Man at Work (4 page)

“
He’s so dreamy,” the girl
continued. “You could fall in love with those eyes. Oops!” Her eyes
darted to and fro. “I guess I’d better not lust after my boss like
that.”

Toye jumped in. “I don’t blame you. He is
one hunk of a man.”

“
All the ladies here think
so, too. He’s a nice guy. And he’s super talented. He built his
home from the ground up. It was featured in
Architectural Digest
.”

Candace’s attention drifted as the girl
babbled on. Apparently, Gabe made quite an impression on everyone
he came into contact with. She couldn’t help but wonder why he
didn’t reveal his true identity before. And to think, he ran around
in paint-speckled clothes and drove a truck that was older than
Moses. Maybe he was trying to be incognito, like those mega-rich
celebrities.

Candace glanced at the cashier. “If Gabe
owns this whole chain, he must be—”

The cashier finished her sentence, “Filthy
rich.”

# # #

“
Argh!” Gabe swatted the
ball, putting the full force of his stroke behind his racquet. The
ball went flying against the wall. Sweat poured from him. His heart
pounded in his chest as Phil dove toward the ball and batted it
back. The two battled back and forth, returning each other’s
volleys. The only sounds were a language of grunting and the echoes
of the ball bouncing off the walls. Gabe enjoyed their weekly game
of racquetball at an exclusive health club in an area of Miami
called The Village
where they were both
members.

“
Remind me not to play you
again,” Phil complained. “I prefer playing Cordell. At least he
lets me score.”

“
Cordell, the Director of
Product Development?”

“
Yep.”

Gabe backhanded the ball. “He has to let you
win. You outrank him.”

“
I’ll take whatever
victories I can get!” Phil huffed as he swung at the ball
again.

“
Maybe if you practiced
more instead of getting pedicures and shopping for suits, you might
be able to beat me,” Gabe taunted.

Phil’s deep crack of laughter cut through
the indoor court. They both knew how hard he worked. He wouldn’t be
caught dead getting a pedicure. Now, a manicure—that was a
different story.

The two continued to volley back and forth
until Gabe scored the winning point. “I don’t have the energy to
whip your ass.” Phil bent over, palms on knees as his labored
breathing filled the air. “How do you manage to run Sampson’s,
cheat at racquetball, and teach all those classes?”

Gabe grinned and wiped beads of sweat from
his upper lip. “You should have seen this little old lady in my
class earlier this week. She had more energy than you. She was
feisty and blue-haired. Kept all of us on our toes.”

Phil reached for a towel and mopped the
sweat from his brow. “I hope when I get that old, I have a woman
like that by my side who can keep up with me.”

“
You’re too busy catting
around. Besides, you know there are no old freaks out
there.”

“
Hello? I’m dating one
now.”

“
Hah hah! You and your
cougars.”

“
Don’t knock it ‘till you
try it.”

“
No thanks.” Gabe dropped
his racquet into his gym bag. “I’ll let you do all the research. I
prefer a woman I have something in common with.”

“
I have lots in common
with Louise.”

“
Ugh, even her name sounds
old.”

Phil chuckled. “I’m an equal opportunity
lover.”

“
At least tell me you’re
getting your senior citizen discount.”

“
Hey, don’t blame me if
you’ve dropped out of the dating game.” Phil slung his designer gym
bag over his shoulder. From his brand name shorts to his expensive
sneakers, Phil was always dressed to impress.

“
I haven’t dropped out,”
Gabe defended. “I just haven’t found a woman worth my
time.”

“
C’mon man, you’ve got
plenty of females throwing themselves at you. You don’t have to
find time—they’re worse than termites crawling out the
woodwork.”

Gabe was quiet as he walked toward the
locker room. What Phil said was true. He hadn’t found the right
woman, but women had no problem finding him. It was so bad that he
couldn’t walk through the store now without the cashiers ogling
him. Some were coy, managing to coincidentally be around whenever
he was conducting class. Others boldly gave him ‘the look.’ It was
the same look that had been getting men in trouble since the dawn
of time. Even if he was stupid enough to mix business with
pleasure, he couldn’t risk being slapped with a sexual harassment
suit if things went wrong. He’d worked too hard to build the
reputation of Sampson’s.

