by Maggie Cox
Although the air was drenched with the smell of alluring perfume and expensive cologne, the predominant scent was that of money. It was strange how the realisation didn’t give Gabriel his usual sense of pleasure or the satisfaction that he’d grown to depend on.
Looking for an out, he caught the eye of the maître d’ and asked him to show them into the private dining room where they were scheduled to eat.
The gathering had been set up in one of the most intimately sophisticated rooms of the restaurant which was frequently the chosen venue for the private meetings he had with his executive clientele. But tonight Gabriel’s fellow guests would be some of the key players who had worked with him to help avert yet another serious financial crisis. After the tough few weeks they had endured, and the intense few days when it had been touch and go and Gabriel had been called in to join them, they would be in the mood to celebrate. Although by no means could anyone rest on their laurels yet.
The effusive greetings of his fellow diners over, Gabriel was relieved to be able to sit down next to Lara and look at the menu. It didn’t escape his notice that her slender fingers shook slightly as she perused what was on offer, and neither did he miss her soft-voiced sigh. His broad-suited shoulder brushed against hers as he leant towards her and he caught the faint but arousing scent of her honeyed perfume. His stomach clenched hard with desire.
Lowering his voice he asked, ‘How are you bearing up? I promise this won’t go on for too long.’
His reward was a too brief glimpse of a smile.
‘I’m all right. I think.’
Gabriel’s own smile was more generous. ‘I can’t say that I am. I’d much rather we were alone together than here at this dinner,’ he confessed. ‘And, trust me, I wouldn’t be here at all if I had the choice.’
It was impossible to suppress the need and desire that crept into his tone. In truth, it was hard even to think straight when Lara was around.
‘I’m bowled over by the fact that you’re actually here,’ he went on, ‘and that you came all this way just to see me. By the way, this is a very good menu. “Bankers’ fare”, they call it. If you want a recommendation, can I suggest the filet mignon?’
Unable to resist, he let his avid gaze into her sultry brown eyes deliberately linger, quite aware that there was running speculation round the table about their relationship. After all, Lara was an unknown entity to them. A very beautiful and desirable unknown entity.
Before she could comment on his suggestion of cuisine, one of the top city bankers across the table—a man called Lars Jensen—leaned towards them and asked confidently, ‘So, Lara—can I call you that?—I’m intrigued, as all my colleagues are. How did you meet Gabriel? He has a reputation of being a bit of a wizard here on Wall Street—a regular Croesus. Whatever he touches turns to gold. Did you perhaps have some business dealings with him in London? If you did, lucky you.’
The suited young man seated opposite her, with his fashionable, close-cut fair hair and too-inquisitive green eyes, had honed in on Lara like a missile poised to attack. Having no idea how much or how little Gabriel wanted her to reveal, she made her quietly voiced response carefully measured.
‘I know nothing about the financial world and, no, we didn’t meet in London. Gabriel went to university with my brother. That’s how we met.’
‘I’m even more intrigued. You mean that you’ve known him all these years and he hasn’t mentioned you? At least not in my hearing.’
‘Why should he mention me? We’re just friends.’
Catching an expression that was almost a glower on Gabriel’s handsome face, Lara sensed herself flush. Had she said the wrong thing? What else could she have said? That she was an ex-girlfriend of his? That patently wasn’t true.
‘So you’re “just friends”, are you?’ Lars’s tone was mockingly doubtful as his laserlike glance pinioned them both. ‘Is that a new euphemism for lovers in the UK?’
‘No, it isn’t,’ Gabriel interjected firmly, his hard jaw clenching. Out of sight, his hand folded possessively over Lara’s. ‘And if I tell you that Lara was only sixteen when we first met, I doubt you’d think we would have been lovers, would you?’
This time the other man’s searching gaze lingered over-long on Lara, making a mental inventory of her assets almost as if she was some kind of lucrative deal he was convinced would add to his fortune.
Lowering his voice, he briefly turned his attention back to Gabriel, commenting, ‘Don’t tell me you weren’t tempted?’
Beside her, Lara intimately sensed the silent fury and tension in her companion’s body as if it were her own.
‘I think we should drop the subject. don’t you? Lara is my guest here and your inappropriate insinuations are making her uncomfortable. That’s not acceptable.’ His ice-blue gaze swept the table. ‘And that goes for all of you.’
There was a sudden marked silence and Lara wanted the floor to open up and swallow her. If anything Gabriel’s warning had only increased the curiosity in the other guests’ eyes. Squeezing his hand to get his attention, she felt her heart thump hard when she immediately got it. His eyes shot little sparks of tangible electricity at her.
‘What is it?’ he demanded.
‘You don’t have to defend me. I’m sure your friend didn’t mean anything by what he said.’
‘You know that for sure, do you?’ Tugging her towards him, so that what he said would be for her ears and her ears only, he whispered, ‘Number one, he’s not a friend—he’s a colleague, and a very ambitious and ruthless colleague. You should be aware that we’re sitting at a table full of hungry sharks, my angel, and right now you’re the bait.’
