Page 3 of A Wedding Negotiation with Her Boss

They were worlds apart when it came to their views on relationships and she felt painfully vulnerable at the thought of her confident, sexy boss having any insight into what made her tick. There were boundaries in place between them and she liked it that way. She always had. Her right to privacy was non-negotiable, because if any cracks appeared there then who knew where that might lead? And, deep inside, she knew that there was a dark, unsettling awareness of him as a man that could prove way too threatening if it was ever allowed oxygen.

‘So you’ve called me because...?’ Back to work, back to familiar terrain.

Gabriel’s voice softened. ‘Arturio is in the vicinity, as it happens. Decided to come earlier with his wife for a little holiday and wanted to check out the vineyard himself to see whether the grapes would complement his own high-quality product. As you know, for him the sanctity of the Diaz label has to be preserved.’

Helen smiled. It was something she and Gabriel had discussed when the deal to take over Arturio’s vineyards in Tuscany—a worthy addition to Gabriel’s in California—had first been mooted well over a year ago.

Although Gabriel was based in London, and always had been, his roots were in California, and many years ago some of the vast fortune left to him when his parents had died had been invested in a vineyard that had drifted into neglect over the years.

Gabriel had hired the right people to do the right things, thrown money at the venture and then had decided to go further just as soon as his Californian grapes were doing their thing. He’d told her he’d decided that drinking good wine was not nearly as satisfying as watching how good wine got made, and he had promptly scouted around for an Italian vineyard, a reconnection with the country both his parents had left behind.

He had found more than he had expected. Casual at first, his hunt had led him to a family connection that had lain buried for years. Arturio, as it turned out, was connected to Gabriel’s family on his grandfather’s side, and establishing that connection had been the cement to Gabriel taking over which would otherwise probably never have got off the ground.

Arturio’s high-quality vineyards were perfect, and over the months Gabriel had become more and more personally involved in their acquisition. Reading between the lines, Helen had worked out that he had immersed himself in something that represented a link to a past he had never explored, or even known about, and it had grown into such significance that even she was anxious that nothing jeopardise the final closing of the deal.

‘Worked well, what with Fifi leaving,’ Gabriel was saying down the end of the line. ‘I’m not sure she would have appreciated having to be side-lined. Of course, Arturio was full of apologies about arriving ahead of schedule, but it worked well, getting my guys to give him a guided tour of the vineyard before he signs off on this deal. And I’ll admit, I like having him here, like showing him that he has nothing to fear when it comes to selling to me. Means a lot that he enjoys the idea of everything being kept in the family.

‘I’ll get to the point. I’ve brought the whole thing forward by a week now that Fifi has returned to the UK and I need you here.’

‘But you were going to manage the whole business yourself!’

‘When it was just a case of preliminary steps, but it seems Arturio is keen for a conclusion. Wants to get on with the business of happy retirement. He’s well over seventy, after all. Who can blame him? Personally, I can’t think of anything worse than retiring, but he tells me that he has enough kids and grandkids to keep him busy for the next hundred years. At any rate, there’s going to be a hell of a lot more detailed work to be done once the all-clear is given and I’ll need you to be on hand with that. Aside from which, there’s a limit to how much I can do with my right hand strapped up for the next couple of days. I’m capable of a lot but I still haven’t got to grips with ambidexterity.’

‘Me come to California?’

‘You come to California. Is there a problem with that?’

‘Well, not as such...’

‘Youdohave a passport, don’t you?’

‘Of course. Yes.’

‘And itisup to date, I take it?’

‘I suppose so, yes. Of course.’

‘Splendid. I’ll want you over in time for us to go through the nuts and bolts of this deal. Tomorrow would work.’

‘Tomorrow?’

‘Helen, why am I detecting a certain amount of hesitancy? You’ll be here for three or four days max. I’ve already assembled my legal people and, whilst it still has to be finalised, I don’t anticipate any last-minute hitches. It should just be a case of sitting in on a few meetings and taking minutes.’ He paused. ‘Late notice, I know, but I’m really not seeing what the issue is. This is important. Dogs and men will have to be rearranged for a few days. Where’s the problem in that?’

‘Dogs and men?’ Helen parroted faintly.

‘Can’t account for any other obstacles to your getting on a plane and coming over here which, I don’t have to remind you, is all part and parcel of a job that pays very well indeed.’

‘I realise that, Gabriel,’ Helen said stiffly.

There was no question that she was paid well over the odds. In the space of three years, she had had several pay rises, not to mention two very generous bonuses. It was his way of making sure she didn’t defect. She wasn’t indispensable, because no one ever was, but she was pretty close to being that.

From everything she’d heard from friends and colleagues she worked alongside, his longest serving PA had been a middle-aged lady who had been with him for donkeys’ years until she had decided to up sticks and move to Australia to be closer to her only daughter and her grandchildren. After her had come a series of ‘unfortunate events’, as Karis in Accounts had drily told her a few weeks after she’d joined. Girls who hadn’t been able to function at all in his presence, who became nervous and tongue-tied the minute he was around them, who developed girly crushes on him and then proceeded to show up for work in ever more inappropriate clothes.

For all his colourful and ever-changing love life, he was deadly serious when it came to work, and Helen knew that he would do whatever it took not to jeopardise the relationship with the one person with whom he worked so well.

Hence the fact that he was always happy to accommodate her wherever he could. But there were limits, and she realised that she was butting against those limits now. He wanted her there, and there had been steel in that mildly spoken remark about her duties and her healthy pay cheque.

‘No dogs,’ she said quickly.

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