Chapter Thirty-Four

Athena has been glued to the computer since she woke up, sifting through hours of recordings and video surveillance to finally find the key ones she needs. As planned, Stella rushed home after their confrontation and complained to her mother, demanding that she give her justice for the poor treatment she received.

She was glad to be alone in the room when witnessing that scene to laugh out loud, accidentally snorting a little with how hard she laughed. It took Stella's mother awhile to calm her daughter down enough to give her the juicy details that Athena has been waiting for all day.

Just as Stella starts detailing their conversation, Athena is startled out of her seat when a tray of coffee is placed in front of her, looking up to see a grinning Gabriel standing above her.

"You're back early. I thought you had somewhere to go after work, it's only the middle of the day," she says, slipping off the headphones and pausing the recording.

Gabriel walks over to the kitchen and grabs a chair to pull up beside her, sitting so close his thigh is pressed lightly against hers. Athena curses herself silently when her heart rate accelerates from the warmth of his body, tingles running of her leg.

"I heard there was something much more interesting going on here, I rushed over hoping to be a part of it," he says, still grinning at her.

"Why are you smiling like that?" she asks.

"You look very pretty today."

Athena is dumbstruck at the turn of response, remembering her bare-face and careless ponytail. For the first time she feels the need to cover her face in shame from his sudden compliment, the usual confidence she naturally holds quickly crumbling under his sweet words.

"I get it, you don't want to talk about it, fine. Did Julian inform you of what happened with Stella today?" That can be the only other explanation as to why he rushed all the way over here from work, not even bothering to stop and visit Miss Verona, like Athena assumed he would.

"Don't be upset with him, he is just doing his job. Besides, I didn't come over because I was worried for you, I'm perfectly aware of your capabilities and how much you can handle." He smiles gently at her and reaches out to capture a strand of her golden hair, twirling it around his fingers.

"A woman like Stella will never be a match when compared to you, Athena. In the shadow of your beauty, she can hardly be considered a woman."

She wants to scoff at his cheesy words but once again her heart betrays her, practically skipping in her chest at his blatant flattery. Athena has been expecting a more forward approach from Gabriel, but she never expected him to be this shameless as a man.

Can she handle these continuous onslaughts of advancements before her heart inevitably explodes?

She turns her head away, blushing furiously.

"Must you tease me so much? There are more important things I am doing at the moment," she says, but can't keep the blush out of her cheeks.

With that defiant but cute look on her face, Gabriel finds it nearly impossible not to continue teasing her, but he decides to let it go remembering that she was looking into something involving her stepsister and father and might have stumbled upon something worth checking into.

The last thing he wants to do is become a burden to her, another reason for her to push him away. He knows she isn't ready to accept him or his feelings yet, but he is finding it harder to hold himself back from claiming her right then and there every moment he spends with her. When they first met, it was mere intrigue and curiosity that drive his interest in her, but now he finds himself obsessed with her presence and the way he feels with her around.

He used to spend hours alone in his office getting lost in his work and thoughts, never needing a single soul to attend to him. Now, he can barely go a few hours at the office before wanting to see Athena. The moment he was given an opportunity to run back to her, he took it without a thought and came rushing to her side.

He has felt on edge and irritated all day, but it all went away the instant he saw her again, proving it was just due to missing her. He is aware that this attachment towards her is potentially dangerous and unhealthy given it is still one-sided at the moment – but he doesn't care. She is neither accepting him nor pushing him away, that is good enough for now.

"What is it you discovered today?" he asks, leaning away from her but not pushing away completely, enjoying the feeling of her body leaning into the side of his, having no choice in order to share the computer screen.

It is obvious she is unhappy about their position, but doesn't argue or move away, causing Gabriel to supress the overjoyed smile on his face.

"My mother was supposed to leave me a piece of property when she died, a house we had designed together since I was a child. I believe that the villa my stepsister and her mother have been galivanting in the last few years is the property my mother had intended for me, but my father somehow got his hands on the property deed and forged in his name. If I can get my hands on the original copy and the one, he faked, I have one more piece of evidence to prove he has been forging documents and transferring assets of the company illegally."

"So, you allowed your sister to come in today, to entice her into revealing the location of the fake deed, out of fear that you are catching on to their secret crimes."

Gabriel pieces it together easily, making Athena wonder just how much of her conversation Julian listened in on, and how much he relayed to Gabriel.

He can tell by the suspicious look on her face, exactly what she is thinking.

"Julian informed me that your sister has visited you and your argued quite a bit. There were a few choice things he told me, but I'm unaware of the conversation as a whole, if that's what you're wondering."

