I would fucking hope so all things considered! A small jolt of anger welled up within her. Whoa, where did that come from? Part of Beth wanted to forget about being confrontational and let it go. He looked so genuinely concerned that it tugged at her. But the other part, the more dominant part needed to know the truth.
"But what am I exactly? I joked the other day that I was like a wife without the sex and well... I have a feeling that is where this is headed. The sex part."
His jaw clenched, but he held her gaze, nodding. "And..."
Beth groaned loudly. "Don't you see how wrong that is? This is a sexual harassment suit waiting to happen! Do you have relationships like this with all your cooks slash maids slash personal assistants?"
A grin touched his lips and amusement shone in his eyes as he cocked a brow up at her. "Are you planning to press sexual harassment charges, Beth?"
Beth laughed at the silliness of it all. When thinking back to earlier that day, he hardly forced himself onto her. She had more than welcomed, hell she practically begged for it! "No, of course not." She narrowed her eyes at him, "You don't think that it was a little inappropriate? I've been on the job for less than twenty-four hours and you've already seen me naked and..." she could feel the heat rush up to her cheeks, and the desire within her rose as visions of him between her legs came rushing back to her.
"Perhaps it was a little... inappropriate. Does that have to mean it was wrong?"
"Well tell me this," she countered. "The last person you had working in my position. Did you have the same type of working arrangement as you do with me now?"
He chuckled, giving her hand a light squeeze. "Well, to be honest, the last person was a sixty-five-year-old woman named Gretchen, who quit because she and her husband were moving to Florida. She arrived at 6am and left at 5pm and I assure you I had no desire to touch her in any way inappropriately."
Beth rolled her eyes at him, but couldn't help but laugh a second time. "Please don't make me laugh, I'm being serious."
His attempt to keep a stern expression was nearly as humorous as his words. "And so am I. She was the sweetest woman, been with my family for decades, she practically raised me, but she just wasn't my type. Don't get me wrong, knee-high stockings can be extremely sexy..."
Pulling her hand from his she gave his shoulder a playful swat, still giggling. "Stop. I get it!"
"But why hire me?" she stressed the "me" part. He was being intentionally elusive, but there was no way she could let it go without a satisfactory answer.
He leaned back on his elbows on the towel he'd laid out previously, causing her to lean back as well, turning to her side facing him, bracing her head with her hand, to watch his expression as he talked. "I've had a slight," he cleared his throat, and even in the dim light of the torch fires, she could see his face redden slightly. It was apparent he wasn't very accustomed to explaining himself to anyone. "A slight crush, if you could call it that, on you for some time now."
Beth couldn't stop the soft giggle that escaped her lips. With all of the models and high-society bimbos that she'd seen him with in pictures and in the gossip news she had a hard time visualizing Gabriel having a "crush" on anyone. She would have thought the roles were normally reversed.
He raised a brow at her, amused. "You think I can't have a crush?"
She shook her head. "It's hard to visualize, that's all."
"I see. Well, I have."
"But you date these models and I saw a picture of you with some soap actress."
He grinned and chuckled. "Without the glamour and the makeup, they aren't near as beautiful as they think they are," he stressed the word they, "Besides, most are fake and superficial. Fame does that to people. Not all, but most. And you really can't blame them. When you have thousands - millions even - of people constantly telling you how wonderful, beautiful, talented you are, it's bound to sink in and have an effect."#p#分页标题#e#
"I see. So again, why me? Why offer me this job?"
"Do you know what one of the highlights of my day is?" He rolled over to his side so he was facing her directly, mimicking her position by bracing himself up on his elbow.
Beth shrugged.
"Going out of my way each day to stop by the coffee shop to get a cup of that horrid coffee you people serve. It's horrible. I imagine the only reason the shop stays in business is the good-looking women it tends to employ."
Beth laughed her agreement with his assessment of the coffee. "So why hire me? Why not just ask me on a date?"
He clucked his tongue off the roof of his mouth. "All right, answer me this. How many times a week did you get hit on by customers?"