The years had passed her by without her taking time out to pay much attention to her appearance.
Besides, her learning curve had been subtle but powerful. Beauty came with a price. She wasn’t beautiful and she had no interest in making herself try to be.
But now...
She had a long, lingering bath in a bathroom that was ridiculously luxuriant and emerged twenty minutes later feeling refreshed and...weirdly excited.
She wasn’t Cinderella going to the ball—not exactly—but she would leave behind serious, composed, take-no-risks Alice Morgan for the evening.
She had bought four dresses, one for each evening they would be in Paris, but the dress she had bought for tonight’s affair was the dressiest.
It was a long dress, in the palest of pink, with a scooped neck and was figure-hugging. Her long body, which she had always considered far too thin and far too flat-chested, filled it out perfectly and her height was accentuated by four-inch stilettos. She had bought a matching cashmere throw, iridescent with little pearls, to sling over her shoulders. Her nails matched the outfit and her hair...
Her brown hair, always au naturel, had been highlighted while she had had her hands and feet done. Shades of warm chestnut and caramel streaked through it, giving it dazzling life, turning her into a person she barely recognised as herself.
On the spur of the moment, she took a picture of herself and messaged it to her mother, and grinned when her mother returned a message which was just several exclamation marks.
She was a different person, at least on the surface, and she left her bedroom at precisely seven-thirty to make her way downstairs to the bar.
People turned to stare.
That had never happened to her in her life before. She wasn’t sure whether she liked it or not but it was certainly an experience.
Was this what it was like for Gabriel? she wondered. Was that why he had become so lazy? Why he picked what he wanted from life and discarded the rest without a backward glance? Was he so accustomed to walking into a room and finding himself the focus of attention that he no longer saw the point of trying any more? Why seek people out when they sought you out? Why make an effort with a woman if the woman was happy to do all the chasing? Why commit to a relationship when you could treat life like a great big candy shop where you could pick and choose the candy you wanted before moving on to sample something else?
She wondered whether he got pleasure from making money. He had made so much already and at such a young age, more than enough to last several lifetimes. He threw himself into his work, there was no denying that, and the man was a genius with a knack of knowing the markets—but did it still give him a kick? When you could have whatever you wanted without trying, was there anything that was still capable of giving you a kick?
She had to ask directions to the bar and, when she got there, she paused and frankly gaped.
It was carpeted, the carpet pale, patterned and very old. On the walls, deep, rich tapestries left you in no doubt that this hotel was old and proud of its age. Rich velvet curtains hung at the long windows and the chairs were regal, blending in with the air of expensive antiquity. There were no modern touches, nothing to indicate that outside the bustling twenty-first century was happening.
It was fabulous French decadence. It recalled the days of aristocracy and noblemen.
At which point, she scanned the room and there he was, sitting at one of the tables, frowning in front of the newspaper.
Temporarily lost in the financial section of the newspaper he was reading, absently drinking a glass of red wine from the bottle that had been placed on the table in front of him, Gabriel was unaware of her entrance.
And of the heads turning in her direction as she stood by the door looking at him.
But gradually he picked up that there was a certain silence. His eyes unerringly found her and for a few seconds he found that he was holding his breath.
He half-stood, which she took as a signal to move forward to join him, and although his breath returned he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her slowly approaching figure. He was aware of men turning to stare.
‘So...’ he drawled when she was standing in front of him. ‘You obeyed my instructions to the letter.’ She was exquisite. How had he failed to notice that before? The pale delicacy of her features was a revelation, as was the slender column of her neck, the graceful elegance of her body. Her presence dominated the room even though what she had chosen to wear was simple, unrevealing and refined.
‘You told me to get rid of my drab, grey clothes...’ Was that all he could say? she thought with a stab of disappointment.
‘Glass of wine?’ He sat back down, inwardly marvelling that she had managed to puncture his composure. ‘Where did you go shopping?’