Page 29 of A Wedding Negotiation with Her Boss

And the crazy thing was that he didn’t know which had shocked him more—that sliver of revelation about her personal life or the fact that she’d agreed to go to Italy at the behest of the Italian couple.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘They can be charming and persuasive.’

‘It’s only for three days, so I suppose...’

‘Helen, this isn’t part of the plan for things to revert to normal between us.’

‘I know. I couldn’t help myself. I like them and I could see how enthusiastic they were to have us over.’ There was a lot more she could have said but that would dig deep into personal areas yet again. She decided to stick to vague basics. ‘I hated the thought of their disappointment and I hated just—lying more to them.’

‘And will you be issuing more threats in due course about moving on, about my mentioning nothing or else you walk? No? Because I made sure to give you a handy excuse for making your apologies.’

He watched as she squirmed, and then he sat forward, leaning into her. His voice seductive, sending little shivers racing through her, he murmured, ‘But, seeing that you failed to take up my helpful get-out clause, I think it’s time we started finding out a bit more about one another, wouldn’t you agree? We wouldn’t want Arturio and Isabella to start harbouring shady suspicions about our relationship, would we?’

CHAPTER SIX

HELENCALLEDLUCY. Who else but her best friend would do? The following morning, she and Gabriel would be flying to Italy. She still couldn’t believe that she had gone and thrown herself in the deep end when, as Gabriel had calmly pointed out, she had been given a very nice road-map out of the dilemma.

‘It’s mad,’ she said in a hushed, furtive voice as she eyed the bags of purchases Gabriel had informed her she would have to get for their extended trip, and which she had duly bought earlier on company expenses.

Helen had done her training with Lucy and they had remained firm friends ever since. They had both veered off into careers with powerful, wealthy men and mutual venting had been invaluable over the years. Over time two, more PAs had been added to their social media group—Top Secret Secretaries to Billionaire Bosses, as they wryly called themselves—but she and Lucy had their own friendship quite apart from anyone else.

‘It’s mad,’ Lucy agreed.

‘I have no idea what happened.’

Helen was not the sort who shared confidences, but with Lucy confidences had been shared over the years, each safe in the knowledge that neither knew each other’s boss and so secrets were safe. They trusted one another implicitly. On so many levels, Lucy was the best friend Helen had ever had, so open, straightforward and bubbly.

‘It never pays to kiss the boss.’

‘Big mistake.’

‘But I’m not surprised. You’ve had a crush on him for a long time.’

‘I...’ Helen quailed inside. Having a crush on her boss was the last thing she wanted to have confirmed by someone else, and yet of course it made sense, now that her friend had addressed the elephant in the room without bothering to beat about the bush.

Why else did she feel that tingle of forbidden excitement whenever she was in his company? Why else had she postponed getting back into the dating game, even when her head had been telling her that it was time to move on from George? Why else did she never have a problem working stupid hours when he asked her to because some piece of work or other needed to be done faster than yesterday?

A crush that would never come to anything had been safe but taking it to the next level of a kiss no longer felt safe. And she now recognised what she felt for Gabriel was more than a crush but less than...anything dangerous. Surely less than love...? She licked her lips and pushed that thought aside.

‘Enjoy the break.’

‘Enjoy the break?’

‘Well, Italyisvery beautiful, and I know you’ve been hankering go there for ages.’

‘With Gabriel? In a phoney relationship? Pretending to be someone I’m not in front of people I respect and like, from the little I’ve seen of them?’

‘What other choice do you have at this point?’

‘Zero. Why are you always so upbeat?’

‘Comes from being one of six kids.’ Lucy laughed with just a hint of wistfulness. ‘No room to think too much. You just have to always go with the flow or end up being left behind, and sometimes you have to talk louder and faster just to get yourself heard over the din. Remind me to give you the lowdown sometime.

‘My advice? My billionaire boss is in a league of his own as well, and has no problem playing by his own rules and to heck with the rest of the world... Take it as it comes and remember that a crush is different from the head-over-heels “in love” thing. Now, the head-over-heels “in love” thing?That’sdangerous.’

Helen wasn’t exactly sure whether she felt better or not after that phone call. There was too much going on to feel anything but low-level panic, which made her think that the best thing she could do was to try really hard not to over-analyse the situation.

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