security guard collected the box and as he did so he glanced at the ring. “Just got engaged?”
He beamed, his face pink as he shook hands with Gabriel. “I tried not to notice, Mr. Messena, but I couldn’t help but see that something special was happening. Have you named the date?”
Gemma opened her mouth to protest, but a dark glance from Gabriel cut her short. “We haven’t set a date yet.”
Gabriel introduced her to the guard, Evan. When he heard her name, he frowned. “The name’s familiar.”
Gemma’s stomach sank, but Gabriel forestalled any further questions by picking up the case that contained the rest of the jewels, slipping them in his jacket pocket then checking his watch again.
After asking after Evan’s wife, who apparently suffered from arthritis, and successfully diverting him, Gabriel urged her from the room, one hand at the small of her back.
Gemma caught the reflected glitter of the diamond on her finger as the heavy vault door swung closed behind them. Another set of doors, these ones made of heavy glass, threw their reflection back at them.
Gabriel looked tall, broad-shouldered and darkly handsome; Gemma looked unexpectedly voluptuous and Italian in the biscotti suit. By some kind of weird alchemy the color had added a richness to her hair and invested her pale skin with an olive glow. With the flash of the diamond on her finger, she looked every bit the expensive, pampered bride.
As they turned a corner into the mosaic floors and gorgeous architecture of the lavish office suites, Gabriel indicated that he needed to collect something from his office.
He smiled as Gemma looked curiously around the light-flooded room. “One of the perks of the job. If you want to freshen up, there’s a bathroom through there.”
Bemused, Gemma checked out the cream marbled bathroom, which contained a walk-in shower and a heated towel rail draped with fluffy white towels. She was used to the Atraeus family and their extreme wealth, so she was accustomed to opulent surroundings. She guessed she just wasn’t used to seeing Gabriel in the center of the same kind of elaborate wealth and power. In Dolphin Bay he had seemed attainable. Here he did not.
As she stepped back out into Gabriel’s office and his gaze connected with hers, the tension she had briefly managed to leave behind returned full force.
While he checked his computer, she sank into a leather chair that felt like a cloud and tried not to fall in love with the ring on her finger, or the shattering, improbable idea that Gabriel might want the engagement to be real.
Even if Gabriel did genuinely want her, the second he found out about Sanchia, everything would change. He wouldn’t be happy that she had kept Sanchia from him and they would be forever linked in a way that took away his choice. There would be no more easy companionship or heart-pounding lovemaking. Nothing would be either simple or easy between them again.
A quick tap at the door and a husky female voice had her head turning. A pretty, blue-eyed brunette came in, a sleek computer tablet in one hand. Dressed in an elegant white suit that made her skin look like porcelain, and possessed of a delicate serene beauty, for a confused moment Gemma thought she was Lilah Cole, then the differences registered. Her hair was shorter, just brushing her shoulders in a sleek bob, and she was shorter and more delicately built.
Not tall and just a little lanky, or too forthright, as Gemma was.
Gabriel made introductions, but before Gemma could do more than acknowledge Simone, apparently one of the bank’s investment analysts, Gabriel walked her out into the corridor, where he completed his discussion with her.
As the conversation ended, Simone glanced in the door and gave Gemma a long, silent look before turning on her heel and strolling back to wherever it was she had come from.
Gemma realized that somewhere along the way she had forgotten to breathe. As Gabriel collected a briefcase from his desk, she rose to her feet. The glitter of the gorgeous ring caught her eye again, and she wished, too late, that she hadn’t hidden it in her lap while Simone was in the room.
Finally, she identified the emotion twisting in her stomach. Picking up her handbag, she waited for Gabriel and wondered if she could find something solid she could bang her head against.
If she’d had any doubts about the in-love diagnosis they were gone. After all of the progress she’d made in walking away from Gabriel and trying to neutralize the irresistible attraction, she had somehow managed to progress another step in the wrong direction.
She was fiercely, primitively jealous.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