Athena can't help her mouth falling open slightly in shock at the fact he is able to tell exactly what she is thinking, no matter how much she tries to hide her thoughts through her facial expressions. Even in her previous life as Chloe Brass, she was a master at hiding her true feelings and putting on a mask in front of others when she felt needed. In this world and life, it has been no different, but when it comes to Gabriel, it doesn't matter how thick she coats on her mask, he is able to see right through it.

Not wanting to cloud her mind with the thoughts anymore, she unplugs the headphones and hits play on the video again, watching as her stepsister continues to cry on about the abusive way Athena had treated her, and how Stella suspects that she is on to them stealing the original deed of the villa and forging the current deed.

"Well, that didn't seem so hard, they practically gave the evidence flat out," Gabriel mutters, frowning deeply in disappointment. How could these women get away with mistreating Athena for so long when they're this dumb? Has everyone in the Rose family and manor really just turned a blind eye to the way the legitimate daughter of the Rose family has been living all these years?

Even though their daughter is gone, a righteous person would assume that her blood born granddaughter would be well taken care of by such a wealthy and respectable family as the Rose family. Yet here she is, relying on a practical stranger to help crawl herself out of the deep depths of hell she has been living in, for god knows how long.

Gabriel clenches his fists in anger at the thought, vowing silently as he looks at Athena from the corner of his, that he will never allow her to experience such treatment again, and that he will always provide her with the absolute best there is, like she has always deserved.

"I don't have all the evidence yet; I need them to show me where the original document is."

"What do you plan to do once you find it?" he asks.

Athena sits back and thinks about it. "It depends on what they end up doing with it. If Stella and her mother reveal the location by changing it, then I plan to steal it from the new location. If they don't move it at all, then I plan to get my hands on the fake deed and have Mr. Collins examine it to hopefully reveal its fake authentication."

"How do you plan to explain how you got your hands on either document, if they are secretly in the possession of your father?"

"Exactly that, no one knows where it is right now, and I have the family lawyer on my side. Even if my father hires another lawyer without me knowing, when it comes to the actual reading of the will and assets, the only voice that will be listened to is that of Mr. Collins. He has more trust and respect with the original Rose family, and therefore will have more merit over whichever new lawyer my father tries to bring in to help lie his way through everything."

Gabriel smiles in contempt, wondering why he ever doubted her for a second. Athena has had very little time to think about this, her sister suddenly appearing and providing her an opportunity, and Athena has taken full advantage of it.

If her plan with this succeeds to the very end, she will have a large piece of evidence in her hands, regardless of if she gets one or both of the documents she is hunting. It will at least bring her one step closer in destroying the careful trust Jaden Rose has built with the Rose family over so long, going as far as to forcing himself to marry a woman he had no love for, to get to the position and status he has now.

"Is there anything I might be able to help with?" Gabriel asks.

Athena frowns and he worries he has overstepped again.

"There is in fact, but I can only allow you to help if there is something I can offer in return. You haven't asked a single thing of me, not even when it comes to mundane office work, I can't keep taking your help for nothing."

Gabriel chuckles lightly. "What makes you think there is anything I need your help with?"

She rolls her eyes. "Come on, there must be something I can help you with, or something you want," she pleads with him.

He starts to laugh even more this time, wondering when the day will come when she finally realizes what she can truly offer him.

"Why are you laughing at that? What is so funny?"

Gabriel covers his laughter a couple times with a few coughs and calms down. He takes her hand in his, realizing he has a nagging urge to constantly be touching her in some way, craving the soft feeling of her skin against his.

"I'm imagining the day you realize the one thing I really want," he mutters against her fingers, pressing them lightly against his lips in a soft kiss. When she doesn't pull her hand away, he decides to test the waters and drags his lips down the side of her hand to her wrist, his eyes boring into hers.

"The one thing that only you can offer me, Athena." His words come out in a husky whisper this time, his breathing escalating as his heart beats rapidly in his chest. The overwhelming feeling of lust clouds his mind, his emotions taking over his actions.

Without thinking, he touches the tip of his tongue to the inside of her wrist, tasting the sweet and salty mixture of her skin, slowly dragging his lips up.

"Gabriel," she gasps his name loudly, a moan that sounds more like a gurgled growl erupts from deep in his throat. He sees the quiver in her eyes and her chest rise and fall in deep, ragged breaths. There is no mistaking it; she feels the same as he does in this moment, and this rabid thought is all he needs to break the small hold over his self-control.