Page 27 of Prince She Shouldn't Crave
Except for now. There was a kind of truth in this room. This…thing that seemed to be growing larger and more palpable. She’d begun to feel as if Gabe valued her, trusted her. And inthe tumult of her emotions a tiny seed of something fragile had begun to sprout and grow inside her.
She might just trust him too.
‘You look beautiful,’ Gabriel said, then raked his hand through his no longer neat hair, displacing it until a curl flopped over his forehead. Rubbed his hands over his face. ‘That was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have said it. You need to go.’
She should. Lena knew it was the sensible thing to do, but nothing would make her move backwards out of this room. She’d spent a lifetime trying to be good, be sensible, so that people would like her. Her father, her teachers, her schoolmates. And for what? That green shoot deep inside her grew leaf, blossomed. She felt so full, and so aching and empty at the same time. Instead of leaving, she moved forwards into him.
‘What if I don’t want to?’
He made a sound as if the air had been punched out of him. ‘You should.’
‘But I like that you wish I’d been with you, by your side. I like that you think I’m beautiful.’
‘I’m your employer, you’re my employee.’
‘Before all of that I’m a woman.’
‘Yes, you are unmistakably a woman. But there’s a power imbalance here, and that doesn’t make it fair on you.’
She put her hands on her hips, stared him down. She was tired of being seen as powerless. Right now, she was full to the brim with her sense of how powerful she truly was. An unfamiliar, intoxicating sensation.
‘An imbalance? Why do you think I don’t haveallthe power here? With a bad series of posts or saying the wrong thing, I could destroy your reputation irrevocably. Who has the power now, Gabriel? It seems that it’s all with me.’
He pushed away from the mantelpiece and stalked towards her. Stern, intent. Goosebumps peppered her skin. A shiverykind of sensation overtook her, as if she were coming down with something, running hot and cold all over.
‘You’d destroy me, would you?’
Her cheeks flushed. She wanted to protect him, not destroy him. Lena bit into her lower lip. ‘Well, no, but I could.’
‘What if you already have?’
A pulse started deep and low at her core. The relentless ache intensified inside her.
‘Gabriel,’ she whispered.
‘I like the way you say my name. Say it again.’
‘Gabriel.’
He clenched and unclenched his hands. Then Gabriel flexed his fingers as if itching to touch her but trying to hold back.
‘A-are you expecting Pieter?’ She knew if anyone walked in on them, the night would be over even before it began, and she didn’t want to stop whatever might happen between them.
‘No, I’ve given him the night off.’
They stood close now, as they had the evening before, free to see where things took them. Did she want this? The answer, clear in her head, wasyes. She might see Gabriel, but she believed that he saw her too. Had chosen her. Valued her in a way she’d never been before. As Lena Rosetti, the woman.
The way Gabriel looked at her now. As if he were starved. As if she were the only woman left on earth. So intent… If she was going to lose her virginity, then why not with someone like him? Someone handsome, someone who stole her breath. Who thought of others. She was sure he’d take care—not that she was really planning to tell him about her virginity, but he seemed like the type of man who’d look after any woman he was with.
That thought stung. She didn’t like the idea of him with anybody else, but knew that was the reality of who they both were. Perhaps she needed to reinforce it.
‘I understand what this is. How it has to be.’
‘Do you?’ Gabe chuckled, but didn’t sound very entertained. ‘Because I’m not sure myself.’
‘I’m not asking for promises. I realise that this is behind closed doors. And I have no expectations.’
‘You sell yourself so short. Stop. You’re worth more than you know.’
