I am done with love

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He had left her standing beside the bed and had vanished into the bathroom, right after they had entered his hotel room.

Nathalie was confused and scared, yet she could still feel his soft, warm lips on hers. And she hated herself, for how easily she had let him take control over her. He had just ordered her to follow him and she had obeyed. Just because he bought her some food, and was the first guy, who had kept his promise to not touch her or try something.

If she was completely honest to herself, she would have liked to be touched by him, but she would never admit that. Just like she would never admit, that she had send him an application for a job as his personal assistant a couple of years ago.

Still she had told him the truth, when she said, she hadn't recognized him. He had aged. He was said to barely leave his mansion, so what would he do in a bar like that. He was dressed rather casually. When he had approached her, she had shortly thought, he had a certain similarity to the designer, but then only laughed about it. Not even after she had recognized André Bourgeois, she would have considered it to be him in person.

She had almost told him, that it was a really bad attempt, to hit on her when she had seen something in his eyes, that stopped her.

Now Nathalie sat down on the hem of the mattress, holding the two pieces of luggage still in her hands, not even taking off her blazer.

Gabriel returned after almost the quarter of an hour. He had changed and was wearing a pair of black sweat pants, with the label of his own brand of course, and a plain black, sleeveless shirt.

He noticed her being almost in the same position as before, just that she had taken a seat. He walked over and bent down, to lift up her luggage and place it inside the big closet. But before, he looked into her eyes for a moment and said softly:

"I'm sorry. I know I went too far out there. But I had to do something to make you follow me quickly, before someone would follow us. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable"

Seeing her expression darken, as if he had said something bad, he added with a smirk:

"I wouldn't want to have not kissed you either!"

Then he took the two bags and walked away.

She blushed deeply, but managed to give him a rather cocky reply:

"M-M-Must have been some time since you have been kissed. If you feel like this over a small peck!"

If there hadn't been that short stuttering at the beginning, he would've bought it. He really would've believed, that it meant nothing to her. But as he now looked at her, and saw the red blush on her cheeks, he began to smirk.

"Same for you, my dear, same for you!", he mused.

"Why would someone like you, even want to kiss someone like me?"

"You tell me. And then you tell me, why a woman with your qualifications and abilities, would even start to work for a man like Bob Roth? I have looked you up, Miss Sancoeur. And do you want to know, where I found the best information about you? In my very own database back at home. And when I saw your application, I immediately remembered the big fuzz, Emilie made about it.

She said something like:

'Should I hire my own rival, just like that? That woman isn't only incredibly clever and more than qualified, she is incredibly pretty on top of that. I wouldn't be able to sleep anymore, knowing how many time you'd have to spend with her.'

And so I didn't invite you to a personal talk. So tell me, are you still trying to make me believe, you hadn't recognized me?"

"Well, as you just said, we never met in person, and I did notice a certain similarity, but considering, that you were said to hardly ever leave your own house, I thought, after seeing you with the Mayor and knowing about your friendship, that you might be a distant cousin or something like that. Only when you told me your name and I looked into your eyes, I knew, it was you. I would have never tried to..."

"I know! Now tell me about Bob. How did he...?"

"As I told you, Karaoke night, I had a couple of drinks too much, I thought he was joking, and so I signed the, as I thought, fake contract. Now I have to sing for him, until I have worked off a certain amount of money, or I'll have to pay him double. And well, that's kinda difficult, with what he pays. That's why most of his 'singers' start to work in one of the other fields he offers. I was luckier than many others though. I still have all my papers. There are some, who are here illegally, but can't leave either, because he took their ID's", Nathalie explained sadly.

Gabriel shook his head and blurted out:

"I never liked that man, but what I feel now....Do you have that contract with you?"

She nodded.

"There is no way out of it, believe me, I've read it a thousand times."

"May I take a look anyway?", the designer questioned.

Sighing she nodded and went to her luggage to pull a crumbled, withered paper out of it. She gave it to him with trembling hands.

Gabriel of course noticed and took Nathalie's hands into his own, then he reached for the contract. After reading it twice, he simply mumbled:

"I see. But I don't see your problem with this anymore. It's quite an amount of money, if you're stuck in New York and only get paid, if that despicable barkeeper didn't get the guests out before you finished your performance", he started to smirk mischievously now. "But I wouldn't think, that it will be problematic for Miss Nathalie Sancoeur, new personal assistant of Gabriel Agreste!"

"Wh-what? What are y-you talking about?"

"I will hire you, my dear. And I will pay off Mr. Roth, or rather you will, after I transfered the money to your account. I am pretty sure, that, with the monthly payments I will offer you, you'll be debt free in a couple of months!", he proclaimed, not even waiting for an answer.

Nathalie shook her head.

"I can't let you do that. It's nice that you try to help me, but.... even if you did pay me that much, I would still have to find a place to live, in Paris, close enough to your home, and that would make me work for the money forever!", she objected

"What if I told you, that your very own room, including a bathroom and a little balcony, is just being prepared inside of my mansion? Working for me isn't a nine to five thing, I need you to be available 24/7!", he explained.

Nathalie now gasped.

"I could never take an offer like that, I...."

"Didn't you understand, that I had hired you already back then, if Emilie hadn't felt threatened by you?", he sounded pleading by now.