Page 25 of A Diamond Deal with Her Boss
‘Very funny.’ But she wanted to grin because of his dry tone of voice. ‘That’s incredibly sexist.’
‘Please accept my apologies.’ Gabriel was, unrepentant. ‘If it’s any consolation, there’s nothing I would enjoy more than chatting to my grandmother about wedding plans.’
Abby’s lips twitched and she tried and failed to stifle a giggle at the incongruous image of her over-the-top alpha male boss talking wedding plans with anyone.
‘Don’t look now,’ he murmured, bending so that his posture was now even more intimate, ‘But we have an audience, and as you’ve been so good today so far, smiling, laughing, pretending to enjoy riveting anecdotes about my academic achievements...’
Staring up at him, Abby could scarcely breathe. The lazy charm in his voice, the teasing glitter in his eyes, that amused, crooked smile, all took her breath away. Never had she been so up close and personal with him before, not like this, and she was responding with every pore and fibre of her being.
‘It would almost be a shame not to give my darling grandma something to really smile about, wouldn’t it?’
He could breathe her in and the smell of her was filling his head: sweet, clean and strangelyinnocent. Hell, he’d never found it so damned difficult to think about work. The morning had been an exercise in low-level frustration and how to control it.
And now...
Gabriel didn’t give her time to protest. He tipped her chin just as he lowered his head and he kissed her.
CHAPTER SIX
ABBYGASPEDAGAINSThis mouth, then her eyes were closing and her mouth opening up to the heady pleasure of his exploring tongue.
It was a long, lingering, sweetly seductive kiss. No rush, no hurry, but a kiss that took its time. She raised her hands, pressing them flat against his chest. She wanted to do so much more than that, though. She wanted to push them under his shirt, run them over every inch of his broad, hard chest. She wanted to go further, to dip her fingers beneath the waistband of his jeans, unzip them and find the erotic bulge of his manhood.
With a yelp, she came to her senses and gave him a determined shove.
She turned around and tried to look as casual as she could when her body was on the point of exploding. Ava was smiling with satisfaction.
‘I was just on my way out into the garden,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you come and join me, my dear, if that grandson of mine insists on working? You could have a swim in the pool. It’s a wonderful day.’
‘No swimsuit.’ Abby shook her head ruefully because splashing around in the pool was relatively low on her agenda. It smacked of being on holiday and, whilst she wasn’t exactly doing the kind of work she had come out to do, relaxing to that extent felt wrong.
‘Gabriel,’ Ava chided. ‘Why didn’t you tell Abby that there was a pool here? He made sure there was a pool here,’ she confided, ‘Because he was insistent that I get some daily exercise, but swimming’s far too energetic for an old woman like me so it’s just sitting there, unused, except when friends visit and bring their grandchildren with them.’ She looked at Gabriel meaningfully. ‘Some ladies are lucky enough to have grandchildrenandgreat-grandchildren as well.’
‘Let’s not run before we can walk,’ Gabriel commented wryly. ‘No swimsuit...’ He looked at Abby, head tilted to one side. ‘Pity. My grandmother’s right, it’s a shame not to use the pool while we’re here, and I would certainly feel far better if I knew you were having fun outside while I worked.’
‘I’m happy to help with your work.’ Abby turned to Ava. ‘We’ve found that, incredibly, we work really well together! I’m a PA by profession, so I can get the hang of things fairly quickly, and when Gabriel’s discussed work I’ve found that I just seem to catch on to what he’s saying.’
‘But you’re not going to work while you’re here,’ Ava said firmly, and Gabriel strolled towards Abby, his eyes never leaving her face until she was remembering that brief kiss and burning up all over again.
‘You’re right, Grandmama.’ He slung his arm around Abby’s shoulders and pulled her close against him, then he dipped to kiss the top of her head, and for a few seconds breathed in that strangely seductive scent of hers, which had nothing to do with perfume but was the completely natural scent of soap and shampoo.
She was much slighter than any of the women he had ever dated, including Lucy, who was very tall and very rangy, and whilst he’d always assumed his type to be full-figured and tall he liked her smallness, liked the way it made him feel—as though she needed protecting.
Hilarious, considering she was as sharp as a tack.
Yet vulnerable.
That thought came from nowhere and lodged in his head, forcing him to analyse it. She was romantic, she was vulnerable and she’d had a terrible relationship with a guy who’d obviously dumped her, having built her expectations up towards a wedding with all the frills and lace that went with it.
Abby was still grinning but her jaw was beginning to ache from the effort.
‘I don’t think it’s fair of me to abandon my fiancée because I need to close a multi-million-pound deal.’
‘Oh, you won’t beabandoningme,darling.Iquiteunderstand! Don’t forget I’m a PA, as you know, and I’ve seen first-hand howdrivensome men can be when it comes to work! I’ve become quite accustomed to my boss forgetting everything when he’s in the middle of a big deal!’
She edged away from Gabriel’s embrace, but not far, because he settled his grip ever firmer, anchoring her next to him. ‘Between you and me,’ she said to Ava in a woman-to-woman, confiding tone, ‘My boss can be a huge bore when it comes to work...’
‘Tut, tut, I don’t believe that for a second! Now, enough of this. You don’t have a swimsuit, so I’m going to take you shopping. Show you the delights of Seville.’ He broke apart and held her at arm’s length so that he could inspect her in such a leisurely fashion that Abby had to grit her teeth not to say something snappy to him. ‘New wardrobe,’ he said briskly.
