The Man She Can't Forget

Just what the hell he was going to do about it he didn’t rightly know. But to seriously consider bedding the shapely brunette and risk sullying his once good relationship with her and her family almost didn’t bear thinking about.

‘I want you to take off that shirt when we get home,’ Lara instructed as she airily swept past him with Barney.

‘What?’

Coming to a sudden halt, she turned to flourish at him a cheeky grin that would’ve shamed a mischievous schoolgirl.

‘Don’t worry—it’s not because I have designs on your body or anything. You’re quite safe. I was just going to put it in the washing machine. You can borrow one of my dad’s shirts in the meantime. He’s about the same build and height as you, although of course not quite as—not quite as...’

As her big brown eyes swept over him, and she clearly struggled to finish the sentence, Gabriel once again couldn’t resist being provocative.

‘Fit?’ he suggested, smiling.

‘You know that saying? It should be “Vanity, thy name is Man—not Woman”.’

Crossing his arms over his shirtfront, Gabriel mockingly raised an eyebrow. ‘That quote is from Hamlet, and it’s, “Frailty, thy name is woman”—not vanity. Just thought you’d like to know that for future reference.’

His pretty companion tossed her head and spun away, striding through the undergrowth again with Barney yapping happily beside her—but not before Gabriel saw her look daggers at him, as if she’d like to abandon him in the middle of those dank, dark woods and leave him there.

* * *

Lara honestly didn’t know where she was finding the courage to deal with the disturbingly charismatic presence that was Gabriel. And neither had she fully dealt with the shock of him turning up out of the blue like that at her parents’ door.

As time had gone on, her day had grown more challenging. When they’d been chatting in the living room earlier and Gabriel had drawn her up from her chair to ask about Sean she’d really believed she might faint from the sheer dizzying pleasure of the contact—not to mention the mesmerisingly intense glance he’d given her. His brilliant blue eyes had stared back into hers as though wanting to see into her very soul...as though even that wouldn’t be enough for him to find what he was searching for.

She’d seen so many things in that seemingly endless glance to take her breath away, but rage and hunger—for what, she didn’t know—had been predominant.

The second time he’d touched her, catching hold of her hand in the woods and smiling down at her, as though her company genuinely gave him pleasure, the sizzling jolt of electricity Lara had experienced when he put his hand round hers had left her feeling dizzy and confused. Such an extreme reaction to a simple friendly touch didn’t bode well for her peace of mind when the time came for her to say goodbye to Gabriel again. And this time she didn’t doubt his departure would be for good.

He would go back to his high-octane life on Wall Street and she would return to her much more simple and ordinary routine as a college librarian. Except that would be no consolation for watching her brother’s one-time charismatic best friend walk out of her life for a second time....

On their return from the woods they stood in the porch at the back of the house as Lara schooled Barney to wait while she and Gabriel removed their muddy footwear. Seeing that her companion’s black loafers were liberally weighed down and caked in once-oozing but now dried sludge, she let out a groan.

‘Oh, why, oh, why did they have to be suede?’ she asked, sincerely regretful that because of her Gabriel had ruined what was an undoubtedly expensive pair of shoes.

She could just imagine Sean shaking his head and saying, Not one of your best ideas, sis—taking Gabe on a woodland walk when he was wearing classy Italian loafers. What on earth were you thinking?

It took her aback to remember that he’d always referred to his friend as Gabe, not Gabriel. Lara had never been bold enough to do the same. Aside from that, Sean would have been right to wonder what she was thinking about. The trouble was her wonderful brother hadn’t realised that Lara never had been able to think clearly round Gabriel.

‘I should have lent you my dad’s walking boots,’ she reflected ruefully.

‘What size is he?’

‘He’s a nine.’

Grimacing as he stood up in the generous-sized utility room that his impressive physique had made appear suddenly small, Gabriel emitted a playful sigh. ‘Wouldn’t have been any good, I’m afraid. I’m a size twelve.’

Having removed her own boots, Lara rose to join him. ‘In any case, I think your lovely shoes are completely ruined. Were they very expensive?’ She flushed as she privately wondered how she could possibly find the money to replace them if they’d been even half as expensive as she guessed they had. God knew a college librarian didn’t earn a fortune....

‘If I told you, you’d probably read me the riot act for being so vain and wasteful. Forget about it. The damn shoes don’t matter. Anyway, I’ve got a spare pair in the car.’

‘You’ve got a spare pair in the car? Why didn’t you tell me?’

His arresting gaze made him look to be carefully considering the question. ‘I didn’t think about it. Besides, it’s no big deal. Now, if you’ll go and get me that shirt you promised, I’ll get out of this one and give it to you to put in the washing machine.’

He was already starting to unbutton the stained shirt as he spoke, and Lara suddenly panicked at the thought of seeing him standing there bare-chested.

‘Okay...won’t be a tick,’ she murmured, hurriedly turning towards the door that led out into the hall.

