Perfect Fit (2 page)

Gabe heard everything his mother said, but still he felt women like Keri were the ones to watch out for and avoid. As far as he was concerned, the best way to handle those types of women was to put concrete and solid rules into place. And his number one rule was to not become involved with a woman who obviously sweated the small stuff and who refused to let go and move on.

“Is it wrong for me to want a woman who’ll complement me in every way?” he finally asked. “A woman who I’ll consider as my soul mate, my perfect fit? Until that time comes, I have no intention of getting seriously involved with anyone with issues.”

“And what if you fall in love with her first?”

Gabe frowned. “Trust me, that won’t happen. I may not be an angel, but neither am I a fool. I’ve learned from past mistakes.” He then turned and walked away.

Joella watched her son leave and shook her head sadly. She wondered when it would occur to him that in addition to not being an angel or a fool, he lived in a glass house and shouldn’t throw stones because it was quite obvious that
he
had issues of his own.

Late that evening Gabe entered his apartment, went straight to the kitchen, grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator and took a swig. His mother had been too busy lavishing her attention on her surrogate grandchild to remember to harass him any more that afternoon. But he wasn’t crazy enough to think she was through with him. With Christopher married that meant Gabe was now the recipient of all of her attention. As soon as she could, she would try playing matchmaker again.

Walking down the hall to his bedroom, he smiled as his thoughts fell on his partner and best friend. Christopher had begun working for Gabe’s father’s construction company at eighteen. Omar Blackwell had taken the young, hard-working loner under his wings and become not only Christopher’s boss, but a mentor and father figure. The Blackwells
had offered Christopher things he’d never had before, family ties, trust, respect and complete love.

Gabe knew his parents considered Christopher their
other
son, and since the two boys were the same age, they had talked Christopher into furthering his education right along with Gabe. They both had graduated with MBAs at the top of their class. Christopher had a degree in Industrial Design, and Gabe had earned a degree in Structural Engineering. And when Omar Blackwell retired six years ago, signing ownership of the company over to Gabe and Christopher, they had taken it in a whole new direction, one that was now world known. The Regency Corporation had built numerous upscale shopping malls, industrial office parks and department stores all over the United States in the past five years. Their biggest contract to date was the Landmark Project, which involved building a multimillion-dollar ski resort near Anchorage, Alaska. Plans were to start on it by the first of the year.

The fact that a deal of that magnitude had been awarded to a company owned by two African-American men had made headlines. He and Christopher had been featured in several newspapers and magazines, and had even made the covers of
Black Enterprise
and
Ebony,
as well as being the recent recipients of
Black Enterprise
’s prestigious Minority Businessmen of the Year Award a few months ago. At the age of thirty-two, they were the youngest individuals to receive such recognition.

As Gabe began stripping off his clothes, he thought about his mother’s fixation with marrying him off. It was as if she was on some sort of mission. Unfortunately, it was one he was having no part of. He had tried placating her by dating a few of the single women from her church, but since it
seemed the majority of them had issues that he refused to deal with, he continued to make his work the top priority in his life.

Now that Christopher was a family man, their roles in the company had switched. Gabe did the majority of the traveling these days as well as working most of the international deals. Christopher was the one who stayed in the office and ran things on the home front, and the few times he did travel, he took his wife, Maxi, and the baby with him.

Gabe sighed deeply. The new demands of the job had taken over his life. He didn’t have time to develop any sort of serious relationship with a woman other than a brief fling, which was just fine and dandy with him. Anything else took time and energy he couldn’t spare.

Stepping into the shower, he couldn’t help but appreciate his on-going affair with Debbie Wells. Like him, she was a successful professional who preferred a sex-only relationship; no romance, no commitment—just raw physical contact and sexual release, which was an invigorating way to work off stress.

Over the past three years, after his disaster with Lindsey Jefferson, he’d found that a nice unencumbered, noncommitted sort of relationship with a woman was what he needed. It definitely had its advantages. There wasn’t a chance you would fall in love, and neither party had expectations of anything turning serious. There was no room for jealousy or possessiveness or broken hearts. And best of all, you could walk away at any time without looking back. Debbie was great in bed, and like him, she played by the rules. He couldn’t ask for more, nor did he want to. He liked things just the way they were.

He heard the doorbell the moment he’d stepped out of the shower and had begun drying off. Tucking the towel around his waist, he walked barefoot to the door. Glancing through the peephole, he smiled as he opened the door. It seemed his thoughts of Debbie had conjured her up on his doorstep.

She entered his home after placing a chaste brush of her lips across his cheek. He closed the door behind her. “How was your trip?” he asked, knowing she had been out of town on business for the past week.

“Atlanta was fun as usual,” she replied, tracing a polished fingertip along his earlobe. “I know this visit is rather unexpected, but I hope you’re in a position to help me out with something.”

Her voice was low and seductive, and he liked that. “Something like what?” he prompted, although he had a fairly good idea. He watched her eyes grow dark and sensuous which caused a deep stirring in his body.

She leaned forward, and after reaching around him to release the towel covering his body, she moved into a position that placed a silken-clad thigh between his nude legs. It was obvious she felt his erection when her lips tilted into a smile. Her mouth was mere inches from touching his. He let his gaze linger on that mouth, thinking how well practiced it was in pleasing him.

She then grinned wryly. “I need to be screwed senseless tonight, Gabe.”

He couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips. The one thing he liked most about Debbie was her honesty, her candidness and more importantly, her hearty sexual appetite. He felt a hard throbbing that started low and deep in his groin.
“That makes two of us. I need to be screwed senseless tonight myself.”

Her smile widened. “Oh, yeah?”

