CHAPTER FIVE
‘SO, AM I going to get my driver to take you to the station? Ditch your ticket. It’s easy enough for me to buy you a new one….’
Lucy had finally managed to locate Gabriel. He had migrated from the kitchen and his hot drink to the sitting room and a glass of deep red wine. She’d had to search a number of rooms before she found him, and now knew every room was decorated to the same high standard. It was an enormous house. She had no idea how many bathrooms and bedrooms were scattered over the top three floors, but on the ground floor alone there appeared to be a number of sitting areas, a vast conservatory overlooking a garden, and a study—and all this in addition to the kitchen and whatever else lay beyond it. Certainly the laundry room from which he had earlier extracted his change of clothing.
He was sprawled on a leather sofa, nursing his drink, with his laptop flipped open on the low glass coffee table in front of him. He looked cool, composed, effortlessly elegant.
Lucy, who had planned on coming to London with the least flattering clothes she possessed—because why on earth should she make an effort when she was obeying orders under duress?—felt instantly inadequate. He had mentioned disliking her combat trousers, so those had been priority items when she had packed. Her
T-shirts were loose and faded, and her trainers, she had fondly imagined, would be handy should she feel the need to run very fast in the opposite direction.
She hadn’t banked on getting here and finding all her preconceived notions turned on their head.
‘Well?’ Gabriel sipped his wine and looked at her over the rim of his glass. He had no intention of helping her out on this score. He wasn’t going to ease her into his bed, he wasn’t going to tempt her, and he certainly wasn’t going to give her any excuse for turning on him and accusing him, for a second time, of assaulting her. That gross exaggeration still stuck in his throat. But with unerring instinct he knew that to someone like Lucy freedom of choice would be the most difficult path. He also knew that it would get him what he wanted—and he wanted her.
With all his conditional clauses in place, and his provisos, warnings and barriers in full working order, he looked forward to the sweetest of conquests.
So he didn’t rush her into a decision. He just kept his eyes on her, noting her fluctuations of colour and her awkward, hovering stance by the door.
‘Perhaps I could stay the night.’ Lucy wondered whether she had committed to sleeping with him by saying that and felt inclined to backtrack, but she held her ground.
This was all so crazy, but once she had taken it on board—once she had given house room to the reality that she was violently, helplessly attracted to him—she had squashed all her girlish ideals and succumbed to the most wonderful feeling of liberation.
‘In that case let me get you a drink.’
‘I don’t usually…’
‘I’m getting the picture that there are a lot of things that you don’t usually…’ There was a concealed drinks cabinet in the sitting room and he poured her some wine and then sat back down. ‘And you can stop standing by the door like a scared rabbit….’
‘What did you see in me?’
‘Come again?’
‘What did you see in me? I mean…two years ago…and now…what did you see in me?’
‘You have a habit of asking the most unnerving questions,’ Gabriel murmured, watching as she primly sat on one of the chairs facing him and wondering when she would get up the courage to actually enter his radius. She was so unlike the confident, pushy women he associated with—women who would have removed his drink from his hand a long time ago and walked him up the stairs, making it perfectly clear where they wanted the evening to end.
‘I’m just curious. I know you don’t like the stuff I wear…’
‘What man would? I like to see my women in dresses.’ He pictured that slender, eye-catching, lightly tanned body in something small and revealing and decided that the thought didn’t appeal. ‘Floaty affairs. Long.’
‘Really? Because those pictures on the internet of you with your dates…well, they were all incredibly…er…underdressed…’
‘How long did you spend gazing at me on your computer?’
‘Not long!’
Gabriel shrugged, but he was smiling. ‘I was attracted to your lack of artifice. I spotted that as soon as I laid eyes on you on that bike. No make-up, wind in your hair, glowing. I liked that trait then and I like it now. I don’t meet many women who are natural and straightforward…’
He had a way of looking at her that was as erotic as a physical caress.
‘I mean,’ he expanded, ‘you ask questions other women would shy away from. And you blush. That rates as a virtually extinct art form.’
‘So you’re attracted to me because I’m a novelty…?’
Gabriel frowned. ‘Where are you going with this line of questioning?’
‘It’s important for me to know how the ground lies.’
‘Does it matter why I’m attracted to you? I just am. In fact, I’d much rather you were sitting here next to me instead of over there, but I’m not about to push you into anything. Believe me, if I thought you could handle me then we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and we wouldn’t be sitting on two chairs like a couple of strangers making small talk.’
‘But we are a couple of strangers…’
‘That’s a situation I would have remedied the second you got off the train.’
Gabriel’s way of thinking was clearly alien to Lucy. He had no interest in getting to know her. He would chat to her, but his primary interest was making love. Everything else around that main event would be of little concern to him. He was drawn to her because she was different from what he was used to. How different he had only just discovered. Had he known at the time, he wouldn’t have made the mistake of pursuing her. No make-up and wind in her hair was very different from virginal.
‘Someone doesn’t stop being a stranger because you sleep with them….’
‘Possibly not, but it’s a start….’
He sent her a slow, wolfish grin that made her tummy flip over and turned her even breathing into a sharp, breathless pant.