“
I’m beginning to think
you’ll never meet a woman worth your time,” Phil continued. “Other
than your casual flings, you haven’t shown interest in anyone in
years.”

“
Maybe the ones I’m
interested in aren’t interested in me.”

“
Bullshit!” Phil stopped
in front of a wood grain locker, and dropped his bag on a nearby
bench. “What woman have you been lusting after that hasn’t returned
the attention?”

Gabe shrugged, punching in the code to his
locker combination. “I haven’t exactly been lusting after her.”

That was a lie. Ever since he’d brushed up
against Candace in class the other day, and ended up with a
hard-on, he couldn’t get her out of his mind. His body had never
craved a woman so bad. She’d lit a slow burning fuse that refused
to be extinguished.

“
Well, give up the
details, man. Who is this mystery woman? Where’d you meet
her?”

“
Her name is Candace
Jones. She signed up for one of my classes last week.”

Phil sat on the bench and began removing his
sneakers. “That’s what I’m talking about. You don’t need to look
for women. They find you.”

“
This is exactly why I
didn’t want to mention it.”

“
No, it’s best you did.
What’s she like?”

“
Gorgeous. Smart-mouthed.
Intelligent. Legs for days.”

“
Just like you like ‘em.
This is actually very fortunate. Now, you can easily get in touch
with her.”

Gabe pulled a valet bag with deodorant and
aftershave from his locker. “How?”

Phil shook his head and stood up. “Man, you
really are rusty. She was in your class, right? You know we keep a
list of all the class attendees. They fill out a registration
sheet. It has their name, address, and phone number. Call her
up.”

“
What?” Gabe’s heart rate
skyrocketed. “I can’t do that.”

“
Why not?”

“
I’ll look like a damn
stalker!” His thoughts flew to the day he followed Candace in the
parking lot. She looked ready to mace him and knee him in the nuts.
He could think of a lot more productive things he’d like done with
his nuts.

“
You’re the one who said
she’s not showing any interest in you. It’s not like she’ll be
bursting down your door or calling you anytime soon. So, you take
the initiative.”

Gabe stuffed his gym bag and racquet into
his locker. “Nah, it seems creepy, not to mention
unprofessional.”

Phil pulled his sweat-soaked shirt off and
tossed it into his locker. “Nobody has to know what you’re doing.
Tell your secretary to pull the form. You can tell her you’re
responding to a complaint. Or whatever. Make up something. Hell,
don’t give an excuse if you don’t want to. What’s the point of
being an owner if you don’t use the company’s resources?”

“
It’s an invasion of her
privacy.”

“
Jeez!” Phil slammed the
door of his locker shut. “When did you become so
corporate?”

“
When did you become such
a pussy hound?”

“
In the tenth grade. But
I’ll tell you one thing: When I see a woman I want, I pull out all
the stops to let her know. I don’t just talk the talk. I walk the
walk, man.”

Gabe ran a palm across his
shaved head. He did want Candace—or at least he wanted to get to
know her better. That day in class, standing behind her curvy ass
and inhaling the scent of her floral perfume was just too much for
him. He couldn’t resist dipping his head low to whisper in her ear.
It had been his undoing. For the rest of the class he’d had to
fight a stiff dick. Yeah, he wanted her. Too bad she hadn’t
returned the sentiment. She’d left so soon after class that day,
she was gone by the time he finished answering questions from the
other customers.
Maybe he’d come on too
strong, but her snappy comebacks and wicked smile made him believe
she could handle him. He was curious to see whether he was
right.

“
Okay,” he relented. “I’ll
do it.”

Toye frowned as she stared at the jagged
pattern of tile on the kitchen floor. “It doesn’t look the same as
when we did it in class.”

