She was peering through the side window when Gabriel’s car drew up and her heart clenched as he stepped out of the driver’s seat and glanced once around him. He had come straight from work. He was still in his suit, although the tie had been removed and the top two buttons of his white shirt were undone. She imagined him restlessly tugging it off as he drove up to the house.
Her courage of earlier on was disappearing at a rate of knots, and by the time she went to the door, where the doorbell was imperiously issuing its summons, it had completely vanished. She literally had no idea what to say as she pulled open the door and was confronted by the harsh, cold expression of two dangerously dark eyes staring at her.#p#分页标题#e#
‘Gabriel. Hi.’
‘You said that you wanted to talk, so here I am. It has been a long trip up through traffic and it will take at least an hour and a half to get back home, so shall we get this talk over and done with as soon as possible?’
Making it clear what his intentions were, Laura thought with plummeting self-confidence. He had come but he was not going to stay the night, whatever she had to say...
CHAPTER TEN
The kitchen was one of the few rooms as yet untouched by the workforce and Gabriel followed Laura into it, keeping a telling distance and focusing on the bitter pill that he had been forced to swallow and that still stuck in his throat like a bone. What did she want to talk to him about? If she thought that she could wriggle back into his bed and his life, then she was way off target. God, how had he managed to get himself into this hole? The answer, he thought savagely, was quite simple: he had found a spade, dug it and jumped in whilst telling himself that he was totally in control.
His faraway plan to avenge himself for the insult delivered to him seven years previously could not have gone more disastrously wrong. Instead of using her ruthlessly so that he could eventually discard her in his own sweet time, he had caved in once again and the only means he had of extricating himself from the mess was to walk away from it as quickly as his long legs could carry him.
Even looking at her now, the way her body moved like a gazelle in front of him, mesmerised him. His overriding urge was to close the distance between them, swing her around and make her his.
‘Have you eaten?’
She was looking at him, all wide brown eyes and appealing hesitation.
‘I am fine. Why don’t we just have a cup of coffee and you can tell me what was so important that you felt you had to drag me out here?’
God, but he wasn’t making this easy. Laura gritted her teeth together and thought of the little life growing steadily inside her. The thought of tossing that little fact his way made her want to faint.
‘Sure, but, if you don’t mind, I’ll just fix myself something to eat as well.’ She knew that he wasn’t even looking at her as she busied herself by the counter, making them both a cup of coffee and rustling together the vegetables she had previously chopped and prepared.
The opening remarks she made, about nothing in particular, were met with monosyllabic answers and a tone of disinterest.
This was the behaviour of a man who cared?
Eventually, she turned around, her plate in her hand, and sat facing him at the table.
‘So,’ Gabriel remarked, finally affording her his attention, ‘why don’t you just say what you have to say and get it over with, Laura? Instead of the both of us playing this game of polite strangers.’
‘Because we’re not, are we, Gabriel?’
The directness of her reply took him aback and he narrowed his eyes at her upturned face as she continued to look at him levelly across the table.
‘We’re lovers.’
‘Were lovers. You need to get the tense right.’
‘What changed, Gabriel? One minute we were on the brink of making love and the next minute you had turned into a raging bull and what we had was gone in a puff of smoke. Was it so meaningless to you?’
A dark flush spread over his high cheekbones, if this is going to be a post mortem on a failed relationship, then you are wasting your time.’
‘Why? Because you think that I should meekly walk away and accept that I meant nothing to you?’
‘I dislike women who cannot face the end of a relationship.’ Gabriel shrugged with exaggerated indifference. ‘All good things come to an end.’ He had won, he thought. He had her in the palm of his hand. That had been his intention. So why was he feeling so damned hollow? Because he had fallen in love with her. Again. Her body was never going to be good enough and he knew that if he allowed her back in, she would wreak further devastation on his heart. But, God, he didn’t want to leave this house, this kitchen, her.#p#分页标题#e#