Page 29 of A Diamond Deal with Her Boss
‘You’re obeying the boss’s orders,’ Gabriel said silkily. ‘What’s there to complain about? Enjoy the change of pace.’
It irked him to realise that she baulked at accepting what any other woman would have grabbed with both hands outstretched. Maybe, he thought, he’d grown accustomed to excessive female gratitude when in receipt of his attention and his lavish gifts.
Abby was more than a bit annoyed. With next to no notice, he had informed her that the clients they had arranged to meet had cancelled! At this point, hair washed and with Ava hovering to see them off, Abby had no option but to stick to the ‘fancy restaurant’ plan, which now felt like a date and not like a safe business event with manageable parameters.
Gabriel gathered himself, disconcerted to have been thrown by Abby’s appearance. ‘Right. We should go.’ He spun round and preceded her to the door.
‘I hope I look okay, even though there won’t be any client to impress,’ something mischievous in her prompted Abby to say, and she gave him a disingenuously anxious look from under her sooty lashes.
Their eyes met and she regretted that mischievous impulse when he smiled at her slowly. ‘Fishing? I didn’t think you were the sort...’
‘Of course I wasn’t fishing!’ she protested, standing back and fiddling with the strap of her shoulder bag, which was the only thing about her outfit that hadn’t been bought three hours previously. ‘I just hoped, er, that where we’re going...that I’m dressed appropriately for wherever we happen to be going. I... I don’t have a great deal of experience when it comes to eating out in fancy restaurants.’ Under normal circumstances, going to a restaurant to entertain a client with him would have had her reaching for something sober and, yes, grey, but with Ava around and the family heirloom on her finger she’d gone for...the right outfit for the part she was playing.
‘Sexy,’ he purred, back to his usual self. He lounged against the doorframe, shoved his hand in his trouser pocket and stared down at her.
Skewered by those deep, dark eyes, Abby shifted her gaze, but he filled her line of vision. Had he just called hersexy?Her?
When it came to sexy,hewas the one who fitted the description! In a simple white shirt with sleeves rolled to the elbows and a pair of dark trousers, he was the epitome of exotic, elegant, casualcool.
‘Thank you very much, although there’s no need for the compliment, considering your grandmother isn’t around.’
‘Accept it for what it is,’ Gabriel murmured. ‘There’s nothing more unattractive than a woman who snaps when a guy pays her a compliment.’
Abby bristled and he burst out laughing. ‘Right about now, you can start telling me what a dinosaur I am, but in the meantime let’s get to the restaurant. We’re running behind time and I wouldn’t want the manager of the place to give our table to someone else.’
‘I doubt he’d dare.’ Thankfully her breathing had returned to normal.
Gabriel dealt her a slashing sideways smile. ‘You have a point.
Never mix work and pleasure.Gabriel spent the evening reminding himself of the thousands of ways his libido could ambush his common sense, but he still caught himself staring at her doing the most mundane of things: reading the menu...turning to smile at the waiter as he took the order...playing with the stem of her wine glass and then half-closing her eyes as she took the first sip...
He also noticed all those covert glances other men gave her. When she sashayed her way to the ladies’ just before they were ready to leave, he could swear tongues were hanging from mouths, and never before had he found such overt displays of attraction so repulsive.
Especially when you considered that the majority of the men there had said goodbye to their forties a while back and were sitting opposite women who presumably were their wives!
They made the trip back to the villa in record time. It had been a long meal, a taster menu that had continued for over two hours, and the lights in the villa were out by the time Gabriel inserted the key into the front door and pushed it open.
She brushed past him and even that vague passing physical contact made him ache.
‘Enjoyed the evening, I hope?’ he asked gruffly, moving out of harm’s way and wondering when he had suddenly turned into a horny adolescent, and why. ‘In spite of there being no clients at the table to keep us busy?’
Abby smiled. She’d loved every second of it. She’d loved the food, the ambience, the glorious old elegance of the restaurant. She’d loved the choice of wine, the strength of the coffee, the novelty of theamuse-bouche...
She’d loved his company.
He’d been amusing, witty and charming, and all of that had gone to her head faster than the several glasses of wine she had drunk, barely aware of her glass being topped up the minute it looked as though it might need a refill.
He’d stopped being her boss. Even on night one, when she had lain on that bed, frozen like a statue while he’d worked next to her, he’d been her boss. And the following night she hadn’t seen him at all, because he’d worked until late and then risen before she’d opened her eyes in the morning. Through all those deliberate touches for the sake of his grandmother, she hadn’t forgotten that they were playing a game and that reality awaited them when they were back in London and she donned her neat little suit and pumps and sat down in front of him to go through work for the day.
But tonight...
It had started when she had walked into that boutique and abandoned herself to doing something she had never given much thought to—shopping.
Then later, when she had stood in front of him andsmelledthe scent of attraction,sensedthat he was seeing her, maybe for the first time,as awomanand not his efficient PA, somethinghad changed in her.
She’d stopped being the well-behaved, neat, tidy woman who sorted his life out for him, did her job and worked overtime without complaining.
She’d been herself, and had allowed herself to open up and respond as though they were two people just out having a good time.
