The Italian Boss's Secretary Mistress

by Cathy Williams

  ‘Leave?’ Rose looked at him in astonishment. She could feel the blood seeping out of her face and she cleared her throat briskly. ‘Leave as in travel to an island which is on alert for a hurricane? Where would you stay when you got there? You’ve been there, Gabriel, and we’ve both seen detailed pictures of the place. There are no hotels.’

  ‘I could always camp down on the beach.’ He stood up and began prowling his office, deep in thought. As he prowled, Rose tried to imagine Gabriel caught up in a hurricane, at the mercy of the elements. The trip to the island was a convoluted one, involving two airports and a boat crossing. What if the hurricane hit while he was in the boat? He would be as vulnerable as an ant in a matchbox hurtling down a waterfall. She shivered and surfaced from the nightmarish reverie to find that he had stopped in front of her. Before she could take evasive action, he was leaning over her, caging her in, his face dark with anger.

  ‘Wake up, Rose!’

  ‘I’m sorry…’ She stuck her chin out defensively and thanked the stars that mind-reading wasn’t one of his many talents. If it had been, he wouldn’t have had much trouble deciphering the dread inside her as she contemplated the foolhardiness of what he proposed to do.

  ‘You’re no use to me mooning about the place,’ he snapped, thrusting his face aggressively towards hers.

  Rose had no idea what he was talking about but, whatever it was, it was a darn sight safer than being accused of being no use to him because she was worried to death.

  ‘You come to work, Rose, and you leave the love struck business behind in the bedroom!’

  Realisation dawned and she opened her mouth to protest but then immediately thought better of it. There had been too much entanglement of her private life with her professional one recently and it was time for her to re-define the boundaries.

  ‘Right,’ she agreed readily and was treated to an even more thunderous frown before he pushed himself away and strode back to sit behind his desk.

  ‘Cancel everything in my diary for the week ahead. I don’t anticipate being out there longer than a couple of days but there’s nothing predictable about the weather.’

  ‘It’s a ridiculous plan, Gabriel.’

  ‘Thank you for your opinion. That will be all for the moment.’ Somehow it seemed all wrong for his perfect secretary to have spent the night making passionate love to a man she barely knew. Because she hadn’t denied it and he knew her well enough by now to know that if she was innocent of the accusation she would have denied it vigorously. Despite the change in her appearance, her sense of morality was too ingrained.

  What she got up to or didn’t get up to was, he acknowledged, a side issue. There were far bigger problems on his plate for him to give even a passing thought to Rose in the arms of a man, but he was finding it hard to rid himself of the image.

  ‘How was your theatre date on Friday?’ he heard himself asking. ‘Fun?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Theatre? Last Friday? You were going to see Les Miserables?’

  ‘Oh. Right. Yes, of course. It was brilliant. Thank you.’ Rose wondered where the change in conversation was leading and decided that it was probably just his distracted way of taking his mind off the enormous problem of how to tackle several hundred thousand pounds worth of incomplete bricks and mortar that was in imminent danger of being reduced to rubble. In truth, he barely looked as though he was paying her the slightest bit of attention.

  It was a learning experience to realise that this was the man whose possible brush with any danger whatsoever was enough to reduce her to a state of witless tension.

  ‘Joe was wonderful company!’ she added, more to remind herself that there were actually normal, genuine, caring men on the planet, men who were far more worthy of her care and attention than the brooding powerhouse sitting in front of her.

  Which means what? Gabriel wondered. The mere fact that he was wondering was enough to rouse anger at his own weakness. Unlike most men, he had never personally found women to be an incomprehensible species. On the contrary. The women he had wined, dined and bedded had been as transparent as glass. Rose was of a different genetic make up. One minute she slotted nicely into the pre-packaged box in his head, the next minute she had wriggled out and was proving wrong everything he had thought of her. From capable, controlled, private, inoffensive but slightly frosty secretary to sexy, new style, new look, suddenly ambitious woman with a core of fire, to, apparently, vamp who would sleep happily with a man who barely registered as acquaintance on the How Well Do I Know You? chart.

