upcoming engagement and the callous way he had dumped her, Gemma still harbored a soft spot for his cousin.
It was a complication Gabriel hadn’t anticipated, and one he was determined to eradicate.
If Gemma hadn’t been attracted to him, he would have stepped back from the situation, but that wasn’t the case. Her response had been immediate and clear. He had seen it in the way her gaze had clung to his, the heat rimming her cheekbones, and felt it in the softness of her mouth and the rapid thud of her heart as they’d kissed.
He might have been out of the loop for a while when it came to the murky area of relationships, but one kiss and the years had spun away. He hadn’t mistaken her response, and his own had been just as visceral, just as powerful, the chemistry sizzling between them hot enough to burn.
As far as he was concerned, Zane had had his chance. If he hadn’t been able to commit in two years, and with a child in the mix, then he couldn’t really want Gemma.
But Gabriel did.
The concept, which had grown in him over the past twenty-four hours—ever since he had read the newspaper article—was powerful and irrevocable.
Gabriel knew his nature. He was a Messena to the bone, but along with the hot-blooded, volatile streak, from an early age his father had impressed upon him the need to develop a level head and a steely discipline. As a result, when it came to the stormy seas of romance and passion, it took a great deal to sway him.
He had never been in love; he couldn’t imagine the havoc that would cause, but something significant had happened between him and Gemma.
Instead of dissolving with the passage of time, the attraction had stuck with him. In six years he had been unable to forget her.
The moment was clarifying. He realized that after years of avoidance, he had finally applied the deliberate, methodical process he used to weigh a business proposition, and he had reached a moment of clear decision.
In this case it was a definite yes to more than just passion.
A sharp thrill shot down his spine at the thought of picking up on the relationship that had been snuffed out before it had had a chance six years ago.
He filled his lungs with tangy sea air and felt more alive than he had in years. Six years to be exact, since the last time he had experienced genuine passion, in a small, sandy beach house in Dolphin Bay.
A disorienting sense of déjà vu, an odd feeling of inevitability, gripped Gemma as Gabriel walked alongside her, as sleek and muscular as a big cat, easily keeping pace.
From the moment she had realized that the kiss had been a mistake, she had done her best to distance herself from him. The last thing she needed right now was a resurgence of the old crush, the old love, that had haunted her for so long, but the plain fact was that right now she needed his help.
The wind gusted off the dark expanse of sea that glittered beneath a half-moon, raising gooseflesh on her arms and intensifying the sense of reliving a past that was emotionally fraught with temptation and risk.
Setting her jaw, she tried not to shiver and wished she had thought to bring a wrap. Unfortunately, when she had left her room at the Atraeus Resort, her home for the past few days, she hadn’t been in any state to remember sensible details. She had been too stressed with the whole crazy idea that Zane was the answer to her problems.
Acutely aware of Gabriel next to her, his brooding glance touching on her profile, Gemma skimmed the parking lot and wondered which of the vehicles belonged to him.
She expected him to indicate one of the sedans that gleamed expensively under the lights, maybe a BMW or an Audi, but when he depressed a key and the lights of a muscular, low-slung Maserati flashed, the impression she had gained earlier was intensified. As ordered and high-powered as Gabriel’s occupation was, there was nothing either soft or conventional about him. Underneath the business suit, he was utterly male, with the sleek, hard muscle and seasoned toughness that was uncompromisingly alpha.
Even though she had known how he could be, how he had been six years ago, the car put Gabriel firmly in context. She had gotten used to viewing him as belonging in the past, no longer connected with either her or Sanchia’s life.
Now, suddenly, that convenient fantasy had evaporated. Gabriel was here, now, larger than life and twice as potent.
She drew in a breath at a sudden thought. And like it or not, according to the press story that would probably be published in the next few days, he was now part of her life.
Gabriel opened the passenger-side door and waited for her to climb into the dimly glowing interior. Forced to throw caution to the wind, at least until she was safely back in her hotel room, Gemma settled into an ultralow seat that smelled expensively of leather and felt like a warm, very expensive cloud.
Chilled from the breeze and inescapably on edge, she quickly fastened her seat belt before Gabriel could offer to do it for her.
She shoved the light-colored bag, which seemed to glow in the dark, against her door, as far from Gabriel’s view as she could get it. When she got back to her room, she intended to throw the entire thing away, bag, contents and all. It would take her a long time to forget the embarrassment and humiliation of the evening; the last thing she needed was reminders.
Gabriel slid into the driver’s seat, making the interior of the Maserati seem even smaller. Seconds later, they were accelerating past the floodlit front of the Castello with its soaring stone facade and circular drive and down a narrow winding road.
Twin stone posts glided past as Gabriel turned onto the coast road and headed into the township of Medinos. Cupped in a gently curving bay, backed by arid, ridged hills, Medinos glittered softly. Lights from rows of streetlamps that resembled glowing pearls and ultramodern high-rises splashed out across the water, illuminating the graceful lines of yachts.
Gabriel braked for a set of lights. “I take it you’re staying at the resort.”
His deep, cool voice made her start. “For the meantime. I fly back to New Zealand in a couple of days.”
Although she intended to change her ticket and leave on the earliest flight she could get. Tomorrow, if possible.
After the episode with Zane, and the next media scandal looming, she needed to get home to Sanchia as soon as she could.
Her fingers clenched together in her lap at the way all of her plans had flown to pieces. The thought that the child welfare people could try to take Sanchia permanently filled her with desperate fear. Until she got home, and had Sanchia back in her arms, she wouldn’t be able to relax.
“I heard you’ve quit the job with the Atraeus Group.”
“That’s right.” Warily, she juggled how much to tell him. “I need to be closer to my family. And I need a more settled environment for Sanch—for my child.”
She felt rather than saw his gaze on her. “I take it your mother is caring for—the child?”
She didn’t miss his slight hesitation, and, out of the blue, wrenching guilt jabbed at her.
