Boardrooms of Power. Heidi Betts

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СКАЧАТЬ gusted along the coastline were a lot easier to bear after some alcohol.

      Eventually, Rose yawned.

      ‘Sleepy?’

      ‘Suddenly.’

      ‘You’ll never get to sleep in those jeans, you know, and as soon as you do, you’ll wake up because you’ll be too hot.’ He fiddled with the base of the oil lamp and dimmed it so that the room was plunged into near darkness. He had slipped under the sheet, his own sheet, and Rose felt safely tucked away from him.

      ‘And as soon as you realise you’re hot, you’ll also realise that they’re not quite loose enough to allow you to breathe easily and then you’ll spend tomorrow feeling like hell because you’ve had a sleepless night.’ He yawned widely and rolled over on to his side with his back to her, leaving her to ponder, in a very unfocused manner, his words of advice.

      She waited a while, thinking that, yes, the jeans did feel very tight, now that he had mentioned it. It also felt ridiculous to be trying to sleep fully clothed. It was a psychological thing, of course, but once she got it into her head that she was uncomfortable, she couldn’t rid herself of the notion that she wouldn’t get a wink of sleep unless she took the damned trousers off.

      So she did, as unobtrusively as she could. And, while she was at it, she also removed her bra and breathed a little sigh of relief. Both items she placed very carefully next to the mattress, within easy reach for when she got up to stick them back on.

      Gabriel, she could tell, was already asleep. She could see it in the rhythmic rise and fall of his shoulders, and her own eyelids were beginning to droop.

      The alcohol was working on her like an anaesthetic. She could almost physically feel it drugging her into slumber and then she was gone.

      Peace lasted all of an hour and a half. Then came her need to go to the bathroom, something she had failed to take into consideration when she had been happily allowing the rum and sodas to relax her.

      The wind was still howling. Rose was tempted to grope her way to the window and peep outside, just to see what was going on, but that would risk waking Gabriel, which was something she intended to avoid.

      So she made do with going to the toilet then, with just the flickering light from the oil lamp, her wandering eyes fastened on the one thing she didn’t want to see. Right there above the door was something the size of a small saucer, and it was alive. Motionless but alive. And hairy. The sound of the storm outside was nothing compared to the pounding of her heart. Could spiders smell fear? she wondered. Like sharks?

      She washed her hands. Then, and she didn’t know how she managed to achieve this, she tiptoed across to the door, one eye on the spider, the other on her flight path, yanked it open and literally leapt on to the mattress, colliding with Gabriel, who awoke with the sudden alertness of a cat.

      ‘What the hell is going on?’

      ‘There’s a tarantula in the bathroom!’ They both spoke at the same time but her shriek was definitely a few hundred decibels above his.

      ‘Get up!’ Rose demanded frantically. ‘You have to go and kill it! Now!’

      ‘You mean before it kills us?’

      ‘It’s not funny, Gabriel!’ Rose felt close to tears. ‘I have a…real fear of spiders.’ She imagined it crawling out of the bathroom and scurrying across the wooden floor to her mattress and she broke out in nervous perspiration.

      ‘Okay. You wait here.’ He levered himself up, glanced around for something, finally settling for one of the glasses, and disappeared into the bathroom, taking care to close the door behind him.

      In his absence, Rose huddled as tightly as she could in her sheet and tried not to think of small, furry creatures finding their way underneath it.

      Where was the calm, practical secretary now? She groaned to herself. She could barely look at him as he exited the bathroom with a grin on his face. Not that she could actually see the grin, but she knew it was there from the lope of his walk.

      ‘Where is it?’ Rose asked in a small voice. ‘I’m sorry. I’m not being much help so far, am I?’

      Gabriel lay down and turned to face her. ‘I put it through the window. It was more scared of me than I was of it.’ He lightly stroked her hair away from her face and Rose didn’t tense up as she normally would have. ‘I know you don’t like being the damsel in distress, but there’s no need to apologise for being afraid of a spider. You’re not the exception. Most people are afraid of spiders.’

      ‘Except you.’

      ‘I fear nothing.’

      That drew a smile from her, but only for a second, then she sobered up and said quietly, ‘But that’s not why I’m here. To be a burden that needs looking after—scared of spiders, scared of thunder and lightning. I’m not functioning properly at the moment, I’m afraid.’

      ‘Why is that, I wonder? Maybe you’re homesick.’ Gabriel had never been so intensely aware of a woman in his life before. If he edged one inch closer to her, he would explode. ‘Maybe you’re missing what’s-his-name…’ He realised, with some surprise, that what’s-his-name had actually been on his mind. ‘What is his name? Did you ever say? Oh, yes. You did. Joe. Maybe you’re missing Joe. Being in love can do strange things to a woman.’

      Rose, lulled into a cocoon of security, with the gale force winds gusting outside and the rain as clamorous as hailstones clattering down on a tin roof, was yanked back to reality by the mention of Joe. Joe, whom she had completely forgotten. Joe, perfectly nice and suitable Joe, who was supposed to be her passport to overcoming her feelings for the very inappropriate Gabriel Gessi.

      She pulled away, suddenly horrified by her compromising position.

      ‘Can it? Yes, I suppose it can.’

      Not the answer Gabriel was hoping for. Not when he was in the process of freely admitting to himself that he wanted this woman, for reasons beyond his comprehension.

      ‘What does that mean?’ he found himself asking.

      ‘It means that this conversation is inappropriate.’

      ‘Nothing that’s going on here at the moment is appropriate, or hadn’t you noticed? We’re halfway across the world. We’re being buffeted by a hurricane outside. We’re sharing a mattress on a floor. I’m all but naked and so are you.’

      ‘I…I…’

      ‘Yes?’ Gabriel prompted silkily. ‘You…what? Want to disagree with something I’ve said?’

      ‘I don’t think we should be having this conversation!’ Rose heard the panic in her voice and wondered whether he had detected it as well.

      ‘Why? We could talk about work but somehow…I don’t think the circumstances are quite right for that.’

      ‘We should go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day. Lots to do.’

      ‘I was sleeping until you jumped on me.’

      ‘For a reason!’

      ‘But СКАЧАТЬ