‘The man of your dreams…?’
‘There’s someone out there for me. A soulmate.’
‘So romance is alive and kicking still?’
‘I have to believe in it or else what’s the point? I know you’d never understand, Gabriel. We come from different planets as far as that is concerned. Who knows? Maybe there’s someone out there for you, too.’
Her heart squeezed, but she was proud of her control and of the way she was handling a horrible conversation. She wondered what this mystery woman would look like. A sexy brunette who wore the kind of clothes he liked and enjoyed all the presents he would give her. He had noticeably stopped offering to buy her things. Clothes, bits of jewellery, sexy underwear. All of that had become inappropriate, but she had discovered she missed the relentlessness of his offers.
‘Who knows…?’ Gabriel murmured. ‘But in the meantime I have something of a surprise in store for you.’
‘Oh? What is it?’ She’d been enjoying working herself into a lather and was disgruntled at his interruption.
‘Brace yourself. I’ve had a phone call from your mother.’
‘What?’ Lucy looked at him in consternation. ‘Why on earth would my mother phone you?’
‘Because I’m the other half of this crumbling relationship.’
‘I’m not following you.’ In her head she was frantically trying to slot in this new development. Just when she’d thought she would be stepping off the rollercoaster ride, allowing herself time to get used to being back on firm ground, it picked up speed.
‘Your hints and insinuations did their job. Your mother thought she would phone me for clarification.’
‘She what?’ Lucy stared at him in dismay. ‘This is your fault! You…if you hadn’t been so charming… I didn’t even know she had your number! Did you back me up?’
‘Apparently I’m about to embark on a considerable amount of travelling…?’
Lucy flushed. She had meant to steer clear of that particular excuse, but she had somehow found herself in a tight spot and had blurted out the first thing that came to her head.
‘I had no idea I was supposed to run with that one,’ Gabriel was saying. ‘For starters, where do you intend to ship me off to?’
‘You do travel a lot with your job….’
‘But relatively little compared to the amount now looming on the horizon, apparently….’ In fact, his overseas travel had become remarkably curtailed. He had discovered that ruthless delegation had its benefits.
‘What did you tell her?’ Lucy asked in a small voice.
‘I told her that it was a conversation best had on a face-to-face basis.’
‘Okay. Right.’ She sighed and leaned back with her eyes closed. ‘It’ll all be fine once I’ve explained that we’re no longer an item.’
‘Because I’m the creep who wants you to change for him, and on top of that I won’t even be around to see you because my job will be taking me to all four corners of the globe for most of the year? I’m not surprised all the lying is beginning to get to you. For someone who has always been honest, I must say you show immense talent for being creative with the truth.’
‘I never said anything about you being a creep,’ Lucy told him defensively, still keeping her eyes closed as a sense of weariness settled over her.
‘You didn’t have to. It’s implicit.’
‘Please let’s not argue over this, Gabriel. We both know that there isn’t a choice. It would have been better if I had just told the truth when you came to visit and met them for the first time. If I had told them the truth then, they would have been over it by now.’
‘And you would have embarked on your glittering new life? You have a point. Maybe that was a misjudgement. But what’s the use crying over it now?’
‘So is that the surprise? That my mother phoned?’
‘They’re in London.’
‘What?’ Lucy sat up, her heart beating very fast.
‘I asked them up.’
‘What on earth for?’
‘I felt that if I was about to be shot down in flames for being a bastard then I should be around to have some input.’
‘Why? What for? You won’t be seeing any of us ever again!’
‘Call me egotistical,’ Gabriel gritted in a hard voice, ‘but I don’t care for the thought of my reputation being dragged through the mud with your parents.’
‘Until recently you wouldn’t have cared less!’
‘We’ve already been over that old ground, Lucy. Let’s move on from there. Your mother wanted to know what was going on.’
‘Was she upset?’
‘Bewildered. Apparently everything was fine and dandy last weekend, and then suddenly there were problems—insurmountable problems. Your timing has been less than spectacular.’
‘How can you just…sit there and be so calm about this? Why didn’t they tell me that they were coming to London?’
‘I expect they thought you’d try and talk them out of it—or maybe they just wanted to talk to me without you around, throwing them your side of the woeful story,’ Gabriel said drily.
‘So what do we do now?’ Lucy threw him an accusing look from under her lashes. ‘Where are they staying? Where are they now? Are they at your house?’
‘No, they’re not….’
Lucy looked at him, perplexed. ‘Well, where are they? No, don’t answer that—just tell me what you’ve said to them….’
‘You mean so that we can get our stories straight?’
Lucy flushed. He had moaned about the person she had become, and now he had contrived, in that one sentence, to bring on a heady rush of guilt. ‘You should have told me that they would be here,’ she ploughed on valiantly. ‘I know it’s horrible to be sneaking around, pretending to be something we’re not, but we both agreed that we had no choice at the time….’
‘However, let’s not forget that you were the one who generated the situation in the first place….’
‘Yes, well…’
‘I’ve told them that we definitely come from different worlds….’
