‘You’re shocked,’ he said gravely, pulling a chair close to her so that he didn’t have to raise his voice.
‘Well-detected, Sherlock Holmes.’ Abby abandoned all pretence of being the detached, professional, self-composed PA she had spent the past two years cultivating.
She looked at him and took a healthy gulp of wine, grimacing for a few seconds, then following it up with another, more restrained sip.
‘Your grandmother thinks... She thinks that somehow... Why didn’t you say something?’
‘I didn’t have a great deal of time to plan ahead.’
‘What does planning ahead have to do with anything?’ Abby cried. ‘Your grandmother has somehow got hold of the wrong end of the stick, and now she’s dashed off upstairs to find your mother’s ring so that you can stick it on my finger because suddenly I’ve turned into your fiancée!’
‘I was on the phone to her consultant.’
‘What?’
‘The important call I had to take. It wasn’t work-related, as it happens. I’d made an appointment to see my grandmother’s consultant as soon as I got to Seville. It should have been a face-to-face meeting, but unfortunately he’s had to fly to Madrid because his grandson has been rushed to hospital with a medical emergency.’
‘What does this have to do with anything?’ Abby wondered whether she’d actually gone mad and was now inhabiting a parallel universe where normal rules no longer applied.
‘He had something rather sensitive to talk about, hence his insistence that we meet, but failing that he felt he should let me know that, a few months ago, my grandmother had to be rushed into hospital with a suspected overdose.’
‘What?’
‘She insisted at the time that she got confused and took more of her medication than intended but her doctor, whilst ninety percent sure that she was telling the truth, felt that he was obliged to let me know that she was on tablets for depression at the time, so there was a chance that she had, indeed, tried to overdose.’
‘My goodness!’
‘My grandmother is extremely proud and she would loathe me knowing this but, unfortunately, it has some bearing on what’s happening now.’
‘Why don’t I like the sound of this?’
‘Have another swig of wine, or would you rather something a bit stronger?’
‘Do I need something stronger? Brandy? Whisky? A slug of methylated spirits?’
‘Why have you spent two years keeping your sense of humour hidden away?’
Abby blushed and glared at him, and he held his hands up in mock surrender.
‘I knew nothing of my grandmother’s depression, and for that I blame myself. I took my eye off the ball and then thought I could make it right by doing what she’s wanted me to do for a long time—getting engaged. Finding someone willing to put up with me, dragging her kicking and screaming up the aisle and then proceeding to have a series of mini mes.’
‘This isn’t funny, Gabriel.’ But she knew that he was keeping it light because it was less alarming that being utterly and deadly serious.
‘When I told her that I was going to be married, when I made arrangements to visit her here with my fiancée, she immediately went to the consultant and handed over the rest of the anti-depressants. Said she didn’t need them any more because she had something to live for.’
‘Oh, Gabriel. What on earth are you going to do?’
‘She’s rushed into thinking that you’re my fiancée.’
‘Yes,’ Abby said simply. For one, brief, treacherous moment she wondered what it would be like to be that woman, the woman with Gabriel’s ring on her finger. A leggy, well connected Lucy-like stunner who would go on to have loads of little Gabriels...
‘I can’t really believe it,’ she murmured with complete honesty.
‘Can’t believe what? She had no idea what Lucy looked like, didn’t even know her name. It happened very fast and, like I said, I’d hoped for the big surprise. When you think about it, it’s little wonder she’s jumped to the wrong conclusion. I may have mentioned in passing that I would be doing some work while I was over here. I can’t remember if I said anything about bringing my PA.’
He paused thoughtfully, sipped his wine, looked at Abby’s flushed face and admired the fact that, while she was obviously host to a certain amount of panic and bewilderment, she was still managing to keep her head and not give in to hysterics. He liked that. Always had.
‘My grandmother gets confused.’ He felt a tightness in his chest when he said that because he had vivid memories of what life had been like growing up under her loving tutelage. Where had the time gone? She’d once been as sprightly as a cricket. She and his grandfather had done everything for him. Had she started going downhill when his grandfather had died?
He had seen how much his father had suffered after his own mother had died, after which they had both gone to live with his grandparents. Gabriel had been very young, though. Had he been so absorbed learning his own life lessons at that point that he had switched off his emotions completely? Shut down his ability to empathise just in case he got caught up in a tangle of emotions that might drag him under, as they had his own father?
He’d been sworn off love but had he been sworn off everything else?
Had he quietly closed himself off so that he had become a spectator?
He loathed this self-pitying train of thought and he scowled and shifted in the chair.
‘I don’t mean that,’ Abby said impatiently. ‘I mean it’s ludicrous that your grandmother would even think that someone like me could end up being engaged to someone like you!’ She laughed a little self-consciously but when she met his gaze it was to find that he didn’t share the joke.
‘What do you mean?’
‘C-come off it, Gabriel,’ Abby stammered, feeling her way forward and wishing she hadn’t opened her big mouth and said anything, but the words had just come out of her unfiltered.
‘Explain. I’m not following you.’
