Waving her hands in front of her face, and blowing her breath upwards to dispel the burning heat, Millie went back to the kitchen, feeling relieved that she was alone in the house. She definitely needed time to recover from her late start and the news of that wretched forfeit jar.
She blushed scarlet again as she remembered what Nick had said 'specifically interact with others.' Bloody hell that could mean anything!
These two would have her doing all sorts of indescribable and extremely naughty things, and she'd waffled on about making cakes and such.
Oh, she was such an idiot! No wonder they were laughing at her! She ran back into her room and changed to clothes she could clean in. She had wanted to give a good impression this morning by at least looking efficient, but she'd obviously ruined that by turning up late.
It was mid-morning by the time Millie had stopped blushing at her own stupidity, and determined to impress them both she got stuck into cleaning, at least they couldn't complain if she did her job. She polished and scrubbed from top to bottom.
Cleaning house for other people was a good way of getting to know them, getting to see if they were tidy or not, cleaning bedrooms and bathrooms could be quite revealing.
Nick's bedroom was womb-like with claret red silk walls, and window blinds framed with billowing cream silk curtains. Millie stood in the doorway and took in the atmosphere, she couldn't see much due to the deep red shades being drawn, but she reached for the light switch and even then the room was still in subdued light. Millie walked through the room, the thick cream carpet deadening her footsteps.
The only messages this room sent out were of the sensual kind. The thousand count cotton sheets that were so fine they felt like satin. The black fur thrown over the chaise was soft and luxurious, and the deep red suede headboard that went almost up to the ceiling was quilted in large squares which dominated the room.
The bed was the most enormous Millie had ever seen, she guessed nine feet by seven. Her face pulled a scowl at the thought of laundering sheets the size of those and hoped they had a current laundry account. Turning her attention to the rest of the room, she noticed two doors at the far end. The first one was his bathroom, black and white marble with a freestanding roll-top copper bath and on the other side of the room was a waterfall shower that you could fit a football team into to with room to spare, the whole room exclaimed luxury.
The next door was his dressing room. It was lined with floor to ceiling cupboards and shelves in beautiful red mahogany. Millie opened one cupboard door to find his shirts, white at one end and black at the other with everything in between, stripes, checks, blues. The next cupboard was suiting, whatever else he was, the man was always going to be well dressed. Sweaters folded up on shelves, another stack filled with t-shirts.
In the middle of the room was a mahogany island containing several drawers, Millie, feeling nervous but nosy, opened the top one to find it held cufflinks and other jewellery, the next one watches, they all looked costly. She closed the drawer carefully and pulled at the bottom drawer, which was much deeper than the others.
For a moment Millie had no idea what the drawer contained, it was full of black boxes of all different sizes and all wrapped in cellophane straight from the shop. On the top of each box was the legend 'L'Amore' in raised silver script. Was this perfume of some description? It wasn't his cologne, those bottles were all lined up in the bathroom.
She picked a small box and at one short end was the white label containing the bar code and the description. Millie gasped and dropped the box. She picked it up quickly and looked again at the description. 'Clitoral Pebble Vibrator. Silver.' Millie put the box back in place, she was suddenly feeling intensely hot, and her breathing was very uneven. She picked another box, a bigger one this time. 'Rubber Ball Gag.' She pulled another one, 'Handmade Glass Butt Plug. Sm.' Millie gulped and hastily stuffed the boxes back in the drawer.
Just the thought of that particular object and Nick made her womb clench, and the heat rose up onto Millie's face much as she was that morning. For a moment, she stood catching her breath, and all she could think of was, did the forfeit jar have any connection to the items in the bottom drawer?
Taking a deep breath and trying to pull herself together, it was nothing to do with her, she should never have looked in the first place. Besides, she had more pressing problems. Dealing with her sisters and keeping them away from her bosses.
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Gabriel was bored, he was trying very hard not to yawn, and he reached for his cup draining the dregs of his cold coffee, anything to keep him awake. The chairman of the charity was still waffling on. The main points of the agenda had been made ages ago, and that is all that Gabriel was interested in. He glanced across at Nick, he was playing Candy Crush, and he was now on a higher level and beating him!
Nick caught him looking from the corner of his eye and smirked.
"Bastard!" Gabriel mouthed glaring at him. That was the last time he'd help him with that game. He glanced out of the boardroom window and stretched his legs under the table, the back of his left calf, catching Nick's right shin. For a moment, they rubbed against each other, and his mind wandered back to that morning.