Lucy breathed a sigh of heartfelt relief. ‘You have so much…I could never adjust to your lifestyle—plus I’m not materialistic. I would never completely understand how someone can spend their whole lives motivated by money….’
‘Just for reference—and apologies for dragging you down from your moral high ground—if you’d been raised by someone whose finances were a source of constant change you might be a little closer to understanding….’
Disconcerted by that personal remark, Lucy stared at him.
‘Thank goodness for the unchanging face of boarding school.’ Gabriel, still leaning indolently against the car door, returned her stare lazily. ‘Always nice to have a solid point of reference in a changing world, don’t you agree?’
‘Why do I think that you don’t really mean that?’ Lucy ventured uncertainly.
After weeks of amicable politeness, this detour into a more personal conversation dangled in front of her as tempting as a carrot being waved in front of a hungry rabbit. Helpless, she marvelled at how easy it was for him to draw her in. Was that what love was all about? An inability to keep her distance even when her head was telling her that it was imperative? She had the giddy sensation of walking into a trap.
‘For an eleven-year-old boy, boarding school in a foreign country isn’t always the most pleasant of experiences.’
‘Why are you telling me this?’ Lucy asked, in an attempt to regain control.
Gabriel inclined his head to one side. ‘You want to paint me as morally suspect because I make a lot of money.’
‘Not morally suspect. I know you’re a pretty moral guy. I mean, you didn’t have to bail my father out when our…our…deal fell through because I was a…a virgin….’
Gabriel drew in a sharp, long breath. Did she have any idea how sexually charged that innocent statement was? It brought back a host of memories that were as vibrant and as power
ful as if he had just slept with her for the first time yesterday. He had to shift to ease the painful throb of his sudden erection, bulging and pressing against the zipper of his trousers.
‘It must have been hard for you….’ Lucy couldn’t help the flare of sympathy she felt for a boy without a mother, stuck in a boarding school where presumably he had had to grapple with the language, while his
father lurched from one failed marriage to another.
Gabriel swept past that wobbly interruption. ‘So you see making money isn’t necessarily the sign of a monster, but of the desire to have financial stability. If you’re going to paint me as someone who is incapable of drawing lines, then I feel I need to be there to set the record straight…. But, getting back to the surprise I have in store for you…it has nothing to do with your parents being in London….’
‘It hasn’t?’ Torn between lingering over that image of Gabriel as a young boy and the dawning realisation that setting the record straight was just going to muddy the already muddy waters, Lucy looked at him in surprise.
‘Look around. Does this route seem familiar?’
Lucy obediently looked out of the window. Since stepping into the car she had not paid any heed to her surroundings. She was now accustomed to the drive through London to his house. It was always trafficky. The pavements were always swarming with pedestrians. Even in the peaceful oasis of his road, where his house stood in opulent splendour, she still always felt vaguely claustrophobic. As though the rush of people and cars, although not evident in the expensive road, thrummed under the pavements as a constant reminder that peace was only an illusion.
‘I can’t tell,’ she said doubtfully. ‘It’s getting dark, and anyway, I’ve never really taken in where we were driving.’
‘I get that,’ Gabriel murmured softly. ‘There were always more pressing things on your mind. On both our minds…’
He was still watching her in that closed, brooding manner that made her shiver with awareness and plunged her into nervous confusion. Could she be mistaken about the sexy undertones behind that mildly spoken reminder? She wouldn’t have thought that he had a nostalgic bone in his body as far as women were concerned. He had certainly staged a terrific show of indifference towards her over the past few weeks—had complied with her demand to be left alone without any sign of hardship on his part at her decision… But was there some residual nostalgia there? Now that he knew that the farce was about to come to an end? She hated herself for so weakly wanting to explore that option.
‘So where are we going?’ She changed the subject, although her heart was jumping all over the place and prickles of tension were making her perspire.
Despite the fact that she had always laughingly turned down offers of presents from him, and although she had striven to ignore his teasing about her choice of clothes, her wardrobe had altered subtly over time. She had ditched her uniform of jeans and dungarees, and even though the weather had turned considerably colder she was now in a skirt and a soft, fleecy jumper. Images of him pushing his hand underneath her skirt, wriggling his fingers beneath the constricting tights and undies to find that part of her that was now growing damp, made her want to faint.
‘Will Mum and Dad be there?’ she pressed anxiously. She felt a twinge of treacherous resentment that if she broke the bad news to them as soon as she saw them then she wouldn’t even be left with the memory of a last weekend with Gabriel. Why had he asked them to London? Why couldn’t he just have phoned her, told her about her mother’s concerns, left her to deal with it all?
Gabriel flicked back a pristine white cuff to consult his watch. ‘They’ve gone to the theatre. Matinee performance with a meal out afterwards. On the house, so to speak.’
‘Thanks,’ Lucy told him tightly.
Gabriel shrugged. ‘Apparently, the last time they went to the theatre was over a decade ago.’
‘That’s not what I was thanking you for. I was being sarcastic, Gabriel. You’re doing all this stuff…building yourself up to be the perfect…perfect…’
‘Son-in-law that never was…?’
‘We’re supposed to be at each other’s throats….’
