Little Differences

Peggy took the remote out of Gabe's hand and quickly found the baseball game. She muted the sound before handing it back to Gabe. He set it onto the side table and turned his attention to the action on the TV. "Would you like to see a Padres game in person?" he asked.

Peggy shook her head and said, "No, I don't like going to live sporting events. I don't mind watching them on TV, but trying to watch them in person is too frustrating."

"How so?"

"There are too many people at live games who don't care about the actual game. These are the people who make it a point to head to the snack bar when the bases are loaded disrupting everyone interested in the game and trying to watch it. I once missed a kickoff return for a touchdown during the national championship game that Georgia played in because the idiots sitting in front of me were standing to get the beers that someone in their group had just brought to them. I don't begrudge anyone having a beer at a game, but not at the expense of watching the game or preventing someone else from watching it."

Sitting up straight, Peggy said, "Which reminds me of why I came out here before the news story distracted me. Would you like a beer?"

"I'll have one if you are," Gabe answered. "Do you want me to get them?"

Peggy licked her lips and said, "Sure, go ahead."

Gabe rose and headed for the kitchen where he quickly grabbed two bottles of beer and walked back towards the couch. He couldn't remember ever seeing a hungrier look in Peggy's eyes as she watched him intently. He smiled and said, "Now you know the effect that you have always had on me."

He handed her one of the beers and took his seat beside her. Her gaze shifted down to his crotch as he settled once more onto the dishtowel. She made a motion as if she was going to reach for him, but then quickly pulled her hand back. "I really can't explain it, Gabe, I love your dick. I love making you feel like you obviously do when I play with it. It feels like nothing else. On one hand, it's like I'm being submissive, giving you something special and doing it just for your pleasure. On the other hand, at the same time, I feel so dominant, like I have all this power and control to please the man that I love. It's so intimate for me."

"It certainly is intimate for me," Gabe said while watching Peggy fan her face with her hand. "But you know that my greatest pleasure comes from pleasing you, right?"

Peggy didn't answer him. Instead, she jumped up from the couch and ran into the kitchen. Gabe sat still, listening to the sound of her taking the casserole out of the oven. He hadn't heard the oven timer, and he thought that taking the casserole out of the oven after such a short time was strange. Listening closer, he heard Peggy rustling around for a few seconds before watching her run back to stand in front of him with something in one hand while trying to pull him up off the couch with the other.

"Here," she said. "Eat this. Quickly."

Gabe set his beer down as he was tugged off of the couch and took the proffered piece of sliced bread. The confusion on his face elicited an explanation from Peggy, "That will have to hold you for at least half an hour."

"Wha... why?" Gabe asked as Peggy continued to pull him towards the bedroom.

In a frustrated tone, Peggy replied. "Because I don't want to listen to your stomach protesting while I suck your dick."

Chapter Sixteen

Peggy laughed as Gabe yawned for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning. He glanced over at her in the passenger seat of the rental car and said, "I'm tempted to go back to the condo and take a nap while you're meeting with the lawyers."

"Gee, I feel surprisingly refreshed this morning," Peggy teased.

With that answer, Gabe knew that Peggy misunderstood his being tired. "It's the three-hour time difference you little nymph, although you did contribute to it by being so insatiable last night, not to mention this morning. But I'm glad that you are feeling 'refreshed'."

Peggy winked and said, "Well, on a positive note, we'll have a delicious kielbasa and potato casserole for lunch today. I know that you were looking forward to it last night. We have dinner with the shareholders and board members tonight so I won't have to waste time feeding you."

"Feeding me is a waste of time?" Gabe teased back.

"It is when there are better ways for us to spend our time together. Personally, I think that canoodling is the best use of our times alone together, and I haven't heard any complaints from you yet, Lover."

"And you never will," Gabe assured her as he pulled the car to a stop in front of the lobby doors of Armore's headquarters. "I'll join you after I take the laptop to the mailroom."

Peggy unfastened her seatbelt before leaning over to kiss Gabe. "Are you sure that you don't want me to order you a new laptop through the IT department?"

