‘That’s good to hear because I haven’t got around to having any kind of appraisal with you.’
Alice doubted he had ever done an appraisal in his life. If his employee didn’t fit the bill, then he simply dispensed with them.
‘Not,’ he said, reading her mind with unnerving accuracy, ‘that I make a habit of conducting appraisals of my secretaries.’
‘Is that because they usually only last two minutes?’
A tingle of pure pleasure raced through her when he burst out laughing, which subsided eventually for him to cast appreciative eyes over her.
‘Something like that,’ he murmured. ‘Seems a little pointless to give them an appraisal when they’ve already got one foot through the back door and their desk has been cleared.’
‘Well...’ He was blocking her way out and she dithered uncomfortably. Standing by him, it was brought home sharply just how tall he was. She was tall but he positively towered over her.
‘Well, of course, you’re on your way out. Is that what had you smiling?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Your plans for the evening. Is that what put that smile on your face?’
If only you knew... If only you guessed that I was smiling at the notion that you would never look twice at me; smiling for being an idiot even to think about something like that.
His plans had been for the theatre, followed by dinner at one of the most exclusive restaurants in London.
The theatre, followed by dinner out—at a haunt for the paparazzi because the clientele was usually very high-profile—followed by...
Heat flooded her as she contemplated after-dinner sex with the man standing in front of her, still blocking her path. His hands on her body, his mouth exploring her, that dark, sexy voice whispering in her ear...
Her body jack-knifed into instant, crazy reaction. Liquid pooled between her legs and the unfamiliar tug of desire hit her like a ton of bricks, shocking in its intensity and as destabilising as the sudden onslaught of some ferocious disease. She couldn’t move. Her legs were blocks of cement, nailing her to the floor as her imagination took flight in forbidden directions.
And, all the while, she could feel those dark, dark eyes pinned to her face.
‘I have to go,’ she said tightly. She went to push him aside and more heat flared inside her, making a mockery of her attempts to harness her prized composure.
He was a man she might respect but didn’t like! A man whose brilliance she could admire whilst being left cold by his detachment!
Once out of the office, she fled...
CHAPTER THREE
ALICE WOKE WITH a start. In her dream, she had been running down an endlessly long corridor, chasing Gabriel who would occasionally glance over his shoulder, only to turn away and continue running. In the dream, she had no idea what lay at the end of that corridor, or even if there was an end to it, but she was filled with a sense of terrifying foreboding, wanting to stop and yet propelled forward by some power greater than her own.
She was slick with perspiration and completely disoriented and it took her a few seconds to realise that her mobile was ringing. Not the sharp, insistent buzz of her alarm but actually ringing.
‘Good. You’re awake.’
Hard on the heels of her disturbing dream, Gabriel’s voice cut through the fog of her sleepiness as effectively as a bucket of ice-cold water, and she sat up in bed, glancing at the clock on her bedside table which showed that it wasn’t yet six-thirty.
‘Is that you, Gabriel?’
‘How many calls do you get from men at this hour of the morning? No, don’t answer that.’
‘What’s wrong with your voice?’ This was the first time he had ever called her at home on her mobile and she looked around her furtively, as though suspecting that at any second he might materialise from the shadows.
Thankfully, her bedroom was as it always was—small with magnolia walls, some nondescript curtains and two colourful pictures on either side of the dressing table, scenes of Cornwall painted by a local artist whom Alice knew vaguely through her mother. An averagely passable room in a small, uninteresting house whose only selling point was its proximity to the tube.
In the bedroom next to hers, her flat mate, Lucy, would still be sleeping.
‘It seems I’m ill.’
‘You’re ill?’ The thought of Gabriel being ill was almost inconceivable and she felt a sudden grip of panic.
Whatever was wrong with him, it would be serious. He was not the sort of man to succumb to a passing virus. He was just too...strong. She couldn’t imagine that there could be any virus on the planet daring enough to attack him.
‘Ill with what?’ She brought the decibel level of her worried voice down to normal. ‘Have you called the doctor?’