Page 23 of A Wedding Negotiation with Her Boss

Gabriel had had no contact with any other distant relatives on either of his parents’ sides. Only children, both of them and he an only child—their lineage fading away because it hadn’t been looked after with love and respect. His self-centred, self-obsessed parents had flown the nest and never looked back. And he had flown even further, leaving America at eleven, by which point he’d had nothing to do with any Italian relatives. He had never given much thought to his relatives in Italy, or anywhere, for that matter.

But then he had decided to expand his vineyards and thoughts of his native land had seeped through his general indifference. He had targeted the region where he had been born. Had that been a subconscious urge to form links with a past he had never known? Maybe. Maybe it had been a whimsical link, but then fate had stepped in, and the link had developed a solidity he could never have predicted.

He liked, respected and admired Arturio. He looked forward to getting to know him better over time. He wanted to meet all those family members, many of whom worked in the vineyards in some capacity or other.

His parents had ditched their past because the present had been way more interesting to them. He wanted to be a different man to them.

Deep inside, he knew that Arturio would be disappointed in a guy who fooled around with his secretary. Disappointed with a guy who made fooling around with women his stock in trade because he wasn’t interested in committing. He shifted uncomfortably as parallels formed in his head, parallels with his parents, who had shunned committing to parenthood just as he shunned committing to anything beyond work and making money.

His priorities were ones that would be alien to the old man looking at him with a question in his eyes.

Helen stared at this big, powerful, self-assured man as he raked his fingers through his hair and struggled to find the right words to say that would somehow rescue the situation from sounding tawdry and distasteful.

She had never seen Gabriel vulnerable before, but he was vulnerable now. Had he ever in his life been at the mercy of his emotions? Standing there, did he even recognise that that was what was happening?

She felt sure Arturio wasn’t going to pull out of the deal because he disliked the conduct of the guy buying his vineyards, but something would be lost to Gabriel in the process—perhaps a relationship he had never foreseen but had grown to want, whether he could admit that or not.

Arturio was a passport, of sorts, to the sort of family life he hadn’t had, from the little she had read between the lines.

She took a deep breath and smiled at Arturio.

‘Yes, Arturio, we’re going out.’ She smiled. ‘We work together, so we haven’t been shouting from the rooftops, and it’s early days yet.’

She wondered what Gabriel was thinking. Was he shocked? More unexpected behaviour from his predictable secretary! It was oddly gratifying to think that. Besides, the gesture had made her feel pretty good. She would be gone the following day and this inconsequential little white lie would, at least, allow him to follow the path that had unexpectedly opened up to him.

She cherished the bond with her father. She had no idea what life would be like without him and without the various members of her extended family they saw on a regular basis. It touched something in her that Gabriel could be moved by the unexpected family connection he had discovered. It showed a side of him that was poignantly human, a side he guarded so well, despite his apparent openness when it came to his varied and chequered sex life.

She slid a sideways glance at him and then shivered as he reached to rest his hand on her shoulder, a touch that made her body hum in pleasured response.

For just a split second, she wondered whether the recklessness that had been washing over her ever since she had arrived in this magical place was quite as harmless as she’d imagined.

But then she reassured herself that this was just a simple favour she had done. She had grasped the situation and acted accordingly because...because...

Her mind skittered away from the thought that what she felt for her boss might be more than just physical attraction.

It settled on the more harmless conclusion that she had acted like a friend because, after all, weren’t they friends at the end of the day? She’d helped him out as a friend.

CHAPTER FIVE

‘YOUDIDN’THAVEto do that...’

They were still standing outside. Arturio had made exclamations of delight, profuse congratulations and a thousand apologies for showing up unannounced but, ‘Isabella insisted on spending one night at one of the cottages because they looked so romantic!’ He had now vanished back to whichever cottage they had managed to secure for the night.

Gabriel might have mentioned where he was staying over the phone, when Fifi had made the arrangements, never thinking that a few words thrown into a conversation would have the repercussions that they had.

Now, he stared down at Helen’s upturned face, her fine bone structure highlighted by the twinkling fairy lights strung everywhere, which had switched on as the sun had disappeared.

He was disconcerted to think how easily she had read him and how smoothly she had rescued him from a situation he hadn’t anticipated. Had she somehow known just how much this whole deal meant to him? How much he had ended up investing in a family he’d previously never given a passing thought to?

Did the woman know him that well?

It was an unsettling thought and he abruptly decided to focus on the basics and not allow his mind to start wandering too far off the lead.

‘No, I didn’t.’

Then why did you?was the question he fought against asking, because the answer might not be one he wanted to hear. It was one thing to have affairs with women who didn’t come close to getting into his head. It was another to look at this woman and realise that she might be the one person who did.

‘But thank you for the spontaneous gesture,’ he drawled, drawing back slightly. ‘The deal isn’t signed off yet and we both know how much I’d like to get my hands on that vineyard.’ He paused, clenched his jaw and averted his eyes from hers. ‘A bonus is definitely on the cards for you, Helen, and it’ll be a generous one.’

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