Candace nodded. “I agree. There’s something
we’re not doing right.” They were halfway done, but already she
could see their handiwork didn’t have the neat edges. Some of the
tiles were loose too.

Marlowe surveyed the floor. “We should keep
going,” she said. “This looks good to me.”

“
I should have started
this project the moment class was over,” Candace pouted. “I should
not have waited a week. Now, I can’t remember all the
steps.”

“
You couldn’t have started
any earlier. You were busy repainting and having the plumbing
upstairs repaired. You’d better slow down or you’re going to give
yourself a stroke.”

“
I don’t have the luxury
of slowing down.”

Ronnie spoke up. “I have a suggestion.”

Candace shook her head, suppressing waves of
frustration. “I don’t want to hear it, Sis. I’m not giving up
control of this house to anyone else.”

“
I’m not asking you to
give up control. I’m asking you to work smarter, not
harder.”

“
Spending what little
money I have left to hire another contractor who might leave me
high and dry is not my idea of working smarter.”

“
I know someone with
excellent qualifications who could do it,” Toye offered.

“
Forget it. I already know
you’re going to say Gabe. Ever since we took his class, you’ve been
touting him like he’s the second coming. Gabe did this. Gabe did
that.” It was bad enough Candace had to listen to Toye ramble on
about Gabe during the day; at night, her thoughts were filled with
erotic dreams of him. “I don’t want to hear his name
again.”

Toye shrugged. “Okay.” She looked at the
bucket of thinset. “I think one problem is that you are not tapping
the tiles in place with the rubber mallet.”

“
I don’t have one.” She
didn’t add that she was not going back to Sampson’s to get
one.

“
I also noticed you’re not
using those pegs to keep the tiles in place at the corners. I saw
Ga—uh, that guy in class using them.”

“
Aw, shut up.”

The shrill ring of Candace’s cell phone cut
off any smart remarks Toye might have had.

Candace didn’t recognize the number, but she
answered anyway. She hoped it wasn’t anyone from Faith Industries.
She wasn’t ready to give them a status report. She answered in her
most professional voice. “Candace Jones speaking.”

“
Hello, Candy.”

Warmth rushed between her legs as his
familiar, deep voice called her by his self-imposed nickname. Her
pulse raced. Her mouth went dry. A thousand thoughts ran through
her mind. But the one thing that came out was, “Why do you insist
on calling me that name?”

Gabe’s sexy chuckle filtered across the
line. “I told you, you’re like candy to me.”

She imagined him licking
his lips as he spoke.
Images of him
drizzling hot chocolate syrup across her most intimate body parts
made her stomach flutter. The man turned her on! She had to get her
horny ass in line before she drooled all over her cell phone. “To
what do I owe this pleasure,
Gabe?”

At the mention of his name, Toye, Marlowe
and Ronnie stopped their idle chitchat and turned toward Candace.
In unison, three mouths dropped open. Candace almost laughed at
their reaction. She was just as shocked to get a call from
Gabe.

“
I got your number from
the info sheet you filled out,” he answered.

“
Oh really? I guess it’s
true. You’ll stop at nothing to get what you want.”

“
Hmm. I like your train of
thought, but it’s not like that. It’s perfectly normal for me to
contact our customers and follow up after they’ve attended a
class.”

Uh huh. I’ll bet!

“
So,” he cleared his
throat. “How did your kitchen renovation turn out? Did you use what
you learned in class?”

When Candace eyed the floor, the despair of
her forgotten failure washed over her like a cold tide. “Not
exactly,” she admitted.

“
Oh? Why not? Didn’t the
products I suggested work?”

“
It wasn’t the products.
It was more like a user error.”

He chuckled again. She closed her eyes,
letting the sound wrap around her. Everything about him was
sexy—even his laugh. She opened her eyes to find her family staring
curiously at her. Toye had a knowing smirk on her face. Marlowe was
stifling a smile. Candace rolled her eyes and turned away so they
couldn’t see how giddy she felt.