Chapter EIGHT
IT HAD NOT BEEN the best of days. How could it have been when they were still experiencing the aftermath of a serious crisis on the trading floor and heads were starting to roll as some key players were called into account?
Gabriel had nothing to fear on that score—his record was exemplary and so were his dealings—but he still felt a huge responsibility towards the shareholders he had guided and advised. Especially when some of the companies he’d recommended for investment had gone to the wall during the past few days due, amongst other things, to bad management. God knew he’d warned the CEOs of said companies enough times that good management was key and they shouldn’t be in a hurry to let go those with a proven track record in order to replace them with the current ‘flavour of the month’.
But most of all it was a bad day because he couldn’t be with Lara. He’d been back in New York for over a week now and already the separation felt interminable. As he had expected, work had consumed him.
Back in his high-rise apartment later that evening, he threw himself down on his opulent silk-sheeted bed fully clothed and mused on whether he should ring her just to hear her voice and assure himself that he hadn’t dreamt the blisteringly hot connection that they’d shared.
The situation had undoubtedly rocked his world. When he’d read about Sean’s death, Gabriel never would have believed that going back to see his friend’s parents to offer his condolences would result in him meeting Lara again and finding himself insanely attracted to her. She had been a pretty teenager, but nothing could have prepared him for the stunning woman she’d become.
He’d since asked himself if he should actually be feeling guilty because he’d taken a long-ago friendship to a whole other level just because the opportunity had presented itself. But he hadn’t been able to resist. After reading the gut-wrenching letter his uncle had left him which had revealed the tragic truth about his mother, Gabriel had found himself craving the kind of comfort that only a woman could supply. A lovely woman like Lara, whose caring and selfless nature was like a priceless gem that was rare to find.
Checking his watch, he noted that it must be about four in the morning over in the UK. Would he risk waking her from sleep simply just to hear her voice? Of course he would. Hadn’t she told him when he was leaving that she would miss him? Well, now was a good opportunity to find out how much.
Sitting up, he undid his tie, then shrugged off the suit jacket he wore and carelessly threw it onto a nearby chair. Then he kicked off his shoes, plumped up the satin pillows behind him and rang her mobile.
Even the realisation that she would be asleep couldn’t stop him from feeling impatient when she didn’t pick up straight away. Holding the phone close against his ear, with his other hand he dragged his fingers wearily through his hair, thinking that if he had even half a mind to be sensible he should probably get some sleep himself. He’d been working flat out in a charged and nervous atmosphere since the early hours of the morning and felt like death.
But he instantly jettisoned the thought when he heard Lara’s sleepily husky voice at the other end of the line.
‘Hello? Who is this? Have you any idea what time it is?’
Gabriel couldn’t resist chuckling. ‘Who else would be ringing you at this ungodly hour if it wasn’t me, baby?’
‘Gabriel?’
He told himself he heard pleasure in her voice, as well as surprise, but he couldn’t know that for sure. What if Lara hadn’t missed him even half as much as he had missed her? What if, despite her asking him if he really thought she would want to be with someone else after being with him, she had sought out the company of an ex-boyfriend to help alleviate her loneliness?
Biting back a savage curse at the mere thought, he schooled himself to breathe more slowly. A potential coronary wasn’t something he wanted to add to his already considerable cache of woes.
‘Yes, it’s me.’ Despite his anxieties, Gabriel thought of her shining dark eyes and pretty face and his lips shaped a smile. ‘I should say I’m sorry for ringing you so early in the morning, but if I were to tell you that then it would be a lie. Were you asleep?’
‘Not really. I was only dozing. I don’t fall asleep very easily these days. I just can’t seem to settle.’
‘Are you still at your parents’ house?’
‘No, I’m not. I’ve returned to my flat. Mum and Dad came back from holiday a couple of days after you left. By the way, they asked me to tell you that they’d like to see you sometime. They’ve got a couple of photos of you and Sean they’d like you to have as a keepsake.’
Gabriel’s insides churned at the prospect of meeting Lara’s parents again when he had so recently seduced their daughter. Would he be able to handle the guilt that was bound to surface when he was in their presence? Their good regard had once upon a time been very important to him. It still was.
‘It would be good to see them again,’ he said warily. ‘And I wouldn’t mind having the photos.’
‘Good. I’ll tell them. Anyway, it’s good to hear your voice. The last time I had word from you was when you texted me to say that you’d arrived in New York. How are you?’
‘Never mind how I am. What do you mean, you can’t seem to settle? Is there something on your mind? Tell me, Lara, I’d like to know.’