  Did she really imagine that he wanted to conduct a conversation about her nobody date when he had important things on his mind?

  ‘Is that female speak for the perfect gentleman?’ Gabriel asked sneeringly.

  ‘I take it that in the world of Gabriel Gessi, being the perfect gentleman is considered something of a crime?’ Rose asked, bristling.

  ‘Not a crime. Just ever so slightly…dull…’

  ‘Joe is anything but dull, as a matter of fact…’

  ‘There’s no need to sound so defensive, Rose! I believe you! I can’t imagine you would ever go out with someone as dull as dishwater. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone dull would know how to handle you!’

  ‘I don’t need handling. I’m not a wild animal.’

  ‘Well, you’re not most men’s idea of submissive either.’

  ‘I am not going to get embroiled in this.’ She took a few deep, steadying breaths. Until recently she had been submissive enough. At least on the work front. ‘I don’t want to discuss Joe.’

  ‘You’re the one who brought him up.’ Gabriel shrugged. Perfect gentlemen didn’t usually seduce their women into bed on date number one. So, whatever it was that had constituted their brilliant evening, it probably hadn’t been a vigorous romp in the hay, and that was enough to put him in a better mood. ‘But you’re right. There are more important things to discuss. When you’ve sorted out flights and transfers, let me know immediately and also I’ll need to have an hour or so with the boys in Finance, just to brief them on a few things they’ll need to handle in my absence…’

  His attention was already far away from the subject of her and her date. Having chipped in with his uninvited opinions, he had now forgotten the matter and was moving on. Typical. He rattled her cage and, while her teeth were still clattering from the shock, he had disappeared off into the distant horizon, leaving her to gather her untidy, scattered thoughts.

  ‘I still don’t know what you think you can do over there if a hurricane does strike,’ Rose said, standing up and once again focused on the dreadful thought of Gabriel caught up in the elements. ‘You might joke about camping on a beach but there’s nothing funny about the situation, Gabriel.’ Her heart squeezed painfully. ‘People die in situations like that and it’s just stupid to pull a macho stunt and think you can deal with it.’

  ‘Somebody has to,’ Gabriel told her seriously, ‘and it’s not going to be the foreman on the site. My venture, my responsibility.’

  ‘That is so bloody typical of you, Gabriel Gessi!’ Rose finally exploded from a combination of sickening fear and sheer frustration. ‘You think you can handle anything! That you’re invincible and you’re not!’ Tears wanted to spring from the back of her eyes but there was no way that she would allow that level of emotion to seep through. ‘It’s not a sign of strength to never admit to being weak!’

  ‘You’re worried about me?’

  ‘Of course I’m worried about you!’ And, just in case her response was too dramatic, ‘Anyone would be!’

  ‘There’s no need,’ Gabriel said gently. He itched to go over to where she was standing in tight-lipped silence and hold her close against him. For once, he wasn’t finding it claustrophobic to have a woman openly show her concern for him. ‘The building may not be complete but what’s there should be structurally sound. It’s taken long enough but it’s been constructed to hold firm against the elements, even though the island doesn’t
lie in a hurricane path. I shall have a solid roof over my head. Only one wing will be exposed to the elements and even that will stand. I suspect the electricity and water might fail if the hurricane hits but, aside from that, I’ll be fine.’ He grinned. ‘Doesn’t everyone long to get close to nature? Now I have my big chance.’

  Rose looked at the devilishly handsome face and sighed to herself. She did believe him when he said that the structure was solid but, even if it wasn’t, she knew that he wouldprobably have gone to the island anyway. In another life, he would have been a Formula One racing driver, enjoying the challenge of dicing with death.

