Page 28 of A Diamond Deal with Her Boss
For a few seconds, something swept through her, a tidal rush of colourful scenarios in which those words actually came from the heart, and she was appalled by the very fact that she’d given in to wild imaginings like that.
‘Then isn’t it brilliant that I’m not that girl?’ she asked tartly. ‘Because I may not be heading down the aisle with the micro-minis but I certainly won’t be going for the granny look.’
She felt buoyant. Confession was obviously good for the soul, even if it was a confession delivered to the last person on earth she’d ever expected to deliver it to.
She relaxed, looked around her and let his words wash over her as he told her about the city, a potted history of the place.
The Moorish architecture was there in the graceful arches and the stucco he pointed out. Then came the churches and the palaces. They meandered, and she looked and listened. The city was charming, the sepia colours reminiscent of a bygone era. They wandered through an enchanting maze of streets that were cool and whitewashed, and by the time they hit the shopping area Abby was as relaxed as she never thought she would be, given the circumstances.
Housed in ornate old buildings, the selection of boutiques from the outside seemed to offer everything and a thrill of pure feminine pleasure rippled through her.
‘I’m better off shopping on my own,’ she said firmly. She had to remind herself that this was all make-believe. They weren’t the happy loved-up couple doing everything together. ‘If you point me in the right direction, I can meet you in, say, an hour, maybe a bit longer. And, now that your grandmother isn’t here, we can maybe discuss work. I feel like I’m playing truant and I’m a little uncomfortable with that.’
‘Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?’ He gave her the name of a restaurant, pointed out where she should be walking, and told her that it was famous so, if she ended up lost, she would easily be directed to the right place.
He walked off and she felt...strangely bereft.
It was as though he had left a hole behind him and she had to shake her head to clear the silly feeling away.
He’d left her his credit card and she stared at it...then she gave in to purely girlish anticipation and pushed open the glass door to boutique number one.
* * *
Gabriel glanced at his watch. His grandmother’s driver had ferried her to friends for the evening.
‘You two love birds can enjoy yourselves without having to entertain an old lady!’ she had carolled as she’d been ushered into the back of the car.
On some fronts, this was cause for some unease to Gabriel. Yes, it was good that she was clearly in high spirits and whatever depression she had been suffering had been temporarily shelved. However, the gusto with which she had embraced the phoney engagement surpassed anything he had foreseen. Whilst previously the ends had soundly justified the means, he was now beginning to see the difficulties that might lie ahead when the time came for him sorrowfully to break the news that their fake engagement had bitten the dust.
She would definitely have to move to London, close by where he could keep an eye on her, but how easy was it going to be to take her away from familiar surroundings?
He would also, while in the process of recovering from a broken engagement, have to rustle up some enthusiasm for the whole prospect of finding someone else with whom to tie the knot.
Except, for some reason, the thought of that as yet unknown woman filled him with a certain distaste.
He had worked out what this woman would be like, not in great detail but as a rough sketch, but now that he had found himself discovering complex sides to his PA’s personality he was beginning to revise the one-dimensional cardboard parameters he had had in place. He also knew that whoever he ended up with would have to be sharp, would have to be someone who got him and who understood his sense of humour.
An image of Abby flashed through his head and he frowned. Anyone who had high expectations of romantic love and everything that entailed would definitely be out. Lucy had been a vital learning curve when it came to that.
Absorbed in a bout of unusual introspection, he neither heard nor noticed Abby as she paused at the top of the short flight of stairs to look down at him as he stood, still frowning, by the front door.
They were going to one the fancy restaurants he had mentioned earlier. When he had announced this, she had immediately countered with the perfectly logical suggestion that they should use the evening to meet some of the clients whom they’d arranged to see before they’d left London, considering his grandmother had decided not to join them, and initially he had agreed.
He felt, rather than heard, her presence and looked up. Then looked again, then found thatallhe seemed capable of doing waslooking.
Her hair was loose, silky, straight and falling just past her shoulders in a shiny sweep. Her eyes looked different, smoky and sultry, and the shiny gloss of her lipstick emphasised the soft fullness of her mouth.
But it was the transformation of her figure that really captured his attention and held it.
The dress was short, revealing long, slim, shapely legs. There was nothing revealing about it, because it was a simple shift, but somehow the pale turquoise silk hit all the right curves in all the right places so that the eye was drawn to the swell of small breasts and the dip of a narrow waist.
She tucked some hair behind one ear as she walked towards him and he noticed that she was wearing big hoop earrings, which was vaguely shocking, because he’d never thought of her as the big hoop-earring type.
‘Are you okay?’ Abby asked politely, standing in front of him, quietly pleased at the expression on his face, because he was a guy who was way too casual when it came to beautiful women. She knew she was no beauty, especially compared to the women usually to be found hanging onto his arm, but he’d only ever seen her in working clothes or jeans and trainers since she had been here, and the change obviously stunned him. Good! ‘You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.’
Gabriel quickly found his voice. ‘Slight change of plans. I’ve rearranged several of the meetings for London and I have managed to touch base with the CEO of the electronics company,’ he announced, watching Abby closely. ‘I can follow up on that conversation by email. Both companies are keen for a deal, so I don’t anticipate any lost opportunities because our original schedule has had to be changed.’
‘What? I honestly don’t feel as though I’m doing what I’m being paid to do,’ she protested.