Registering her quietly indrawn breath, not for the first time Gabriel wished he hadn’t left her so abruptly when he’d got the call from his office in New York. But when he’d learned his presence was urgently required because of a crisis that could potentially escalate if he didn’t return and help resolve it, it had been unthinkable that he would refuse—especially when his professional reputation had been built on finding solutions that would fox many of his peers.
‘I’ve—I’ve just been missing Sean, that’s all. It’s at times like these—times when I’m a bit low and down in the dumps—that I’d ring and talk to him. No matter what the situation he’d always help put things into perspective and make me laugh.’
‘It’s perfectly understandable that you’re missing him, sweetheart. His death isn’t something you’re going to get over or come to terms with overnight. All you can do is to give it time. Isn’t that what they say?’
‘Yes, and isn’t it ironic how plausible and sensible that sounds when it isn’t someone that’s personally close to you who dies?’
Dry-mouthed, Gabriel honestly didn’t know how to answer her. He’d lost the one person who was universally meant to be the closest to a child, yet he hadn’t known his mother at all. Not even for a little while. How were you supposed to grieve for a relative stranger? Because that was what she had been. Yet since he had found out that she’d taken her own life a sense of bitter sorrow at the futility of it all had slowly and undeniably crept into his heart and taken up residence there. Not usually given to fantasising, he had found himself wishing for the power to turn back time so that he might remake the past and ensure a different and better future for both of them. Perhaps he was experiencing grief after all?
He heaved a sigh.
‘Gabriel? I wasn’t being dismissive of your advice. I know you’re dealing with your own grief.’
‘Is that what you call it?’ Even though he’d briefly flirted with the fantasy of remaking the past, he couldn’t prevent the scathing inflection in his tone. ‘What the hell would I know about it? Aren’t you supposed to have a relationship with someone before you can grieve for them?’
‘Just because you didn’t have a relationship with your mother doesn’t mean that you don’t wish that you had. Look, let’s talk about something else, shall we? Late at night, or even in the early hours of the morning, isn’t the best time to be dwelling on things that make us sad.’
For a moment, Lara’s gentle voice somehow subdued the influx of pain that had threatened to submerge Gabriel.
‘And I hate to think of you being sad when you’re so far away and I can’t be with you to help make you feel better.’
‘I’m not sad, for goodness’ sake. I’m angry. Furious that the people who were meant to take care of me were such liars that they would deceive their own flesh and blood and not even consider the horrendous legacy that would leave me with. You can’t possibly know how that feels.’
Shaking his head, Gabriel fought hard to recover his equilibrium beneath another crushing wave of emotion. What the hell did he think he was doing? He’d been longing to make contact with Lara for days—the mere thought of talking to her had been the light at the end of the tunnel when he’d been so consumed by work that there wasn’t even a spare moment to ring her—and here he was, wasting precious time talking about his hopeless family.
He swallowed hard.
‘Forget I said that, will you? I think it’s just fatigue talking. Up until now it’s been a hell of a day. But I already feel better knowing that you’re thinking about me.’
‘I’m glad. I know it doesn’t solve anything, but it helps to know that you have a friend you can reach out to, doesn’t it? I know it does for me.’
Trying hard to ignore the fact that she’d referred to him yet again as a friend and not as her lover—had his lovemaking been that forgettable?—Gabriel sighed again.
‘Look, don’t you have some holiday left? Why don’t you come over to New York for a few days?’ Even as the idea made his heart race and his blood pump hard he knew it was a brainwave he couldn’t ignore. Why hadn’t he thought about it earlier? It was, after all, the perfect solution. If he had to spend many more nights without seeing Lara and having her in his bed he’d honestly go crazy.
‘I do have some holiday left, but don’t you have to work, Gabriel? Isn’t there some big financial crisis or other you have to deal with?’
‘There is indeed.’
The charmingly innocent question made him smile. The world Lara inhabited was a million miles away from the feverish atmosphere on Wall Street, where dealings often had serious global financial implications that could make or break economies overnight. He was fiercely glad that she wasn’t part of that world.
He was also relieved that she wasn’t remotely like some of the clever but brittle women he regularly came into contact with in that arena—women who had seemingly forgotten what it meant to be soft and feminine, who preferred to concentrate their energies on rising to the top of the career ladder, making their fortune, and didn’t care what they had to do in order to achieve it. Some men might find such barefaced single-mindedness admirable, but oddly enough Gabriel didn’t.
‘It won’t be sorted overnight,’ he explained. ‘But we’re making some good inroads. Anyway, let’s not talk about that. I really need to see you, Lara. You have no idea how much.’
