The Millionaire's Revenge(55)

‘And you two ...have become close, have you?’

Laura felt a brief flare of anger at the intrusiveness of the question, but it was immediately quenched by the gen­tle look in the other woman’s eyes.

‘I don’t mean to be nosy,’ Anna apologised. ‘But Gabriel did explain a bit of the relationship between the two of you... that you used to know each other a long time ago...’

‘I was still a teenager at the time. Gabriel came to the stables occasionally.’

‘My cousin is a very passionate man, Laura...’ Anna looked a little embarrassed at this observation but she drew in a deep breath and continued anyway. ‘Under any other circumstances, I would leave him to get on with his life, but I like you and I disapprove of his tactics.’

‘His tactics?’ So here it was. The starter course was finished and they were on to the main meal and Laura knew exactly where it was heading.

‘He rescued you from your situation so that he could avenge himself of what he saw as an insult delivered many years ago...’ She paused and looked at Laura with blazing honesty. ‘He can be a very persuasive man, full of charm. Too much charm, really, and I am only cautioning you against falling in love with him because he will hurt you.’

Too late for that little warning, Laura thought restlessly to herself, not that it would have helped anyway. She had never fallen out of love with him.

‘I know you think that I am being intrusive, poking my nose in matters that do not concern me, but...’ she sought around for a tactful way to say what she wanted to say
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‘...you strike me as a gentle, maybe emotionally vulner­able girl, even after all you have been through...’

Laura counteracted this accurate observation by gulping down some coffee and then staring fixedly at the pattern on her mug before reluctantly raising her eyes to meet Anna’s.

‘I can take care of myself.’

‘Even when it comes to Gabriel?’ She sighed, I gather that he is getting you out of his system and, in so doing, it would be easy for you to absorb him into yours and he will ...he will never marry you.’

There. The finality of her words hung in the air between them and Laura drew her shoulders up.

‘I’m not a fool. I know that. So it’s just as well that I haven’t made the mistake of falling in love with him, isn’t it?’

‘Isn’t it just.’ Gabriel’s voice from the kitchen doorway exploded like a bomb in the kitchen and he walked towards them, his angled face devoid of expression. His hands were thrust into his trouser pockets and he didn’t even dare look at Laura because to look at her would have been to be consumed with rage.

Had he expected anything else from her? He had wooed and seduced a woman who felt nothing for him but lust and all his plans for revenge lay in ruins around his feet because, fool that he was, he had actually committed the same cardinal sin he had committed years before. He had misread her signals and allowed himself to be lulled into loving her all over again.

He didn’t know who filled him with more rage. Her or himself.

‘Because Anna is absolutely right.’ He stopped directly in front of Laura and steeled himself to meet her brown, dismayed eyes, I will never marry you.’ Then he turned to his cousin with a hard expression. ‘And you were totally out of order in coming here so that you could interfere in matters that do not concern you. Running around behind my back and stirring up trouble is not part of your job specification.’

‘I could not live with my conscience if I had said noth­ing, Gabriel.’

‘Which is hardly my problem. Now I think it is time you left.’

‘I need to talk to you about a couple of our clients.’

‘Not now.’

Anna stood up and glared accusingly at her cousin. In all fairness, Laura thought, she did not appear in the least intimidated.

‘I’ll leave,’ Laura suggested, clearing her throat and standing up. She had slept with this man, loving him and knowing that he did not return her love, knowing that he was playing with her, but she had managed to justify her responses to herself because neither of them had crossed the dangerous barrier of discussing their emotions and what they felt or didn’t feel. Now, though, with everything spilled out into the open, turning a blind eye to reality was no longer an option.

‘Leave and go where?’ Gabriel asked coldly and she flinched at the expression in his eyes.

‘Back to Oakridge.’

‘And how do you imagine you will get there?’ he asked icily. ‘Sprout wings and fly?’ He knew that she was des­perate to retreat and that whatever they’d had between them was well and truly over. He could read it in her brown eyes, which could barely meet his without sliding away. So it’s over, he thought. Well, it was inevitable. But he felt as if a light was being turned off inside him. Light or not, though, he would not ask her back into his bed.