Dear God, she had fallen in love with the man who’d stolen her heart five years ago.
She had fallen in love with Damien Trent.
For the second time.
Just then the man she now knew she loved…the man beside her…started to move and wake up. She was tempted to jump up and run from the room, but she’d only be drawing attention to herself. If he came after her and started making love to her again, how would she react now she knew she loved him again? How would she manage to keep everything inside her until she had time to think this all over? Because suddenly the goal-posts had changed. And how that would affect her she wasn’t sure.
So she lay there with her back to him and kept her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep, feeling him go up on one elbow and kiss her bare shoulder. She held back a moan, unable to turn toward him and end up in his arms again. She just prayed her didn’t draw her over to face him.
And then the mattress dipped slightly as he rolled out of bed, and she expelled a silent sigh of relief. She heard him walk into the bathroom and the shower came on and a few moments later she could hear the sound of water hitting naked flesh. She could almost see the water spraying off his wide shoulders, over his chest, down the arrow of hair. She shut her mind off. She had to or she might just be tempted to join him, and right now she dare not.
Instead of getting up for her own shower, she forced herself to stay in a sort of mental limbo until he’d finished dressing. Then, just when she thought he was about to leave the room and go get some breakfast, his lips touched hers in a brief kiss.
Her lashes flew open in alarm, but all he said was, “Sleep in. Come to the office when you’re ready.” He started for the door.
It took her a few seconds to register what he’d said. “What?” She sat up. “Where are you going?”
He stopped at the door and turned. “To the office.”
“Yours or—”
“Ours?” he joked.
She threw back the covers. “I’m not playing at this, Damien. I don’t want to be just a figurehead and leave you to do all the work.”
He looked surprised. “I don’t think that, but it wouldn’t hurt you to have a lie-in.”
She got out of bed. “I’m used to getting up early and going to work,” she reminded him, in case he’d forgotten she’d been a working woman down in Sydney.
His gaze slid over her short, silky cream nightgown and his eyes darkened, but he made no move toward her. “Okay, if you’re determined, then. I have an important meeting this morning so I have to go to my office first. I’ll meet you at Kane’s about eleven-thirty.”
“Fine,” she said, already heading for the shower.
An hour later Gabrielle asked her father’s personal assistant, Cheryl, to organize a meeting in the boardroom for eleven-thirty. She and Damien still had things to discuss from yesterday with the managers.
“It doesn’t take you long to start throwing your weight around,” Keiran sneered as he came into the office just as she was gathering her papers for the meeting.
Gabrielle hid her surprise. This was the first she’d seen Keiran since he’d stormed out yesterday, but he was obviously back to cause trouble and that made her uneasy. Keiran always picked his target. He must have known that Damien wasn’t with her.
“Keiran, don’t you have work to do? In your own office?”
His mouth twisted. “Cheryl tells me you’re having another meeting with the middle managers. It isn’t going to help the company, you know. They would be more productive just getting on with their jobs.”
“Perhaps you should take your own advice,” she said coolly.
He sent her a withering glance. “You know, coz, I can’t wait to see you fall flat on your face.”
“Then you’ll be waiting a long time.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
Just then Cheryl buzzed her on the intercom. Giving Keiran a hard look, Gabrielle pressed the button and listened as the other woman said that Damien was now in the boardroom with the others.
“I’ll be right there, Cheryl.” Gabrielle stood. “You’re welcome to come to the meeting,” she told him as she came around the desk and walked toward the open doorway.
“How generous of you.”
She’d had just about enough of him. Her mouth tightened as she went to step past him, but suddenly she somehow missed her step because she felt herself trip on the carpet then fall forward, giving a little squeal. Thankfully the door frame stopped her fall but it still shook her.
It was a couple of seconds before Keiran spoke, and then only after Cheryl came rushing over. “Are you okay?” the PA asked with concern.
“She tripped on the carpet,” Keiran was quick to say, but Gabrielle was sure his voice held fake concern.
“I’m fine,” Gabrielle said, looking down at the plush carpet, but there were no rips or snags. Then she darted a look at Keiran. For some reason he had enjoyed her being hurt. And that was typical Keiran. He was the type to pull the wings off butterflies.
Keiran’s smile was sickly. “You always were one to trip over nothing,” he said, but that just wasn’t true. She’d never been especially clumsy, so she wasn’t sure why he was using that excuse now.
Unless…
She frowned. He wouldn’t have tried to hurt her, would he? He was certainly capable of it but could he really be that nasty?
No. She’d tripped by herself that’s all. It was just one of those things.
“As long as you’re okay.” Cheryl said with a frown.
Gabrielle tried to smile warmly. “Thanks for your concern, Cheryl. I’m fine.”
The other woman nodded as Keiran bent and picked up the papers Gabrielle had dropped. “Here we go,” he said, handing them back to her. “We’ll be late for the meeting if we don’t hurry.”
Gabrielle’s brow rose in surprise as she took them. “You’re coming?”
He smiled tightly. “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”
Gabrielle turned to head out the door. She’d been very much afraid that was the case.
Later that afternoon the phone rang in the office. Gabrielle had just spent the past hour with Damien poring over some of the paperwork Keiran had worked on, and she was now glad to put it aside for a while. Working so close to Damien was playing havoc on her senses. He smelled gorgeous, and he looked gorgeous, and she kept remembering how he’d seduced her on the sofa last night.