He stifled a grin when he thought about Millie, she was so cute this morning. She had turned a delicious shade of pink when Nick was winding her up. He was going to enjoy having her in the house, they both were.
He would text her, find out how she was getting on.
"Hey Millie, I hope u r having a g8 day, did u find everything that u need?"
Just as Gabriel was texting, the chairman finally finished talking. Nick put his phone away and leaned over to see what Gabriel was doing.
He read the text and scoffed, "For God's sake Gabriel, you're thirty-three, she's going to think you're about nine years old and just got your first phone. Are you sure you can you do joined-up writing yet?"
Gabriel shrugged and passed his phone to Nick, "I don't know, she's ten years younger than us that might be normal for her. Tony does it like that."
"Tony?" Nick scoffed "The man who wants you to piss about eating kangaroo anus in 'I'm A Celebrity... And pay you pocket change?"
Nick shook his head in despair " Really Gabriel? The man's a complete wanker."
Nick deleted the text, his fingers hovered over the keyboard, "Okay, we shall call her Amelia, I'm not keen on Millie it makes her sound like she's a puppy or something."
Gabriel stifled a smile, "She does have quite a fabulous pair of puppies."
"She most certainly does," Nick finished typing."there that's more like it." He pressed send and passed the phone back to Gabriel.
"Amelia, we hope you found everything you need and that you're working hard."
"Sounds a bit harsh, it is her first day."
"We might as well start as we mean to go on." Nick shuffled the documents they had been given from the table and shoved them in his messenger bag. "Come on we have lunch to get to, we can phone her later."
Gabriel wondered just what was going through Nick's mind, he'd been reticent since Amelia had arrived, and as far as he was concerned, that could only mean one thing, that she was definitely on Nick's mind and he couldn't stop thinking about her.
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Millie flicked her feather duster across the top of the cabinet when her phone buzzed in her pocket. Oh no that meant the twins were up and the texting and ringing would start, Pearl and Ruby, were desperate to know all about her boss.
She would ignore it, she wouldn't even look at it until lunchtime at least. She was working, and her sister would have to get used to the fact that she couldn't just jump every time they said so. Millie refused to look at her phone, Pearl would just have to wait.
Her phone buzzed twice more in the next hour as she cleaned the upper floor. Gabriel's room was a surprise after Nick's. It was like walking into a California beach house, beautiful turquoise sea colours and pale sea-washed wood. The bed was just as huge as Nick's, but the headboard was large interlocking driftwood spars joined together in a massive arch against the wall. There was the faint smell of the fragrance that he wore which reminded of Millie of sunshine and surf. She looked around and decided that apart from quick dust, the room was pristine. The bed was neatly made, and she deduced that he was the tidy one of the pair. The bathroom was elegant and neat, and the whole suite looked as if Gabriel was never there.
It was nearing lunchtime and just as Millie had finished vacuuming the stairs her phone rang. She knew it wasn't Pearl; it wasn't her ring tone. She sat on the bottom step, and her private fleet of butterflies rose in her stomach when she saw it was Nick calling her.
"
He - Hello.""Amelia," Nick's voice was as smooth as melted chocolate, "we were wondering if you were alright? You didn't answer our texts," Nick said.Oh shit, they weren't from Pearl.She thought.
Nick unlocked the front door they had enjoyed lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon at the Groucho club where they knew that they wouldn't be disturbed. They had decided to give Millie a week to see how they got on with each other, though judging from the conversation yesterday evening they both knew in their hearts that it would take something drastic to let her go. They walked towards the kitchen stairs and then stopped."Listen," Gabriel whispered."We can't listen to her conversation." Nick tried to pull Gabriel away from the top of the stairs. Gabriel stayed put. "Shh, something's wrong."Nick stopped and listened."Pearl, please don't do this, I like this job, I won't stop you from getting photo shoots and catwalk jobs. Just leave me alone!" Millie's voice was getting louder."No I can't invite you, how can I just invite you here on my first day? No, I'm not keeping them all to myself, I'm not so deranged that I think they might actually
A minute later Millie heard the front door bang shut, oh my God they were home! She ran to her apartment to recheck her face and taking slow and deep breaths she tried to calm down."Hello!" Gabriel called as he came down the stairs. "Hey, how're things?"Millie came out from her apartment, "Hello, can I make you some tea?" She said, forcing a smile onto her face."Thanks that would be great, how has your day been, did you find everything?" He sat in his usual place at the breakfast table."Yes thanks, I've made a list out of the things that I will need." She said, filling the kettle."Okay you'd better have this, it's the credit card for the house." He took his wallet out and flipped through the cards, I'll only forget to give it to you if I don't do it now."Millie took the card and put it in her skirt pocket, she memorised the pin number Gabriel gave her.