‘You said yourself that you got engaged to Lucy because she ticked all the right boxes: well connected, beautiful, the sort of person who would easily fit into your social circle...’
‘I seem to have been remarkably descriptive on the subject,’ Gabriel murmured, absorbed by the shifting patterns of discomfort and embarrassment on her face.
‘I’m nothing like Lucy.’ She laughed in a halting fashion. ‘So I’m just surprised that Ava would have jumped to the wrong conclusion so easily. She must know that you’re attracted to beautiful women.’
‘I never thought you were self-conscious about your looks.’
‘I’m not!’ But her face was beetroot-red, and burning as though she’d gone up in flames. She wanted to say something glib and humorous to change the subject. She would even have settled for something prissy and stern, both mood-killers, but her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth and her vocal cords had completely dried up.
‘Good,’ Gabriel said softly, ‘Because you shouldn’t be.’ He touched the side of her face, but only for a few seconds, and just like that Abby’s breath hitched in her throat and she was painfully aware of her body in ways that were appalling and unimaginable.
Her nipples stiffened and her breasts were suddenly heavy and tender, weighing like ripe fruit against the lacy cotton of her bra. Those uninvited ripples of sensual awareness were unexpected and alarming.
He’d whipped his hand away, but where he had touched her stung, and she had to resist the urge to cool it with the palm of her hand. She didn’t want to do that because she had no idea what sort of message that would convey and she wasn’t going to take the chance.
‘I’m going to ask something very big of you, Abby, and there’s not going to be a whole lot of time to think about it.’
‘No.’
‘I haven’t asked yet.’
‘You don’t have to—and, no, I won’t pretend to be your fiancée because your grandmother’s made a simple mistake. You need to be honest w
ith her and tell her the truth.’ She thought of the way the elderly woman’s eyes had lit up at the mention of her daughter’s jewellery and then chased that thought away in case it undermined her determination.
Gabriel vaulted to his feet and paced the kitchen, as restless as a bear confined in a cage.
He didn’t look at her—seemed barely aware of his surroundings. Eventually, though, he stood in front of her and said roughly, with deadly seriousness, ‘She’s a lot more fragile than I ever imagined. I haven’t been here for her.’
He looked away and raked his fingers through his dark hair. ‘I got lost in my work and allowed things to slip.’ He made an all-encompassing gesture with his hand. ‘When I bought her this, after my grandfather died, I did it to clear my conscience. These are things I have never discussed with anyone,’ he continued with none of his usual grace and Abby felt as though she was glimpsing the real man behind the sexy, charming guy she worked for.
This was Gabriel, the essence of him, a man who kept his emotions under tight control until, now, he couldn’t. Her heart went out to him and something seemed to slip a little under her feet. It was as if she’d been walking on solid ground only to discover that it wasn’t as solid as she’d thought.
‘Gabriel,’ she protested helplessly.
‘I fear for her,’ he said quietly. ‘After what her doctor has confided, it would seem that there is a great deal going on under the surface. She’s found a new lease of life. You heard her. I fear for what might happen if that lease of life is taken away from her, which it would be, should she find out that there’s no engagement.’
‘Parents get over these disappointments.’
‘Like yours did? Is that what happened, Abby? Did some guy put a ring on your finger and then break your heart by taking it away?’
Abby swallowed hard and looked away. She stared through the window at the velvety night outside, so different from the darkness of London, where it was really never that dark because of the street lamps.
‘We’re not talking about me,’ she said gruffly.
‘Do this for me and you can name your price,’ Gabriel said flatly and her head snapped up.
‘That’s not how I operate, Gabriel!’
He remained silent until she sighed, scarcely believing that she was having this conversation. ‘You can’t buy me. I know you feel that money can get you anything you want, but it can’t.’
In the past two weeks, it felt as though a house of cards had come tumbling down. In a heartbeat, Abby the efficient, contained professional had opened a door and a rush of wind had entered, bringing with it a tumult of emotions. ‘Even if I agreed to this, lying can never be condoned, and what happens when the truth comes out? Ava will be so deeply hurt that you led her on and that I did too.’
‘Why would she find out?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Don’t think of it as a lie,’ Gabriel urged, leaning forward and letting his hands drop between his legs. ‘Think of it as a simple charade, with an end in sight and a goal in mind.’
‘That’s just a clever play with words, Gabriel.’ She shot him a wry look from under lashes and he had the grace to flush.
‘We maintain a pretence while we’re over here. In the meantime, I will try to find out what her depression is about, try and...’ he paused and shook his head ‘...make up for the time I should have spent visiting and sitting down with her, instead of phoning on the hop between business deals in different countries.’
Abby didn’t say anything. Her breathing was shallow and she glanced away for a few seconds.
‘And then? What happens next in this scenario?’
‘We return to London and inevitably we break up. These things happen but, by that point, I will have at least gone some way to repairing the fissure in our relationship. I might even,’ he mused thoughtfully, ‘Try and persuade her to semi-emigrate to London, or perhaps to one of those leafy suburbs outside London. She loves living here, so it’s a long shot, but I would be far more accessible if we were to live in the same country.’ He looked at Abby. ‘In fact, you could start investigating that.’
