Harlequin Presents January 2015 Box Set 3 of 4(79)

Gabriel waved aside her faltering objection with an impatient wave of his hand.

‘I will transfer money into your account today. Use it. Buy enough designer clothes to last the duration and feel free to make use of the spa centre here. Do whatever it takes.’

‘Do whatever it takes...for what?’ Alice said stiffly. If the ground had opened up, she would have dived in head first and emerged somewhere very far away from where this man was sitting, telling her in not so many words that she was an embarrassment.

‘Alice,’ Gabriel told her bluntly, ‘you’re a young girl in your twenties and I have yet to see you in something frivolous.’

‘I would never come to work in anything frivolous.’

‘Do you possess anything that isn’t sober? Serious? Grey?’ He knew he was being harsh but he had seen a hint of someone fiery lurking underneath the proper exterior and he wanted to see that person on the outside.

‘Francois and Marie are rich and they’re French. Put the two together and what you have is elegance. They will be startled if you appear at my side wearing off-the-peg cheap, ill-fitting grey suits. What you wear might not be a deal breaker, but it will help if you blend in. Do you really think that you can show up to tonight’s event in a suit?’

Cheap, off-the-peg, ill-fitting... The words reverberated in her head until she was giddy with anger.

‘I did think to bring my black dress.’

‘I’m imagining it’s along the same lines as the suit...?’

‘By which,’ Alice said tightly, ‘you mean cheap, off-the-peg and ill-fitting?’

Gabriel raked long fingers through his dark hair and sighed heavily. ‘I could have skirted round this,’ he told her bluntly. ‘I could have wrapped up what needed to be said in lots of pretty packaging, but that’s not my style. If you wear one of those suits of yours, you will feel desperately uncomfortable the minute you step through their front door. I’m sparing you that ordeal by being honest. They will wonder what sort of employer I am if I don’t pay my staff enough for them to afford decent clothing...’

‘Do you have any idea just how insulting you’re being right now?’ She was close to tears but there was no way that she would allow them to spill over.

‘Do you have any idea just how awkward you will feel if you arrive there and find that you’re not blending in? That you’re sticking out like a sore thumb?’ His dark eyes challenged her to continue an argument which he knew he would win.

‘And what exactly do you suggest I waste your money buying?’

‘You’re treading on thin ice here, Alice. I could suggest that you buy something dressy...colourful. Or else I could just tell you to—’

‘I apologise if you think I’m being ungrateful or rude, Gabriel, but I resent being told what I can and can’t wear!’ But when she thought about entering a room full of elegant French people who were dressed to kill, in one of her suits or her very simple black dress, she knew that he had a point.

She just hated the way he felt free to tell her with no regard for her feelings at all. She resented the way he felt that he didn’t even have to make a pretence of trying to be diplomatic.

‘It is what it is.’ But for once he was annoyed with himself for doing what he always did, for speaking his mind without window dressing what he had to say.

‘Fine!’

She glowered at him and Gabriel was sorely tempted to tell her that there wasn’t a woman on the face of the earth who wouldn’t have jumped at the chance to go out and have a shopping spree at his expense. Yet she had that ‘just swallowed a lemon’ look on her face as though he had somehow humiliated her in public. Hell, he was trying to spare her from being humiliated in public! People were shallow and one of the first things he had learnt in his climb up that swaying ladder was that they judged according to what they saw; forget all that claptrap about what was underneath. Dress and act like a king, and they would treat you like one.

Yet he was further annoyed when he felt another wave of guilt wash over him. She had been insulted, even though what he had said had been perfectly true.

He wasn’t about to apologise even if she stood there glowering until kingdom come. He pointedly looked at his watch and told her that she should get her skates on if she intended to get through some shopping, then he recommended a couple of districts where designer shops lined the streets. He even told her she could take the limo

‘And what time shall I meet you?’ Alice could barely get the words out. She hadn’t sat down, but had remained standing, and her legs were unsteady with sheer anger.