She felt beautiful to hold, her soft, plump curves fitted against his hard muscles, and he gently rubbed her back, trying to soothe the upset away."Now let's try again, who was on the phone?"Millie gulped, she would have to tell them who it was at least. She would just say they had argued."It.." she hitched breath, "it was my sisters, my twin sisters."Nick put his hands on her shoulders and held her away from him so that he could see her face. "Your twin sisters? They frighten you that much?""Nick" Gabriel shook his head. "Come and sit down, love."Nick grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge "would you like a drink Amelia?"She shook her head "no, thank you.""So you have twin sisters, are they older than you?" Gabriel asked, knocking the top off his beer."They are three years older than
Claire Henderson was just tidying her desk, she'd had a reasonably quiet afternoon considering that she was the go-to woman for several high profile people. She had uploaded a couple of photos and a link for an interview for an up and coming singer who had just won a national competition. She had spoken to the social media assistant who worked for her firm and who was in charge of the Facebook profile of one of the biggest British heartthrob actors Sebastian Drake and had a conversation with a detective from Scotland Yard over a woman who was stalking him.When she got home she would call Nick, find out how the meeting went this morning, it was a pity she couldn't make it, she usually would have been there. The police had been called after she had spent time talking to Seb this morning.The poor lamb was quite shaken up after reading some vile and threatening messages and had flown to a Bali to have some peace and qui
When Gabriel went back down to the kitchen, Amelia was draining the pasta."Hey, you okay?" Gabriel leaned against the counter, "that smells delicious, do you want me to set the table?"Millie nodded "yes, please."
Wednesday eveningNick reached across to the switch above the bedside table and dimmed the lights in his bedroom. He made himself comfortable in bed, and resting against the pillows he watched his naked lover of five years walk from the en suite bathroom to the bed. He cocked his head appreciatively and couldn't help smiling at Gabriel's Greek god-like form of broad shoulders and narrow hips as he lifted the deep red cover and got in beside him.Nick lifted his arm and Gabriel moved up to lay under it and rested his head on Nick's chest, he wriggled and shifted a bit getting comfortable, their legs entwined and Gabriel's arm rested on Nick's abdomen.Nick stroked the back of Gabriel's neck squeezing it a little to ease the tension of the day, his fingers playing with his hair, winding it around his fingers, Gabriel sighed, it was so soothing."What did Claire say about Amelia?"Gabriel stroked his hand down over smooth skin and hard m
Millie lay in the dark, she had tossed and turned for most of the night. Before she got into bed she had opened the curtains, she didn't like the dark, too many nasty things happened in the dark. Even though it wasn't dawn, yet there was some light outside as the moon shone on the clouds turning them misty white. It was quiet though, and Millie knew she must have fallen asleep at one point because she didn't remember the radio turning itself off.She had certain rituals that she had to adhere to before she went to bed, the curtains would be opened, and the radio would be put on, only very quietly, but some noise was essential. The wardrobes had to be opened and checked to make sure that there was no one hiding in them. She knew it was stupid, but it had become a habit, and she did it without even thinking about it anymore.Millie shuddered, she drew the blind down in her mind's eye and locked the thought of her troubles away. Instead, she thought of something pleasant,
Christmas Eve"You disgusting little horror, I've never known anyone smell like you, Not even your handsome big brother." Nick held Aria Henderson-Swan at arm's length and took the stairs two at a time. "You gorgeous beautiful stinkpot, what are we going to do with you?""Shh, I've just got Arlo to sleep," Gabriel whispered, he sat in one of the two rocking chairs with his tiny son over his shoulder gently patting his back. "You'd better be quick, one of her legs has turned a strange mustard colour."Bloody hell what has your mother been feeding you?"Same as she has been feeding this one, Google says breastfed babies have mustard pooh.""Great." Nick sighed, "Oh my
"What do you think?" Millie twisted around to look over the back of the wedding dress in the full-length mirror. The twins shook their heads, "Looks great at the front, you can hardly see the bump, but the back is a mess, far too many frills. I'll go and have a look, see what I can find. Pearl and Ruby wandered off. "What do you think, Mum? Rene shook her head, "No the girls are right, it's too much,""It looks as if you have a crumpled bed sheet attached to your bum," Lucy said. "Lucy!" said Claire, try not to upset the bride.""We are not having our gorgeous step-mum, looking like a complete clown, she can hardly see her feet, nevermind her bum. She needs us to tell the truth."Millie went back to the changing room and waited for the next dress, Pearl and Ruby came barging in."Try this Millie, I know its not the right colour, but the style is perfect."Millie wasn't going to argue, right now she was so fed up with trying frocks on, she w
