‘I’ve been looking through the papers,’ Phillip greeted her warmly, delighted with the solution to a problem over which he had been regularly losing sleep. ‘Everything seems to be in order. In fact, Mr Greppi has been most meticulous in his attention to detail.’
Gabriel was smiling at the older man, receiving the compliment with nonchalant modesty, but out of the corner of his eye he was vibrantly aware of Laura slipping into the chair alongside his. Her pale hair gleamed like silk and he approved of what she was wearing. A short-sleeved rose-coloured dress that was simple but fitted, emphasising the narrowness of her waist and the length of her legs, which seemed to go on for ever. Despite what he had said about her losing weight, there was no chance she would ever be mistaken for one of those stick-thin models, two of whom he had dated in the past and neither of whom had done much for him. Her body was a bit more streamlined than it had been seven years ago but she was too full-breasted to ever look skinny. And she still had the athletic firmness of someone accustomed to an outdoor life. He slid his eyes away and began to pay more attention to Phillip, who was now going over some of the details of the contract with his client.#p#分页标题#e#
When he got to the part about her salary, Laura gave a little squeak of astonishment, rapidly followed by an objection.
‘No way,’ she said firmly, turning to face Gabriel for the first time since she had entered the room. He was dressed for work and looked no less impressive for it. Dark charcoal-grey suit, crisp white shirt, dark blue tie with a small, clever pattern running through it. He swung his chair to look directly at her, one eyebrow raised in apparent enquiry.
‘No way ...what?’ he asked, sitting back and lightly linking his fingers on his lap.
‘Phillip, would you mind giving Gabriel and myself a few minutes of privacy?’
‘Is that really necessary, Laura?’ Phillip asked, I honestly cannot see what the problem is here and the sooner we go through this contract, the sooner we can have the deal signed, sealed and delivered, so to speak.’ Before, he added to himself, our knight in shining armour decides to have a change of heart. Everything, so far, looked too good to be true and in Phillip’s experience canny businessmen rarely indulged in deals that were too good to be true. Not unless they were the eventual winners, which certainly was not the case here. He tried to signal as much to Laura with his eyes but she was steadfastly ignoring him and, with a click of his tongue, he reluctantly stood up.
‘So,’ Gabriel said, pushing his chair back so that he could cross his long legs, ankle resting on knee, fingers still linked on his lap as he lightly rubbed the pads of his thumbs together, ‘what is the problem here? I confess I’m baffled.’ He tilted his head to one side and devoted every nerve in his body to looking at her.
‘Baffled!’ Laura gave a snort of disbelief. ‘Oh, please. I know exactly what you’re doing here, Gabriel. Overpaying me so that I’m even more indebted to you than I already am! You’re offering to give me five times more than I was getting working for Hugo, and that’s when I was working full-time there!’
He shook his head. ‘This is a record. The first time anyone has attacked me for overpaying them!’
‘You mean you’ve been attacked for underpaying?’ Laura smirked, distracted.
‘No ...actually, I usually manage to get it just right.’
‘Mr Perfect Employer. I wonder why I’m not surprised to hear you singing your own praises. Could it be that I’m getting accustomed to your ego, which is as big as a house?’
‘I am Argentinean! You insult my pride...’ But he grinned when he said this and Laura found herself grinning back, caught up in a moment of perfect wry and mutual understanding. Until she remembered the matter at hand.
‘Anyway, you’re distracting me...’
‘Oh, good,’ Gabriel murmured wickedly, ‘success at last.’
Which brought a bright flare of colour to her cheeks as the velvety ambiguity of his words struck home. ‘I mean you’re distracting me from what I was saying. Which is that there’s no need to be so ridiculously generous. It’s enough,’ she continued, taking a deep breath, ‘that you’re buying the riding stables, that you’re going to try and turn it around, that you’ve offered me this lifeline.’ Laura lowered her eyes. ‘And in case I haven’t said this before ...thank you.’
‘What was that?’ He leaned forward, cupping one ear with his hand.