Chapter 162

Chapter 37 (Chelsea POV) When the wicker basket touched down, the two men, Danny and Frank approached us, “How was the ride?” Danny asked. As animatedly and unlike me as possible, “It was breathtaking, amazing!” I gushed, smiling at Gabriel who was back to his blank face self. It made me smile more. . . I sat in the passenger side thinking to myself, wishing for things to just remain as they were right now; I liked getting to see a different side to my mate. I sighed, wished this date didn’t have to end just yet. “Hey, miss sigh-a-lot, who said this date was over?” he teased me. “I said that out loud?” I asked turning my body towards him, his right hand attached to my left, both now wedged between my thighs. He gave a small squeeze, “No I was listening to your thoughts, you had your wall down…” “Oh… well I hope you know now that nothing you plan will ever top that ride…” I said playfully. “You can stop trying…” he said smirking, eyes on the road. “What?” I reply innocently. “Don’t what me… I know what you’re doing. You’ve done it many times already. Now I know why. You push buttons, frame questions and dig deep mate. I thought it was either out of stupidity or lack of respect. Now I know that you can read anyone’s mind but only what they are thinking at the very moment. And you were just doing that. So stop, I’m not going to tell you willingly or coerced,” his lip twitching, I huffed as he drove silently to the next place, which for all I knew could be home. . . It wasn’t. Instead it was a newly constructed city block of tall buildings a few short ones and one large parking complex, the entire thing still fenced. We entered underground, and there were two cars following us, and the other two were actually parked but empty. “What is this place?” I asked when we got out; Gabriel seemed to be unsettled, more so now than before. “This is where we are going to be having dinner,” he answered not looking at me, pulling me along towards an elevator. “You are the very first person to know about this place, aside from construction workers and such, we will talk over dinner,” he said pushing the button labeled ‘G.” Looking at the numbers I saw it went all the way up to 30 before stopping, and on the other side of the elevator were numbers and a key slot. “What is this place? What are the letters for?” I asked Mr. Impassive. Sighing he turned to me, “The letters are for the residential floors while the numbers are for the hotel, Casino, groceries, pool, bar, restaurant, indoor children’s center, small boutiques, drug store, available rooms… ballroom, gym…” he tapered off. “I don’t understand…” “I own this Chelsea. I’ve been creating this for almost three years; meticulously deciding where I wanted this to go… what it would look like, everything. It was… costly but as of right now construction is complete…” he replied as the elevator came to a halt, the doors opening we stepped off, and turning straight to a corridor of sorts. A man in a black suit, was standing near a booth type desk, welcomed us. “Good evening Boss, everything is ready,” he said, Gabriel nodded and opened one side of the double doors. . . I took three steps then froze in my spot, utterly speechless. The room was enormous and completely lit only by tiny tea lights I noticed placed strategically. There was only one 6’x 6’ table here, when in reality this room could easily fit two hundred more of the same or larger. Walking closer, the table was only 15 or so feet away from another set of doors that I figured led to the kitchen. One man stood near the table waiting patiently with a blank almost cordial face. After we were both seated, he spoke, but only to Gabriel, “Would you like for us to bring out the appetizers sir?” “Yes.” Gabriel replied clipped, looking at me, his eyes burning a hole into the side of my face while I gazed around the room. Hmm… I smiled to myself, nope; this didn’t beat the hot air balloon ride at all. “Very well,” the waiter replied walking away silently. I hadn’t spoke at all, still enamored by my surroundings, I know that Gabriel had help creating this surprise, and I also knew that my pack was in on it, probably keep guard somewhere, remaining invisible while keeping us safe. I had a heavy stomach at the moment when I thought of how much thought went into creating this heartwarming surprise, it was too much especially for me and I said as such. “Gabriel… I don’t… I’m not worth all this effort you know…” my vision blurred as my stomach hardened. I realized a week or so back that when he did these over the top surprises for me the guilt ate at me, knowing that I wasn’t being truthful with him. Besides liking the less low key activities, I felt freer when I knew that it cost near nothing to feel as I did on the balloon ride. “Yes. You. Are. And not only are you worth it, you deserve it. And I did this because I knew you would appreciate this more. Other women from my past would want to be taken somewhere they’d get to flaunt that we were sharing a meal. You on the other hand would detest that. This place is safe and private and I wanted to share my dream creation with you alone, before anyone else. You and I will be having the first meal ever served here,” he said picking up his wine letting his words wash over me. The walls I had built that night when I first met my mate were no more, Gabriel had completely torn down what I built when so many others had let me down and I could take no more. I breathed, felt my lungs expand, my heart beating wildly against my ribcage. Inside my wolves were giddy with excitement, knowing that soon our mate would know us absolutely.  I closed my eyes, trying to accept his words, opening them hoping I appeared as I should.