Since tomorrow, Friday, was Gabe's last day as an employee of Sagikkun, he needed to overnight the laptop the company had assigned to him back so that it was received by the end of the day tomorrow. He planned to go out after the meeting with the lawyers to buy himself a new laptop.

"No, I already have a new one being configured for me at the Micro Center store in Norcross. I can hold out with my cell phone until then."

He had purposely chosen that store location over closer alternatives because the store where he was planning to buy Peggy's birthday present was just across the street. Jared Jewelers.

Peggy grabbed her own computer bag and jumped spritely out of the car, eliciting another chuckle from Gabe. Her entire demeanor had benefited from their evening of intimacy, and he looked forward to a lifetime of evenings identical to it.

Gabe decided to use one of the visitor parking spaces since the rental car was in his name, he wasn't an employee of Armore, and he would be leaving again in a little over an hour. This allowed him to enter the lobby in time to see Peggy going through the inner doors towards the stairway that would take her to the fourth floor.

He nodded to the guard and used the contractor badge that had been provided yesterday to enter the inner hallway and then headed towards the mailroom. He had to argue for a few minutes with the mailroom staff over his insistence that he be charged for the overnight shipping of the laptop back to Sagikkun. When they explained that they had no way to charge an individual for shipping and could only apply the charges to an internal department account, he texted Peggy to ask which department he should have the charge applied to. He would settle up with Armore at a later date.

When he entered the fourth-floor conference room, he was surprised to see that the two lawyers from New York had already arrived. Peggy stood and welcomed Gabe with a kiss before indicating that he should sit in the chair next to hers.

The older of the two lawyers said, "Sir, this is a private meeting between Miss Donahue and her legal counsel. We will be discussing confidential attorney-client matters and cannot allow anyone else to participate in the meeting."

Peggy had never dealt with these two lawyers before. They claimed to be senior partners in the firm administering her trust and had come to finalize the remaining aspects related to the transfer of control to Margaret Donahue. She knew with Jordan Covault's untimely death, that it was unlikely that anyone else at the law firm knew anything about her beyond her financial status.

"Mr. Truesdale, is it?" Peggy asked.

The older lawyer replied, "Yes. James Truesdale."

"Mr. Truesdale, I would like to introduce my fiancé, Gabriel Lewis. He will be joining us in this meeting to provide me with advice and his opinion when I request them. He has significant experience with administering his own trusts and I will rely upon his knowledge when making decisions about my own."

"Congratulations on your engagement," Truesdale said. "Unfortunately, even if you and Mr. Lewis were already married, Bar Association rules on ethics would still prevent us from discussing confidential matters with anyone other than our client present."

"Either Gabe stays or you go," Peggy stated bluntly.

Gabe squeezed her hand and addressed the attorneys, "What you said is not true."

Truesdale began collecting the folders he had removed from his briefcase earlier and replied, "I'm afraid it is. Bar Association rules on attorney-client confidentiality are quite clear, and violating them can result in disbarment."

"Jesus, Dude. Where did you go to law school?" Gabe asked incredulously. "Did the concept of 'joint representation' not get mentioned in any of your courses? All you need is a joint representation agreement signed by me and Peggy to make us both your clients and thus entitled to be present together whenever either of our matters were discussed."

Peggy was grinning broadly when she said, "Now maybe you see why I want Gabe beside me."

Truesdale glanced at his colleague, who simply nodded. Truesdale then said, "What Mr. Lewis said is correct, but since no joint representation agreement currently exists..."

"Get one," Peggy said as she stood. "Contact me again when you are prepared to discuss matters with Gabe present."

The younger lawyer pulled out his cell phone and said, "If you can give us half an hour and provide me with a fax number, we can have a joint representation agreement here for you both to sign."

"There is a multifunction copier over there in the corner that should have the incoming fax number printed on a label," Peggy told him. "We'll be in the office next door. Let us know when you're ready to resume our meeting."

When Truesdale slid the freshly faxed agreement across the table to Peggy twenty minutes later, she just stared at him. His younger partner whispered something into Truesdale's ear and he moved the agreement so that it was now placed in front of Gabe instead.

