contract, they hadn’t cuddled; instead, they had lain exhausted in each other’s arms, unable to talk or move. Hazel had lost the battle for the top spot, but that was okay. Gareth had more than proven he deserved the spot.
A smile tugged at her lips as she quietly slipped into her skirt and blouse and glanced at the sleeping millionaire boss. He had been good in bed seven years ago, but now...
He must have had a lot of practice. The thought dampened her smile. Gareth sighed in his sleep and pulled the pillow she’d just been lying on into his arms, causing warmth to creep into her chest and a lump to form in her throat. Blinking, she swallowed both. The sex was over, so she would mute her feelings again.
It was just… God, she hadn’t had that much fun in a long time as she had at the morning’s meeting, and at…um, tonight’sappointment. It had reminded her of why she had loathed Gareth at school. Well, before she had loved him.
Hazel had been used to being the smartest, cleverest, and hardest-working person in the room, Harvard or elsewhere. And then there was Gareth, the unbreakable spirit of the way-too-hot millionaire heir, the guy who wanted to prove to the whole world that he didn’t believe he was superior — hewassuperior. Not as a person – he had never been condescending – but at every task he took on. She had hated and loved finally being challenged, and she knew he had felt the same. When they had teamed up, they had been unbeatable. And that feeling she’d had every time with him, that sweet, hot, content, excited feeling…had gotten her addicted. She’d never had to hold back with him. Not her intellect, her bad jokes, or her sassy remarks, which, at times, might have been a bit too aggressive. It turned out those were the parts of her he’d liked the most. At least, that was what he’d always claimed.
She forced her gaze away from his face and turned her back on him as she strolled into the hallway. She was no longer the young woman she’d been back then, and he was no longer that man.
It was just sex.
She took a deep breath, stole the pack of gummy bears off his kitchen counter that Gareth had dutifully bought for her, and left his huge apartment, which, naturally, was decorated in onlyblack and white. It had all the personality of a dead potted plant. But knowing Gareth, he hadn’t decorated it.
She took the elevator down to the underground parking garage, and smiled at the idea of him telling a poor interior designer to do whatever she wanted — he wasn’t interested in how much it cost or how it looked in the end, as long as it was tasteful. Naturally, she’d chosen black and white because Gareth seemed like a black-and-white kind of guy. But that was misleading. The only curtains he’d ever chosen had been red. She knew because she’d been there.
But Gareth hadn’t corrected his interior designer, just as he never corrected people who drew the wrong conclusions about him...it was too tiring.
