‘Angling for a pay rise, Abby?’
Abby blushed. He was playing with her and she had to accept that she’d encouraged that by stepping into private territory which was normally out of bounds.
She also had to concede that when he spoke to her like that, his sexy voice deep, rich and velvety, a pleasurable tingle unfurled inside her. Yes, it was inappropriate, but it couldn’t be helped.
No wonder women fell for the guy like ninepins. He oozed easy charm, and when he turned it on thinking straight suddenly became very difficult.
‘Far from it.’ She located the reports waiting to be read and made a show of staring at them. If they hadn’t been flickering on her tablet, she would busied herself rustling paper to get her point across. ‘I’m not at all unhappy with my pay. Everyone in this business sector knows how generous you are when it comes to salaries.’
‘No price too steep for loyalty,’ Gabriel agreed. ‘And in the world of technology, where secrets are begging to be shared with hungry competitors, loyalty is a valuable commodity. You’re tapping your finger on your tablet. Is that your way of telling me that it’s time we started talking about work?’ He laughed softly and the hairs on the back of Abby’s neck curled. ‘Okay, off you go. I can tell you’re dying to tell me what’s in those reports of yours you’re staring so hard at.’
Abby spun to look at him and breathed in deeply. In this mood, he unnerved her, made her forget the boundaries between them, and if she knew that she was partly to blame then that didn’t matter. What mattered was the importance of the lines she had drawn between them from the very first day she’d started working for him.
It wasn’t just because she knew the fate of the PAs who had preceded her, all shot down in flames for overstepping the line because. She’d gathered he’d always enjoyed having a pretty face around, and naturally, in the end, all those pretty faces had not been able to resist the lure of their sexy, charming boss. He had a special way of talking to you, a way that made you feel as though you were the only human being on earth he was interested in.
Abby had seen that in action when she’d been doing something as harmless as reporting on a conversation she might have had about some deal or other, or suggestions she might have had about some of the programmes one of his many companies was developing—because he always encouraged suggestions, which was just one of the many ways he involved his employees and made them feel invaluable.
But now this...
This was different and it felt dangerous because he wasn’t talking to her about work.
Abby had no intention of dropping her guard any more than she already had and, the sooner she filled him in on that, the better.
Because she’d always privately maintained that she was immune to his charm. She’d been jettisoned by a guy who’d been cute and charming and she knew better than to be taken in by someone like that again. Especially when she’d seen first-hand how many women were suckers for a man like Gabriel. She’d done far too much end-of-relationship flower-buying on his behalf, thank you very much!
But he was in a strange place, even if he wouldn’t admit it, and it would seem, the devil was working on idle hands because that low-level teasing disturbed her. It was like having a feather brushed against her skin, giving her goose bumps, tickling her in places that made her blush.
Of course, he would return to normal soon enough, but just in case he decided that breaching the boundaries could become a permanent thing she felt that it was up to her to speak her mind.
She cleared her throat and looked him squarely in the eye.
‘I feel uncomfortable saying this.’ She hesitated, unsettled by his eyes which, now that she was staring into their depths, she noticed were the deepest and darkest of navy blue. ‘But since we’re going to be working with one another for the next week...’
‘Nothing new there, Abby.’
‘Yes, I know, but this is a little different. I realise I won’t be staying with you in a hotel because you’ll be at your grandmother’s place, but we won’t be in our...our...’
‘Usual territory?’ Gabriel inserted helpfully, intrigued by where this was leading.
‘So things seem to have altered a little between us and I get that. I have never been involved in your private life before, not really, but I have been recently, through no fault of my own.’ She glanced away because the intensity of his gaze was making her hot and bothered. She wished he’d say something but, perversely, he was silent, waiting for her to carry on or maybe, she thought, waiting for her to trip up with the tangled speech she’d begun without thinking through first.
‘And for that I apologise,’ Gabriel said seriously, eventually.
Their eyes met and there was a moment of perfect understanding between them. Beneath that grave tone, he was amused, and she knew it. She shot him a fulminating look of frustration and his lips twitched but he looked away, the thick fringe of his lashes concealing his expression.
‘Apology accepted,’ Abby said. ‘But what I feel I must say is that I don’t feel comfortable...er...er...’
Gabriel raised his eyebrows in an unspoken question and she gritted her teeth.
‘I don’t enjoy talking about my private life,’ she finished lamely.
‘I didn’t think we were, Abby.’
‘I have every sympathy for you, and I really feel for you having to break the news about Lucy to your grandmother, but I think we should move on and re-establish our...our...’
‘Why are you so scared about opening up?’ Gabriel asked softly and Abby was rattled enough to glare at him.
‘That’s exactly what I mean!’ she cried. She was shocked when she slammed down the leather lid of her tablet.
Gabriel was fascinated. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he’d registered that she was attractive enough but her whole face right now was alive with emotion. Her grey eyes had darkened, her full mouth was downturned in a pout of frustration and her cheeks were flushed.
Just like that, he wondered what she would look like naked. Naked on a bed, flushed from making love.
His mouth tightened and he shifted. ‘Message received loud and clear, Abby,’ he told her tightly. ‘Strangely, what you call an infringement of your privacy, most normal people call good manners and polite curiosity. But, if you’d rather we stick exclusively to work-related issues, then that’s fine with me.’
‘Thank you,’ she said tautly.
‘I’ve already read all those reports you want to get through.’
‘You have?’
‘You emailed them to me yesterday.’
‘And you’ve been in meetings most of the day.’
‘It doesn’t take me long to sift through the waffle and get to the bits that matter.’ Without further ado, he began talking work. In depth. It was exactly what she had demanded, and she had no idea why she was suddenly disappointed that she’d put an end to their little foray into a less structured relationship.
Did she really want him asking her lots of personal questions? No! Did she want to be hostage to all sort of peculiar, inappropriate sensations because he happened to turn all that lazy male charm onto her? No! Because he was in an odd place didn’t mean that he could entertain himself at her expense because there had been a temporary fissure in their usual rigid working relationship.
Once upon a time, when she’d been young, naïve and planning her happy-ever-after with Jason, she’d been open and trusting, but since then she’d erected more protective barriers than the Bank of England and she wasn’t going to let them be demolished by her boss.