The other end of the line went ominously quiet and Gabriel tensed. Her rejection wasn’t something he wanted to contemplate even briefly.
‘Say the word and I’ll arrange the flight,’ he said quickly. ‘I’m not saying I’ll be able to spend as much time with you as I’d like when you get here—especially not during the day when I’m working—but you’ll have my driver at your disposal to take you wherever you want to go, and you won’t want for anything. If you want to buy clothes, perfume—anything, in fact—I’ll foot the bill. It will be my pleasure. And as often as I can manage it we’ll have the evenings together. The nights, too.’
Again, Gabriel’s blood heated at the thought. He blessed the photographic recall that, even throughout his pressured working days, helped him easily access the memory of Lara’s seductive scent and the satin texture of her flawless skin.
‘Are you sure, Gabriel? I mean, my coming to see you won’t interfere with your routine?’
‘My God, do you know how painfully dull that makes me sound? I don’t deny that my work is important, but even I refuse to make it the be-all and end-all. Especially not now, when I know that I’ll be seeing you.’
‘All right, then. You can go ahead and arrange a flight for me. When you have the details you can ring or send me a text to let me know. My mum said just yesterday that I ought to have a holiday before I go back to work.’
‘She was right—and if my memory serves me correctly your mum usually is, sweetheart.’
Rubbing his hand round his stubbled jaw, Gabriel was elated that his powers of persuasion hadn’t failed him. If all went to plan Lara would be joining him in just a couple of days’ time and his photographic memory would no longer be necessary to remind him of her charms—not when the delicious reality of her presence would be so much more satisfying.
* * *
Even though she’d accepted it—because what else could she have done?—Lara had been heartbroken when Gabriel had abruptly left her to return to New York. At that point she really hadn’t known whether she would ever see him again. All she’d seemed to see in that carved, handsome face of his when he had announced he had to return to work to help alleviate a crisis was a man who put his career way above personal relationships and matters of the heart. No question. What if he had even felt relieved when he’d had the call telling him he was needed urgently?
Yet even knowing that Gabriel was a supremely driven individual, whose priorities were vastly different from her own, Lara didn’t give up hope that one day soon he would come to see that there were far more important things in life than money and the admiration of his peers.
The devastation of his mother taking her own life and his uncle betraying him might have caused him to believe that love and family could never be for him—not when his trust had been so cruelly tested—but Lara refused to relinquish the hope that if only she could reach him—really reach him—then she might help him see that it didn’t mean that love and family should be denied him.
It had lifted her beyond belief when he’d rung her in the middle of the night and invited her over to New York and she hadn’t hesitated to accept the invitation. Could it be that he’d been reflecting on the possibility of enjoying a serious relationship with her? She prayed that was the case. She certainly wasn’t going to pass up the chance of finding out.
When he’d asked her what had been unsettling her she hadn’t been completely truthful. Of course she was still grieving for Sean, but she’d also been missing Gabriel—missing him so much, in fact, that she could scarcely think about anything else.
Sometimes the memory of their lovemaking seemed like the most delicious dream she had conjured up to help compensate for the loneliness she had endured all these years. And other times, because it meant so much to her, it fuelled her fears about what she would do if she never got the chance to be intimate with him again. Lara had already lost the brother she’d adored. To lose Gabriel would be an equally grievous blow.
Now, travelling in the back of the beautiful limousine Gabriel had sent to the airport to collect her and heading over to Fifth Avenue, where his apartment was situated, Lara stared up at the high-rise buildings piercing the faultless blue sky and couldn’t help shivering. It was as though she’d been dropped into an alien habitat in some distant universe, such was the contrast to the much more unhurried environment she was used to.
‘This is it, Miss Bradley. If you tell the concierge at the door that you’ve come to see Mr Devenish, then he’ll take you up to his apartment.’
‘Thank you.’
‘It’s my pleasure, Miss Bradley. If you just wait there for a moment I’ll get your luggage.’
When he came round to open the car door for her, Lara accepted the immaculately presented chauffeur’s hand and stepped out onto the sidewalk outside the building. Already the concierge was approaching, and as she thanked the driver again she was rewarded with a genuinely warm smile.
‘I’m Barry, by the way, and Mr Devenish will give you the number to contact me on when you want to go anywhere. He’s already given me instructions to take you wherever you want to go during your stay,’ he told her. ‘So I’ll look forward to seeing you again sometime soon, Miss Bradley. Have a good day, now.’
‘You, too.’
