‘Provided I look after Rosa because you can’t see your way to having a couple of weeks away from your work...’
Gabriel frowned but decided not to take issue with that blatantly provocative remark. ‘You would have to live in. It’s more convenient, especially if I need to return to New York for anything. I would need you to be on hand.’
‘In other words,’ Izzy said slowly, ‘you’re blackmailing me. You’ll think about backing off if I help you out with Rosa. Why don’t you just hire someone for a week or so?’
Gabriel thought of Bianca and the open airwaves between Bella and her. The last thing he needed was to give his ex-wife ammunition that she would cheerfully use against him in a court of law.
Izzy was not a nanny. She was a friend helping out now and again.
‘My daughter is really taken with you,’ Gabriel said truthfully. ‘I very much doubt that any nanny would be able to slide seamlessly into Rosa’s life for such a short space of time, whereas you...’ She wasn’t qualified, yet there was something about her he instinctively trusted, and the fact that his daughter was bowled over by her spoke volumes. She had a certain sweetness in her that was at odds with her wealthy background and he was willing to concede that she might not quite fit the one-dimensional mould he had been quite happy to slot her into.
‘I... I might have other things to do... Plans for filling my time while I’m here...’
‘No, you don’t. A person with plans doesn’t decide to remain in one place on a whim.’
‘Don’t tell me what I might or might not have planned!’
‘It’s a simple question, Izzy, a simple deal. Do you take it or not?’
CHAPTER FOUR
IZZYARRIVEDTHEfollowing morning with all her clothes stuffed into the Louis Vuitton suitcase she had brought along with her when she had fled Hawaii.
The mansion looked all the more imposing now that she was going to be moving in. When Gabriel had first put his proposition forward, just for a second Izzy had thought that he had been kidding. She’d clocked quickly enough that he was deadly serious.
He had laid it on thick with the charm for Evelyn’s benefit and the older woman had fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
She had misguidedly believed that his easy manner, that way he had of looking as though he wasreally listening and utterly focused,meant that he was going to allow her to stay where she was without forcing her out by fair means or foul. He had been soothing and reassuring and she taken the wrong message from his demeanour.
Izzy had arrived at an altogether different interpretation of events and one she knew to be far closer to reality.
He was fattening Evelyn up for the kill. Let her bask in the contentment of thinking she was safe, and the second he told her what life would look like when the tractors moved in she would have no fight left and would collapse without a struggle.
That said...there was the slimmest chance that she was wrong, the vaguest possibility that he really was going to consider his options. So she felt that she could not reject his offer out of hand. Maybe, living under the same roof, she might even be able to employ some powers of persuasion to make him see sense, to steer him away from pursuing yet another unnecessary addition to his portfolio.
Now, as she rang the doorbell, she felt her stomach muscles tighten at the prospect of living with the man, sharing space with him, beingswampedtwenty-four-seven by his suffocating personality.
Izzy was banking down a rising tide of belated panic when the front door was pulled open, but thankfully not by Gabriel. Marie, the young housekeeper, had a tea towel slung over her shoulder and her hair was pulled back with a scarf. She was pink faced but smiling, and behind her Rosa was hopping from one foot to the other.
‘She’s been waiting for the past hour,’ Marie confided. ‘I could barely get the cleaning done because she’s been tagging along behind me telling me about all the stuff you two are going to be doing.’
‘Well, I’ll have to get rid of this bag first...’ Izzy smiled at Rosa, who immediately took charge as only a child can do. She flew up the stairs, breathlessly pointing out things along the way, and the question uppermost in Izzy’s head concerning the whereabouts of Gabriel was lost in the excitement of her arrival.
She relaxed, the panic subsided and the day progressed, filled with an agenda of fast-paced activities inspired by an active and enthusiastic six-year-old with reserves of energy that beggared belief.
Izzy had almost forgotten her dread of being in the same house as Gabriel until, at a little after six and after an enjoyable visit to the cottage—where Evelyn had come alive in Rosa’s company—they both wearily returned to the house to find Gabriel in the kitchen, drink in one hand, waiting for them.
In low-slung, faded jeans, a white T-shirt and bare feet, he looked sinfully sexy and horribly tempting, and Izzy stopped dead in her tracks as her mouth dried and her brain fogged over.
Their eyes met over Rosa’s head and he raised his eyebrows, which brought her sharply back down to earth.
‘I must just get changed.’ She did a sweeping gesture to encompass her khaki shorts and T-shirt. ‘I’ll leave you two to catch up on the day.’
She fled, straight up to the room she had been assigned.
Her heart was beating like a sledgehammer. She stared out of the window, gathering her composure. It was a peaceful sight. Manicured grounds, an infinity pool and the sweeping expanse of vineyards in the distance all set under a vast sky. There was a feel of cowboy territory, with the purple haze of the mountains far away on the horizon. She looked away and headed for theen suite.
This, she told herself, was not going to do. She was not going to let herself get flustered every time she laid eyes on the man. She was not going to let him see the sort of unwelcome effect he had on her. She’d committed to this job, though it couldn’t be called a job, because when he’d offered to pay her she’d firmly refused. She wasn’t going to be undermined by a swirl of emotion that had no place inside her.
