The Rebound Pact (19 page)

“Yeah, I’d love to see them.”
She wanted to rub her hands together and jump up and down like a kid at a candy store, but she’d spill her coffee and likely embarrass herself.

“Let’s go look now, the winery opens for tours and tastings in about an hour.”

Gabrielle followed him into the winery and back to his office, past a room she hadn’t seen before. It looked like a kitchen. She stopped and peered inside.

“What’s this?”

Holden turned around and came back. “That’s where the magic happens.”

“The magic?”
She wiggled her brows. “Sounds sexy.”

He grinned and lowered his voice. “Creating wine
is
sexy.”

“What do you do in there? I mean, I know you create the wine, but I thought it was all harvesting, juicing and
fermenting in barrels.”

He pressed his hand to his heart and sucked in a breath, his face a mask of horror. “You wound me,
Gabrielle.” He pushed open the door further and pulled her inside.

She took in the sites of
a stove, pots, vials, empty decanters, bottles laid horizontally in cedar shelving along the walls, the racks of spices and liquid essence. It smelled wonderful—a bouquet of flavors, spices, fruit and fermented grapes. She breathed deeply.

“Wine is an art, and a lot of what I know I learned from
master winemakers in Italy, France and California. They all had their experimentation rooms, like this one. Some call it a laboratory but that sounds too scientific for me. This is my magic room. It’s where we check the wine for quality and flavor. Sometimes we fuse wine with spices, different fruits like raspberry, cherry or even passion fruit and guava, try out different grapes to see what is going to have potential and what won’t. The Belle Ami Storm collection that will release when the bistro opens was created in this very room.”

She smiled
, her heart fluttering a little. She loved that he called it his magic room and proudly owned it. He never ceased to amaze her. “You’re proud of what you do.”

He nodded
, looking around the room. “I am. Nothing wrong with that.”

She shook her head. “No, there isn’t. I find it sexy.” She came up in front of him, wrapping her arms around his waist and kissed him on the lips. “I find it charming.
You create wonderful tastes, magic on the tongues of those who partake. Kind of like what I do.”

His grin turned wicked.
“That’s hot.”

She laughed and came within a breath of his lips. “I want to partake of your magic.”

“Anytime, anywhere,” he said huskily, then pressed his lips to hers.

Pull away! Not here!
Her mind shouted for her to stop, anyone could come in at any moment… but she couldn’t.

They kissed lazily, tasting, savoring each other.
That is until a sound outside the open door had them both whirling around, hearts pounding. They couldn’t get caught doing this at work. It would change the dynamics forever. Not good considering everyone that worked at Belle Ami were like family. But when Gabrielle looked, no one was there.

Holden chuckled. “That was probably not a good way to keep our arrangement a secret.”

Heat infused her face. Embarrassment at having gotten caught up in the moment. Mortification that someone had seen. And the awkward realization that he’d said “arrangement”. Almost dirty, whereas to her it had been a lot deeper. She pulled away, smoothed her unwrinkled skinny jeans in an effort to wipe off some of the dampness that covered her palms.

She coughed to get rid of the lump in her throat.
“How about those design plans?”

Holden nodded and led the way, closing the door behind him.

She had to make sure a kiss like that didn’t happen again in the future. Only the walls knew who’d spied them kissing in Holden’s magic room, and she prayed it was Belinda. The woman seemed discreet. Belinda hadn’t told Gabrielle about Lacy, even though she would have appreciated a warning before walking out to face the woman.

They spent the next hour choosing the designs they both agreed on.
The bistro was going to be cozy, but also have an air of modern sophistication. Wide oak floors, green pressed bamboo table tops, natural colored walls and exposed brick, wide windows, beamed ceilings. She couldn’t wait to see it all pulled together.

“I have to go check on a few barrels that are being opened for bottling.
Oh, but before I do, I want to show you something.” He stood and grasped her hand.

Gabrielle
followed him out the door, but he stopped short, opening a door right next to his office.

“I know it’s small, but it’s yours for now.
Head Chef’s office.”

She jerked her gaze toward his surprised at his thoughtful gesture.
“This is great! Thank you.” Once the bistro was built, she would have an office off the kitchen, she knew that, but to have one now where she could really start digging into plans, making contact with vendors and preparing orders to make working much easier. Although, she did the like closeness of sharing an office with Holden, they really did need to put some space between them.

This was just an
arrangement
… And she wanted it that way, she had to remind herself. Free and clear of any relationship responsibility. Just fun. Rebound lovers.

“See you for lunch?” He pressed his hand to the small of her back making her shiver and forget how much she wanted to stay away from him.

“Want me to cook?”

He shook his head. “It’s a surprise.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know if I like surprises.” And surprises were most definitely more than what a man and woman who were just lovers did for each other. That was relationship territory.

“You’ll like it. I promise.”

She tried not to sound too excited but Holden’s mischievous gaze and the way he stroked her arm made it impossible. “When should I be ready?”

“Noon?”

“It’s a date.” No! Why did she say that?

He looked a little dazed and nodded.
“Yeah, a date.”