It hit Lara then just how diametrically opposite Gabriel’s lifestyle was to her own. She had just about got over travelling business class on the plane out here, but was he really expecting her to tour the city in a limousine every time she went out?
As the ultra-polite concierge took charge of her conservatively small suitcase and led her to the elevator she was suddenly seized by an acute attack of nerves. What would it be like, seeing Gabriel again? Would he still want her as much as he’d wanted her back home? Compared to the beautiful and fashionable women he must see every day at work, would he start to see her as painfully ordinary and homely? She glanced down at the royal blue, fluted-sleeved tunic dress she was wearing that she’d thought so pretty in the store and winced.
‘This is Mr Devenish’s floor, Miss Bradley.’
The ascent up to the top floor had been so swift that she’d hardly realised they’d been moving. She’d been too lost in anguished reverie about Gabriel.
The concierge pressed the doorbell and with a brief, officious smile asked, ‘Would you like me to wait with you until Mr Devenish comes to the door?’
‘No, thank you. I’m sure he’ll be here in a minute.’
With a brief nod of his head, he left her. They had arranged that Gabriel would take a couple of hours off from work to welcome her and acquaint her with her new surroundings, but time seemed to deaden and slow as Lara waited outside the door for him, and she couldn’t help worrying that because he was so busy at work he’d forgotten about her.
But suddenly he was standing there, immaculately dressed as ever, and even more devastating than she remembered. His eyes locked on to hers immediately. They drank her in, ate her up and all but consumed her, body and soul.
Lara opened her mouth to speak but no words came out.
Looking slightly dazed, he said, ‘My phone rang just before you knocked and I stupidly took the call. My God, I’ve been waiting so long for you. Too long.’
And then further dialogue was abandoned as he hungrily drew her into his arms, drove his hands through her hair and pressed her against him as if she was as vital to him as taking his next breath.
If that first kiss he had stolen from her back in England had been akin to being scorched by flame, this one was an inferno that burnt her down to her very core. In response, her lips couldn’t help but cling ravenously to his, and her heart leapt with sheer delight at the seductive velvety texture of his lips and the sensation of his hard body enfolding her. Then she greedily welcomed his hot searching tongue, taking breathless little gasps of air as she struggled to assimilate the tide of longing and desire that rendered her almost too weak to stand.
Gabriel groaned as if he couldn’t bear being bereft of her kisses for even a moment. Defenceless and desperate for his deepening touch, Lara was scarcely aware that he had dragged in her case and pushed the door shut behind her, then manoeuvred her up against it. But when his hand hotly covered her breast through the thin cotton of her dress, and when he replaced it with his lips to nip at the already tender flesh of her aroused nipple, she whimpered as an arrow of molten heat shot directly into her womb.
Even as she moaned her pleasure Gabriel moved his hands urgently down her back and onto her behind. In answer, Lara eagerly drove her fingers through his hair to hold him more tightly against her. A second later, he freed himself to examine her. As she met the intense azure gaze that had instigated her love and devotion all those years ago when she was not much more than a girl, she silently reaffirmed the vow she’d made that she would love him for ever.
‘This wasn’t the way I wanted to welcome you, baby,’ he said wryly. ‘But what can I do when I confess I’m an addict for you?’ He bent and kissed her, capturing her plump lower lip with his teeth then slowly releasing it as he drew away. ‘And I might just die if I don’t get my fix.’
In one fluidly effortless movement he suddenly lifted her up high against his chest. Still avidly kissing her, he strode across the honey-coloured wooden floor and headed towards a closed door at the end of it. When they reached the door he kicked it open and carried her across to the palatial black-silk-covered bed that dominated the room. He toed off his shoes and Lara followed suit. And when he drew back the covers and lowered her down onto the sensual silk sheets niceties were forgotten as they tore at each other’s clothes and breathlessly dispensed with them.
Their hungry eyes met in mutual wonder just once before Gabriel covered Lara’s trembling body with his. And as soon as their skin made contact conversation was rendered redundant. There was simply no need for preamble to the seduction they both longed for.
Moving across to the edge of the bed as he wrestled with what to do, he reached down for the black silk boxers that, in his haste to make love to Lara, he’d thrown onto the floor. Hastily pulling them on, he turned back to survey her and saw her shiver.
Despising himself for not being able to summon up the words that might help ease her distress, he remarked, ‘You should probably get dressed.’ Jerking his head towards another door, he continued, ‘You can get a shower, then come and join me in the living room. You should find everything you need. I’ll use the bathroom down the hall. We don’t have much time before I have to get back to work and I need to tell you a few things.’