‘It’s fair to say that you can be argumentative.’
Lucy flushed because there it was again—that soft, lazy drawl that brought her out in goosebumps.
‘I expect the entertainment to be over by ten. It will give us time to visit a little property I’ve recently acquired.’
At a loss, Lucy stared at him without saying anything. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said eventually. ‘Why would I want to see a house you’ve bought? Why have you bought a house? Are you tired of living where you do? It is very big for one person,’ she conceded, ‘and of course, it’s not a very friendly area—but then I didn’t think that sort of thing mattered to you….’
‘I like space, and I’ve never cared who my neighbours were,’ Gabriel conceded, breaking eye contact. ‘In fact, the less I know about the people who live around me the better. Nothing worse than nosy neighbours. Anyway, this house is just an addition to my property portfolio. It occurred to me a while ago that if this engagement continued any longer it might be more to your liking if we stayed there than at my townhouse.’
He flushed darkly. He couldn’t believe he was actually saying this. In fact, he couldn’t believe that he had bought a house he didn’t need for the sake of a woman who had set him up in a phoney engagement, openly stated that he wasn’t her type of guy and now, purchase complete and house decorated, had informed him that this was to be their last weekend.
He had been the model of good behaviour over the past few weeks. He had blithely assumed that she would be unable to resist what she thought she couldn’t get. He had been willing to bide his time with her. Where he should have been enraged that a woman—any woman—had put him in such an awkward position, he had chosen to accept it because he had stopped fighting the curious reality that he wanted her at all costs.
Except she hadn’t given in, and her obstinacy had made his desire to repossess her even more urgent.
‘You bought a house because I was silly enough to condemn us to more weekends together for the sake of my parents?’ Even for him, Lucy thought that sounded excessive, but then she reminded herself that whatever mansion he had bought would be an investment. Gabriel never did anything that wasn’t fully anchored in firm logic and reason.
‘I buy a lot of property.’ Gabriel’s lips thinned. He loathed the lack of control that prevented him from walking away from her. He knew he should have walked away a long time ago. In fact, he should never have made love to her in the first place. Any woman who was a virgin at twenty-four promised to be difficult in one way or another. He hated difficulties on the emotional front. He liked keeping things as uncomplicated as possible in that particular area.
‘I thought you would have been more interested in places in the city centre.’ Lucy was beginning to realise that they were no longer in the busy, fashionable part of London beloved by people who enjoyed showing the world how much money they had. ‘Actually, I’m sure you once told me that you only invested in commercial property, and that most of it was outside the UK….’
‘A change is as good as a rest,’ Gabriel muttered.
The car pulled down a side street and finally drew up in front of a small detached house with a white fence, against which was pressed lots of foliage. In the dark, Lucy couldn’t quite make out the individual species of plants.
‘This is it?’
‘There’s no need to sound so shocked,’ Gabriel said irritably. ‘I’m not a completely urban animal.’ His sports car was parked in the small drive.
‘Yes, you are, Gabriel,’ she teased cautiously. It felt good to break away from the guarded politeness of the past few weeks. ‘Open spaces and too much green make you nervous.’
‘You’re so literal when it comes to interpreting what I say.’
He unlocked the front door and Lucy stepped into a picture-perfect hou
se—except it was nothing like his sprawling mansion in Kensington. In fact, in some ways it reminded her of her own cottage in Somerset, although this had obviously been done up to a much higher standard. The flagstone tiles in the hall gleamed, the walls were newly painted and, glancing sideways, she could see a cheerful sitting room with an open fire. Only the presence of expensive silk rugs, similar to those in his other house, reminded her that this little gem carried a mighty price tag.
‘What do you think?’ Gabriel hadn’t moved from the closed front door, against which he was now leaning with his hands shoved in his trouser pockets.
‘I can’t believe you would invest money in a house like this,’ Lucy said truthfully. ‘But then I suppose you have a team of people working for you who do stuff like this…source rentable properties…make sure you’re not throwing money away on something that isn’t going to pay off….’
‘You have such talent for seeing the worst in me,’ Gabriel murmured.
Lucy pinkened but remained silent. The truth was that she loved him so much she could only see the best in him—past all those traits she once considered faults.
‘Explore,’ he urged, pushing himself away from the door.
Lucy almost didn’t want to. Already she liked what she saw and it was painful to concede that she would be destined to have no more than one weekend in it. She noticed that he still couldn’t bring himself to come close to her, and was ashamed to realise that if he reached out and touched her she would fling herself back at him without a thought for the consequences.
Very much aware of him behind her, she made her way through the downstairs of the house, which was bigger than it looked from the outside. His other house was a testimony to open space, clean lines and minimum clutter, but this was a honeycomb of exciting nooks and crannies. The kitchen, at the back, even had a bottle-green range, and she stroked it, loving the feel of the warmth under her fingers.
‘There’s a garden,’ Gabriel said awkwardly. He sidestepped her to the conservatory leading off from the kitchen and stepped through the French doors, letting in a waft of chill air.
The Notorious Gabriel DiazRuthless Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress Page 15