by Robyn Grady
He believed he could change Nina’s mind. He knew what to say, how to touch, where to kiss, so she couldn’t say no. But, as much as the beast inside urged him to persuade her to continue their affair after she returned to Sydney, he simply couldn’t be that selfish and hurt her that way.
As he’d said—she was right. His past with women was proof. Nina would only end up hurt.
She wanted his respect and he did respect her—her courage, her humour and integrity. But respect and love were two different things. If she was frightened about how much she cared for him, he wasn’t too comfortable with his emotions either.
He’d told her his life was too busy to accommodate the kind of commitment she was wanted. But through these long, lonely hours he’d admitted that was a lie. The simple truth was he didn’t want to be tied down. But it went deeper than that. He didn’t want to commit because he didn’t need to worry about whether he was good enough. Whether he could provide enough—emotionally financially, physically.
His mother hadn’t given his father a chance and young Gabe had been the one to lose out. He’d come to terms with his mother’s choices. He’d forgiven her long ago. But he had Faith and her gentle wise ways to thank for that.
Faith had said, no matter what, he could be anything he wanted to be. But in a dark hidden place, he knew why he’d never let himself get close to any woman.
He didn’t believe in that kind of love. And until recently he hadn’t found that conviction to be a problem.
At 7 a.m. he showered, dressed, and made his way to the jetty. An hour later he stood when Nina approached wheeling one suitcase behind her. The ferry-cat to the mainland left in twenty minutes. Twenty minutes and then…
Would he ever see her again?
She didn’t seem surprised to see him. Her eyes looked as red as his felt, and it was all he could do not to tell her this was crazy. This didn’t have to end.
Instead he remembered her pleas, his long, insightful night, and handed over a tiger shell.
“This is for your nephew.” He placed the shiny tawny- and brown-dotted shell in her hand. “Put your ear to the opening and you hear the ocean.”
She listened, smiled, and then lowered the shell. “Thank you,” she said. “Thanks for everything you’ve done.”
He dropped his gaze and then found her eyes again. “Nina, I did some soul-searching last night.”
Her gaze sharpened. “And?”
“I want you to be everything you can be.”
In a heartbeat her eyes edged with tears and, although she set her mouth, her bottom lip still trembled. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done, holding back from gathering her close, kissing her brow and telling her…what?
He’d already said he cared. He cared more for her than anyone he’d known. More than Faith, more than his father or Anthony. It was a different kind of emotion. A consuming sensation that affected every inch of him…head, but more so heart. And yet he couldn’t tell her what she needed to hear.
So what was the use of tormenting himself? Or her? Why had he come?
“Good luck with your work here,” she said.
He blinked against the emotion stinging behind his nose. “Good luck with the new job.”
A tear fell from the corner of her eye before she bounced onto tiptoe and stole a kiss from his cheek. Then she was gone, striding off down the jetty, boarding the cat and not looking back.
Soon it began to shower. The shower turned into sheets of rain. After an hour, Gabriel walked home.
He knew he could get Diamond Shores back on its feet. He was well on track now, thanks to Nina and the other staff’s suggestions. She was right. No one needed to lick anyone’s boots—not in his childhood and not now. He’d make the changes that needed to be made. He’d make the fortune he’d always wanted. He’d prove himself. Reach the top.
Yet all he could think about was how lucky some guy in Nina’s future would be and how, without her in his life, he might as well be broke.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
NINA had been back in Sydney two weeks, and had started her new job at Real Woman’s Life magazine a few days ago.
She’d fallen straight into the work and had hit it off instantly with her fellow staff. Best was the feeling that she finally fitted somewhere again. Her life was definitely on the upswing. Yet there was a hidden part of her that felt more lost than ever.
Sitting alone on a quiet stretch of Manly Beach, with a chorus of kookaburras heralding in a clear new day, Nina pushed to her feet, dusted off her shorts and headed for the water.
Once she’d loved coming here…laughable attempts at beach volleyball with her friends, devouring great summer reads while the sun warmed her skin. Now blue skies, white sand and the mighty tumble of surf only reminded her of Gabriel.
Almost to the water, she stopped as her insides clenched and tears brimmed in her eyes.
She’d tried to shake off the malady…late-night movies, visits with Jill and Codie, reconnecting with mates and former colleagues.Yet every waking moment his smile seemed to live in her mind. Dazzling. Seductive.
Her dreams were even more disturbing. Sometimes she woke up believing his bone-melting embrace was real. The memory of his night kisses teased her until she thought she might go mad.
She had to talk with him, tell him she’d been wrong, that she was willing to take whatever he could give. Last night the ache in her stomach had been so bad she’d picked up the phone, ready to beg him to take her back.
What did she have to lose? The tragedy she’d hoped to avoid had come. Her heart was broken. Cracked in two. Her professional life was soaring, but on a personal, lovesick note, she doubted she could sink any lower.
And it was that sorry realisation that kept her from crumbling completely. From making another gigantic mistake.
If she called Gabriel and pitched herself back into their affair she would only fall more in love. She would be even more heartbroken when they said goodbye again. In not so many words, on that last day, Gabriel had told her to run.