Lara shivered. As her eyes strayed across the table to the rest of the glittering company, clad in their perfect Italian suits and breathtaking haute couture, she was stunned to realise that everyone was examining her and trying to figure out exactly who she was, as if it wasn’t a usual occurrence for Gabriel to bring an unknown woman to these functions with him.
Feeling her face flame self-consciously at being the centre of so much attention, she turned back to her companion. ‘I need to go to the ladies’ room,’ she murmured.
Gabriel immediately signalled to a nearby waitress and asked her to direct her. But as he stood back and helped her to her feet Lara sensed his reluctance and frustration at having to release her even for a second.
* * *
Lara felt as if she deserved a prize for enduring one of the most discomfiting and tense evenings of her life. But at the end of it one thing was absolutely clear. What she’d witnessed of the superficial and pressured life of the New York financial ‘elite’ wasn’t for her.
Even though it was a dream come true to be with Gabriel, she was already longing to return home to the simple yet satisfying day-to-day routine she was familiar with—a way of life where she didn’t have to be overly concerned about what people thought of her or whether she was wearing the right outfit to go to dinner or to work. Even at the college library she could get away with wearing jeans and a T-shirt.
That said, Gabriel looked nothing less than edible in his flawless Italian tailoring. One of the female guests at their table had obviously deliberately followed her out to the loo, and had blatantly quizzed her about her relationship with him. When Lara had frostily declined to tell her, the other woman had immediately shared a ‘no-holds barred’ graphic illustration of what she’d personally like to do with him in bed.
Lara’s jaw had dropped at the woman’s sheer temerity. It was obvious that Gabriel’s warning to his assembled peers not to make her feel unduly uncomfortable was only to be adhered to as they sat round the dinner table. Out of his sight it was open season for the sharks to feed. Lara had quickly discovered that going to the dinner as Gabriel’s guest didn’t automatically grant her immunity from the other women who desired him and wo
uldn’t hesitate to tell her so.
It was a relief to return to the apartment, even though Gabriel had been broodingly quiet on the journey home. Inevitably her anxiety had been building because of his lack of communication, and as soon as they were alone again Lara immediately turned to him for some answers as to the reason why.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked as he shrugged off his suit jacket and hung it on the steel coat stand inside the door. ‘I get the feeling that you’re unhappy. Didn’t you enjoy the dinner? Your colleagues were certainly glad to see you.’
He curled his lip. ‘It may come as a surprise to you, Lara, but on Wall Street it pays to stay on good terms with the boss. With the money, as they say here. If you think that people were glad to see me simply because they love my company then you’re more naïve than I thought.’
Toeing off her shoes, as was her habit when she was at home, Lara heaved an annoyed sigh.
‘Do you get off on cutting me down to size, Gabriel? Does it stroke your ego to do that? Obviously it must. And anyway why shouldn’t people be glad of your company? You can be quite pleasant when you try, though I confess that’s not very—’
The final word of her little speech was unceremoniously cut off as Gabriel hauled her against his chest and devoured her lips with a hard, open-mouthed kiss. As soon as his silken tongue drove into her mouth and his hands moved down her body to lift up her skirt and touch her intimately Lara felt immediately and frighteningly powerless to deny him anything. It appalled her that she couldn’t even put up a fight. But then why would she want to, she reasoned, when she loved him so much that it hurt?
‘Right now I can’t take it slowly,’ he breathed hotly against her mouth. ‘I confess you’ve become irresistible to me, and I can’t take it slowly because I want you too much, but afterwards...’
Lara momentarily held her breath as she sensed his hand slide into her panties. When his searching fingers invaded her and pushed up she gasped, her head falling against his hard-muscled shoulder. Her senses were instantly drowned by the heat from his body and the seductive, sultry scent of his masculine cologne. If he hadn’t been holding her she might easily have sunk down to the floor, because her limbs were rendered weak as a kitten’s.
‘Afterwards,’ he continued, his free hand caressing the back of her neck, ‘we’ll take it nice and slow and really get to know each other, find out what gives us the most pleasure.’
Unable to reply because she was suddenly swept away on a sea of delectation so profoundly erotic that she couldn’t speak, Lara pressed her cheek against Gabriel’s pristine white shirt, registering the wild beating of his heart against her ear and wondering what she could do to make him feel similarly swept away.
She hardly seemed to know herself when she was with this man. All she could think about in his company was fulfilling her most carnal desires and hopefully fulfilling his, too. Had her self-enforced celibacy all these years turned her into some kind of insatiable siren?
When she lifted her head it was to find Gabriel staring down at her with an intensity that almost stopped her heart. ‘What you do to me...’ she murmured softly, tenderly touching her hand to his cheek.
His piercing blue eyes crinkling in acknowledgement, he lifted her up into his arms as though her weight didn’t even signify. Then, still holding her gaze he affirmed huskily, ‘We need to go to bed. Now.’
