Page 24 of A Diamond Deal with Her Boss
‘You said you’d be downstairs working!’
‘I never said any such thing. That must have been the result of your fertile imagination. This is as good a place to work as any, and I’m in this bed because there’s no way I’m sleeping on the floor.’
‘But you promised!’ Riven with uncertainty, Abby remained where she was, hovering by the bathroom door. She couldn’t look at him, yet she couldn’t resist. He was so superbly, aggressivelymasculine, sprawled on that bed with his legs crossed, half-propped up with the pillows squashed behind him, his fabulous dark eyes boring holes into her and turning her brain to mush.
‘I suggested that it might be an option,’ Gabriel corrected. ‘That was before I worked out just how uncomfortable the ice-cold marble ground was going to be.’
Abby automatically followed his gaze to the makeshift bed she had erected, which was still in place, untouched. How had things spiralled so completely out of control? She’d worked so hard at putting together a shield that was strong enough to weather anything thrown at it, anyJason who might bounce along and try to wreck her life again,and she positivelyhatedGabriel right now for dismantling it in the space of a few fraught hours.
‘Fine,’ she said tautly. ‘I’ll take the floor. This isn’t my house and I should have known better than to have asked you to do the honours.’
She gingerly tiptoed across the floor, which suddenly seemed as broad and as limitless as the Norfolk broads, then angled herself under the sheet, trying hard not to grimace at the unspeakable discomfort.
She wanted to burst into tears. Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut tightly, and was so absorbed in trying not to move, even though her body was already beginning to ache, that she didn’t sense Gabriel’s approach until she was being lifted into the air and heaved over his shoulder as he walked back to the bed with her, dropping her on the mattress and then towering at the side of the bed with his arms folded.
‘This is ludicrous,’ he growled, while Abby frantically tried to shuffle into a sitting position whilst keeping the bathrobe in place. Appalled, she eyed her naked thighs, and with a yelp of horror she dove under the duvet and then proceeded to glare at him with all the ferocity at her command.
Never had she felt so mortified. Never had she wanted the ground to open, swallow her up and disgorge her somewhere very, very far away.
‘Neither of us is going to sleep on the floor,’ Gabriel said in a voice that brooked no debate, never mind argument. ‘It would be a recipe for a visit to the local hospital. It’s physically impossible to sleep on this floor, and not only am Inotgoing to jeopardise my health but I have a duty of care to you as my employee and I will simply not allow it, Abby.’
He strode towards the linen on the ground, swept the lot up and dumped it all on the bed. Then he proceeded to lie down and grope for the discarded laptop so that he could carry on where he had left off.
While Abby fumed and seethed, hunched on her side and staring at the wall, she tried to block him out of her mind completely.
Abby had no idea when or even how she managed to fall asleep but she did.
Next to her, Gabriel had managed to sit in front of his computer for over an hour and a half without seeing anything at all. He was so acutely aware of the body next to him on the bed that it took almost superhuman effort not to turn and look.
That nightgown.
Who’d have thought?
When at last he quietly switched off his laptop and turned, it was to see that she had shifted in her sleep. She’d kicked off most of the duvet so that her slender leg rested on top. The bathrobe had likewise dislodged. Of course, it would be ridiculously hot sleeping with it on, and without waking she had tried to wriggle out of it so that it was half-on, half-off, just enough off to reveal the dip of her cleavage and the peep of her nipple. Moonlight pouring through the window emphasised the pale softness of her skin.
Gabriel knew he should look away. He couldn’t. Not yet. He was riveted by the sight of her and by that pink nipple. He closed his eyes and shuddered. Stifling a groan of frustration, he slipped out of the bed and headed straight to the shower.
This time it was going to have to be a cold one.
* * *
When Abby woke the following morning, the room was quiet and there was a space beside her where Gabriel had been. She could still see the indentation left by his body.
A glance at her mobile told her that it was already after nine, way later than she was accustomed to waking, which was good, because it left her no time to think about events that had happened the day before or to ruminate on the night she had spent in bed with her boss.
If this was going to be the pattern set, then she could live with it. It wasn’t going to be great but it was obvious that he was sticking to his usual routine of working from very early in the morning. He’d once told her, in passing, that sleep was a waste of perfectly good working time. He’d been joking, but only half-joking, and now she hoped that he hadn’t been joking at all, in which case she could look forward to seeing precious little of him in the bedroom.
Buoyed by that, Abby was less stressed as the day progressed. Gabriel excused himself for a call which, he explained to his grandmother, was unavoidable.
‘It’s either that or I try and set up a series of meetings in Seville,’ he said.
If he’d expected opposition, then he was mistaken, for Ava was only too happy to have Abby to herself.
‘What if your grandmother starts asking me about wedding plans?’ Abby hissed to him as she followed him out to the perfectly good office which he had shunned the night before, preferring instead to wreck her sleep by working in bed next to her.
‘Use your imagination.’ Gabriel looked down at her and lounged against the wall. ‘You seem to have an excellent one when it comes to all sorts of scenarios.’ Behind her, on the way to the kitchen, he spotted his grandmother who had paused to look at them fondly, clearly interpreting their body language as that of adoring lovers. They were certainly standing close to one another, Gabriel thought, but if only she could see the mutinous scowl on his beloved’s face.
He grinned. ‘I thought women enjoyed discussing wedding plans—the flowers...the dress...the extensive guest list of relatives who largely hate one another...’
