pretend that never happened,’ Rose gritted. ‘But if it happens again, then I’m gone! Do you hear me?’ She couldn’t bear to look at the discarded shoe, but she did, slipping her foot into it and bending to scoop up all the papers, not caring what order they were in. His silence was unsettling. She knew he was watching her and it made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. Would he see? The way her breasts were still throbbing, aching to be caressed? Or the way the dampness was spreading between her legs, honeyed dew begging for his touch? Rose wanted to die a thousand deaths. She would have remained scrambling around on the floor indefinitely but finally she had gathered up the strewn papers and was looking at him with her best ice cold glare.
‘Okay.’ Gabriel looked down at her. ‘It’s a deal. I’ll pretend it never happened and you can pretend that you didn’t want it to…’
CHAPTER FIVE
THE interviewing was not going according to plan. At least not the plan that Rose had germinated in her head, which basically involved finding someone quickly and installing them even more quickly so that in due time, preferably as soon as she had found her feet on her course, she could re-submit her letter of resignation and this time leave with a clear conscience.
Because Gabriel was driving her crazy. True to her request, he had not mentioned a word about that kiss but she had still spent the past week in a state of heightened awareness. Big mistake because she was doubly conscious of him. The minute he got within two feet of her, her entire nervous system went into overdrive and she could feel her body tense in dreaded expectation of some casual physical contact.
Of which there had been a fair few instances. More than usual, although she was pretty sure that she was imagining that. A feathery brush of his fingers on her arm when he leant to read something over her shoulder, the briefest of touches when she handed him a cup of coffee or when he sat next to her so that he could go through some detail with her in one of the reports they happened to be working on. Her antennae now seemed to be on red alert and it was driving her crazy.
Try as she might, her body was not letting her pretend that nothing had happened, even if all mention of it was conscientiously avoided. He came close and she felt faint. He casually touched her and her body roared into hot, suffocating awareness. His challenge a week ago, that he would pretend to forget what had happened if she could pretend that she hadn’t wanted it, was proving ominously prescient.
Hence her increasing desperation to find a suitable replacement.
And Gabriel was proving frustratingly uncooperative.
‘If this woman is to possibly be your eventual replacement,’ he’d told her seriously, ‘then I have to make sure that I get it right. We’re not talking about someone who’s going to be around for a few weeks, someone disposable. I need to find exactly the sort of woman I can happily work alongside…’
‘Or man,’ Rose had pointed out, but Gabriel had shot her one of those looks that informed her right there and then that working alongside the ideal man was not on the cards for him.
They had thus spent the past three days poring over applications and squeezing in candidates whenever Gabriel had a free moment.
Two women, both of whom seemed to fit the bill, had been rejected out of hand by Gabriel, on the spurious excuse that he just couldn’t see himself having a long and problem-free working relationship with either of them.
‘But it would only be for two days during the week,’ Rose had mumbled unconvincingly, because in her head she had already slotted her replacement in on a full-time basis, while she went somewhere else to lick her wounds.
‘Would it?’ he had asked darkly, and she had given him a weak smile.
Now, at five-thirty, they had just seen off the latest in the ever-increasing line and Rose knew, without doubt, that it had been another unsuccessful interviewee.
She hated this bit, when she walked down to the grand reception area in the foyer and did her best to fend off pointed and anxious questions as to whether the interview had been a success or not. This evening, however, it wasn’t too bad. Elaine Forbes, number thirteen in the line, was destined to prove true the superstition because her lightweight qualifications had made the business of rejection easier than usual.
Five minutes debriefing with Gabriel and she would be out of the office and ready to begin her weekend.
She arrived back at her office to find him lounging in her chair, feet propped up on her desk, hands folded behind his head.
‘Well?’ he asked, picking up her pen and twirling it over, ‘what did you think of Ms Forbes?’
‘I think we can strike her off the list,’ Rose told him, skirting round his indolent figure and gathering her various bits and pieces in preparation for going home. She could feel his eyes following her and hated herself for the excited ripple of reaction. She also hated it when he invaded her space. It was much easier to be in his office, because she could leave it and shut the door behind her. Right now, he was focused fully on her and it was difficult to escape the crazy notion that he was doing it on purpose, because he knew it rattled her. It was a thought that had occurred to her previously during the week and whenever it did she always hastened to tell herself that she was being silly, imagining things because of what had happened between them.
‘What makes you say that?’ Gabriel asked in a surprised voice and Rose paused to give him a jaundiced glance.
‘Oh, I don’t know, Gabriel. I guess it might have something to do with her staggering failure to master the basic test I set for her to judge how familiar she was with our computer package. Or maybe her lack of speed and accuracy when it came to taking notes on what I was saying.’ Rose knew Gabriel well enough to know that he said most things once and expected immediate comprehension. Floundering was not a quality he appreciated and Elaine Forbes had floundered in a fairly spectacular fashion.
‘She was remarkably attractive. Did you notice?’
Rose flushed. Yes, she had noticed, as a matter of fact. It would have been hard not to. Five foot ten of curves clad in a handkerchief of a skirt and a top that just skimmed her waistline. Long blonde hair and wide green eyes that had sized Gabriel up and clearly not found him wanting.
‘I’m not sure what that has to do with anything.’ She fetched her lightweight jacket and slung it over her shoulders. It would still be too warm to put it on when she went outside but old habits died hard. She still felt undressed if she left the house without a jacket or a cardigan. Unlike the most recent candidate, who would probably have felt overdressed in anything as mundane as a cardigan. Or cream lightweight jacket.
‘Her credentials weren’t up to scratch,’ she said irritably, irked at the small smile playing at the corners of his mouth as he obviously contemplated the other assets Ms Forbes would bring to any job.
‘Which isn’t to say that we might not be able to put her on a course, get her up to speed. Provided her attitude is right…’
‘And what…’Rose was in danger of snapping, ‘would you qualify as the right attitude?’
‘An ability to work in perfect harmony with me. That is to say, do whatever I want without complaining.’
Rose narrowed her eyes and was about to ask whether he had a problem with her just because she happened to have lodged a couple of small complaints after four years when she realised that he was joking.
‘Ha,