‘And when do you start getting bored?’
Lucy felt as though she was tiptoeing round him, trying to find a way into that complex mind that thought so differently from hers. He had explained his reasons for avoiding commitment, but he had spoken so dispassionately that he might have been talking about someone else and not himself. She wondered whether she would really and truly be able to take on a man as impenetrable as Gabriel, but even as she was asking herself the question her responsive body was supplying the answer.
‘You sound like an interviewer. I know you’re in new terrain here, but loosen up. I can’t tell you when I start getting bored with a woman! How would any man be able to answer a question like that? All I can do is repeat what I’ve told you before. I have ground rules, and I suppose when a woman—any woman—starts thinking that she can stray over the boundaries I usually see fit to call it a day.’
Looking at him, Lucy felt that it was important for her to hear all this. Sleeping around was nothing for Gabriel, and he sought out women who shared his approach. But for Lucy sleeping with Gabriel would be a big deal. She would be acting completely out of character, allowing a physical side to her she had never suspected existed to take precedence over logic and reason. If he had his ground and his boundary lines then it was important for her to recognise that—just as it was important for her to let him know her feelings on the matter.
She couldn’t believe that she was thinking like this. She had always assumed that she would only ever be attracted to a man for whom she had strong feelings; and it was unsettling to accept that attraction could have laws of its own that had little or nothing to do with feelings and emotions. It was just pure luck that it was a discovery that she hadn’t made earlier.
‘And too many women do,’ Gabriel admitted heavily. ‘Despi
te the fact that I’m perfectly honest at the onset of any relationship. Sooner or later there’s a tendency for them to become clingy and demanding.’
‘How awful for you.’
Gabriel looked at her narrowly. ‘Am I detecting some sarcasm there?’
‘Not at all. It must be difficult when you’re so clear about what you don’t want a woman to be….’
Gabriel threw her a slashing smile that reminded her why she was in this position now, helplessly treading water in the face of his potent masculine charisma.
‘Amongst other things, this is part of your appeal,’ he continued huskily, watching her carefully with those clever dark eyes.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You don’t have any pointless girlish fantasies about me. You’ve seen me for what I am since the very second I made you that offer you couldn’t refuse. There’s no chance that you’re going to go romantic on me. There’s no chance that you’re going to suddenly decide that you want to hear the sound of wedding bells. You’re not going to be tempted into thinking that you can change me. Call me selfish, but I like all of that.’
Lucy barely recognised herself in his description. She had always had dreams of wedding bells, and she was a fully signed-up member of the romantic club, but she could see where he was going. He had approached her in a manner that left no illusions, and she had made it clear to him that she didn’t like him—so if they ended up in bed together it would literally be a case of sexual attraction minus anything else. It would be the ultimate no-strings-attached affair.
She was shocked at the heady sense of power that simple recognition invested her with. In a very brief space of time his powerful sex appeal and the open invitation in his lazy, assessing eyes had combined to chip away at her resolve.
‘You’re right. I don’t like you….’ Although with some confusion she recalled that there had been times during their day spent sightseeing when he had made her laugh and she had completely forgotten the angst that had been her companion on the train to London. She sidelined that thought with a little frown.
‘It’s so refreshing the way you speak your mind,’ Gabriel drawled. ‘I’ve never been in the company of a woman who doesn’t think twice about being offensive.’
Sitting on the sofa while she occupied the chair opposite was getting to him. Especially when he knew where they would be ending up. It was like being invited to sit at a table groaning with food and knowing that you couldn’t touch a thing…yet. The anticipation was killing him. He was a man who took what he wanted and had never been made to wait. Patience was not his middle name, and that had served him well in all his dealings to strike while the iron was hot.
‘I don’t see myself as an offensive person,’ Lucy said slowly.
Gabriel drummed his fingers restlessly on his thigh and toyed with the idea of putting an end to the chat by hauling her over his shoulder and carrying her upstairs to his bedroom.
‘Why don’t you like me?’ he heard himself ask, and winced at the crassness of the question—because other people’s opinions of him were irrelevant as far as he was concerned. Instead of prolonging the conversation he should be moving up a gear and heading the chat in the right direction.
‘Why do you think?’
‘My approach may have been a little unorthodox, but that aside…’
Lucy looked at his perfectly serious face and wanted to burst out laughing. She had noticed during the course of the day that he had a unique way of dealing with people and with situations. He didn’t analyse them and nor did he see any failings in his direct approach to getting what he wanted. He had told her in passing that he had once gone to see a movie—which seemed to be a rare event for him—and, not wanting to share the theatre with anyone else, had simply solved the problem by buying all the seats and ensuring complete privacy for himself and whatever woman he had on his arm at the time.
When she had told him that normal people didn’t do stuff like that, he had shrugged and said, ‘Why not? Makes sense as far as I’m concerned.’
‘You’re too cold,’ Lucy explained, thinking hard, her brow pleated into a small frown. ‘Too removed, too insensitive to other people…’
‘Enough! I disagree with you on all fronts, but I’m not about to have an argument. Was your ex-boyfriend warm and engaging? A good cook? He couldn’t have been that exciting if you never managed to make it past the bedroom door.’
