Etched

Chapter 39

Gabriel's POV:

"Mr. White?" A voice called, my eye brow automatically went up at the intruder and an amused smirk crept on my face. I was already walking out of the home office to see for her but here she was on her own. I crossed my arms on my chest, indicating her to go on with whatever she was coming up with that had needed her to address me by my full name and that too, this formally.

"Sorry... Was that a 'come in' that you didn't say?" she said snarkily, already stepping inside. I returned to head towards my desk. Although I'd already called it a night but I still found myself reaching for the file on the table.

I wasn't interested in working now that I was done with it already but seeing her come in had me back to it. Not  obviously with any intention of resuming the work but just giving myself and her the illusion that work was what I was more interested in, in the given moment.

I just adored the way she cared for me. It was endearing to see her always stressing over my lifestyle, governing me with her scowls and scrunched face looks. Those mostly validated and  showed her concern towards me and I was getting too addicted. It's never irritating to me instead I just wanted to hold her close to me whenever she looked at me like that. 

"Sure" I said when she poked her tongue out at me and slipped in the chair. She rolled her eyes at me but started playing with a pen on the table. I kept glancing her from the top the my file, waiting for her to reprimand me on the work I was doing at the time.

"Sometimes I actually wonder why did you even build this giant place? You could've just got yourself a nice comfortable couch in the office building itself" she said, scribbling something on her skin. I placed a note pad in her hand to stop her from scraping her palms through the nib. She had sensitive skin, it mostly always caught a rash at any mild irritation, I'd observed it multiple times but would she ever take care of her? No. I keep these things in my mind for... for her benefit only of course...

That doesn't mean anything, right? Specially not  making me'whipped' as Ken likes to put it.

"Oh, I forgot that your office does have comfy couches" she added to her own sentence as she pushed away the offered pad and stood up coming close to me. I held her hands in my grip and found them icy, a frown made way on my face.

"Cold?" I asked as I pulled her closer, wrapped my arms around her and tucked her head under my chin. immediately. She huddled closer to me, pressing her cheek to my chest without any sort of a resistance.

"No shoot Sherlock" she mumbled when I reached for my blazer that I had discarded on the seat and placed it on her, she shrugged it off but had also refused to step out of my arms. Not that I had any problem.

"Take this" she shook her head and chose to scoot closer to me, I brushed the hair from her face, running my finger through the ends.

"Nope, I'd rather choose your sweatshirts over this" she replied to my unasked question.