Lost Without You

Gabrielle spun on her heels to face her friend. “Of course I am. My credentials are above reproach. I have a degree in chemistry and went to the top perfumery school. Shane Adams will have to acknowledge that.” Ethan Graham had called and informed her that, although she was on the short list, it was ultimately Shane’s decision whether he would hire her or not.

“The Shane Adams?” Mariah smiled knowingly. “Your rival in perfumery school?” Mariah remembered Gabrielle mentioning the sexy Atlanta bachelor.

“Yes.” Gabrielle turned back around to continue packing.

“Who just so happens to be handsome as sin,” Mariah replied.

“Shane?” Gabrielle’s voice rose despite herself. “Handsome? I hadn’t noticed.” She attempted to fold her blouse into a perfect square, but found it hard to do so. She hated for things to be out of order. Some would say she had a slight case of OCD.

“Oh, really?” Mariah picked up a nearby fashion magazine and flipped through several pages. She stopped when she found a picture of Shane and his sister Kayla celebrating the launch of their new fragrance, Hypnotic. She rose from the chair and came to Gabrielle’s side, placing the magazine in her line of sight. “Don’t tell me you hadn’t noticed how devastatingly handsome this man is. Because if you do, I’ll know you’re lying. I mean, what woman could resist that curly hair or those arresting hazel eyes?”

“I could and I have.” Gabrielle pushed the magazine aside and stood up straight. “Shane was known to be a player in school, but I was much too interested in my studies to pay him any mind.”

“So you competed with him instead to get his attention?”

Color flushed in Gabrielle’s face. “No…no, that wasn’t how it was.”

Mariah’s brow rose. “No?”

“No,” Gabrielle stated more adamantly. “I refused to be one of Shane’s little playthings that he could toss aside when he was done.” Though Gabrielle had to admit there was some small part of her that had wondered what it would be like to be with a man that fine.

But the Shane Adamses of the world would never look at her. She didn’t play up to their male fantasies and dress to show off her figure or cake her face with makeup. Gabrielle recognized it was ironic that she’d ended up in the fragrance and cosmetics industry, given her affinity for not wearing any.

“If you say so,” Mariah said with a laugh. “I just can’t imagine not wanting to try that man on for size.”

Gabrielle took the blouse she’d been trying to fold and hit Mariah. “You’re incorrigible.”

“And you love me for it.”

“I do.” Gabrielle smiled. “And I will miss you dearly. Promise me you will come visit?”

“Cross my heart.”

* * *

“Who is this Gabrielle Burton anyway?” Byron Adams asked his family at the dinner table. They were all seated in the grand dining room at the Adams family’s eleven-room mansion having a three-course meal their cook had prepared.

“Don’t you remember the emails, Daddy?” Courtney asked. “The ones from Shane?” She inclined her head in her brother’s direction across the table. “I think the exact quote was, ‘She’s a prim and proper know-it-all who thinks she’s better than me, but I’m ten times the chemist she could ever be.’”

“I was right,” Shane replied. “I won best fragrance in our last year of school, and I am head of R&D of Adams Cosmetics. And she’s second in command over at L’Oréal Paris.”

“Are you saying she’s not qualified, son?”

Shane reached for his wineglass and took a sip. “No, she’s qualified.”

“He just doesn’t want anyone looking over his shoulder,” Courtney responded.

“I think you and your sister could learn a lesson in sharing,” Elizabeth Adams said from the opposite head of the table from her husband. “I recall Kayla had the same problem working with Ethan.”

Byron huffed from his side of the table. “That wasn’t the same thing.” Although he and his son-in-law had come to a truce over the past few months, Byron had not forgotten how Ethan became a member of the family. His hostile takeover of Adams Cosmetics had nearly caused a rift in their tight-knit family. It was only when Byron realized Ethan truly loved his daughter Kayla that peace had come. It hadn’t hurt either that Ethan had given Kayla back enough shares to make them equal partners in Adams Cosmetics.

