Boardrooms of Power. Heidi Betts

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СКАЧАТЬ I’m curious as to why you’re curious in the first place!’ Desperation was beginning to lace itself in between the panic but the option of returning to her room was now non existent after the tarantula episode.

      ‘Because it’s out of character,’ Gabriel told her. ‘And anything that out of character can’t be right.’

      ‘You think you know me, but you don’t,’ Rose muttered, half truthfully because he sure as heck didn’t know how she felt about him.

      ‘You mean you’ve always hopped into bed with men you’ve only known for a couple of hours?’

      ‘I haven’t hopped into bed with anybody!’ Rose objected and immediately regretted her talent for telling the truth when she saw him smile smugly.

      ‘Now, that’s more like my Rose.’ Some men knew women and Gabriel was one of them. Women loathed being stereotyped. Rose might be sharper, cleverer, funnier and a damn sight more on the ball than the women he had always dated in the past, but she was still a woman. And a woman he wanted. Increasingly. Everything about her had been getting to him recently and lying on a mattress next to her, admittedly under some pretty weird conditions, was not conducive to his attraction abating.

      Every primitive instinct in him reared into ferocious life. He had never felt anything like it before. His need to have her, right here and right now, was overwhelming. Accustomed as he was to being in control, the sensation of suddenly being swept along on a roller coaster ride of desire was strangely erotic.

      ‘Because I’m dull?’ Rose snapped.

      ‘Anything but.’

      ‘I haven’t slept with Joe because we’re still in the process of getting to know one another.’ She wondered how this situation fitted in with her getting to know another man. And, never mind the situation, how her feelings of suppressed excitement at lying next to Gabriel fitted in with her plans for moving forward with her life, trying on a bit of healthy dating for size. How was she ever going to progress any relationship with a man if her body was still so stubbornly and frantically aware of her boss? How? ‘I don’t believe in rushing into things. Not if they’re to last.’

      ‘And you think what you and some man you’ve spoken to a couple of times have is going to last?’

      ‘Why not?’ Rose said defensively. She was finding it impossible to tear her eyes away from him and the soft, lazy drawl of his voice seemed to drown out the chaos of the weather outside. How was that possible? she wondered. And how was it fair?

      ‘All relationships have to start somewhere,’ she whispered. She turned away abruptly and lay on her back, staring upwards at the ceiling. He hadn’t laid a finger on her but he might as well have, because her body was responding to his proximity with a mind of its own. Her breasts ached and the moistness between her legs was a shameful reminder of how insanely attracted she was to him. She knew that she was breathing heavily and quickly but she didn’t care because it was a feat in itself to have broken the mesmerising spell of his gaze.

      ‘No truer word was ever spoken,’ Gabriel murmured.

      The soft, feathery touch of his finger on her arm made her swivel to face him.

      ‘What…are you doing?’ she croaked.

      ‘Touching you. Do you like it?’

      ‘No.’ Rose felt faint.

      ‘Yes, you do.’ Gabriel’s voice was as soft as silk. ‘Every relationship has to start somewhere. You’re absolutely right.’

      ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Gabriel.’ Her words were punctuated by the sound of the shutters being blown back as the gale force winds ferociously tried to attack the inside of the villa. Gabriel jumped up and even for him it was a struggle to secure them back into place. When he was finished he turned to her, arms folded, and walked towards where she was now half sitting up on the mattress.

      ‘I’m going to check on the rest of the place,’ he told her, ‘make sure that everything’s as secure as it’s possible to be.’

      ‘I’ll come.’

      ‘No.’

      ‘But…’

      ‘If anything needs securing, you won’t be able to help with it. I’m no chauvinist, but even I have to acknowledge that I’m probably going to be better at doing something that requires brute strength.’ And besides, he thought to himself, he didn’t want her putting on her secretarial hat. He didn’t want her sticking on her jeans and gathering herself together. He wanted her warm and wide-eyed and lying next to him. He wanted…

      He could feel his body responding to the thought of what he really wanted.

      ‘I’ll be half an hour. You stay here.’

      Right, Rose thought, as soon as he had left the room. Time for a think. Time to get the brain processes into gear. Put some clothes on. Maybe even drag the mattress back into her room. She might be scared of errant tarantulas but how much scarier was the thought of Gabriel returning, touching her, talking in that low, husky voice that made minced meat of all her good intentions?

      She groaned softly and her hand strayed to where her cotton underwear was mortifyingly damp. Just talking to her—that was all he had done—had left her body throbbing and on fire. One touch there and she knew she would fall helplessly off the edge into mindless orgasm.

      No!

      Before she could dwell on the heat coursing through her body and on her own craving to have him quench it with his touch, she sprang to her feet and began dragging the mattress towards the door. It was pretty heavy and cumbersome. He had made it seem lightweight when he had dragged it through, but then, as he had said, he was equipped for the heavy duty stuff.

      She had her back to the door and was busily trying to get some sort of grip that would turn the unwieldy object into something more manageable, when he spoke and Rose jumped in shock.

      ‘What are you doing?’

      Rose blinked in confusion. ‘I thought you were going to be gone for at least half an hour? Checking that everything was nailed down?’ She was still clutching one tip of the mattress and noticing that he was damp, probably caught out by the rain in one of the rooms. His black hair glistened.

      ‘Everything’s nailed down. What are you doing?’

      ‘I’m going back to my room,’ Rose mumbled. ‘I think it’s for the best.’

      ‘Mind if I ask why?’

      Rose dropped the mattress and it thudded against the back of her legs, making her stumble. Unless she suddenly developed the secret of body displacement, there was no way she was going to leave the room, not while Gabriel was standing in front of the door, arms folded, as immovable an object as she had ever set eyes on.

      ‘Because the situation seems to be getting a little out of hand.’ Rose aimed for her usual crisp voice but it had deserted her. In its place, was something nervous and unsteady and her eyes skittered away from his face.

      ‘I didn’t come over here…to…for…’ Her words faltered and she cleared her throat. ‘The weather’s making us both СКАЧАТЬ