Colour flooded Lucy’s cheeks but she held her ground. The ex-boyfriend might not have existed, but no one had made it past her bedroom door. ‘That’s why I don’t understand how…why I’m still here,’ she confessed honestly. ‘I mean…’
Gabriel held up one hand, because he had a feeling where this was going. ‘I think I’m about to be treated to another rambling description of everything you dislike about me and I’m tired of talking.’ He sat back and stretched his arm along the back of the sofa.
‘What do you want to do?’
‘I think we both know what I want to do—just like we both know what you want to do. So instead of spending the next three hours trying to work out the whys let’s just cut to the chase.’
He didn’t make a move towards her. He just kept her pinned to the spot until she forged a trembling path towards him.
‘Don’t forget,’ Gabriel murmured softly, ‘you leave your overactive conscience behind the second you enter my bedroom….’
Lucy nodded.
‘And relax.’ He smiled crookedly. ‘Trust me.’
He reached out and ran one lean finger along her clenched fist. A series of mini-explosions detonated in her. Arousal as fierce as it was sudden slammed into her with the terrifying force of a runaway train.
She followed him in a trance up the stairs to his bedroom—the very same bedroom that she had earlier regarded with such trepidation, when she had thought that she might be sharing that king-sized bed with him, a prisoner of circumstance.
‘You’re doing that scared rabbit thing again….’ Gabriel edged her away from the bedroom door and led her very gently towards a big window that overlooked his back garden. ‘What do you think?’ He could feel the slight but unmistakable tremor running through her slender body like quicksilver and he raised his hand to massage the back of her neck gently, underneath the thick sweep of her hair.
Lucy stared down at a small but impressive garden, beautifully landscaped and not overlooked. The warmth of his hand on her neck was just right, putting her at ease. ‘I prefer the garden to the house.’
‘I have no idea what plants are out there. I handed the whole job over to professionals when I moved here five years ago.’
‘That’s very lazy.’
‘Maybe if I’d known you at the time you could have come and sorted it all out for me. I would have enjoyed watching you in a little pair of shorts and a T-shirt out there….’
He turned her to face him and her heart skipped a beat as she looked up into his dark, beautiful face.
‘I wouldn’t have enjoyed being watched.’ She had never been drawn to dressing up to attract the attention of men. She had always left that to her more flamboyant friends. She enjoyed hearing about their escapades but it wasn’t for her. She wondered if that was a legacy of having much older, quieter parents.
Gabriel wondered whether that accounted for the boyfriend running to New Zealand to bond with sheep. He relished the challenge of teaching her to enjoy him watching her.
He circled her waist under the T-shirt, and as his hands drifted higher he could feel the rapid beat of her heart under her ribcage. There was nothing voluptuous or overt about her, and her slim body was a joy to touch. The thought of some of his thrusting, busty girlfriends, with their smouldering mascara-heavy eyes and their lacy leave-nothing-to-the-imagination underwear, was vaguely distasteful.
He kept his eyes fixed on her spectacularly pretty, fresh face as his fingers came into contact with her bra. He skimmed two fingers under the top of each cup, tracing a delicate line down to her
nipples, and his groin was aching as her eyes fluttered and she breathed in sharply.
Without moving away, he slowly unclasped the bra. Lucy moaned softly and allowed him to strip her gently of the T-shirt and then of her bra. She closed her eyes when she was half undressed, her breasts bared for his inspection.
‘You have beautiful breasts,’ Gabriel rasped huskily.
‘They’re too small.’
‘They’re perfect.’ He cupped them and massaged them gently. He wasn’t going to rush. ‘It would be nice if you opened your eyes.’
Lucy peeped at him. This wasn’t the arrogant, super-
rich, super-confident guy who had so alarmed her two years ago, and nor was he the manipulative tyrant who had so angered her when he had thrown down his gauntlet and forced her into a deal she resented. This was someone smiling and putting her at ease, keeping his eyes pinned to hers while he continued to caress her breasts until she began finding it difficult to catch her breath.
He edged her towards his bed and then stood back so that he could remove his shirt. Lucy teetered back a few steps, bumped into the base of the bed and fell onto the soft, silky duvet. She looked compulsively at the broad, hard expanse of his chest—not smooth and hairless, like the boys she had known, but roughened with dark hair. A man’s chest. She propped herself up on her elbows. So what if she was staring? She couldn’t help herself. He was magnificent. How could she restrain herself from greedily devouring the sight?
He hooked his fingers over the waistband of his chinos and tugged them slightly down, so that she could see the defined muscles of his pelvis, the narrowness of his waist. He must work out like a demon, she thought in a daze, and if he didn’t then he had been unfairly blessed.
She looked as if she’d forgotten that she was half clothed, her breasts pointed up at him. Her rosebud nipples were a massive turn-on, and Gabriel hesitated to strip completely naked. He was not in the slightest self-conscious of his body, but would his erection spook her?
‘I enjoy you watching me like this,’ he murmured, moving towards her on the bed.
The Notorious Gabriel DiazRuthless Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress Page 8
