Page 10 of A Wedding Negotiation with Her Boss

‘My calendar is oddly empty,’ Gabriel murmured drily.

Helen wondered whether boredom was driving him into occupying himself with second best—Plain Jane secretary because sexpot girlfriend was no longer on the scene. She could do without him feeling sorry for her, or anyone else for that matter, seeing her as a second-best filler-in when there was no one else more exciting to play with. Being ditched all those years ago had made her proud, had made her learn the value of detaching and concealing what might be going on under the surface. Gabriel’s staggering self-assurance, that came from money, power and good looks, made it seem even more important that she stuck to the script and maintained her cool.

‘I expect you’ve been here before?’ she asked politely, although her attention was going this way and that, taking in the perfectly arrayed line of shops, the quaint street, the patriotic flags over doorways and the bustle of very affluent tourists.

Tall palms and swaying trees lined the streets and avenues and there was a jostling, cosmopolitan feel that was vibrant and invigorating.

‘I don’t tend to do the sightseeing stuff,’ Gabriel admitted with a shrug and Helen briefly turned to look at him.

‘I’m sorry Fifi isn’t here to share it with you. That must be disappointing.’

‘I find that it’s no big deal.’ His expression was veiled as their eyes met. ‘I know this part of the world because of the vineyards I inherited, but my parents never stayed too long in one place. And I grew up in England, even though I suppose you could say that my origins were split between Italy and America. I have no issue reacquainting myself with the place on my own.’

‘That must have been odd for you, never being in one place.’

‘Life happens.’ He closed the conversation down and, in so doing, left her wanting more.

More ground shifted from under her feet, because here they were, straying beyond their boundary lines, leaving her confused and ill at ease. Her neat skirt and blouse, which had been fine when they’d been working in the boardroom, made her feel uncomfortable and out of place.

As though reading her mind, he said gently, ‘Have you brought anything more casual to wear, Helen?’

‘Yes. Of course.’

‘Then why don’t you think about wearing it tomorrow? This is a casual sort of place. Even the lawyers were in tee-shirts and cotton trousers.’

‘I...’

‘And what about a swimsuit? It’s hot and there’s that pool, and you can’t leave without using it.’

‘I didn’t bring one of those.’ She almost heaved a sigh of relief.

‘Of course. Because you’re here to work.’

He was laughing at her and she suddenly felt dull and unexciting—the dutiful secretary incapable of letting her hair down. The dutiful secretary, still in her twenties, incapable of letting her hair down, which made things worse.

‘Because I’m not going to be here very long and I didn’t see the point of banking on time off to swan around.’

‘In that case, we should remedy the situation. An hour relaxing in a pool after a hard day’s work is hardly what I would callswanning around. It’s calledrecharging your batteries after slaving over reports and facts and figures without a break.’

Helen burst out laughing.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘You make it sound as though I’ve been chained to a desk, starved of food and forced to work for days on end without sleep. We had a delicious lunch brought to us, and it was a shorter than usual day, in actual fact. My batteries don’t need that much recharging, as it happens.’

So he thought that she was hard-working but dull, wrapped up in doing the perfect job to the point where she had to be ordered to down tools and relax... What would he think were he ever to see a different side to her—a side that was wild and reckless? The thought took hold and it was a little scary, making her think that safety might not have been all it had always been cracked up to be.

When had she ever let herself go? she wondered. When had she ever dared to turn her back on all those life lessons that had been embedded in her from such a young age?

A thousand thoughts flitted through her head, darting like quicksilver.

George had been her rock, or so she had thought at the time, and he had also been her shield. The big, bad world was out there and he had been the protector she’d thought she needed. But as it turned out she hadn’t, because she’d moved to London and managed the big, bad world just fine. Hadn’t she?

Okay, so she didn’t do clubs and bars. She didn’t sleep around or try guys out for size. But that didn’t mean that she was a bore, she thought now; didn’t mean that there wasn’t a sense of daring lurking beneath the surface.

For some reason, Gabriel’s amused teasing, those sexy, dark eyes appraising her in these new surroundings, stirred something inside her that wanted to show him that there were sides to her that might be unexpected—wanted to showherselfthat there were sides to her that might be unexpected.

She drew in a sharp, unsteady breath.

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