  ‘Of course if you’re that worried,’ he purred softly, ‘you could always come with me. Damn good opportunity to see exactly how much more work needs to be done on the place instead of relying on emails and reports…’

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE more Gabriel thought about it, the better he liked the idea of Rose accompanying him out to the island. He was utterly convinced that, hurricane or no hurricane, neither of them would be in any physical danger and somehow the thought of having her for company was very appealing.

  ‘We would probably be able to make some serious inroads into sorting out the niggles that have been blighting this whole business for months,’ he pointed out. ‘And having you around would mean that I could work twice as fast because I wouldn’t have to do any of the transcribing myself. Four days and I reckon we could have the matter under control.’

  Rose looked at him as if he had suddenly taken leave of his senses. ‘You’re expecting to work while a hurricane rages outside?’

  ‘We don’t know that the hurricane is going to hit the island.’

  ‘But the weathermen seem pretty convinced.’

  ‘Weathermen are notoriously wrong when it comes to reporting on the weather. In fact, in any other line of work the sheer inaccuracy of their reporting would get them sacked on the spot.’

  Rose opened her mouth to protest at Gabriel’s vast sweeping assumption but he was already moving on, developing his plans out loud.

  ‘Of course, I realise that with this course ahead of you and the glittering prospect of a bright new career, you might no longer have the necessary dedication to tackle a job that’s going to take you out of the country…’

  ‘You know I would never give anything but one hundred and one per cent to the job!’

  ‘Except when it happens to fall at inconvenient times…’

  ‘There will be no one on the island, anyway,’ Rose pointed out dubiously. Her knowledge of the place was pretty sparse, confined to the brief dispatches she had read over the months, but mostly she knew of the hiccups in the nuts and bolts of the building work and little else. ‘Who do you plan on talking to about what’s been going on with the site if there’s no one there?’

  ‘Of course there’ll be people there! You don’t think they’re conveniently going to disappear while there’s a hurricane watch on because they all just happen to have second homes somewhere else, do you?’

  Rose reddened and glared at him. ‘I’ll go and sort the flights out.’

  ‘Book two.’

  Rose paused by the door and stared him down, which was a very difficult thing to do when her heart was thumping like a steam engine inside her chest. ‘I’m afraid I just won’t be able to make it, Gabriel…’

  Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. ‘It’s not this man, is it? Getting in the way of your job even though he’s only been on the scene for two minutes…?’

  ‘Of course not!’ At the back of her mind, she knew there was absolutely no imperative to defend her decisions but Gabriel’s pointed silence accompanied by that infinitesimal raising of his eyebrows was enough to get every self defensive mechanism in her body rearing up into immediate action. ‘Joe would never dream of being chauvinistic enough to try and dictate how I conduct my working life…’

  ‘No. I forgot. He’s the perfect gentleman.’ Gabriel grinned and got a well-deserved glower in response.

  ‘I can’t come with you because…’

  ‘It would be incredibly helpful…’

  ‘Because…’Rose ignored his velvety interruption ‘…there’s too much to do here, especially as I’ve had to take a bit of time out with all the interviewing…’ The pointless interviewing, she wanted to add.

  ‘I’m the boss. I’m excusing you for the next four days. There’s too much to gain, if you accompany me, in terms of speed…’

  ‘You could take Ralph…Surely someone on the board would be better served there with you…’At this point she had virtually jettisoned the sensible argument of how exactly work would be conducted if they were having to shore up the building with sandbags or whatever. Hard to transcribe emails in gale force winds and twenty foot waves.

  ‘Somehow I don’t think Ralph would be overly impressed at having to play secretary to me out there. Anyway, I doubt his ability to type is as quick as yours…I just don’t get it, Rose…You’ve never had a problem accompanying me on trips before…’

  ‘Not to storm-battered islands in the middle of the ocean…’

  ‘Which brings us back to those damned over-pessimistic weathermen. Why don’t you book the passages over and if you do decide to come I would be very grateful.’