‘Investigating what?’
‘Houses in leafy suburbs within commuting distance of London. Have a short list drawn up. Money no object.’
‘Gabriel, that’s not how things work.’
‘Of course it is. I’m sure I’ll be able to persuade my grandmother on the advantages of moving and, once she’s close by and our convenient charade is at an end, I can put my mind to actually finding a woman more suitable to my needs than Lucy was.’
Abby’s stomach tightened. Did he have any idea how insulting that remark was? No, of course he didn’t, because although he might pat her hand and tell her to buck up because she wasn’t the back end of the bus she’d made herself out to be, it was farcical to think that they could ever be a couple.
She was mortified that she had gone a little fuzzy round the edges when he had looked at her with those brooding dark eyes and told her that she shouldn’t run herself down in the looks department.
‘What a nuisance for you that Lucy didn’t end up ticking all the right boxes,’ she said coolly. ‘Now you’ll have to go through the process all over again. Question, however—don’t you think your grandmother might see that, in your rush to the altar, you’re not actually in love with the woman with the ring on her finger?’
Gabriel laughed and sat back. ‘No, not really, now that you mention it. She wants me to be happy and she will see that I’m happy. Straightforward.’
‘And the love element won’t matter.’
‘Love doesn’t equate to happiness for everyone, Abby. Now, shall we wrap up this intense conversation and get back to the matter in hand? You want nothing from me. You’re insulted that I would dare ask you to name your price for doing something that will undoubtedly benefit an old woman whose health is compromised. So, Abby, will you do this for me simply because I’m asking you to—as nothing more than a favour?’
His voice was soft and low and made her feel giddy and girlish.
‘I won’t do it for you, Gabriel, but I will agree to this for your grandmother’s sake. I understand what you’re saying about her health. My mother hasn’t been great over the past six months. In fact, she’s had shingles, and on the back of that her health has taken a knocking and she’s ended up in hospital with pneumonia. It’s been desperately worrying and she’s been under medical advice to take things easy. My dad and I have likewise been warned about the damage that can be caused by stress.’
She paused and blinked furiously then took a deep breath and looked at him steadily. ‘My dad’s cashed in all his shares and used up his pension so that he can take Mum on a round-the-world cruise, so I understand that there are no limits when it comes to doing what it takes for someone you care about.’
Gabriel looked at her pensively. That level of devotion was just the thing that had made him cynical. He had been much younger, of course, and more impressionable, but he had seen what happened when one half of a partnership like that died: utter devastation. A parent in mourning with no time or energy left for the living, for a child who might need parental support all the more, only to find it missing in action.
On top of that, Abby had obviously gone through some sort of ordeal with a man.
And yet here she was, talking about love as though it was something to be lauded instead of avoided at all costs.
Could he trust her not to read more into a one-week charade than was actually there? he wondered.
Two weeks ago, he would have bet his penthouse apartment that his efficient, prim and remote PA was as cool in the emotional stakes as he was, yet he was getting to know more and more about her, and his views were changing fast.
She might be ice on the outside but the inside was a different matter altogether...
She knew him, of course, knew the sort of women he was attracted to, and even knew what he was looking for in a marriage. Did he have to spell any
thing out?
‘My grandmother will be down shortly,’ he said. ‘And, whilst I am deeply grateful for your offer to...help me out in this matter, now that I think about it, I would rather keep things on a business footing. It would probably be for the best.’ He smiled crookedly and said, with absolute sincerity, ‘A practical arrangement is something I would feel at home with and, bearing that in mind, I have a proposition I think you’d like...’
CHAPTER FOUR
KEEP IT STRICTLY BUSINESS, Gabriel thought. With signatures on the dotted line, there would be no room for unfortunate misunderstandings. Favours had a nasty habit of backfiring and, in this instance, any backfiring could get...complicated. He wanted no emotional entanglements. No ghostly, shadowy possibility of any emotional entanglements.
That was something he would take away from the Lucy episode. He had foolishly thought that all cards had been put on the table. He’d never mentioned love, had never whispered sweet nothings. He had presented her with marriage as a union between two people who got along. How he had ever come to that conclusion baffled him in retrospect because Lucy, nice as she was, had been far too refreshingly naïve for his jaded soul.
But he’d been seduced by the allure of making his grandmother happy, accepting the fact that he really wasn’t interested in remaining single for ever, and had been abroad for so much of their extremely brief courtship that he had had no opportunity really to discover the cracks until they’d opened up into an unbreachable chasm.
If he’d been more businesslike from the beginning things would never have progressed to the point where Lucy had ended up hurt and bewildered, something for which he took full blame. She would have tossed him out on his ear without him coming to the end of his proposal!
Instead, he had made sweeping and egotistical assumptions that the bottomless vastness of his bank balance would be sufficient pull for any woman to adhere to what he wanted.
Next time round—and there would be a next time round—he would find a woman as career-driven as he was for whom marriage would be a mutually acceptable union between two people for whom work would always hold centre stage.
A Diamond Deal With Her Boss Page 5