Out of the corner of his eye, Gabriel watched her face become animated as she discussed what could be done and tried to prise time scales out of the three men.
He could hear the sound of yet more men working on the floor above, pulling up the worn carpets and stripping the walls of yet more wallpaper.
On the spur of the moment he made a decision.
‘I think we can leave the workforce here to get on with the basics,’ he announced, pulling her to one side.
‘Leave them and do what? My job is to be here, supervising.’
‘I am temporarily altering your duties,’ Gabriel informed her. He captured her arm with his hand and explained to the three men that they would be on their own for a few hours and could they manage. ‘You know where everything is,’ he continued, still grasping her hand just in case she attempted to wriggle free to play the damned diligent employee. ‘Tea, coffee, milk. Help yourself in our absence and we will see you later.’#p#分页标题#e#
This, Laura fulminated as she hurriedly changed in the bathroom into some clean, fairly respectable clothes, was the problem. All was fine when they were making love. Everything could be forgotten then in the midst of explosive passion, but the minute they were in a normal situation he just couldn’t help reminding her who was boss. She worked for him and he never spared a thought for how she felt. Why should he? she asked herself repressively. She was his employee by day and his sex slave by night until he tired of one or both duties and dismissed her. Emotion did not enter into it and feelings were never, ever discussed.
The minute she stormed down the stairs, Gabriel could see that her simmering anger at his high-handed attitude was heading for boiling point, and he countered it with a conciliatory smile.
‘My apologies for behaving with such despicable arrogance,’ he told her before she could let rip. ‘Forgive me?’ His dark eyes appreciatively took in the vanilla cord trousers and the blue and cream checked shirt that she had slung casually over a figure-hugging cropped blue vest.
‘I told you it was a bad idea moving in here. You don’t need to keep a constant watch on me. I’m not going to do anything outrageous with your precious decor!’
‘You look enchanting.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Enchanting and utterly, utterly irresistible.’ He smiled very slowly and watched as the storm in her eyes gave way to pink-cheeked silence. ‘Would you be horribly offended if I told you that I had to come in there and take you somewhere private so that I could thoroughly seduce you?’
‘I would tell you that completing this job would take for ever if you didn’t learn to control your...’
‘My...?’ Gabriel prompted silkily.
‘Your carnal urges.’ Just saying it, though, made her feel like jelly inside. And the beast knew it! ‘Where are we going anyway? I really feel as though I ought to be supervising these men just to make sure that nothing goes horribly wrong.’
‘They are stripping walls, pulling up carpets and doing the odd bit of plastering,’ Gabriel said wryly, slipping his arm around her waist and leading her outside to the car. ‘There is a limit as to how confused they can get by those very simple tasks.’ Before he unlocked the car, he swung her around to lace him. He couldn’t help himself. It felt like years since he had touched her, even though it was only a matter of a few hours.
‘Have you ever been ravished in a car?’ he murmured, threading his lingers through her hair and tilting her face up to his.
‘You still haven’t told me where we’re going,’ Laura said unsteadily. A few well-chosen words and she was putty in his hands! It was pathetic. Or maybe it was just love and love had no qualms about turning a sane human being into an unthinking idiot.
‘So I haven’t.’ He released her, unlocked the car and then opened the door for her, leaning down once she had tucked her long legs inside. ‘But you’ll be pleased to hear that I have not stolen you away simply to satisfy my needs.’ Yes, he thought sourly, he could turn her on all right, just as he always had been able to years ago.
Her velvety brown eyes looked at him in bewilderment. ‘You mean we’re actually going somewhere?’
‘Call it a drive to have a look at some interior design. And there will be no need for us to rush, because whilst you were changing I told Pete Clarke to make sure that the house is locked and everyone out when he leaves this evening. I thought it better, really, because it is a bit of a drive and who knows, cara, we might want to stop en route?’#p#分页标题#e#