  He returned his attention to whatever was absorbing it on his computer screen and Rose, taking the hint, left his office, shutting the door quietly behind her.

  Okay, she would book the two passages. He had given her permission to change her mind. The wasted fare would be peanuts to him. Not only could his conglomerate absorb it but he could personally absorb it as well and not even miss it from his bank account.

  Everything was booked for first thing the following morning. She had checked on the Internet and gathered that the likelihood of the hurricane sweeping over the island was fairly remote. They probably would be able to get some vital work done.

  She paused at the easy way she had assumed herself to be accompanying him.

  So, she didn’t want to go but he was right. She had never complained before about going with him to meetings, overnighting in the same hotel as him. If she made a point of complaining now and refusing to go, his sly little brain would soon start whirring into action and he would either mistakenly assume that she had morphed into a bimbo whose private life was influencing her professional one or, worse, he would think that she was scared to be in his company.

  In the very dark recesses of her mind crept another taboo thought. The notion that the weather might defy the odds and she knew, deep down, that if he was to find himself in any trouble she would want to be by his side.

  Where that left Joe, perfect gentleman and epitome of everything a mother would like her daughter to bring home, was a question she would deal with later.

  Four days wasn’t long and it might well be less, depending on circumstances.

  It was what she told herself the following morning as she slung clothes into her pull-along suitcase. Neither of them were taking anything that would have to go into the hold. Too much opportunity with the various changes en route for it to go missing in action. Gabriel would also be bringing his laptop computer, although whether they would be able to link up to a phone line was anybody’s guess.

  In any event, Rose packed notebooks and pens. The old-fashioned tools were often the best under pressure.

  Work kept them busy for the better part of the flight to one of the bigger islands. Rose read the reports at a furious pace. Together they discussed what could be done to shore up the naked part of the site if bad weather struck. When they weren’t working, Rose feigned sleep. And then the tail-end of the journey was lost in the confusion of changing planes and finally taking a boat over with the boat man reminding them constantly that they were mad to be undertaking a trip when the weather was going to change. Hurricanes rarely affected that particular spot and the man seemed unnaturally enthusiastic about the possibility of one.

  By the time they finally hit their destination, Rose was prac
tically dead on her feet. She had started the day at a little before five and had had very little to eat.

  Nightfall on the island, in conjunction with very few street lights, meant that she could barely appreciate the scenery. Not that it made much difference when all she wanted to do in the back of the prehistoric taxi as it bumped its way over the single track road was to nod off and go to sleep.

  How did Gabriel manage to keep going for so long without any signs of wear and tear? He didn’t even look grubby! Maybe because he had chosen his clothes cleverly.

  He was saying something to her now and, in reply, Rose yawned widely.

  ‘Not the kind of response I usually evoke in a woman,’ he murmured, to which she yawned again and he patted his shoulder, an irresistible invitation for her to rest her head on it. Which she would, she decided. Just for a minute or two, until she became accustomed to the sticky heat which was quite different from the soaring summer temperatures in England.

  She awoke to the sensation of the clanking car shuddering to a halt and her eyes flew open.

  Horror of horrors, she’d dribbled! There was a damp patch on his shoulder and when their eyes met, he shot her a crooked smile.

  ‘Don’t worry. It’s human.’

  Rose pretended to misunderstand. ‘What is?’

  ‘I actually found it quite sweet, somehow innocent, for you to be resting your head on my shoulder and dribbling ever so slightly.’

  Rose’s mortification followed her out of the car but, as soon as she gazed at the work in progress in front of her, every hesitant self-conscious emotion fell away.

  She was staring at something so ambitious and so impressive, even in its half-finished state, that she gasped aloud.

  ‘Like it?’ Gabriel was just behind her, bending down to murmur the question into her ear.

  ‘There’s still a way to go,’ she said prosaically.

  ‘Coward. Why don’t you just admit that you love it? It’s an architectural adventure.’

  ‘Who designed it?’