CHAPTER TEN
THE FOLLOWING WEEK passed like the most fantastical dream. Whilst her days were spent sightseeing and touring the city—courtesy of Barry, Gabriel’s attentive chauffeur—Lara’s nights were all given over to Gabriel. On occasion he wined and dined her at wonderful restaurants, took her to the cinema or to see a show on Broadway, but whatever the entertainment or pleasure they participated in, the high point of every evening was always when they returned to Gabriel’s apartment and to each other’s arms.
Knowing that her short holiday was quickly coming to an end, and that soon she would be going home to England to resume her post as college librarian, Lara started to feel painfully anxious about the future of her relationship with Gabriel. Did they even have a future together? They had a powerful connection, certainly, and there was no disputing the fact that she loved him, but as he had noticeably avoided discussing commitment and making their association more meaningful, Lara couldn’t help but be apprehensive.
She had seen first-hand how devoted he was to what he did, and how seductive it must be to be so highly regarded in the financial arena he worked in. His colleagues all seemed to view Gabriel as practically irreplaceable. But did that mean he would never consider returning to the UK and once more making it his home?
During the time Lara had spent with him in New York he had never even mentioned the family home that he’d inherited. She was wary of trying to get him to discuss it in case it stirred up the fury and despair he’d expressed when he’d read his uncle’s letter, yet she knew that Gabriel would never come to terms with what had happened and start to heal his past if he never even addressed the issue.
What did he intend to do about the Regency manor house that he’d grown up in? Did he plan to sell it and not even consider going back to reside there?
If that were the case, and he stayed in New York, Lara was pretty certain she wouldn’t be joining him. The elite, sophisticated lifestyle and relentlessly driven aims of the bankers and financiers to make and acquire even more money and kudos epitomised everything she and her family disliked about the pursuit of material success in the world. As her brother, Sean, used to say, ‘What good is being rich if you don’t do something good with your wealth to help those less privileged on the planet?’
But Lara’s dilemma was more than just the fact that that particular way of living didn’t chime with her personal values. It had much more to do with her despair that Gabriel had never even once told her that he loved her. She had begun to suspect that he never would. Already she feared their heated, passionate union would be very quickly put aside to be replaced by even more work demands and perhaps occasionally the company of one of those ‘pretty ladies’ he’d mentioned that he called upon whenever he got lonely.
Was she really so hard to love? And would he honestly prefer that lonely and ultimately empty existence over enjoying Lara’s love and devotion for the rest of his life? Not to mention the possibility of creating a family of their own....
Sipping at a glass of orange juice in the living room as she waited for him to reappear that evening—he’d got back late from work and was still getting ready so that they could go out to dinner—Lara stared out at the stunning New York skyline of silver and shadows and felt unbearably sad.
Her sojourn here was rapidly coming to an end, and as yet nothing had been resolved between them about their relationship. This was to be her last night in the city because tomorrow she was flying home, and so far, aside from giving her the details of her flight, Gabriel had hardly even mentioned it.
‘Hey.’
The smoky cadence of his voice had her turning quickly, and just in time she managed to avoid spilling juice all over the pretty midnight blue silk dress Gabriel had bought her.
She had never sought for him to buy her gifts, and had frequently told him so whenever he suggested it, but when he’d told her he’d stepped out of his office one afternoon to visit a high-end store so that he might get her ‘something pretty to wear to dinner’, Lara had been helplessly touched by his thoughtfulness. Pleased, too. The garment was sleek and fitted, and when she’d taken it out of the stylish carrier bag and unwrapped it from its carefully folded tissue paper she’d been taken aback at just how perfect it was.
She shouldn’t have been surprised that it fitted as though made for her, because her lover had an astute eye for the details that many men might miss—not to mention intimately knowing the lines and curves of her body. The thought that he’d committed them to
memory made her blood throb and heat in anticipation of the next time they would make love.
Setting the tall glass of juice aside, she curved her lips in an affectionate smile of awe and admiration. Gabriel stood before her dressed in another flawless suit, combined with a navy silk shirt and sky blue tie. His chestnut hair was swept back off his face to reveal the carved, clean lines that she was sure Michelangelo himself would have hungered to paint or sculpt.
‘Hey, yourself.’
‘I see you’re wearing the dress.... Stand up—let me see how it fits.’
Getting to her feet, Lara obligingly made a slow turn to show off the dress from every angle.
An array of tumultuous feelings hit Gabriel all at once. But first and foremost was the dizzying sensation of warmth that flooded his heart—flooded it like a cascading waterfall where, if you were to stand underneath it, you would scarcely be able to draw breath with the force of it.
As he stood and surveyed the bewitching combination of beauty and sensuality that was Lara, and sensed his blood start to pound with the inevitable hunger and need that always arose when she was near, he wondered if that alien feeling was love. That sense of complete and utter helplessness in the face of something that he’d always told himself he didn’t want? That hitching of his heart and the weakness in his limbs whenever he caught sight of the woman he intuitively knew he would be willing to die for in order to keep safe? And—more than that—the feeling of devastating loss he imagined he would suffer if he were never to see her again? Surely they were all signs that pointed to him being head over heels in love with Lara?
But what followed that wondrous revelation was the dark demon of fear. Fear that he might ruin her life because he had no experience of caring for such a priceless jewel.