Page 26 of A Diamond Deal with Her Boss
‘Gabriel, darling,’ his grandmother said. ‘I never thought I’d ever hear you volunteer to go shopping. You’ve always told me that it’s your least favourite pastime, but I expect going shopping with the woman you love turns it into a pleasure.’
‘I don’t need any clothes, Gabriel.’
‘Shh...’ Gabriel placed one long, brown finger over her lips and smiled. ‘You’re far too proud. Jeans are all well and good, but I shall be taking you both to a couple of excellent restaurants while we’re here and I’ll want to show you off.’
Trapped, Abby mentally said goodbye to the remainder of her day. In a fog, she heard him invite his grandmother out for the excursion, but before she could get her hopes up that Ava might accompany them she heard his grandmother make her excuses.
What was wrong with her jeans, the handful of skirts she had brought over? She’d thought she’d be in conference rooms in front of her tablet. Was it her fault that that plan had been turned on its head?
Abby might indulge a secret desire for naughty in her underwear and her sexy night gowns, but that was where it ended. She’d grown up in a tiny village, the only child of doting parents, and she’d never been one to wear daring outfits. Her very traditional background had trained her to dress in a certain kind of way and she felt safe with that.
Besides, she’d never felt that she had the sort of figure to pull off small, tight clothes anyway. She’d always left that to well-endowed friends who’d been keen to display their assets.
She’d thought that that was what Jason had loved about her, her lack of showiness. She’d been wrong. Another woman might have reacted by changing her look, but Abby had had the confidence knocked out of her, and she had been happy to become even more retiring in her dress than she had been before.
‘This is stupid,’ were her opening words just as soon as they were in the four-wheel drive Gabriel had had delivered to the house the day before.
It was a beautiful day, sunny with a clear blue sky, but Abby was too busy fuming to enjoy the loveliness around her as the car slowly eased away from the villa and out of the compound onto open road.
‘Is there any point in time when you’re not going to argue with me?’
Abby reddened. ‘I just don’t need any clothes, and I can’t afford to buy a new wardrobe.’
‘Whoever said anything about you paying for it? You’re doing me a favour. I will be writing the cheque.’
‘I’m not doing you a favour. This is a transaction. A business transaction.’ Earlier—with some embarrassment, because accepting money from someone, however justifiable it might be, stuck in her throat—she had written down what she surmised her father would have spent on the recuperative round-the-world cruise with her mother.
She’d known roughly because he had discussed it with her months ago, on the proviso she said nothing to her mother.
‘She’d worry,’ her father had confided. ‘And you know that’s the last thing she should be doing.’
Then he’d named the sum and the blood had drained from Abby’s face.
Well, Gabriel naturally hadn’t batted an eyelid at the figure, because to him it was loose change. He had promptly doubled the figure she had given him and she knew that the online transfer of funds to her bank account had already been done.
So the business transaction was complete.
But a brand-new wardrobe wasn’t part of any business transaction.
‘And quibbling about it is going to make my grandmother suspicious. Not only do most women enjoy having clothes lavished on them...’
‘I don’t.’
‘But my grandmother knows that I am exceedingly generous when it comes to women. It would strike her as odd that you’ve come over here in clothes better suited to an office, and she would be appalled if you refused to accept my largesse.’
‘I’ll pay you back.’
Gabriel didn’t say anything. His mouth tightened and he continued driving until they approached the busy outskirts of the city. He found parking with ease, killed the engine and then turned to her.
‘You’re not going to pay me back, Abby, and you’re going to stop acting like a badly behaved child.’
‘That’s not fair!’
‘This is all part and parcel of our littletransaction, the object of which was to ensure that my grandmother was relieved of all the stress that has seen her possibly reach for too many tablets.’ He paused, eyes narrowed. ‘Is this how you were with your ex?’
Abby was so shocked by the directness of his question that she could only stare at him, open-mouthed.
‘Did you knock him back whenever he tried to do something for you?’ Gabriel knew that he was pushing it, but he couldn’t deny that he’d been curious about her past, curious enough now to barge straight past all ‘no entry’ signs.
