Page 15 of A Wedding Negotiation with Her Boss

He delivered her to her door and watched as she fumbled to fetch the key from the cloth bag she had taken to the pool.

An urgency to straighten that kink in their otherwise smooth relationship was suddenly overpowering and, before she stepped through the door and shut it on him, he placed his flattened palm on it and followed her through.

‘What are you doing?’

Helen swivelled to face him and took a couple of steps back. She’d wrapped the towel around her waist but was conscious of her upper half and the scant cover provided by the swimsuit. She didn’t want to think about it, but she was well aware that her cleavage was on display, such as it was, the shadow dipping into the V of the swimsuit.

She folded her arms and stared at him, heart thumping and mouth going dry. He’d never looked at her like this. His dark eyes were narrowed with intent. She longed for the safety of her work clothes, her laptop in its neat little case, an office chair in front of a desk—a great, big desk which would provide much-needed distance between them, a much-needed physical barrier, reminding them of their roles.

Remindingherofherrole—because right now she was suffocating from the weight of his presence. Even when she’d been engaged to George—had thought he was the one for her—he had never made her feel like this. He had never made her feel as though she was going to burst out of her own skin, as though every square inch of her body had suddenly been sensitised.

She hated Gabriel for making her feel things she didn’t want to feel. Was it just this damned place with its heavy scents, leafy glades and fairy lights all over the place? Was this what had stirred a recklessness inside her, or had that recklessness been waiting in the shadows for just the right time to appear? And, if it had, why on earth did it have to manifest itself with this particular man?

But she knew why. There’d been those little sidelong glances over the years...the hum of electricity when he’d got too close... She’d hidden behind her prim work clothes, kept her guard up, but nothing had been able to stop her eyes from wandering and her mind from playing games.

‘Please leave,’ she said tightly.

Gabriel raked his fingers through his hair.

‘Back there, at the pool...’

‘I don’t want to talk about this.’

‘I—I touched you and that was inexcusable. I have no idea what came over me.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m beginning to feel cold and I think it’s time you went back to your—your room. Didn’t you say you returned early so that you could do some work?’

‘Helen...’

‘No!’

They stared at one another and the silence was so thick, she could almost hear the wild beating of her heart.

‘Nothing happened there.Nothing.’

‘If that’s how you want to play it,’ Gabriel muttered, ‘then it’s not a problem. Nothing did happen there but, just in case you were to revisit that conclusion, I want to assure you that...’ he breathed in deeply ‘...that nothing will ever happen. That... I don’t know what that was, but I value you too much to ever jeopardise your position as my employee.’

Helen knew that she should breath a sigh of relief that normal play had been resumed but she was still in another place and his reassurances, instead of relaxing her, made her feel angry and defiant.

He’d made an easy assumption that he could apologise his way out of that touch, the fleeting touch that had sent her into a panicked tailspin—that he could shrug and smile a crooked, bemused smile and muse that why he’d succumbed to that brief, out-of-character gesture was a mystery.What the heck had that been about?he would have asked himself with genuine puzzlement.

Of course he’d have no idea what that had all been about! He’d let his eyes wander over her swimsuit-clad body—and she didn’t get why, because she certainly wasn’t the sort of woman he would usually be attracted to. He’d had a momentary lapse in concentration because she’d taken him by surprise—because she wasn’t in one of her usual working outfits, which always seemed to amuse him. And, naturally, he hadn’t hesitated because he was a guy who was utterly assured in his ability to attract. It probably wouldn’t have occurred to him that he might get knocked back.

Instinct trumped common sense. The urge to step out of the box, for once, was overwhelming.

‘Thank you for that,’ she said stiffly, biting down that temptation because, at the end of the day, she worked for him and discretion was certainly going to be the better part of valour.

But it was a struggle.

‘I mean it, Helen. I respect you. I respect your boundaries. Like I said, I had no idea...’ He shuffled and looked away, frowning, for a couple of seconds. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

‘Nothing,’ Helen muttered in a driven undertone, her small hands clenched into angry fists. ‘Don’t say anything.’

He ignored her. ‘Let’s just say we put this behind us and move on. I just wanted to set the record straight because I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, either here or when we return to London. You have my word.’

Helen gritted her teeth. She didn’t know how they had managed to arrive at this quagmire but she felt as though, having got here, she either waded through it and emerged on the other side by standing up to him or she allowed herself to sink without defending herself. The latter option made sense but the former was irresistible.

‘You have an ego the size of a planet, do you know that?’

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