Rufus coming to her bed last night, needing her warmth and closeness, the two of them making love in a totally uninhibited way, showed her how wrong she had been about that. No matter how much Rufus distrusted her, the two of them could still communicate in a physical way.
She, because she loved him so deeply.
Rufus, because he still desired her no matter what else he might believe of her.
‘Aren’t you eating anything?’ she prompted ten minutes later when she joined Rufus in the small dining-room, only a cup of coffee on the table in front of him.
He grimaced. ‘My body clock is all shot to hell. Besides, I had coffee and toast with Holly before she went to school.’
Gabriella sat down at the table with her coffee and a croissant. ‘I bet she was pleased to see you,’ she said ruefully.
‘If only to tell me what a bullying, unreasonable stepmother I’ve given her!’ He nodded ruefully.
She raised wary eyes, reassured slightly by the fact that Rufus was smiling. ‘Holly decided to eat in her bedroom for two days after you left.’ She shrugged. ‘When I heard about it I told her I had instructed the staff not to take any more meals up to her room, that if she wanted to eat in future she was to come down to the dining-room. It took a day of starvation for Holly to realize I meant what I said, but she came down for breakfast the following day.’
The battle of wills between herself and Holly hadn’t been at all pleasant, and now, even a week later, Holly still barely spoke to her as they ate breakfast or dinner together; she merely ate her food and then left.
Rufus looked at Gabriella admiringly, still not sure why she had taken this interest in Holly, but grateful that she had. It was a strange feeling to have for a woman he had always avoided feeling any emotion towards—except undeniable desire.
‘She wasn’t too thrilled, going on your advice, that I hadn’t brought her a present back, either.’ He grimaced. ‘She believes the two of us have “ganged up” on her, was the way she phrased it, I believe.’
The likelihood of that was so ridiculous that Gabriella couldn’t help smiling. ‘She obviously doesn’t know our real relationship at all!’
Rufus studied her through narrowed lids. She looked beautiful this morning, her make-up only a foundation and blusher if he wasn’t mistaken, her lashes naturally long and thick about her incredible violet-coloured eyes, her lips red and pouting—from his kisses the night before…?
‘What would you say our relationship was, Gabriella?’ he prompted huskily.
She seemed to think about that for a moment, slowly sipping her coffee. ‘Armed, but total, physical awareness?’ she finally suggested ruefully.
He laughed softly at the description. ‘At times an uncomfortable feeling.’ He nodded.
Gabriella looked at him searchingly. After their conversation before he’d left eight days ago, she had expected him to come back as insulting as when he went away. She certainly hadn’t expected to be sitting here sharing breakfast with him after a night of lovemaking that still made her blush to think about it!
But there was a quietness about Rufus today, a questioning, as if the death of his manager in New York had made him question aspects of his own life.
Of course, she would be a fool to try to read anything into that where she was concerned, knowing the slightest thing could set his suspicions off again.
‘So you decided not to bring Holly a present back after all…?’ She decided to pursue what was a relatively safe subject.
He shrugged. ‘Because of what happened, I wasn’t in the mood to go shopping! Besides, Holly was very rude to you, and to me, before I went away. I thought about that a lot while I was in New York, and decided you were probably right; I have created a monster.’
A monster who could turn out exactly like her mother if he continued to spoil her in the way that he was, he had reluctantly realized, only interested in what she could take and not what she had to give in order to receive. He had disliked Angela intensely by the time they were divorced, but he knew it wasn’t too late to correct the same faults he had unwittingly created in Holly at only seven.
He had also had a chance to observe Rob’s two children after their father died, had seen the wholly caring way the ten-and twelve-year-old had tried to help their mother through all that by not burdening her with their own pain and anguish.
It had made him realize he would like Holly to become as selfless as they were. And that the example of that could only come from him.
And Gabriella, it seemed…
Making her more of an enigma to him than ever.
He really hadn’t expected Gabriella to continue to take this interest in Holly while he was away, and even while he had listened to his young daughter’s complaints about her this morning he had wondered at that interest.
There could be no possible motive, that he could see, other than a genuine desire to help Holly.
Gabriella didn’t think of Holly as a monster at all, just a very over-indulged little girl who needed to be taught some manners.
‘How are the alterations at the restaurant progressing?’ Rufus asked.
Her face lit up. ‘Very well. It’s all been painted, in Mediterranean colours, golden creams and terracotta. The new paintings are up, real plants trailing down the walls, the kitchen has been refitted, I’m just waiting for the new chairs to arrive and it will all be finished.’
She was as animated as he had been when he’d opened the Gresham’s in New York, Rufus saw admiringly, once again questioning the hard work she obviously hadn’t minded putting into this venture. The even harder work to come once she had actually opened the restaurant to the public.
‘Will you be ready to open on Monday as planned?’ he prompted interestedly.
‘Saturday,’ she told him firmly. ‘I want to try and draw in as many Saturday shoppers as possible,’ she explained. ‘In the hope that they’ll return early next week.’
A good marketing ploy, Rufus thought approvingly, the beginning of the week always much slower for customers than the weekend.
Reminding him that he had a business here in London himself that he had necessarily been neglecting for over a week.