“You’re right, it wasn’t the same thing, but the outcome can be. Ethan and Kayla are working great together at the helm of A.C. And you, Shane, could learn a lesson in humility. You can’t do it all,” Elizabeth said.

“I know that, Mom.” Shane sighed wearily. For some reason, she could always get through to him. “I recognize that I’ve been working a lot of overtime, but you know as well as I do that’s who I am. I’m driven to make sure we get Adams Cosmetics out of the slump.”

“And you will,” Elizabeth stated emphatically, reaching over the table and squeezing her son’s hand. “We’re just giving you some help.”

“I just wish it wasn’t Gabrielle Burton.”

“Perhaps she’s changed,” Courtney offered.

Shane thought back to the bossy diva with the pencil in her perfectly coiffed updo, two-piece cardigan set and trousers leaning over his chemistry table. He doubted she’d changed at all.

* * *

Butterflies were jumping up and down in Gabrielle’s stomach as she waited in the hall to meet with Ethan Graham, his wife, Kayla, and Shane Adams on Friday morning. Although Ethan had pretty much guaranteed her the job, she was nervous about Shane having the final sign-off.

It didn’t help that she was operating on very little sleep. She’d flown in the day before and arrived in the evening. Once she’d made it to her hotel room, she was wide awake because she was still on Paris time. Gabrielle could only hope that the smug, self-entitled playboy she once knew had mellowed as the years had gone by.

* * *

Shane sat at the head of the conference-room table, waiting for Gabrielle Burton’s arrival. His head was bent as he gave her resume one more cursory review, when a pair of shapely caramel legs came into his view.

Slowly, his eyes made their way from the legs to the sensible gray knee-length skirt and matching long-sleeve jacket with a lavender scarf tied around her neck. What she was wearing was perfectly suitable for an interview, but heaven forbid the woman actually show a few curves. He liked a woman who wasn’t afraid to show off her God-given assets, and that definitely wasn’t Gabrielle Burton.

But she had a natural beauty, which he supposed was why her nut-brown complexion was clear and her face was free of makeup. She wore her hair in a simple French twist. Oh, yes, this was exactly the woman he remembered.

Ethan and Shane both rose from their seats, but Ethan was the first to speak. “Gabrielle, glad you could make it here for an in-person interview. I hope your flight was pleasant.”

“Pleasant?” Gabrielle chuckled. “It was more than pleasant.” She’d never been in anything so divine. “You really didn’t have to send your private jet.”

“It was my pleasure,” Ethan stated. He turned to his side. “This is my wife, Kayla Graham.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Gabrielle shook her hand. Kayla Adams was several inches taller than her, with flawless mocha skin, curly hair that nearly reached her shoulders and a clearly pregnant belly.

Gabrielle turned and braced herself for seeing Shane Adams again after nearly a decade. He was every bit as fine as he’d been back then, maybe more so. He towered over her at six feet with a short curly afro, creamy café-au-lait skin, hazel eyes and full, sexy lips. She could tell that a sculpted body lay underneath his Italian suit.

“Gabby.” Shane nodded at her. “You’re looking well.”

Gabrielle hadn’t expected such a friendly greeting, given they’d been rivals in school. “No one’s called me that for a long time.”

“I hope you don’t mind me using your nickname. Gabrielle just seems so formal.” Shane smirked, knowing she hated it. In school, she’d said the nickname Gabby reminded her of some airhead name like Buffy, and she’d refused to answer to it.

Gabrielle swallowed hard at having those sensuous eyes staring at her so intently. “Well, I do prefer Gabrielle.”

“As you wish.” Shane watched her sit down and cross her legs all the while pulling down her skirt. It made Shane wonder what it was she was hiding underneath.

“Well, we are happy to have someone of your caliber interested in Adams Cosmetics,” Kayla said, trying to ease the obvious tension between the two chemists. Courtney had reminded her that Shane and Gabrielle were not fans of each other.