Gabe picked up the agreement and quickly read it to ensure that it addressed all aspects of the firm's representation of Peggy's affairs before nodding and handing it to her along with a pen. She signed it, handed the pen back to Gabe, and watched as he too signed the agreement. She then slid it back across the table to Truesdale.

"Thank you," she said. "Now, where were we?"

~~~

"Sorry that it took so long," Gabe said when he joined Peggy in the fourth-floor breakroom for lunch. "Are your dad and Janelle joining us?"

Picking up the new laptop had only taken Gabe a few minutes. He had to spend significantly more time selecting what he hoped would be a gift that Peggy would love. She had been expecting him to be back more than forty-five minutes ago, but fortunately, she had waited until she knew he had arrived before heating their lunch.

"There's nothing to apologize for," Peggy assured him. "Sit and enjoy. Janelle and my dad are taking the afternoon off to handle a few personal matters before dinner. While they may be working on my birthday party, I think that it is more likely that they are planning to get married on Saturday, so be prepared."

"What should I prepare for?" Gabe asked as he took a seat at the table across from Peggy. "Do you want me to have a wedding present ready for them or something?"

Shaking her head, Peggy finished chewing the bite of casserole that she had just taken and said, "No, I just didn't want it to be a surprise to you if it happens."

Gabe began eating his own serving of the casserole. Between bites, he asked, "We sure know how to piss off attorneys, don't we?"

Peggy nodded and said, "Yeah, we make quite the team in that regard. Actually, I think we make a pretty good team in all regards, but thanks again for your help with everything. Without your input, I probably would have just followed their advice and simply taken over as the trustee, leaving everything pretty much as it was when my mom set it up. I never even considered the fact that the trust has been getting taxed by two different states because the administrating law firm was based in New York while the trust was established in Georgia."

Gabe had suggested that Peggy not follow the advice of the attorneys when they had recommended retaining their firm as the administrator for the trust. Truesdale had turned red at Gabe's suggestion and continued to grow a deeper shade of crimson as Gabe explained his reasoning to Peggy. He had explained that the trust that her mother had established was governed by Georgia law, but New York was where the administrator was located, so that state was also taxing the trust. He had gone on the mention that if she changed her residency to California, that would also make the trust susceptible to taxation by a third state.

He had further recommended that Peggy establish a new trust when she was ready, funding it from the old trust. Then once the assets of the original trust were depleted, she should close it. There might be some up-front tax penalties depending on the structure of the trust and the governing laws in Georgia, and the lawyers were even more embarrassed when they couldn't answer Peggy's questions about that possibility.

The nail in the coffin for the entire law firm where Margaret Donahue's future business was concerned occurred when Truesdale boldly recommended that Peggy allow his team to draft a prenuptial agreement for her and Gabe to sign before their wedding. Peggy had moved so fast to open the conference room door that Gabe was surprised that her clothes were able to keep up with her.

"Get out!" Peggy had yelled at the two lawyers. "You can pack up all of your crap down in the lobby. Just pick it up now and get the hell out of my sight."

The venomous tone of her voice and fire in her normally placid eyes were foreign to Gabe, but they had the desired effect as the two lawyers quickly gathered together all of their files and papers and practically ran from the conference room.

"I doubt that they left with any question as to where they stand with you," Gabe said.

Peggy's cell phone chimed. She picked it up from the table and read the message that had just come in. As she quickly typed a reply to the message, she said, "Addison needs to see me. Would you mind packing everything back up when you finish?"

Gabe nodded and asked, "Are you meeting in her office, or is she coming to you?"

Standing, Peggy said, "We'll meet in my office. Why don't you stop by when you're done here?"

"Okay. See you in a few."

Peggy wanted to plant a kiss on Gabe's lips before walking away, but there were other employees in the breakroom so she resisted. As she exited the breakroom, she saw Addison Miller approaching the door to the office that Peggy had been using. They met at the door, which Peggy opened for them and then closed after both were inside.