He put his empty coffee-cup down on the table, picking up the pile of messages he had been glancing through when Gabriella had joined him. ‘I have to go and make some calls this morning, and then go in to Gresham’s this afternoon. Will you be in for dinner this evening?’
So polite, Gabriella frowned thoughtfully, not quite understanding this new, tentative relationship between them. Rufus’s interest in the restaurant had been completely unexpected, as was his query about her plans for dinner this evening.
‘Of course,’ she answered warily. ‘Where else would I be?’ she added defensively.
He raised blond brows. ‘I was only asking, Gabriella.’
‘Why?’ She still frowned.
Rufus gave a rueful smile. ‘Because I’m interested to know whether or not I’m having dinner with my wife this evening.’
He hadn’t so much as mentioned Toby since he got back, let alone asked her if she had seen the other man while he was away. Why hadn’t he?
Probably because he had only thought she would lie to him if he did ask!
‘Well, I shall be here,’ she assured him dryly. ‘Whether or not you will is another matter.’
His gaze narrowed. ‘Meaning?’
She shrugged. ‘Meaning you’ve been away for over a week. You must have—friends, who want to see you.’
Surprisingly the two of them had never discussed whether or not there were other relationships in their lives when they married. There was no one currently in her own life, but the existence of Rufus’s apartment in town meant she couldn’t be so sure about his circumstances.
She had had plenty of time to think of things like that with Rufus in New York, and had decided that there probably was a current woman in his life, and that she was far from the first woman to be held completely in t
hrall by him.
Rufus had no idea what was going on inside Gabriella’s head. He couldn’t read anything from her guarded violet eyes, but the meaning behind her words was pretty clear.
‘No “friends” at the moment, Gabriella,’ he assured her. ‘My wife might not like it!’ he added mockingly.
‘And that would really bother you, I’m sure!’ she came back scathingly.
She was trying to pick an argument with him again, he realized. And he wasn’t in the mood to argue with her just now; he could remember their closeness last night too well, and had too many unanswered questions about her, to feel comfortable doing that.
Questions he needed answers to.
But not here. And not now.
Now he intended making his exit before she managed to embroil him in a fight he didn’t want.
He stood up. ‘I have to go and make these phone calls,’ he dismissed. ‘We’ll have time to talk this evening, if that’s what you want.’
She didn’t know what she wanted, she thought. She felt completely disorientated by this calm, almost pleasant Rufus.
Last night they had made love, wildly, explosively, and completely without inhibition.
This morning Rufus was actually talking to her as if her opinion interested him, as if what she had been doing while he was away interested him, too.
She didn’t know him in this mood at all!
‘Oh, by the way—’ he stopped in the doorway ‘—I have a message here from David Brewster requesting that I call him when I return to England.’ He held up the stack of telephone messages he had been reading earlier. ‘Do you have any idea what he wants to talk to me about?’
Gabriella tensed in alarm. David Brewster had telephoned Rufus in the last eight days?
That meant he had phoned since she had returned to sign the agreement in which she gave everything back to Rufus, except the restaurant Gabriella’s, at the end of these six months…?
‘I have no idea,’ she dismissed firmly, determining then and there that she had to get to a telephone and speak to David Brewster before Rufus did.
The contract had been drawn up in complete confidence, and was no one else’s business but her own, but she knew David Brewster wasn’t happy about it. He had tried to talk her out of making such a move, assuring her it wasn’t what James had intended to happen at all.
Admittedly David Brewster wasn’t actually her lawyer, but in the strange circumstances of James’s will, and the fact that David Brewster was already completely conversant with it, he had seemed the only logical choice for drawing up such an agreement.
But she had thought David Brewster understood it was a confidential agreement, and not for Rufus, as the recipient of that agreement, to know about until she chose to tell him.
So what other reason could there be for the lawyer to need to talk to Rufus?
Chapter 9
‘What do you have there?’ Rufus prompted inquisitively as he sat on the side of his daughter’s bed, having come up to say goodnight to her.
Holly looked up from the book she was obviously deeply engrossed in. ‘It’s a book on horses. Gabriella bought it for me today as a present, she said because I was a very good girl while you were away. She said she thought I ought to read about caring for a pony before I ask you to buy me one,’ she admitted awkwardly.
Rufus’s eyes widened. ‘She did?’ he said slowly.
‘Mmm.’ His daughter nodded, obviously anxious to get back to her book. ‘Gabriella said she used to have riding lessons when she lived here as a young girl, too, and that if I liked she would arrange some for me at the riding stable she used to go to.’
‘She did?’ Rufus puzzled, aware that he was repeating himself, but unable to do anything else in the circumstances.
The fact that Gabriella had taken the time to select a book for Holly on a subject that obviously interested his daughter was surprising enough, but that she had also suggested organizing riding lessons for Holly was even more so. It was certainly above and beyond what he could have expected from their bargain!
‘Mmm,’ his daughter repeated herself, too. ‘Once she had talked to you about it, of course,’ she added hastily. ‘Can I have riding lessons, Daddy? Gabriella said she would try to arrange one for Sunday morning if you agreed.’
