in particular. So far up, everyone and everything looked pleasantly small. He had had nearly three months to mull over her disappearing act and had come to the conclusion that underneath the sexy, responsive woman beat a heart that longed for security. Of course, he should have guessed that she would have eventually been terrified of having an affair with him, terrified of the limitless freedom of expression he offered her. He had allowed the fiery, sexual, hungry side of her to be expressed and she had decided that it was all a little bit too much.
Serve her right if she ended up living a life of drudgery and monotony with a man she clearly didn’t love and never would!
Gabriel sat back down at his desk and glared at the computer screen, which obligingly offered him the relaxing vision of company accounts. He lightly tapped one of the keys and the screen shifted to a draft report that needed checking.
It was just as well that she’d vanished if security was the thing she longed for! Because she would know only too well that he was the last man in the world to offer that gem of a prize to any woman. When the time came he would settle down, but that time was still a long way away! The last thing he needed was a messy situation involving someone who worked for him!
He couldn’t help but speculate, with satisfaction, that she was probably bitterly regretting her hasty impulse to leave. When she sobered up, it pleased him to think that she would realise just what a financial package she had tossed down the drain. How many companies were prepared to offer an employee a part-time week at an escalated salary, with no guarantee that said employee wouldn’t walk straight out of the door the minute they qualified in their studies? Frankly, none, and especially not considering she would be a recent employee at whatever company she had deserted him to join.
No, he was pretty sure that she would be suffering.
Fortified at the thought of that, Gabriel retrieved the photos of the villa and contemplated them in a less aggrieved frame of mind, flicking through them with satisfaction because the place looked stunning even in its as yet unfinished state. Amazing what painting and decorating could achieve! The landscaping, including the golf course, was yet to be completed but that would be the last thing, and the pools, three smaller ones and one large infinity overlooking the sea, were all but up and running.
He wondered whether he would aggressively advertise it as a luxurious, fairly private resort available to a select handful of people who were willing to basically rent an island or whether he would keep this treasure to himself, lend it out to friends, enjoy it with his family whenever he could find the time. His mother was always angling for a family reunion. She could have her reunions in style there.
He was just beginning to pleasantly contemplate the myriad uses to which the villa could be put when he heard his secretary knock tentatively on his door and he bit back the immediate surge of annoyance.
Karen Davis was proving to be an excellent replacement secretary if efficiency was the only prerequisite. Unfortunately, on most other counts, she didn’t press the right buttons for him. She was too young at twenty, too timid and too reluctant to take the initiative. He told himself that he really had to give her time to grow accustomed to his ways but, whenever he thought like that, he began thinking of Rose and then his mind, freed of its leash, would gallop all over the place.
‘What?’ he snapped, modifying his voice to a more polite, ‘Yes?’ when Karen poked her head around his door.
She was thin. Some might call it fashionably thin, but to his eyes, she appeared emaciated. Her hair was very long and she was very pale and had a tendency to look away whenever he spoke to her. She was, however, extremely good when it came to the basic mechanisms of her job. Gabriel reminded himself of that and of the succession of no hopers he had employed when Rose had gone to Australia. He tried to soften his expression.
‘There’s someone here to see you, sir…’
Gabriel had tried hard to make her call him by his first name but she persisted in sticking to sir and he had given up. ‘Who? There’s nothing in my diary.’
‘No, well, sir…’
‘Tell him to book an appointment through you. I won’t be working late tonight.’
Karen hesitated and glanced over her shoulder.
Rose, standing by the door, knowing that Gabriel wouldn’t be able to actually make her out, sent her a sympathetic glance back. Poor kid. This was probably her first real job, fresh out of secretarial college, all primed on her computer skills but totally green when it came to handling a man like Gabriel. For a few seconds, Rose forgot that she, herself, felt sick to the stomach with nerves. She gently lifted one finger to her mouth, instructing the girl not to pursue the matter and noticed the flash of relief in her eyes.
Karen nodded at Gabriel, who had already lost interest in the identity of his mystery caller, and quietly shut the door.
‘You go home,’ Rose said gently. ‘And I’ll go in.’
‘But…’ Karen looked back at the closed door and chewed nervously on her lip, ‘he’ll kill me if you just walk into his office. Part of my job is to…you know…vet the people who want to see him…’
‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll make sure you survive the ordeal.’ Rose smiled, although her mouth hurt from the effort. ‘Don’t forget I used to work for him. You’re not allowing a complete stranger into his hallowed presence…’Rose had met Karen briefly, on the very day she had returned to clear out her desk. Two days before Gabriel returned from the island. She knew that the young girl had been curious about the suddenness of her employment, but she had been easily convinced by the generosity of the pay package. So hers was a familiar face and if Karen suspected that she might not be an entirely welcome visitor—or else why would she have arrived unannounced for a surprise visit?—she was still happy to follow the path of least resistance. Which involved her making a quiet and speedy departure from the office.
With the outside door firmly shut, Rose drew in a deep shaky breath.
She had spent the past four days trying to predict how she would feel standing right here, inside this office. She could have come earlier in the day, but she knew how the office worked, knew that if she timed it well she would arrive when most of the staff were leaving, which would be the better option.
She had anticipated nerves, but nothing could compare to the wild, sick fluttering in her stomach now.
She smoothed her perspiring palms on her skirt and forced herself to walk towards his door. To knock or not to knock? Rose knocked and got exactly what she expected, which was a, ‘Yes! What is it now?’ that paid even less lip service to courtesy than when Karen had knocked previously.
She pushed open the connecting door.
Gabriel didn’t bother to look up. He was frowning heavily at his computer screen and, for a few seconds, Rose took the opportunity to just look at him.
His masculine beauty, as it always had, jumped out at her, making the breath catch in her throat, although he looked more gaunt than when she had last seen him on that fateful night before she’d walked out of his life. For good. Or so she had planned at the time.
‘Gabriel!’ Her voice seemed over loud in the confines of the room but it had the desired effect. Gabriel’s head shot up and his expression was one of utter shock, very quickly replaced by one of unreadable stillness.
They stared at one another. To Rose, it felt like hours. Her legs felt weaker and weaker but no
