Chapter Five #4
‘Well, you’re staring at me as though I’ve done something wrong. I know we’ve been forced into sharing this cottage, but you’d better tell me if there are certain rules that I need to obey, such as not tiptoeing out to get some water from the fridge!’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Gabriel raked his fingers through his hair and scowled. ‘You can do whatever you want. Do you really think I care whether you get yourself some water or not? I heard a noise, and I came out to see what was going on in case it was an intruder.’
‘Why would an intruder intrude here? And sorry if I snapped,’ she mumbled. ‘You startled me, that’s all.’
‘Apology accepted. I’m going to get back to bed.’
‘Okay, and I’m going to…to…finish drinking my water. Good night! Or morning. Whatever.’
She turned her back to him, which didn’t make her feel any less exposed. Now her bum was on show, and the shorts she was wearing were very brief indeed.
Gabriel remained rooted to the spot because the sight on offer now was too tempting.
Her full, rounded bottom, barely covered by the skimpy shorts, was frankly spectacular.
He imagined cupping those succulent cheeks in his hands and had to stifle a groan.
Instead, he spun round, fiercely angry with himself for his lack of self-control, and made sure she heard the door shut firmly behind him.
Jennifer heard the click of his bedroom door and finally managed to breathe properly. She slowly turned around. Yes, thankfully, the small living area was empty.
What had just happened here?
She knew. He’d stood there in all his glorious, hunky, masculine beauty, and she’d fancied him.
She tiptoed back to her bedroom, head buzzing with thoughts that refused to be reasoned away.
She’d crossed a line. He’d innocently come out to check the place because he’d heard something, and he’d caught her in the kitchen. And instead of laughing and teasing him, which was how any friend would have responded, she’d gone into some kind of ridiculous panic attack.
Her eyes had swept over him, taking in the bare chest, the long legs, the low-slung towel around his narrow waist. Although she’d looked away immediately and done her utmost to keep her disobedient eyes on his face after that, the memory of what she’d seen had been imprinted in her mind with the force of a branding iron.
Disgusted with herself, she lay down on the bed and stared angrily at the ceiling.
The whole crazy situation was getting to her in ways she hadn’t anticipated, but she was here now, and she was going to have to deal with it. Fancying Gabriel? A joke. She’d obviously just responded to the sight of a half-naked sexy guy three metres away from her.
Her last date had been the biker! And before that, an accountant who had nearly made her fall asleep.
And before that? A lecturer she’d met at a teacher’s convention in Leeds who had asked her out and then practised his profession on her by lecturing to her about his passion, which happened to be cycling.
So Gabriel? The guy who was too hot for his own good?
No surprise that she had had a passing moment of feeling out of her depth.
But she couldn’t let a passing moment muddy the water. Gabriel, as a friend, was great. Gabriel in any other capacity was not only taboo but also just the sort of man she could never be interested in.
She wanted, more than anything else, a committed, serious relationship.
She knew that the men she chose had not lived up to expectation in the past, but that didn’t mean that she went out with them without hope in her heart.
Hope that this would be the one. Hope that all the love she knew she had to give would find a worthy recipient.
If she was disappointed time and again, then that was the nature of dating, and she never lost faith that the day would come when she would find The One.
Her parents had had that. She had seen what love was all about. That was what she wanted for herself.
Gabriel had no time for any of that. For him, no such thing existed.
They couldn’t have been at more opposite ends of the spectrum.
So tomorrow? She would have to listen to common sense and put that momentary distraction behind her. She would have to be the friend he had always known.
She finally fell asleep. When she woke, it was to find that the cottage was empty and it was late. After ten.
She dressed quickly. Mindful of what he had last seen her in, she hesitated and then shoved on a shapeless summer dress that fell to her calves and did a decent job at concealing all her curves.
She hurried over to the main house to find Luisa and Francesca in the kitchen, where they were finishing breakfast and the staff that Gabriel had hired were cleaning and tidying and making themselves useful.
There were also nice smells in the kitchen, so she thought that perhaps some early-hours cooking and baking had been done.
Gabriel was nowhere to be seen because he’d vanished wherever with Roberto.
A new day was beginning, and it was time to get her thoughts in order and see this thing through without any more panic attacks…