Her senses were already bombarded by Gabriel’s presence alone—how was she supposed to handle being presented with the arresting beauty of his naked male chest and act as though she were unaffected?

CHAPTER THREE

FOR A MAN WHO LIKED to be in command of situations, Gabriel found himself to be uncharacteristically all at sea in his old friend’s home with Lara. Being in that house again, and recalling some of the happiest memories he had ever known, made him yearn to replicate the feelings they evoked—the predominant one being a sense of belonging.

He hadn’t experienced that reassuring sense of being welcomed, being regarded without judgement or conditions being attached, since he’d left the UK all those years ago. God knew, the pressurised career he’d chosen wasn’t likely to engender anything close to that feeling amongst the single-minded and driven individuals he worked with. The phrase about them probably selling their own grandmothers if it made a profit often sprang to Gabriel’s mind.

From time to time it alarmed him to realise he was becoming equally mercenary, and he wasn’t proud of the fact. But in truth, like all addictions, it was hellishly hard to give up—and making money was definitely his drug of choice. Yet it was strange that he wasn’t exactly overjoyed at being bequeathed his uncle’s substantial residence, plus all his possessions and a generous monetary legacy.

All attending the man’s funeral had done for Gabriel was to remind him of the sense of abandonment and excoriating pain he’d lived with since he was a child and his mother had left, leaving him with a man who—although related to him by blood—had been as distant as the Milky Way and even less accessible.

And now, as well as the unwanted complication of having to deal with his uncle’s legacy, there was the totally unexpected dilemma of Lara. Just knowing that she was in the homely kitchen right now, preparing their lunch, shouldn’t give him the inordinate amount of pleasure that it did, but along with an undeniable sense of contentment that was how it made him feel. That in itself was unusual, because he hadn’t met a woman yet he trusted enough to relax with—except perhaps Peggy Bradley, Lara’s mother.

Occupying Lara’s father’s comfortable wing-backed chair in the living room, Gabriel knew his eyelids were drifting closed, but made no attempt to check their descent. Outside, the beneficent sun was shining and its soporific rays beamed in on him through the opened patio doors and inevitably made him feel sleepy.

On the scented summer air a distant melody floated by, teasing at the memory of a small gathering Sean had once spontaneously thrown at the house.... Lara in a long magenta-and-green dress, dancing for all she was worth, throwing her arms wide as if to embrace all that the world had to offer and drawing his eye more than once because she looked so pretty and so free....

‘Gabriel? Sorry to wake you, but lunch is ready. I thought we’d sit out in the garden and eat?’

Hearing the velvet-toned voice of the woman he’d been thinking about, and unsure whether he was still in the throes of his dream or not, Gabriel opened his eyes. His startled gaze was straight away captured by the heart-shaped face that had once been so familiar to him.

Now the innocent young girl that he remembered from his youth had turned into a woman who made him catch his breath and made his blood turn molten simply by looking at her. Devoid of any artifice or make-up, her skin was as fresh and clear as the petals of the creamiest rose, and her lips... Her lush lips were the shape and kind that would draw any man’s attention and make him long to know what they would feel like beneath his own if he were lucky enough to kiss them.

Straightening in the chair, he murmured, ‘I was dreaming about you....’ Playing for time in order to marshal his thoughts, he let a helpless smile tug at the edges of his mouth. ‘Yes, I was dreaming about you at a party Sean had once. You were just sixteen and you were dancing like some ethereal wild child to a Jimi Hendrix track. You looked so free and pretty. I remember thinking you would have fitted right into the era of peace and love in the sixties.’

Lara’s dark brows furrowed as though the reference displeased her. Clearly that particular recollection from the past didn’t fill her with the same wistful pleasure as it did Gabriel.

‘Sixteen was a horrible age for me. I was always so self-conscious and shy, and I sometimes said stupid things I didn’t mean and came to regret. I said something very stupid that night at the party.’

‘Did you? Well, you should put it behind you and forget about it. For goodness’ sake that was years ago, sweetheart, and if my recollections are right I seem to remember that there was plenty of alcohol doing the rounds that night—no doubt that was partly to blame. Besides, we can all say stupid things sometimes. If you can’t be stupid when you’re sixteen, then when can you? Anyway, I was actually quite envious of you that night.’

‘Were you? Why?’

‘Because you looked so carefree. To me you represented a freedom that I longed for—the kind of freedom that no amount of money could buy me.’

Now it was his turn to feel self-conscious and awkward. Gabriel had never revealed anything quite so personal about how he felt to anyone before. Like many young men, the programming that he’d absorbed from an early age had taught him that expressing emotion was akin to revealing a weakness, and right then he kicked it strongly into touch.

Pushing out of his chair, he moved across the room to glance out at the sunlit garden again. Immediately he noticed that the wrought iron picnic table with its matching green umbrella was laid for lunch. It was just the diversion he needed. Too much introspection was liable to make him irritable. He was already regretting being quite so frank with Lara.