Chapter Four #3
So yes, she was sunshine and light but…wasn’t she a lot more than that, too?
‘You’re smart,’ he said a little uncomfortably, ‘and funny, Jen. You know that. I’m pretty sure I’ve told you that in the past.’
‘You look as though you’re having to walk on a bed of nails to say that.’ But she smiled and then chuckled. ‘I don’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable, Gabriel.’
‘Why would that make me feel uncomfortable?’
‘Because you’re not a guy who does a lot of talking about feelings.’
‘How do you know that?’ Gabriel asked, amused and curious. ‘You have no idea what conversations I have between the sheets with the women I make love to. I might be big into talking about feelings in bed.’
A slow burn started in Jennifer’s body, rising in a hot tide through her veins until her head was throbbing and her mind was filled with all sorts of forbidden images.
Her throat went dry. For a few seconds, every coherent thought was submerged in a series of graphic images.
The reality was that he represented just the sort of guy who should never stir sexual interest. The uncomfortable truth was that right now, the fierce response of her body was saying otherwise.
‘You’re right.’ She looked away, but she knew that she was as red as a beetroot. ‘I don’t know.’ Just for good measure, she added, ‘Nor am I all that interested.’
‘Now whose turn is it to be uncomfortable?’ he teased softly.
‘This isn’t what we’re supposed to be doing,’ she protested.
Her heart was beating fast, and there was a weird sensation of struggling through quicksand as the parameters of their cosy relationship shifted, taking her into different territory.
‘We’re not supposed to be making one another feel uncomfortable.
We’re supposed to be going over the basics of what we say to your mother so that our stories are in sync. Maybe we should stick to that?’
‘Of course.’
‘While your mother’s sleeping and before we land.’
‘Good idea.’
But he was looking at her with lazy amusement. The more his dark eyes lingered, the more hot and bothered she felt.
‘So just tell me what you said to her.’
‘I didn’t go into a lot of details,’ Gabriel admitted, straightening. ‘I just said that you and I, after all these years, had discovered a romantic connection.’
‘Discovered a romantic connection? How? Where? Under a rock? Behind a tree? Surely you were a little more forthcoming than that?’
‘I thought it best to keep the details to the minimum.’
‘You’re probably right, although I’m shocked she bought into that. And what was her reaction to our sudden awakening to love?’
‘Remarkably little surprise and a whole lot of joy and rapture.’
‘And what else? When did this miraculous realisation happen between us?’
‘Again, I thought it best to keep that vague, especially considering that the last time I saw you, you were on a hot date.’ He grinned. ‘Any word from the rejected caveman?’
‘I’m going to ignore that because you know the answer. I guess you and I could say we met up a couple of weeks ago, and one thing led to another.’
‘Could work,’ Gabriel mused thoughtfully. ‘A deep and longstanding friendship…suddenly, over a bottle of wine, a dawning realisation…and then the rest, as they say, will be history. Until it’s not. Where do you suggest the big reveal happened?’
‘In London somewhere?’
‘Shocking from the woman who rarely strays into the big bad city.’
‘I don’t think that’s the right attitude for a besotted man to show his partner, do you?’
‘Ah, I’m besotted. Fair enough.’
‘And stop looking so amused,’ Jennifer hissed. ‘This is serious. I hate doing it, but if we’re to go through with it, then we have to be committed about it!’
‘You’re right. Of course. Yes. We met in London. You came up for the day to go with me to a social function. I needed a plus-one, but more than that, we’d been meeting up off and on over the past few months. Suddenly I realised that I wanted to get to know you as more than just a friend.’
‘Okay.’
‘It’s very fortunate that I haven’t been in a relationship for the past few months,’ he reflected.
‘Very fortunate and also quite surprising,’ Jennifer couldn’t help teasing. ‘Why the sudden bout of celibacy?’
Gabriel winced. ‘Maybe I was already getting a little tired of my dating scene.’