Gabe finished the last few bites of his lunch and made quick work of packing their dishes and utensils into the plastic bag that Peggy had used to carry everything. He took the bag to the office that he was using, checked the status of the application install that he had initiated on his new laptop before lunch, and then walked to the office next to his and tapped on the door before opening it.

Peggy glanced up at him but didn't smile. That was the first sign for Gabe that she was concerned about something. Addison turned to see who had entered the office and her expression was as stoic as Peggy's. Gabe closed the door and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Someone bought 57,000 shares of Armore stock this morning," Peggy informed him. "The only way that could have happened is if the shares held by the conspirators were released for sale and someone grabbed them. Addison checked with the brokerage house and learned that this is exactly what happened, but they wouldn't divulge who obtained the shares. I need to try and get ahold of my father to let him know and to try to figure out the potential ramifications."

"Addison, would you excuse us for a few minutes?" Gabe asked.

Peggy countermanded Gabe's request when she said, "No, wait Addison. I want you here when I speak to my father in case he has any questions..."

Gabe locked his eyes on Peggy's and more forcefully said, "Addison, leave."

Addison and Peggy were both shocked by Gabe's tone of voice. Addison looked to Peggy who merely nodded. Rising quickly and leaving the office, Addison said, "I'll be in my office if you need anything."

Gabe closed the door and took the chair that Addison had vacated. Peggy just stared at him and waited for an explanation.

"Things happened faster than I expected," Gabe finally said. "I didn't think that I would be able to pull off the deal until tomorrow at the earliest."

"What deal?" Peggy asked.

It took several minutes, punctuated by a dozen or more questions from Peggy before Gabe was able to fully explain his purchase of the Armore shares.

"Why didn't you discuss this with me?" Peggy asked once he had finished.

"If you are asked under oath if you had prior knowledge of my plans, what would your answer be?"

Peggy nodded in understanding and said, "I would tell the truth. I knew nothing about your plans. That's why you didn't tell me? To protect me?"

"Exactly," Gabe confirmed. "It is unlikely that the SEC will investigate the transaction because it was negotiated through SIPA and came at the current market price. The fact that the shares were bought by a blind trust rather than an individual will also help. As long as they don't suspect manipulation of the market or something illegal, I shouldn't have any problem. However, the fact remains that I did derive my knowledge of the shares through my relationship with you and your father, so I had to protect you both."

"But, Gabe, that had to have cost you over seven million dollars. Why would you do that?"

"Are you serious?" he asked her. Receiving no answer, he said, "Well, to start with, it is a great investment. Between the historical performance of the shares and my confidence in the leadership of Armore, I expect for these shares to be a major contributor to my portfolio..."

"Why else?"

"Because I wanted to share this with you. I wanted to show you how much faith and confidence I have in you. I wanted for us to be partners in business and in life. I wanted you to know that control of your family's company was assured. You now have eighty-nine percent of Armore shares loyal to you. I named you as the trustee for the trust holding the shares. You don't own them, but you have control over them."

Gabe rose and walked around the desk to stand beside the chair that Peggy sat in, pulling something from his pocket along the way. He gently swiveled the chair until she was facing him directly and then dropped to one knee before her. "I wanted to give you an engagement present that would mean something. That's why"

Opening the ring box and presenting it for Peggy's inspection only resulted in him being forced to the floor as Peggy launched herself out of the chair to embrace him. The box skittered under the desk as she rained kisses all over his face.

"Is that a yes?" he teasingly asked.

~~~

Whispering into the ear that he had been gently kissing, Gabe said "You do know that now I have to get you something else for your birthday."

Peggy shifted on the bed and rested her head on Gabe's shoulder. She said, "If you get me one more present, I'll cut you off from sex for a year."

Gabe laughed and said, "No you won't."

Peggy laughed as well and said, "You're right. I would just be punishing myself. Let's take a shower and then come back here for more treats."

"I like that under your professional, ladylike, and chaste demeanor, you are a very naughty and nasty girl."

Peggy countered with a smile, "I'm not a libertine, but I do enjoy the sense of satisfaction I get when I know that I have pleasured the man who desires only me."