He stood up, strolled to the floor-to-ceiling panes of glass that fortified his office, turning it into a glasshouse, and looked down twenty storeys to the streets below, thin and pulsing like thread veins.Thiswas reality.Thiswas what he had trained himself to appreciate.Thiswas his life blood.
He and Izzy were not going to share space indefinitely. That had never been an option. It was staggering enough that she had shared his bedroom at all. None of his mistresses ever had, nor had he ever been tempted to issue any invitations.
And yet...
She was gone but she still filled his head. She’d left his bed and yet he still reached for her in the morning when he opened his eyes. Everywhere felt silent without her laughter filling the space between them. He closed his eyes and saw her face and his heart ached.
Forget about reality and bubbles that had to burst... Forget about pride and not having to justify himself to anyone. He hadn’t been ready to let her go and, sitting here now, he finally admitted what he’d subconsciously been thinking for so long...
He might never be able to let her go.
Izzy sat back on her haunches and gazed at the mural she was in the process of creating. It was stiflingly hot inside the first of the cabanas to have been fully built based on the ideas she had had for the hotel, ideas which Max had put into place, as he had said he would.
Air conditioning was due to be installed when the remaining cabanas were all constructed, which would not be for another three months. Until then, she would work away in the heat, taking time out every so often to step outside and grab what little breeze there was.
Izzy didn’t mind. She welcomed the stifling discomfort. It was more bearable than her inner torment, which was with her all the time, from the very moment she opened her eyes to the moment she closed them.
In theory, life was looking very good for her on all other fronts bar the emotional one. Max was in London at the moment, but they had had the most rewarding week together before he’d left. They’d actually talked and listened to one another. He’d sat next to Mia, his arm slung casually over her shoulder. Izzy had never seen anyone so much in love and her heart had twisted because, against all odds, he was living the dream she wanted so desperately for herself.
But it didn’t erase the fact that she hadn’t heard a word from Gabriel. She had closed the door behind her nearly a fortnight ago, and with that, she had closed a door to him and to Rosa...closed a window that had begun to feel like a dream. She could almost believe none of it had ever happened were it not for her memories, which were as sharp and as cruel as shards of glass inside her.
She was relying heavily on the cliché that time healed all.
Her mind was a million miles away, so when she heardhisvoice behind her, she didn’t register that anyone had spoken at all until, a little louder, the voice said, ‘I like it. Could I commission you to paint one for me?’
Very slowly, Izzy stood up and turned around. Her heart was racing and, even as her brain recognised that distinctive deep, dark drawl, her impulse was to deny the obvious.
Her memory hadn’t done him justice. He was even more devastatingly drop-dead gorgeous than she remembered. He wore cool, grey linen trousers, loafers, a faded grey polo-shirt... He looked urbane and elegant—as though the temperature wasn’t in the high eighties.
While she was the opposite, with her short overalls daubed with paint, her hair tied up in something that was somewhat of a bun but not quite. Even her flip-flops had drops of paint on them. She was a mess.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘What do you think? I’ve come to see you.’
‘Why?’
‘Will you come with me so that we can talk? I have a chauffeur waiting outside.’
‘What do we have to talk about, Gabriel?’
‘Everything.’
‘No. We don’t.’ She was furious because she could feel the prick of tears behind her eyes. Just looking at him opened up a well of sadness inside her. ‘We’re finished and it’s much better if it’s a clean break.’
‘Is that what you want? A clean break?’
When she didn’t answer, he looked away then strolled towards the mural, staring at it, his back to her.
‘How do you think it felt for me to know that the stuff I’d said to you in confidence had gone into building a case against your ex?’ Izzy asked, a wrenched accusation. ‘You may think that’s okay, because it was all for the sake of Rosa, but it didn’t feel okay to me. I havefeelings, and if you don’t get that then forget it.’
‘I hurt you.’ He turned round to look at her, his movements for once lacking their usual assuredness.
‘Yes. You did. And don’t youdaretell me that there was anything cold or calculating about me sleeping with you because I was keen to help Evelyn. Don’t even think of implying that it was some kind of trade off! It wasn’t like that and it never could be. Not for me.’
‘I know it wasn’t.’
‘And don’t even think of trying to get me back into your bed again because you’ve decided you don’t want a clean break.’ She didn’t want to look at him at all, but was still driven to stare, and she hated herself for her weakness.