‘You mean there’s such a thing as too many cute blondes hanging on to you for dear life?’
‘Some men are only satisfied with cute blondes until they meet the right woman,’ Gabriel murmured. ‘Look at us! Who’d have thought?’
‘Who indeed. And you mentioned to your mother, you said, about not telling anyone…’
Jennifer was so absorbed in their conversation that she was barely aware of the pilot warning them they would be landing shortly and they were to buckle up.
He cracked a joke about the announcement not being necessary considering there were only three of them on board and one was sound asleep while the other two hadn’t left their seats.
‘I laid it on thick,’ Gabriel assured her. ‘I told her that as this was just a fledgling relationship, it was important that we didn’t go public with anything just yet. The fewer people who know about this, the better, and that’s a direct quote.’
‘I’m really pleased about that. I can’t imagine what my mother would do if she thought that the two of us were an item.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She’d be shocked.’
‘Why? Tell me her opinion of me isn’t that low, especially compared to the sort of…’
‘Don’t say it, Gabriel! I do not date losers!
’ She glared at him, and he smiled placidly back in return.
Jennifer added honestly, ‘It’s just that I think she’s always seen you as the boy living in the Big House.
I know our mothers go back a long way, and so do we, but you have to admit we come from very, very different backgrounds. ’
‘What does that have to do with anything?’
He sounded so genuinely shocked that Jennifer relaxed and smiled. The inner turmoil of only a few minutes ago dissipated. She re-adjusted to the comfortable space they normally occupied. It felt so much safer.
‘This is the first time I’ve ever flown in this private plane before…
’ She looked around her then back to him.
‘Course, I’ve known that you’ve owned one.
I’ve known that you use it when you need to get somewhere fast—just like I know you have a superyacht and that you probably impress women with when you take them on it.
But this is your world, and I’m a bystander looking on now and again. ’
‘I don’t have to produce a superyacht from under my sleeve to impress women.
Anyway, I’m still not following you. What does money have to do with anything?
At any rate, it’s not as though I haven’t asked you to go on my plane in the past. It would have been a far more convenient way of transporting the three of you the last time you were in London to see that ballet production. ’
‘The Nutcracker. That was amazing.’
‘So I’m a guy who’s out-of-bounds? Because I have some money? There’s a word for that, isn’t there? Oh yes, I know. Inverted snobbery. I correct myself. Two words.’
Jennifer looked at him reprovingly. The plane was beginning to descend. When she glanced past Gabriel out of the window, she could still see sky and, rising up below, the solid shape of land-mass, still distant but growing closer.
‘It’s not about snobbery. It’s just…the way it is.
I’m an ordinary person, living an ordinary life, in search of an ordinary partner.
My mum’s always known that, so all I’m saying is that she would be astonished if suddenly, out of the blue, you and I were to announce that we’re romantically involved with one another. ’
‘My mother barely batted an eyelid.’
‘It’s about expectations, I guess.’ Jennifer shrugged. ‘Maybe your mother has seen you in and out of so many unsuitable relationships that she’s just relieved to think you’ve found someone she likes for you as a partner. She knows me. She likes me. The expectations aren’t the same.’
‘And have you never wanted to blow the lid off expectations, Jen? To aim for more than just what you’ve always assumed was waiting in the future for you?’
‘No,’ she said flatly. ‘Besides, who says that aiming for more than what I’ve always assumed is waiting out there for me means aiming for a guy with lots of money?’
‘Touché.’
For just a second, a fleeting second, there was the fizz of electricity in their locked gazes, in the silence that was suddenly heavy with tension. Gabriel was the first to break the connection.
‘We’re landing,’ he said, looking away. ‘Don’t worry, Jen.
It’ll be over in the blink of an eye, and things can return to what we both know.
’ His dark eyes softened as he rested them once again on her.
‘This is just a part we’re both playing.
Before you know it, acts one and two will be done and dusted.
The final act will be here, and it’ll be the easiest to play… ’