Millie lay on the bed, as the ultrasound technician covered her tummy with gloop. The room was in semi-darkness, and Nick and Gabriel stood at the bed's side, Nick holding her hand and Gabriel's hand lay on her thigh."Just let me do my measurements, and then I'll show you the baby," Said the sonographer wielding the ultrasound wand over Millie's lower tummy.It only took a few minutes to get her measurements."Well, this is interesting," she said, "Which one of you is the father?" the sonographer asked."We don't know yet," Millie said, "and we don't mind all our family will love the baby.""I apologise, I thought you were a surrogate for these two gentlemen."Millie laughed, "No, we're just a very unusual family, and there is plenty of love for our children.""Do any of you have twins in the family?" The men shook their heads, "I have twin sisters" Millie said."Well, you're having twins, let me
It was so wonderful to be home, and Millie revelled in Nick and Gabriel taking care of her. Nick could hardly bear to let her out of his sight. He followed her around like a lost puppy, especially on that first evening.Claire brought Katie home after work. Katie glanced into the sitting room and realised Millie was there, "Mama"! she yelled running into the room and throwing herself onto Millie's lap.Millie breathed a sigh of contentment, how could she have abandoned this sweet little girl because of her hurt feelings. How ridiculous she was.Katie held tight to Millie's neck, "I'm sorry for leaving you, Katie," she whispered in her ear, "I'll never leave you again."Millie put Katie to bed after dinner, and they all sat and talked about the things they had been doing."So How are you doing Millie?" asked Claire.Millie glanced up at Nick and Gabriel. They were smiling at her like Cheshire cats.&
Jess and Lucy stared wide-eyed at Amelia's message, they both let out a sigh, "Thank god for that, so, shall we call Smokey?""No, let's ask Gabe if he will take us, Millie will need someone to be with her. Someone who loves her."Lucy said, "Not like we love her.""Okay, what about Dad?"
"Tell me what Angus said again?" Nick could hardly believe what Gabriel had told him, that he was suffering morning sickness, it was unbelievable, he'd never heard of this before, he didn't have this when Jess's mum was pregnant."He doesn't think there is anything wrong with you, he said to look up Couvade Syndrome, you read it yourself, Nick." Gabriel was holding on to his patience,
Three Weeks Later.Millie lay in her bed. She had left the curtains open, and from her position, she could see the trees across the river. The birds were tweeting and doing aerobatics among the branches, and the sun was shining. For the first time in weeks, everything was peaceful. Millie sighed, a feeling of contentment rose within her, and all she needed now was... No! She could not think of them. The lump in her throat stopped her breath, and her eyes stung with unshed tears. Jumping out of bed, she marched to the bathroom, determined that she would carry on with her new life. She leaned over the bath and turned the shower on, no massive shower with a million jet streams here. She would be lucky if the hot water lasted until she had washed her hair. The agent had promised they would repair the thermostat as soon as, but she hadn't heard from him for two weeks. God another Monday morning on the phone to him, She had never had any trouble in London with repairs t
The cottage was idyllic, it was a fairytale cottage, with a drystone wall at the front and garden full of flowers. If the inside were as pretty as the garden, Millie would take it. The Derbyshire hills surrounding the picturesque village were beautiful to look at, and just across the road, the river Derwent rolled peacefully along.The peace that Millie felt was incredible, and no one would bother her here. All she could hear was singing of the birds. The cottage was on a back road in the village, the only people who would come down this road were the people who lived in the other four ho
Gabriel watched the girls cook tea. He enjoyed being with them. They were funny, and they both explained many things to him about his life."Gabe, would you like to go and tell Nick dinner's ready please?""Do you know where he'll be?" he said, standing and stretching."Up two flights of stairs, first door on the left. That's your bedroom. He's probably sulking."Gabriel sighed, "Does he often do this, sulk, I mean?"Lucy rolled her eyes, "What you have to remember Gabe, is that although my brother is the outwardly dominant member of this family, you are usually in charge. Nothing happens in this household without you saying so and giving it your approval."Gabriel's navy blue eyes opened wide, "Are you sure?"Both the girls nodded their heads. "He just talks and shouts a lot," Lucy said. "But you are the one we all go to, and especially Nick. If you didn't realise it, Nick has said something to Millie, not meaning to hurt