He knew who he was…a playboy millionaire who had success and little else on his mind. But he cared for her. When she lay awake in the midnight hours, staring at the ceiling, she told herself he cared for her more than any woman he’d been with.
Still, he’d let her go.
She couldn’t take back all she’d said to him. Couldn’t let him know she was willing to have her heart decimated again. She might not have Gabriel Steele’s love, but she could at least keep his respect.
And so, once she’d gone around that circle of logic a thousand times, she stayed her course. She longed for Gabriel’s smile, his touch. But she kept her pain to herself.
But then came the next dilemma.
Would she ever feel whole again…the wonderful, glowing, cherished way she’d felt when she’d been with him? When she looked in the mirror each morning and saw the opacity in her eyes she couldn’t imagine feeling that vibrant again.
As cool laces of water washed around her bare feet, Nina wondered where and what her life would be ten years from now. She’d always thought she would find Mr Wonderful, her true soul mate, and she had. Love had come at the most unlikely time, when every other aspect of her life had been turned upside down and pulled inside out. But finding love wasn’t keeping love. One week after meeting Mr Wonderful she’d lost her love for good.
She gazed out at the Pacific Ocean, glittering with dawn’s gentle jewels, and hugged herself as a cool sea breeze combed her hair.
The question she’d asked herself lately hadn’t been, Who am I? It was Why am I? Why am I here?
Why do I matter?
She came up with reasons. Good ones. Reasons that counted. And yet without Gabriel to talk with…to laugh with…to love…those reasons never seemed anywhere near important enough.
Ahead, a bottle lay half buried in the sand. An unusual bottle—bright pink, with a spray of flowers painted on one side. Curious, she collected it and rubbed the wet
sand from the glass.
She stopped. Looked harder.
Paper was scrolled up inside.
A message in a bottle.
A wistful smile lifted the corners of her mouth.
On the night of April’s wedding Gabriel had asked her what she might write on such a note.
Nina closed her eyes, lifted her face to the northern sky and whispered…‘Wish you were here.’
Remembering her first vision of him on that cliff, she swallowed the tears backed up in her throat, screwed off the cork and shook the paper out. Unravelling the note, she saw the words were handwritten and slightly smudged. Only two words, and they read:
Turn around.
She blinked several times before tendrils of understanding gripped high around her throat and a flash of heat rushed over her skin. Her head was light and every hair on her scalp was standing on end by the time she did what the note asked. Slowly she edged around, and…
Gabriel! He was standing right there before her, as if he’d materialised out of thin air.
Her shaky grasp on the bottle slipped, but he caught it, as well as her hands, before it hit the ground.
He looked ten times more masculine and handsome than she’d remembered. Those ice-blue eyes burned into hers, warming her all the way through. A raspy shadow darkened his prominent jaw. She loved grazing her palm up the rough of his mid-morning beard.
Or rather she had loved doing that.
Nina wondered if her face showed even a tenth of her emotions. She wanted to run away, to beg him to stay. Tell him how desperately she wanted him to hold her.
But she didn’t need to ask. Gabriel’s strong arms wrapped around her and, still in shock, she didn’t resist when he drew her near.
“I remember it all,” he said against her ear as she trembled and he stroked her back. “As if every moment were logged in my brain beneath a magnifying glass. How you chew the end of your pencil when you pore over a crossword. How your foot taps when you listen to your favourite song. How you feel beneath me. Feel around me.”
Her voice pushed past the nerves knotted in her throat. “Gabriel…what are you doing here?”
He stepped back and found her gaze.
“Since you left I haven’t stopped asking myself whether I could truly keep you satisfied. Day and night, it pounded at my brain. I wanted to come to you, wanted you back, but I couldn’t stomach the idea of not measuring up.”
He inhaled and his gaze focused more. “Years ago, I vowed I would never be responsible for helping to create another broken home. Then, out of the blue, the answer came to me.”
Unable to help herself, she filed her fingers through the sides of his clean dark hair, wondering how she’d lived so long without his touch. Raw hope pushed like a fist against her chest, but she didn’t want to jump ahead. Didn’t want to hope too much.
“You wanted to discover who you were,” he went on, his voice intense and deep. “Let me tell you who you are to me. You’re the person I can face any battle with. You’re headstrong and beyond beautiful. You’re like no one I’ve ever known. Nina, you’re the woman I love and will love for ever. And I’m the man who prays you can forgive me for not realising that sooner and love me back.” He found her hands and clasped them to his chest, and that beautiful light she adored shone up in his eyes. “I want to help create a happy family. Our family. Nina, say you’ll marry me.”
She felt locked to the spot. The ocean and the sky and the kookaburra calls receded, until she was only aware of her throbbing heartbeat and the deep sincerity in his eyes. Over her clogged throat, she choked out what had played over in her mind these past weeks. He wasn’t the only one who’d been asking questions.
“Gabe, you said you didn’t want to get married.”
She didn’t want to believe it—didn’t want to think he’d be that cruel—but she had to know if this was another seduction game meant to get her back in his bed.
