Gabriel shrugged. ‘That’s fair enough,’ he agreed, matching her conciliatory smile with one of his own. ‘It’s late. Let’s go upstairs.’
They made love. Again. It was late, and they were tired, but the bed was a soothing haven after hours spent in what seemed to Izzy some kind of parallel universe.
The following morning, Izzy took Rosa into town for ice-cream, and when she returned a little before lunch a lawyer was there and papers had been drawn up for signature.
Gabriel had taken her at her word. She’d demanded everything be done by the book, and he was adhering to that request to the letter.
She signed the papers, Rosa having been dispatched to watch television.
The lawyer was a formally dressed middle-aged man, and everything had been prepared meticulously and explained to her in even more scrupulous detail.
To one side, Gabriel watched, having scrawled his signature on the papers. Flustered and hot after a morning spent in town, Izzy was very much aware of his towering presence behind her.
This felt so formal. They might be lovers, she thought in self-defence, but that didn’t mean he owed her anything. If things didn’t work out between he and his ex-wife, whatever thosethingsmight be, then who was to say he wouldn’t try to justify reneging on his word?
He never would.But she clung to that very sensible deduction as, finally, the last page was signed and she went to return the pen to the lawyer.
‘Not so fast.’
Izzy looked at Gabriel, bemused, and he nodded to the lawyer who produced two sheets of paper, impeccably typed and formatted as the rest had been.
‘What’s that?’ she asked, surprised.
‘The issue of trust cuts both ways,’ he said drily. ‘You want to ensure my promise is legally binding and I, likewise, want to ensure that your promise is legally binding as well...’
Izzy read the document. It was brief. A fortnight bound to his side with no leeway for a change of heart.
Of course. Why not? But for him, there were different motivations. Whilst she had insisted on all the dots and crosses being in the right place, because she had been desperate to assume the mantle of someone detached dealing with an unexpected development in a business-like manner,hewould have done the same because he was not attached to her in any way, aside from the physical.
Whist she was pretending to be in charge, he wasn’t pretending anything at all. They might be lovers, but a deal was a deal, and she suspected that even if she hadn’t insisted on anything being signedhewould not have been quite so trusting.
She signed, but her eyes were stinging.
Had the lawyer noticed anything? What must he make of this peculiar arrangement? He was obviously well-trained, because his expression betrayed nothing as he gathered the various papers, exchanged a few pleasantries and then left, shown to the front door by Gabriel while Izzy waited in the sitting room.
Why did it hurt so much that he’d made her sign a piece of paper? Was she so naïve to believe that there would be one rule for her and another for him? It felt as though something jarring had been introduced between them, and she wondered how she would be able to relax with him if she knew, at the back of her mind, that he didn’t trust her. Yet hadn’t her own actions suggested the very same thing to him?
She didn’t notice Gabriel back at the door. She was trying to talk herself into an upbeat frame of mind.
Gabriel stilled for a few seconds, looking at her staring through the bay window, half-turned away. Her hands were balled into fists and her body language shrieked unhappiness.
He knew why.
He’d asked her to sign a piece of paper, just as she had asked him to, but his request had cut her to the quick. If he hadn’t been as in control of his life as he was, then he might have been tempted to think that her demand for transparency from him was equally cutting, but he decided that any response along those lines was beneath him.
Still, her posture punctured his usual formidable cool and he was tempted to make amends in some way or another.
He scowled, because since when was it in his nature to placate where placating was not necessary? He cleared his throat and strolled towards her.
‘Happy?’ he asked, circling around so that she was compelled to look at him. How could she look so enticing and so utterly seductive when she was wearing no more than some faded dungarees with a white vest underneath and flip-flops, and had her hair tied back in a pony tail, face bare of all make-up? She was so endearingly fresh-faced, so lacking in artifice. He recalled that first time, finding out that she was a virgin, and the drive to make her smile again was like the physical twist of something sharp inside him.
His reaction bewildered him but he didn’t stop to analyse why.
She shrugged and offered him a weak smile. ‘Yep. All signed. Evelyn will be overjoyed to find out that she can stay in the cottage. She puts on a brave front but she’s had so many sleepless nights...’ Her voice tapered off and her eyes skittered away from his. ‘I should go and see about fixing Rosa some lunch.’
‘Rosa can wait a couple of minutes,’ Gabriel told her gruffly. He raked his fingers through his hair and fidgeted. ‘Youdidask for everything to be legally documented,’ he pointed out.
‘I did. Yes.’
