Gabriel looked at her without budging. Good question, he thought, except there was no single-syllable answer to it.
Deserted by the easy charm and abundant self-assurance that was so much part and parcel of his personality, he could only stare at her.
This was pretty much what he’d imagined her night wear to look like—before the sexy lingerie had come out into the open. Baggy pyjamas, strange, fluffy bedroom slippers, faded dressing gown...
Except she looked even sexier in this get up than she had in any of the skimpy silk-and-lace froth she had worn when they’d been in Seville.
He clenched his jaw and diverted his eyes from the jut of her breasts under the layers of clothes.
‘I’ve come to...talk to you.’
‘Really? What about?’
‘Will you let me in?’ He tried to peer around her. ‘I’m guessing your parents haven’t returned from their cruise?’
‘How did you find out where I was?’
‘You neighbour. She was very helpful when she found out that I was your boss and that I needed to see you.’
‘Sophie should never,never, have revealed my whereabouts!’
‘Maybe she didn’t see me as a threatening predator up to no good.’
Abby glowered at him. She refused to get stuck in a stupid conversation about what her neighbour in London might or might not have thought of Gabriel. He was drop-dead gorgeous and would have swanned up in one of his mega-expensive cars. Add to that the fact that he could ooze charm at the snap of a finger, and it was little wonder that Sophie had cracked and told him where she was.
‘You haven’t told me what you’re doing here.’
‘Abby...’ Firmly on the back foot, Gabriel sifted his fingers through his hair and shook his head. ‘This isn’t a conversation I want to have standing on your doorstep. Let me come in. Please.’
It was thepleasethat did it. That and the fact that Gabriel on her doorstep would set the gossip grapevine on fire should anyone happen to pass by and spot him.
‘If this is to do with work,’ Abby said as soon as he was in the hallway, ‘Then I can’t help you. I left Rita with as many instructions as I could and it’s up to her to sort you out with someone suitable.’ She wasn’t looking at him. She didn’t dare. She didn’t even want to be in his radius so she shuffled a little towards the wall and folded her arms.
She didn’t know why Gabriel had come, and she didn’t want to start thinking that it had anything to do with wanting toseeher, which just left work, and that made perfect sense because it was about the only thing he was capable of caring about.
‘It’s not to do with work. Look, I’ve just spent hours on the road. Could we sit...somewhere?’
‘I don’t recall inviting you here, Gabriel, so why would I invite you to make yourself at home?’ She stared at him narrowly and then, with an impatient sigh, she walked towards the kitchen becausesheneeded to sit down, never mindhim.
Gabriel followed. Hostility sparked from every bone in her body and he couldn’t blame her.
‘You can have a cup of coffee,’ Abby said, struggling to keep herself together, even though her mind was whizzing through every possible reason that might have brought him down here. ‘And then you can go.’ She banged around for a couple of minutes, made two mugs of coffee and turned to find him seated at the kitchen table.
Uncomfortable as he appeared to be, he still owned the space around him, and that made her even angrier because this washerterritory,herrefuge and he couldn’t justcome hereand somehowtake over.
She’d told him how she felt about him and then she had walked away.With his blessing!The cogs in her brain turned and bits began falling into place. If he wasn’t here because he needed to find a file, then he could only be here for one other reason.
Abby reddened as her anger levels shot through the roof.
‘I know why you’re here,’ she said in a low, trembling voice. She sat down, facing him, hands cupping the mug. ‘When I last saw you, Gabriel, you were moving on, getting back on the horse! So? Did your hot date not live up to expectation?’ Abby taunted, wallowing in the pain because it fuelled her anger and that in turn protected her from the sickening impact he had on her, despite everything.
‘She did not.’
‘Oh, dear! What a shame! Well, Gabriel, if you think that you can swan down here and pick up where we left off because you’ve found that my replacement hasn’t worked out the way you thought it would, then you’re mistaken.I don’t want anything else to do with you. Ever.’
‘I’m not here to pick up where we left off,’ Gabriel said quietly. ‘And I certainly wouldn’t think of presuming to tempt you back into a relationship because I’ve decided that I still want you.’
‘Good!’ Except what on earth was he doing here in that case? ‘Is...is Ava all right?’ she asked uncertainly.