He tipped her chin up and gazed into her soul. “I was waiting for the right woman, and I can’t believe I almost let her go.” His arms went around her again. “I want to live the rest of my life with you. Have children together and be there for them every day. I want to sit and watch the sunrise with you fifty years from now. Tell me you want that too.” His brow lowered to rest upon hers. “Tell me you still feel the same way.”
Her chest squeezed until she could barely breathe. Of course she still loved him. Now that she’d fallen, she couldn’t imagine not loving him. He sounded so passionate, so focused, but there was something else she needed to say. The part of her that was weeping with happiness was telling her to keep quiet. She wanted to accept his proposal—she’d dreamed about it since the day they’d said goodbye—but she couldn’t simply push aside what she knew to be true.
“What about your life? Gabriel, I don’t want to live in a world of black-tie dinners every other night. I can’t be a real housewife.” She couldn’t be a rich kept woman, with too much time and money on her hands. After all she’d been through, that skin simply wouldn’t fit.
“Our life doesn’t have to be like that. We don’t have to have anyone or anything in our life we don’t want to have there. That obstacle’s not enough to keep us apart. Nothing is.” His determined eyes searched hers. “This connection is real. For ever. We’ll make it work. Believe it, Nina. Believe it the way I do and nothing else will matter.”
A flood of emotion bubbled up. She wanted to laugh. To cry. She choked out the words. “You really think so?”
“I love you…and I won’t let anything stand in our way.”
His head slanted over hers, and when their lips met and his masterful heat and confidence infused her she went to jelly and gave up her arguments. With all her heart, with everything she’d ever been and ever would be, she wanted this. Wanted him.
With tears spilling down her cheeks, she twined her arms around his neck and hitched back a happy sob as his lips reluctantly left hers.
There was supposed to be one special person in this world for everyone.
That’s why I’m here, she told herself, feeling the full depth of that truth. I’m here to love you. Not above and beyond everything else, but to strengthen and enrich everything else she was now and was destined to be.
“We’ll go straight to a store and pick out a ring,” he murmured, his voice thick with love and pride.
But as his eyes glistened into hers—so full of conviction and faith—she flexed her fingers into his shirt. “I’d rather go straight home and get reacquainted.”
“Why wait to get home?”
Without warning, he hoisted her up, a hand either side of her waist, and swung her around in a giddy, exhilarating circle. Alive with hope. Bursting with passion. Nina’s heart was so full she wanted all the world to know this kind of happiness.
They were laughing and out of breath by the time he folded down with her onto the wet sand. As a shallow wave washed in and scalloped around them, she lay over his chest and whispered, “I love you so much. I wanted to call you so much.”
His gaze roamed her face and he smiled. “I’m here now.”
“Do you think we were in love all those years ago?”
A playful frown pinched his brow. “You were only fourteen.”
“Juliet was fourteen.”
“I’m more interested in writing our own love story.”
He cradled her head, and Nina melted when his mouth claimed hers again.
As a rising swell of trust and passion consumed and lifted her up, in her heart Nina knew just three things:
The very best of her life had just begun…
She wished this kiss could last for ever…
And, as much as she loved this man—and she loved him to the infinite depths of her soul—Gabriel Turner Steele loved her more.
HIS MISTRESS FOR A MILLION
Trish Morey
About the Author
TRISH MOREY is an Australian who’s also spent time living and working in New Zea
land and England. Now she’s settled with her husband and four young daughters in a special part of South Australia, surrounded by orchards and bushland, and visited by the occasional koala and kangaroo. With a lifelong love of reading, she penned her first book at the age of eleven, after which life, career, and a growing family kept her busy until once again she could indulge her desire to create characters and stories—this time in romance. Having her work published is a dream come true. Visit Trish at her website, www.trishmorey.com.
To the Maytoners, every one of you warm, generous and wise. This one’s for you, with thanks. xxx
CHAPTER ONE
REVENGE was sweet.
Andreas Xenides eyed the shabby building that proclaimed itself a hotel, its faded sign swinging violently in the bitter wind that carved its way down the canyon of the narrow London street.
How long had it taken to track down the man he knew to be inside? How many years? He shook his head, oblivious to the cold that had passers-by clutching at their collars or burrowing hands deeper into pockets. It didn’t matter how long. Not now that he had found him.
The cell phone in his pocket beeped and he growled in irritation His lawyer had agreed to call him if there was a problem with his plan proceeding. But one look at the caller ID and Andreas had the phone slipped back in his pocket in a moment. Nothing on Santorini was more important than what was happening here in London today, didn’t Petra know that?
The wind grew teeth before he was halfway across the street, another burst of sleet sending pedestrians scampering for cover to escape the gusty onslaught, the street a running watercolour of black and grey.
He mounted the hotel’s worn steps and tested the handle. Locked as he’d expected, a buzzer and rudimentary camera mounted at the side to admit only those with keys or reservations but he was in luck. A couple wearing matching tracksuits and money belts emerged, so disgusted with the weather that they barely looked his way. He was past them and following the handmade sign to the downstairs reception before they’d struggled into their waterproof jackets and slammed the door behind them.