No… I hadn’tughed like this in five fucking years.
Alexander’s head snapped toward me, and for a second, I swore I caught the corner of his mouth twitching, like he was fighting back his own smile.
But then he schooled his expression, turned, and stormed off, leaving meughing in the middle of the destroyed foyer.
Gabriel
Gabriel was reviewing security reports in his office when someone knocked on his door. He looked up to find Sarah standing there, no longer in her maid’s uniform, with her bag slung over her shoulder.
He set down his papers. “I heard you were fired.”
“Because you lied to me!” Sarah’s eyes were zing with fury. “You told me Alexander was lonely and desperate for a woman in his bed. You said his marriage was a sham and that he wasn’t getting any satisfaction from his frigid wife!”
Sarah stormed closer, lowering her voice, although her anger still radiated off of her.
“You specifically told me that Alexander wanted someone who could actually please him, someone who wasn’t sick and pathetic like E. You said all I had to do was make myself avable and he’d jump at the chance.’
Gabriel leaned back in his chair. Sarah was right, of course. He had said exactly those things when he’d contacted her three weeks ago. He’d known her from his days before bing Alexander’s Beta-she’d been one of many women who’d warmed his bed over the years.
Beautiful, willing, and most importantly, discreet.
The n had been simple. Alexander and E were sharing a bedroom now, which was dangerous. The more time they spent together, the more likely it was that biology would take over and they’d end up having sex.
And if that happened, if Alexander started developing real feelings for his mate…
Gabriel couldn’t let that happen.
So he’d called in a favor. Sarah had been between jobs anyway, and the promise of seducing a wealthy Alpha had appealed to her. She was so beautiful that Gabriel had been certain even Alexander, who had never been with a woman so intimately, wouldn’t be able to resist.
It wasn’t supposed to go like this.
“Alexander showed zero interest in me,” Sarah hissed. “Zero. When I asked him about his marriage, he practically threw me out of his study. And then today, when I tried to get closer to him, he couldn’t get away from me fast enough. He looked at me like I was something he would scrape off his shoe.”
Gabriel frowned, his mind racing. If not Sarah, then who? Alexander would never fall for Sophia, especially not with her history of being aplete and total nutjob. No, he’d have to find someone else, someone better…
Gabriel tilted his head. “Do you have any hot friends? Twins, maybe?”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Screw you. I’m done with this whole mess.” She stormed over to the door, but then hesitated, her hand on the knob. “And for what it’s worth,” she added, “I think you’re wrong about his feelings for E. The way he looks at her is more fond than you let on.”
With that, she stormed out, mming the door behind her.
The word made Gabriel’s jaw clench. Fond. That was exactly what he’d been afraid of.
For a long moment, Gabriel just sat there, staring at the closed door. Was Alexander in deeper than he had realized?
This was worse than Gabriel had thought.
He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a small cloth bag. Inside were the broken pieces of that locket-the one he’d told Alexander he would take to a jeweler for repair. The same locket that Alexander had specifically asked him to fix because he knew how much it meant to E.
Gabriel had never taken it anywhere. He’d been carrying it around for days, trying to decide what to do with it.
Now he knew.
He walked to the small bathroom connected to his office and dumped the broken pieces into the toilet. The silver fragments glinted in the water for a moment before he flushed them away, watching with satisfaction as they disappeared down the drain forever.
He wouldn’t let Alexander fall for E, no matter what it took.