“Hell, yeah.” He lowered his head and claimed her mouth, nibbling, sucking and tasting, creating the level of intimacy they both needed and wanted. As always, her enthusiasm and hunger thrilled him and took his sexual cravings to a whole new level.

Picking her up into his arms and taking her into his bedroom, he knew that before the night was over, they would get what they both wanted.

The sun was setting low in the sky when Gabe and Christopher completed their final inspection of the job site, a small yet upscale shopping mall on the outskirts of Detroit. Everything was on target with plans for the opening by the first of October. After a brief discussion with their building foreman, they removed their hard hats and safety glasses and walked back toward their cars.

“Dinner’s at six if you want to drop by,” Christopher invited before opening the door to his vehicle.

Gabe shook his head. Even after a full year, it was hard seeing his best friend as a happily married family man when Christopher had always sworn to never marry. He had been the ultimate bachelor, a ladies’ man, and one who strongly believed in sex-only relationships. But Maxi, a woman from Christopher’s past, had reentered his life and changed all of that, which proved there were such things as miracles. Hell, Chris had even traded his Mercedes sports car in for … of all things … a minivan.

Gabe silently grinned.
A minivan.
He was ashamed for Christopher since Christopher was too happy
with life to be ashamed for himself. “Thanks, Chris, but I need to get prepared for that trip to Anchorage next week. Since the Landmark deal was originally your baby, I have to make sure I’m up on everything about it.”

Christopher nodded. He knew that John Landmark intended for his exclusive ski resort to be the largest in the world, as well as the most renowned. It would be nestled among miles and miles of snow-covered mountain slopes and scenic wood trails; a project that would take a year to complete, maybe longer if the weather wasn’t cooperative. Landmark had handpicked a firm in Charlotte to handle the resort’s marketing and advertising, and a firm from California to take care of the landscape designs. With an undertaking of this magnitude it was important that all three entities work together if the end result was to be successful. “All right, but if you change your mind, you know you’re welcome.”

Back in his car Gabe began his journey home. A part of him was eager to start work on the ski resort. Being awarded the contract had literally opened doors, and business was booming. Recently, he and Christopher had discussed hiring an additional building crew just to handle the new business they were acquiring.

Gabe looked forward to the two weeks he would spend in Anchorage, a city that was vastly different from Detroit. He needed to get away for a while, especially because of his mother’s overzealous matchmaking schemes. She had called earlier that day, telling him about another young woman that she wanted him to meet. He had come up with an excuse why he couldn’t meet the woman any time soon and had quickly ended the conversation.

His thoughts turned back to Anchorage and all the work he had to pack into the two weeks he would be there, including finding suitable temporary housing for his men. Because of the length of time many of them would be staying there, some had decided to take their families with them, an option he and Christopher had offered them. The last thing the company needed was any member of the work crew getting homesick or pining for companionship. And those who decided to leave their families behind could fly home at least four times, which included the major holidays.

Gabe planned to make time to check out the city while he was there. He’d heard that Anchorage was beautiful and the perfect place to fish, which was something he enjoyed doing. And since he would eventually be spending a lot of his time there, he may as well look for temporary housing for himself as well.

Less than twenty minutes later, Gabe had arrived home. The first thing he did was check his phone messages. He wasn’t surprised to find several from his mother, but he
was
surprised to find one from Keri Morton. She had called to thank him for dinner and to let him know that she and her ex-boyfriend had decided to try and work things out for the baby’s sake. Gabe shook his head as he made his way to the refrigerator for a beer. After the earful Keri had given him, he truly wished them the best.

She had been a woman on the rebound, and he had to remember that type of woman was nothing but trouble.

S
age Dunbar gritted her teeth against the words her boss had just spoken. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that Stephen Poole was invincibly arrogant, something he seemed to take pride in. She also had to remind herself that the man was extremely smart and knew the business of marketing, something she was still learning under his wing. Her role at the Denmark Group was to assist companies in developing strategies that were right for them and would ultimately maximize their profits.

She glanced at the clock on the wall and wondered if anyone else in the room was as anxious for the meeting to end as she was. The man had started off by praising them for their hard work, and then without missing a beat, he had begun criticizing them for failing to come up with a suitable proposal to present to a company he was eager to bring on board.

“So what do you think, Ms. Dunbar? Is there a possibility your department can have an acceptable proposal on my desk first thing in the morning?”

Yeah, if we spend the night here, we can.
Instead of giving him those thoughts, she simply smiled and said, “Yes, that won’t be a problem.”

She watched him smile. He was well aware that he had handed her a challenge, and like always, come hell or high water, she would come through with flying colors. “Good. I knew I could depend on you.”

She smiled back to avoid gritting her teeth again. All she could think about at the moment was him in bed tonight making out with his latest conquest, while she and her staff slaved away at the proposal he wanted on his desk first thing in the morning.

It was no secret that the majority of the women in the office thought that at fifty-five Stephen Poole was drop-dead gorgeous. It was rumored that he’d been involved in a number of office affairs since his divorce eight months ago.

Ten minutes later back in her office, Sage called her staff together for a meeting. One look at their faces after she’d made the announcement and she could tell they weren’t happy that come five o’clock, they wouldn’t be going home.

“Doesn’t Mr. Poole think any of us have a life outside of work?” Nora Skinner pouted. Apparently she had a date tonight, and then again, it could be that she was still pretty pissed at Stephen Poole. It was rumored that Nora’s bed had been the first he had found his way into after his divorce, before moving on to other viable conquests.

“Yes, Nora, I’m sure he’s aware that all of us
have other interests besides the Denmark Group. However, he wants us to fine-tune the proposal we gave him last week. He feels there are things it lacks. I’m sure if the four of us put our heads together, we’ll be able to come up with just what those things are without spending the entire night here.”