She watched
Holden walk away, headed for the fermentation room, her mind a whirl. She couldn’t tear her eyes from the glorious vision that was him walking away. She could stare at him all day. She tilted her head, imagining him naked. Running her fingers through his hair. She’d seem him naked plenty, but she hadn’t been able to examine him for long. Their encounters were all hot, sweaty, no holds barred sex. Even when they tried to be slow it ended up frenzied. They couldn’t get naked fast enough. Lack of chemistry was not a problem they had. Nope. The only issue they had was they were both commitment phobic. Scared shitless.

When he rounded the corner, she turned back to her new office, ready to make
a list of potential vendors. And, of course, to come up with a hundred ideas of where he was going to take her, what they were going to do, and what it all meant.

“Yeah, this one’s ready.”
Holden tapped a barrel of muscat—a sweet and tangy red wine, an unsurpassed partner for Gabrielle’s desserts. He was pleased and pretty damn proud of himself. He was gratified every time a barrel opened up to reveal another great supply of wine, the bouquet unflawed and tantalizing to the tongue.

There’d been a few mishaps when he first started, for sure. A couple barrels that he wanted to label as toxic when they were done, but then he’d figured out what the hell he was doing wrong and things had been good ever since.

The Storm collection was going to rock this world.

He needed it. His wines were award-winning, but he needed something completely different. There were a ton of competing wineries in the area,
so the more draws he had to his place the better.

“We’ll get it bottled.” Belinda
tilted her head to the bottling guys indicating which barrels were to be moved. They started putting the barrels onto the lift before taking it off to the bottling truck waiting outside. The company he used was phenomenal and quick. It also cost him a lot less than if he had to maintain the equipment himself. The muscat would be bottled in a thin, black, long-necked bottle. Written on the silver label in curling black scroll—
Belle Ami Bliss
. That’s what it was, too, bliss on the tongue.

Then again, so was a kiss from
Gabrielle.

Things between them were getting deeper, despite them both trying to put limits on it. He was glad they’d finally broken ground on the new building. He could concentrate on that rather than on her.

His cell vibrated in his pocket.

“Hey Hank, what’s going on?”

“Mr. Bellamy, sorry to bother you, but there was some information I came across I thought you ought to know.”

“Are you still outside?” Why was the man calling him? He was a hundred feet away.

“Actually, no. Darren is still onsite overseeing the foundation, but I had some business to attend to.”

“Okay. What’s up?”

“You might want to sit down.”

Holden glanced around the fermentation room. Why was Hank being so cryptic? He leaned against one of the
oak barrels.

“Give it to me straight, Hank.”

“You know Ridge is opening a restaurant.”

He resisted the urge to strangle the phone in his frustration. “You mentioned that already.”

“Yeah, I did, but I just found out they’re opening it up August 15
th
.”

That hit like a sucker punch.
“That’s two weeks earlier than we are. How is that possible?”

“They paid a contractor—my buddy—to do it quick
, like you see on Food Network.”

Shit. He wanted
—needed—to be the first winery in Mount Airy to open a restaurant. If he was second it would take away a lot of the hoopla he expected. Not good. Not good at all.

He swallowed hard, not about to let his dream go. “What can you do for me, Hank?”

“It’s going to cost extra, but if we double time it, we can have you open in three weeks.”

He pushed out a breath.
“A week earlier than Ridge?”

“Exactly.”

He shook his head. “Make it two.”

“Two? That’s going to be pushing it.”

“Yeah, it is. But you guys are the best. You can do it. Money’s no object. If we aim for one week only, Ridge will only try to shorten their build time to compete. Get it done. Try to keep our progress as quiet as you can around town.” He hung up the phone and crossed his arms, staring at the metal fermentation tanks along the wall. There was no way they could keep it quiet for long—he was going to have to blast the media with the opening date. Two weeks and his restaurant would be open—a whole month and a half before he’d planned. The Storm wouldn’t be ready. They’d have to throw a separate open house when it was. On the bright side, harvest season wouldn’t compete for his attention with the opening of the bistro. It was actually a more solid plan.

Looking at his watch, he noted it was nearly noon. He walked down the hall toward
Gabrielle’s office. He peered into her open door, seeing she was engrossed in something on her computer and he took a moment to study her. Her hair was glossy, pulled back into a stylish pony tail, her face perfection and only a slight sheen of lip gloss adding to her natural beauty. He tapped his knuckles on the door, and she glanced up from her computer, a radiant smile on her face.

“Got some news,” he said.

She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t look happy.”

“It’s going to change a few things. Come on, I’ll tell you while we head for your surprise.”

He grasped her hand, unable to resist the urge to kiss her knuckles discreetly. Her lids lowered a little, a show of her pleasure.

“You really do like to take risks.”
She yanked her hand back making him laugh.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“We agreed on no more PDA after getting caught this morning.”

“
Ah, but maybe it was just the wind. Besides, I can’t keep my hands off you.” He knew public displays of affection at work were a no-no, but he was telling the truth. Whenever he got around her, he just couldn’t control himself.