Her eyes clouded over. “Yes, that’s more your style.”
“Gabrielle, you’re procrastinating.” His eyes narrowed. “What are you hiding?”
She looked startled. “Nothing,” she said, much too fast for his liking. She moistened her delicious mouth. “Er…it happened a few months after I went to Sydney. I was a passenger in a car with one of Eileen’s daughters, Lara. This drunken idiot came out of nowhere and his car hit the front passenger side and some metal buckled and cut me.”
“Sweet Jesus!” The thought of it made him taste bile.
All at once she was looking at him as if realizing his shock. “Damien, I’m fine,” she said gently.
Her tone didn’t soothe him. He felt savage. Like he wanted to commit murder. “What happened to this idiot? He’d better be in jail.”
“I don’t know. I was in hospital for a few days, then I was too busy getting back on my feet.”
“If I’d known…” he growled, a burning sensation in his throat. “If Russell had known…”
An uneasy look entered her eyes. “Thankfully neither of you did.” As quickly, she drew herself up, a certain coolness taking over. “And thankfully neither of you had a say in my life after that.” She paused for effect. “I just wish you didn’t have a say now.”
The muscles at the back of his neck tensed. “You’re married to me, Gabrielle. From here on in, whatever happens, I want to know about it.”
Her eyes flashed with cynicism. “It didn’t take long for you to start trying to control me.”
He stared hard at her. She’d taken that the wrong way. He was concerned for her, not controlling. He wanted to make sure she’d didn’t get hurt again. God, he hated thinking about her trapped in a car. About her lying in hospital.
His jaw clenched. But if she preferred to think the worst of his motives, then let her. He wasn’t explaining himself to anyone.
He made a move toward the stairs. “Get your things together. We’re going back to shore.”
Six
W hen they arrived back at the apartment, Gabrielle half expected Damien to carry her off to bed, and firmly squashed a sense of disappointment when he strode straight over to the dining table and started sorting through his briefcase.
“You’re working now?” she asked, then realized how that sounded. “I mean, aren’t we going to see my parents?”
He glanced at his Rolex, his attitude telling her he was a busy man. “I’ve got a couple of calls to make, then we’ll go break the news of our marriage to your mother. We’ll leave it up to Caroline to decide whether to tell Russell yet or not.”
Gabrielle swallowed, feeling guilty. In a way she didn’t really feel she should feel too guilty about it. Not after everything her parents had put her through. Yet she did.
“And by the way,” he added. “I’ve ordered a Porsche to replace the rental car.”
Gabrielle groaned, feeling swallowed up by him. “You did?”
“And I’ve told your ex-boss, Eileen, we were getting married.”
Her eyes widened in dismay. “You didn’t!” Now this she did feel guilty over.
“I had to give her some reason why I was having your things sent up here.”
She couldn’t believe he’d done all this without asking her. “You really are a piece of work, aren’t you?” she snapped, then spun toward the spare bedroom, intending to use the phone in there. “I’d better phone her on the other extension and explain.” Eileen had been so good to her and would be disappointed not to have been invited to the wedding.
“Gabrielle?”
She stopped at the bedroom door. “What?”
“You’re in the master bedroom now,” he drawled, nodding his head at the other bedroom door. “With me.”
A tremor of desire quaked through her body. “Master bedroom?” she scoffed. “Oh, goodie. I can sit at your feet and feed you grapes all day.”
His expression relaxed into a smile, and it was devastating. “I can’t see you being part of a harem.”
“I’m amazed you appreciate that.”
His eyes dropped to her br**sts. “Oh, I appreciate you just fine, Gabrielle.”
She moved slightly to cover her tingling ni**les beneath her lime-green top. “Don’t you have some calls to make?” she pointed out sourly, intending to shower and change out of her white slacks and into something more suitable for the office, just as soon as she spoke to Eileen.
His lips curled faintly upward. “They’ll be brief.”
“Well, I could be a while,” she said, letting him know he’d caused problems and now she had to clean up his mess.
He ignored that. “I’ll come get you when you’re ready.”
“So you have X-ray vision and can see through walls now?” she derided. “I think you’ve been eating too many carrots.”
“No, grapes,” he mocked, then strode out onto the balcony, already pressing the numbers on his cell phone, already forgetting her.
She didn’t smile, though she secretly appreciated the smart comment. And she was still appreciating it after talking to Eileen, and then an hour later when they took her mother aside and told her the news. Gabrielle had already insisted that she wanted to be the one to tell her mother, though how on earth did she explain without telling her the true reason?
She didn’t expect Caroline to burst into tears. “Mum, I’m sorry but it was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
Caroline dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “But I’m your mother, Gabrielle. I would have liked to be at my only child’s wedding.”
Damien put his arm around Gabrielle’s shoulders and pulled her close. “Caroline, we knew you’d be torn about leaving Russell’s side, so we decided it was best we didn’t tell you until it was over.”
She still looked hurt. “But couldn’t you both have waited until Russell was better?”
“I’m sorry, no,” Damien said quietly but firmly. “I wanted Gabrielle to marry me and I couldn’t wait a moment longer for her.” He looked down at Gabrielle with a warm look in his eyes that totally shook her, then he squeezed her shoulder, urging her to back him up, making her realize it was all a front.