Gabriel couldn’t remember ever having dug so deep into someone’s motivations and psyche. Even as his marriage had been falling apart, he had guiltily acknowledged that he should have asked far more questions, expressed more curiosity, verbalised more. Instead, he had weathered the defensive aggression of his soon-to-be ex, seeking only to get on top of the practical issues.
A virgin! He couldn’t credit it, but then he thought of the way she blushed despite her stubbornness and her fighting spirit. He had written off that crazy notion as existing only in his mind because the facts spoke for themselves. She was young, beautiful and rich and those attributes lent themselves to a pattern.
He’d been wrong.
Where he had before justified to himself how their mutual attraction could play into his hands, because all was fair in love and war, he was now assailed with a barrage of misgivings.
They had made love, and there was nothing he could do about that, but his conscience was telling him that he should get out now. Get out because she was vulnerable. Trust-fund babe she very well might be, but the usual attributes appeared to have passed her by.
‘Don’t youdaretry to analyse me,’ Izzy hissed. Her voice wobbled. ‘You don’t know what I’m thinking. You don’t know what’s going through my head.’
‘Izzy...’
‘Don’t youdare“Izzy” me.’
‘I don’t want to be responsible for hurting you,’ Gabriel confessed in a roughened undertone.
‘What makes you think you could ever hurt me?’ she asked. He didn’t want soft and fluffy and he didn’t want the girl with the broken heart. It wasn’t what he was used to and, if nothing else, pride now stiffened her backbone. No way was she going to allow him to feel sorry for her. She’d spent weeks feeling sorry for herself. She didn’t need someone else adding to the pity tally.
‘Explain.’
‘You’re not my type,’ she told him bluntly, and when he half-smiled she glared. ‘You have such an oversized ego, Gabriel Ricci! You’re attractive but that still doesn’t mean that you’re my type.’ He lowered his eyes, sheathing his expression, but she was pretty sure that the wretched man didn’t believe a word she was saying and her pride stiffened just a little bit more.
‘I’m not drawn to business men. I like men who are a little more relaxed when it comes to living life. Jefferson turned out to be a creep, but that’s life. You’re a good-looking guy, Gabriel, and I suppose you know it, but there’s a big difference between being physically attracted to someone and seeing them as relationship material. You’re not relationship material, and I would have guessed that without you having to tell me.’ She paused, looking at him steadily, while her rebellious mind busied itself with stupid, pointless thoughts.
What would it be like to have the heart of this dangerous, sexy, impossible man? Was he so cold, so ruthless, so driven because he had never stopped loving an ex-wife who now made his life hell, from the sounds of it? Had that been his one big love? Had that first cut been the deepest?
‘We made love because I wanted it as well,’ she said. ‘And I thought it was great. I’m not interested in a relationship with you and I wish you had just...let things be, Gabriel. One night of pure pleasure without the drama afterwards.’ She clenched her jaw until it ached. ‘Instead, you had to make a big deal of it. Okay, so you think it was a mistake. Fine.’
She began to shuffle off the bed, taking the sheet with her. ‘I’ll be on my way. I’m sorry about Rosa, I know she’ll be disappointed, but I don’t think I can hang around here trying to make sure I get out of your way because you’re turned off by me.’ She could have added that Rosa, already the innocent victim of so much instability in her life, hardly needed more thrust upon her. To leave sooner would be a million times better for his daughter than if she were to leave later.
She wanted so much to try and persuade him to just stop pressuring Evelyn to sell up. She had seen this as an opportunity to wear down his inexorable need to own more at the expense of someone else. But she hadn’t been able to withstand the chemistry between them and now everything was ruined. He would surely proceed with his plans. He couldn’t chuck Evelyn out but he could simply wear her down until she acquiesced. Weren’t there many ways to skin a cat, after all? He’d wanted someone else, not her. He’d seen the packaging and liked what he saw, but what was inside the wrapping paper wasn’t what he thought he’d ordered, and now it was time to return to sender.
The sting of hurt was overwhelming. She chewed her lip and ungracefully continued to shuffle away, but she felt the clamp of his hand on her arm and she froze immediately.
‘What the hell, Izzy? You think Idon’tfancy you?’
‘I think I’m not what you signed up for. Which is the same thing, as far as I’m concerned.’
She tried to tug away from him but he drew her back against him and held her close, arms around her, even though she did her best to pummel her way free.
‘You’ve given me the most precious gift any woman could give a man.’ He spoke gruffly, his mouth buried against her neck, her hair falling across him soft and silky. ‘I am not worthy of it. I may have got my words wrong, but don’t think for an instant that what we just shared wasn’t as amazing for me as it was for you.’
‘You don’t have to lie to spare my feelings,’ Izzy whispered.
‘Lie? Feel me,amore, touch me, and you’ll find out fast enough just how much I fancy you...’
The fight drained out of her. Sitting here, breathing him in, he filled her. She recognised her weakness and accepted it.
CHAPTER SEVEN
GABRIELLOOKEDAThis daughter and Izzy, heads together, one white-blonde, the other raven-dark.
They were counting fish, which wasn’t difficult, because the three of them had managed to catch the grand total of two fish over a period of several hours. They were at a trout farm, owned and run by the same family for a million years. Their poles and bait had been provided and they had been taken to the beautiful, well-stocked pond and left to do their thing. When they were ready, the fish would be cleaned by one of the owners and they would grill it on site and eat it with the massive picnic that had been prepared by his housekeeper.
With Rosa in tow, Gabriel’s activities had led him to places hitherto unexplored. The sanitised early-evening meals out in expensive New York restaurants—with the occasional trip to the zoo thrown in when he took a break from work, which had been rare—were gone. In their place was a selection of fun activities meticulously researched by Izzy and enthusiastically seconded by Rosa.
He had not been allowed to renege on any of these activities because, Izzy had said four days earlier, Bella would be back soon enough and their routine would settle into place, so why not take advantage of the window of opportunity?
