Husband With Benefits

By the time Gabe approached her, Nora had already danced with the three other Frost brothers, marvelling at their dance skills as well as their wit. From teasing Ian to being swung around the dancefloor by the skillful Seb to chatting easily with Lucien, Nora decided that the Frost Brothers were a force to be reckoned with.

As she was finally passed onto Gabe, she could not help but raise her sparkling eyes to him, "Ah... the man of the hour! Congratulations."

Gabe searched her eyes slowly. He did not know Nora William well enough but he needed to understand her stance on this," Are you okay with this? You do know that Arabelle loves Demon..."

Nora smiled up at him and cocked her head," What if I wasn’t? What would you do? Would you break off the engagement?"

Gabriel was shocked at the counter-question and his steps faltered. He’d not expected that. And he realized... he had no answer to that as well. But he pondered it quickly as he said," I don’t know. I guess, the maximum I can do is try to keep her away from you. But no, I would not have broken off the engagement."

Nora nodded, seemingly satisfied with her response. However, curiosity lingered in his eyes. "Fair enough," he said. "But I’m curious, why do you like Arabelle? What draws you to her?"

Gabe paused thoughtfully before he thought back to the memory that had long lingered in his heart," It was about the time we were fifteen and at a party. It was a common classmate of ours who had organized a party since his parents were not home. So, you can imagine. Leave a bunch of teenagers with the doors of your booze unlocked and they can wreak havoc. Something like this was happening at the time as well when I arrived."

One of our classmates had drunk too much and she fell into the lake. Everyone seemed to freeze out of horror as she tried struggled to come out. The lake was known to be a home to alligators, and everyone had only gone down to goof around. But Arabelle reacted quickly. She jumped into the pool without hesitation to save the girl. She risked her own life to save her. And somehow that bravery and courage stayed with me. I would have pursued her since then but her parents moved away a few months later, while all of us were carted off to boarding schools. By the time I returned, she was already head over heels for Demetri and their engagement seemed to be cast in stone."

As they continued to dance, the conversation was interrupted by another man who cut in. Gabe excused himself, leaving Nora standing alone on the dance floor. shrugging her shoulders, Nora quickly walked towards the bar, ready for a glass of water. She was parched!

However, she’d barely taken a few steps when a man in a well-tailored suit stepped into her path," Miss Nora, if you would be so kind, Mr. Elijah Frost requests your presence in his study."

Nora was intrigued. After their previous meeting, she had not expected that the old man would have anything else to say to her.