Page 30 of A Diamond Deal with Her Boss
It was dangerous.
And it was dangerous how much she knew him, how easy it was to be lulled by his sexy, seductive banter. Who even knew whether he was deliberately flirting? Who could tell whether it had meant anything when he’d looked at her for just a bit too long with those lazy, dark eyes as he’d relaxed back in his chair and sipped from his glass of wine?
‘It was wonderful. The restaurant is to die for and the food was heavenly. Your grandmother is very lucky to have something of that standard just round the corner.’
Gabriel raked his fingers through his hair and half-turned away. She looked so damned glorious that he wanted to step forward, yank her towards him, kiss her senseless, then take her up to the bedroom and do all sorts of other things to her that would leave her even more senseless.
He’d been plagued with uncomfortable arousal for the duration of the evening, and he knew that if he carried on looking at her now and letting his imagination run riot he wouldn’t be the only one to notice his excitement. It would be evident to her as well.
‘Not sure she makes a habit of going to five-star restaurants. Her diet has been, through necessity, a simple one.’
Silence. And this time the king of silence was finding it hard to deal with—although she, it had to be said, was as controlled as he was restless. The shoe was most firmly on the other foot.
‘Think I’ll get some work in,’ he said abruptly, spinning round on his heels and heading in the direction of the office at the end of the long villa.
Left alone, Abby felt a shard of disappointment pierce her, and she fiercely reminded herself that whilstshemight have let pretend-world merge with real worldheobviously had a lot more control.
‘Good idea!’ she said brightly, moving off in the opposite direction towards the staircase.
‘Don’t wait up.’ Safer to sleep in the office, he thought, even if it meant a dodgy back the next day. ‘I might do an all-nighter.’
Abby laughed and squashed the thought that an empty bed was the most unappealing thing in the world, especially after one of the best evenings of her life. She turned round and threw over her shoulder without looking at him, ‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
GABRIELLOOKEDAThis watch. He hadn’t thought it possible for time to move as slowly as it had. He’d been cooped up in the office for the past two hours and it had felt like a lifetime.
Was he going to sleep there? Not a chance. One look at the sleeping options had put paid to any such plan. Besides, he’d managed to spend the past two nights sharing a bed with her. She’d stuck to her side, as though glued to the space, and he’d had his usual brief sleep, waking while she was enjoying her first dream and heading downstairs for strong coffee and a backlog of emails.
Touching hadn’t been on his mind. He’d reined in any hint of his imagination getting frisky and had told himself that there was no way he was going to jeopardise his professional relationship with her by making a pass.
Even though the combination of him, a bed and a sexy woman didn’t bear thinking about.
But tonight...
Something had been different, a little shift that had made his blood run hot.
He got up and flexed, stretching out the stiffness of having been sitting for two hours. When he looked at his watch, it was to find that it was after one in the morning, and he was pretty sure she would be sound asleep. For someone who had been as skittish as a colt about sharing a bed with him, she’d managed to fall asleep for the past two nights with no problem at all.
Still in the clothes he had worn to go to the restaurant, Gabriel began heading up the stairs, making sure not to switch on any lights.
His movements were as stealthy as a panther. By the time he was standing outside the bedroom, he had unbuttoned his shirt and tugged it out of the waistband of his trousers.
She had left the door slightly ajar, as she had the night before, and he had easily read the motive behind that.Don’t wake me,that gesture had shrieked. There was no way she would find it comfortable to be awake when he slipped under the sheets. He grinned at the thought of her blushing discomfort, but then sobered up when he realised thathewould find it all slightly awkward as well, even though he was an expert when it came to all things between the sheets.
Indeed, he had spent at least one night sleeping next to a woman with whom he had had no intention of making love but with whom, for reasons beyond his control, he had found himself sharing a bed. She had come onto him with the clumsy determination of someone who’d had just a tiny bit too much to drink, and he had had no problem gently swatting away her advances until she had nodded off into snoring slumber. He could have been sleeping next to a mannequin for all the temptation he had felt to touch.
He pushed open the door very gently and shut it just as gently behind him. He heard the soft click and then, reassured by Abby’s even breathing, Gabriel padded towards the bathroom, stripping off his shirt en route and tossing it onto the floor.
Abby didn’t move a muscle. Wasn’t he supposed to be sleeping in the office? Doing an all-nighter? She would never have dreamt of reading her book for an hour if she’d known that—she would have been on red alert to fall asleep andbeasleep in record-breaking time because he was returning to the bedroom!
It was dark in the room, but not so dark that she hadn’t seen the ripple of muscled torso as he’d begun removing his shirt.
Abby felt wired. She wanted to keep still but suddenly had to move because she was beginning to get pins and needles in her feet.
She moved just as Gabriel exited the bathroom, the light behind him throwing his body into shadow. His torso was bare. Was that how he had slept next to her for the past two nights? Had she been sharing the bed with a half-naked Gabriel? Thankfully he was in a pair of loose drawstring bottoms which were slung low on his hips and looked ridiculously sexy.
‘Did I wake you?’ Gabriel reached to turn off the bathroom light and the bedroom was plunged into immediate darkness, but then within seconds his eyes acclimatised because the moon was managing to seep through the shutters, casting just enough of a dim light to outline the dark shapes in the room.