Gabriella did this…Gabriella said that…
This was quite a turnaround from the way Holly had felt about Gabriella nine days ago…
But maybe Holly was changing already. She certainly seemed to be. Which was all to the good.
But it was Gabriella’s behaviour that puzzled him. Aware that he hadn’t brought Holly a present back from New York, she had got his daughter a present instead, because she had been a ‘good girl’ while he was away. It was the way in which a present should be given, rather than as a sop to Holly’s temper, as anything he had brought back for her would have looked.
Gabriella, it seemed, had more of an idea of how to bring up a growing little girl than he did…
‘I don’t see why not, poppet.’ He leant forward to kiss his daughter on the forehead, knocked slightly off balance as she threw her arms impulsively around his neck and hugged him.
‘Oh, thank you, Daddy! Thank you!’ Her eyes glowed with pleasure as she lay back against the pillows. ‘Gabriella said she would drive me to the riding stable on Sunday if you said yes.’
‘That’s very good of Gabriella.’ He nodded. ‘Perhaps I might come for a drive, too.’
‘Would you?’ Holly’s face lit up excitedly.
Why not? He occasionally took Holly to the park, and sometimes the theatre if there was anything suitable on, but he couldn’t remember the last time she had looked this excited about anything.
‘I’ll talk to Gabriella about it,’ he promised, standing up. ‘Don’t read for too long,’ he added affectionately as he moved towards the door.
Holly nodded. ‘Gabriella said I should only look at my book until eight o’clock, otherwise I’ll be too tired for school in the morning.’
Rufus was more perplexed than ever. ‘She’s quite right,’ he agreed, slightly dazed.
‘I—I think I was wrong to be mean to Gabriella, Daddy,’ Holly said in a small voice. ‘I—she’s nice.’
Yes, she was, Rufus acknowledged with a frown. And maybe, just maybe, he had been wrong to be mean to Gabriella, too…?
It was time—past time—that the two of them talked!
‘Can you tell her about the riding lessons when she comes back, Daddy?’ Holly prompted anxiously.
‘When she comes back?’ Rufus repeated slowly.
Holly nodded. ‘She went out just before you got home from work.’
Gabriella had gone out? But this morning she had told him she would be in for dinner…
‘Did she say when she would be back?’he prompted lightly.
Holly shook her head. ‘Just later.’
‘Did she say where she was going?’ Rufus was slightly impatient now, as he had expected to see Gabriella for dinner. He had been looking forward to having dinner with her this evening!
‘Just out.’ His daughter shrugged.
‘Okay, poppet.’ He nodded. ‘See you in the morning.’
‘I love you, Daddy.’ She smiled.
‘I love you, too, Holly,’ he assured her sincerely.
He had never doubted his love for his daughter, it was his feelings for Gabriella that were such a mystery.
As Gabriella herself was turning out to be…
‘Where have you been?’
Gabriella stiffened at the sound of Rufus’s voice, turning where she stood halfway up the stairs, to find Rufus had come out into the hallway and was looking up at her.
It was after eleven o’clock, and she had thought—hoped—that everyone else—especially Rufus!—would be in bed by now. In fact the silence as she had let herself into the house had convinced her that they were.
No such luck!
Rufus looked dark and forbidding in the low g
low given off by the lamp left on in the spacious hallway, his face all hollows and shadows, his hair shining like burnished gold as he looked up at her.
‘I thought you said this morning you would be in for dinner this evening,’ he reminded her abruptly.
‘You haven’t been waiting up for me, have you, Rufus?’ she taunted.
‘Hardly,’ he bit out tersely. ‘I had some work to catch up on in the study, and just happened to hear you come in.’
‘A change of plans.’ She shrugged. ‘I decided to meet some friends in town instead.’
In truth, the thought of sitting down to dinner with Rufus, after what she had learnt from her telephone call to David Brewster, had made her feel nauseous.
‘Don’t look so disapproving, Rufus.’ She laughed mockingly at his dark expression. ‘I do have friends, you know! And one of them wasn’t Toby, if that’s what you think,’ she added quickly.
His mouth twisted. ‘I’m sure you have friends other than Toby. I didn’t mean to imply that you hadn’t.’
Gabriella gave him a sceptical glance. ‘Yes, I do. And the friends I met this evening were all female,’ she assured him defiantly. ‘I can give you their telephone numbers if you want to call them and check!’
She was deliberately challenging him again tonight, Rufus recognized with a scowl. He wondered at the reason for it.
They had seemed almost like a normal married couple this morning as they had chatted easily over breakfast. And he could only approve the changes she had already made to Holly, the time and effort she had already expended on his daughter.
So why was she once again trying to create an argument between them?
‘I don’t want to check up on you, Gabriella,’ he dismissed lightly. ‘I was merely expressing my—disappointment, that you weren’t home for dinner, after all.’
Gabriella eyed him scornfully. ‘I’ll bet!’
Why was she so defensive, for goodness’ sake? Okay, so she had changed her plans and gone out this evening instead of having dinner with him, but surely he should be the one that was annoyed about that, not her? After all, this was his first evening at home after being away for over a week.
Wife By Contract, Mistress By Demand Page 11
