Page 40 of Embracing Love

Chapter 18

Gabriel watched as Ethan and Nadine wandered off. He liked this couple; they seemed nice, approachable and friendly, just like most of the people he’d met from the Zimmerman Group.

It had been worth his while to have come here after all—even if his only initial reason had been because he needed to get away from Paris for a few days and the idea of running into Tanya had excited him.

He turned to her and caught her looking at him before guiltily look away, chewing her lip at the same time.

She’d look at him when she thought he wasn’t looking; she’d done that a few times, he noted, and he’d almost figured out when she had a question. It wasn’t that her skin flushed—it did that whenever she got embarrassed or got too worked up about something, but she chewed her lip when she needed to know something.

Like now.

Just as well because he had questions too. So she’d been married at some point, had she? It reminded him. “I have something for you.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out her scarf.

She laughed. “You carried this all the way?”

“It was extremely heavy. It pushed my luggage limit over.” He smiled as he handed it to her. The thin silk splash of green floated in the air.

“Thank you. I’ll have to make up for whatever it cost you to drag this here.”

“If you insist.” His lips curled into a smile and he wondered whether to take her literally or not.

“You didn’t bring Vanessa Delorme with you?” she asked, and her eyes searched his face carefully.

“Why would I bring her?” He was unsure where she was going with this line of questioning. Unless she was trying to find out something.

Now she blushed. “Michael usually invites couples, I assumed—“

Ah. So that’s where she was going. He looked over to where Russell stood. “Russell didn’t bring his girlfriend either, I noticed.”

Tanya followed his gaze. “I don’t know if he’s married or not. I don’t know what his status is,” she said, her cheeks getting redder. He knew he hadn’t answered her question but he knew exactly what she was asking. He leaned in closer. “I think we both know that I didn’t bring her because she’s nowhere to be seen.”

She smelled fresh, like flowers in a field, and with his lips an inch away from her neck, it was a struggle not to kiss her bare skin. He lingered a second longer, drinking in the heady aura of being so near to her. “And since we are no longer together, there would have been no point in me bringing her.”

He stepped away to see the reaction on her face. She didn’t have an answer for him, but he could tell by the way the goose bumps sprang up all over her arms that his words had an effect on her.

Time stopped and they held the deadlock of their stares, until he spoke again. Now it was his turn. “What about you? Did you come…alone?”

“Yes,” she said, her face flushed and dewy. He learned more from watching her reaction than by her short answers.

“Hmmm,” he replied, still no closer to being one hundred per cent sure what that meant. “Are you expecting anyone?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, as though weighing up her answer carefully. “I’m not with anyone. I’m still getting over my divorce.”

It surprised him, that she’d told him more than he’d expected.

“I’m sorry. Was it recent?”

“It’s been almost two years since we separated. And the divorce came through a while back.”

“It can’t be easy,” he said. She looked away and he could tell the pain still lingered. As it had done with him. Except that his pain had hardened him to the point that he no longer trusted women much.

As for love, he didn’t need it.

“What about you?” She obviously didn’t want to dwell too long on her past. He took the hint.

“It was a long time ago. She left me for my best friend. We were never married, but we had been talking about it. Then our son was born and it was the happiest time of my life. Things were fine, until she later confessed she’d been seeing my best friend and they wanted to be together. She left me when my son was just over a year old.”

He looked at Tanya as he told her. She gasped. They always did. “That’s terrible. I’m so sorry.” She looked it, by the horrified expression on her face. “I can't imagine how you would ever get over something like that.”

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