Chapter Four #2
‘I’m not tense at all. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t be more relaxed…
’ but the sensation of his arm over her shoulder lingered all the way to the airfield where Gabriel kept his private jet.
She knew that it was usually housed closer to London, where he lived, but he’d flown it up a few weeks ago when he’d visited his mother and left it there.
She’d never been on his private plane. Like a lot in Gabriel’s life, she now thought, it was just another show of wealth she knew about but had never actually experienced first hand.
Private jet…super yacht which she knew was moored somewhere or other and used now and again…vast mansion in Chelsea, naturally…houses in various countries…cars galore, garaged on every continent…
She knew about all his possessions and had often teased him about them over the years, telling him that he was such a spoiled child if he needed a million and one expensive toys, but she had never been anywhere near any of those expensive toys.
She’d been to his Chelsea house a couple of times when she’d gone with his mother and hers.
He’d got them all tickets to see The Nutcracker, and they’d been spoiled rotten while they’d been there on their overnight stays.
Then she’d returned to her little house in Sussex, and that vast Chelsea mansion had quickly been forgotten.
She hadn’t much liked it anyway. Too big, too polished, too white, too minimalist.
Now, as the car approached the airfield, as she saw the black-and-gold jet poised on the tarmac runway, she was forcibly struck by just who Gabriel Garcia was, beyond being the friend she’d known for years.
He was a tycoon, equally feared and respected.
He was a billionaire who could change people’s lives with a tap of his finger.
This toy, which she had teased him about, was a symbol of his status, his power and his reach.
She shivered when she thought about that, thought about that side of him she had never really glimpsed.
No wonder those little blonde, fluffy things clung to him like limpets, adoring and willing to do whatever he wanted. Money impressed. Private jets impressed.
She refused to be impressed. She’d never been impressed before, and she wasn’t about to start now, although it was still disconcerting on some deep, barely there level to see up close the tangible evidence of just how wealthy and powerful he was.
Francesca had been absently chatting about the vagaries of the English weather, and Jennifer had been responding while her mind had leapfrogged over this, that and the other.
Now, as the Range Rover slowed to a stop and as they hurried towards the waiting plane, she could tell that the older woman was beginning to flag.
A combination of overexcitement and a body still in recovery mode.
But wow, she looked tremendous compared to how she had looked a few weeks before. A few months and years before.
She was naturally a tall, elegant woman. Ill health had made her gaunt. Allowing her blond hair to go grey had aged her, but it was pulled back now, highlighting her high cheekbones. There was colour in her cheeks.
In an outfit of cream silk trousers and shirt, she looked fabulous.
‘I can tell you’re exhausted,’ Jennifer said with consternation as soon as they were on the plane. ‘Is this all too much?’
‘Exhausted, but I couldn’t be happier, my dear…’
Jennifer smiled and tried to think how she could take the happiness down a notch or two so that the older woman didn’t get completely stuck in la-la land.
She didn’t want to hurt the woman she dearly loved, but an injection of reality now and again wouldn’t be a bad thing. Would it?
‘Good, good,’ she murmured as Francesca settled into the leather seat. ‘Maybe you should…have a sleep. It’s going to be a long day ahead, meeting new people and being out of the country.’
‘Perhaps,’ Francesca smiled, ‘but you two will be there, and that’s what will keep my spirits up.’
‘Oh, you should never rely on other people to keep your spirits up!’ Jennifer said brightly. ‘In the end, you only have yourself to rely on. That’s the philosophy I try to live by.’
Francesca’s eyes were closing. Jennifer stood up and glanced around her for the first time since she’d stepped into the jet.
It was all fine leather, polished wood and brushed metal. The seats were large with footrests, and there was a clutch of sofas to the side. It was a compact space, big enough for maybe a dozen people, and bore no resemblance to the inside of any plane Jennifer had ever been on in her life.
Still absorbed in looking around her, she felt Gabriel’s hand on her shoulder and then heard him murmur into her ear with amusement.
‘Not meaning to rush your inspection of the surroundings, but the pilot’s waiting to take off…’
Jennifer spun round, reddening. Gabriel was grinning. He gestured to two seats behind where his mother was beginning to nod off.
‘Let’s go sit there. Want anything to drink?’
Jennifer blinked and saw a blonde girl smiling at them.
‘You have a flight attendant on board?’
‘How else will I get my flute of champagne?’
‘So true,’ she said dryly, moving towards the seat and then settling into it before turning to face him. ‘I think having to pour your own drink for yourself is beyond the pale. I can’t believe you own this, Gabriel.’
‘You know I own a private plane. You’ve enjoyed many a conversation telling me that I’m ruining the planet while I’ve tried to convince you that sometimes speed is of the essence.’
‘Yes, but I never really took that on board. It was just something else you owned. It’s amazing.’
‘Does that mean you finally find me impressive?’
I’ve always found you impressive was the confusing thought that raced through Jennifer’s mind, as fleeting as quicksilver, gone before it could take hold and demand further inspection.
‘Absolutely not.’
‘Shame. Well, you’ll have to pretend over the next few days. I have a feeling being impressed with the person you’re supposed to be in love with, at least when you’re in the honeymoon stage, is obligatory. I heard the pep talk, by the way.’
‘What pep talk?’
The engines had begun to rev, and the plane began its slow move towards take-off. Outside, dark, leaden skies had replaced the rain. Leaning into one another as they talked felt strangely cosy.
Which it was, in a way, Jennifer thought. It was the cosiness of two people plotting and deceiving.
‘The one you gave my mother about not relying on other people to make her happy.’
‘I was only being truthful. Besides, it’s never too early to start laying the groundwork. Now that we’re here, I’m beginning to feel seriously guilty about the whole thing. The sooner we end it, the better.’
‘We have a deal.’ Gabriel’s voice was lazy but laced with steel. ‘The eventual, inevitable break-up will require a prelude. Think of it as a play in three acts, with a beginning, a middle and an end.’
Jennifer’s eyes widened. She again glimpsed that tycoon, the guy who ruled an empire and went through life getting exactly what he wanted.
The guy with the iron fist inside the velvet glove.
‘Okay,’ she conceded. ‘I guess that’s what you’re paying me for.
’ It was the sort of thing she would never have said, least of all to Gabriel.
She went bright red and mumbled a vague apology.
His dark eyes, lasered on her, made her feel a little disoriented.
‘That sounded a lot worse than I intended,’ she finally admitted with a weak smile.
‘I can’t believe I was so mean and sarcastic. ’
‘You can’t be sunshine and light all of the time.’
‘Is that what you think of me? That I’m always sunshine and light? Little Miss Cheerful?’
‘Don’t look so offended.’ He smiled and relaxed back into the deep leather seat, half closing his eyes. ‘Last I heard, being cheerful wasn’t a crime against humanity.’
Jennifer shot him a glassy smile, but he wasn’t looking at her.
Crime against humanity? No, it wasn’t, and he hadn’t meant to be offensive.
He really did see her as sunshine and light, and yet…
wasn’t that a one-dimensional picture of her?
Did he think of her as a person who had no sides to her?
No hidden places? No deep mysteries? No doubts or fears or unmet longings and desires? No regrets?
Why did she somehow think that in this instance, cheerful was on a par with boring?
‘Do you want to tell me exactly what you said to your mother about us? She must have quizzed you about how this whole ridiculous so-called love affair was supposed to have happened, and why it’s now vital that we keep it under wraps.
’ Did he find her dull? They laughed a lot together, but was that, somehow, the sign of the eternally upbeat bore?
‘I guess we need to get our stories straight so that we don’t end up contradicting one another.
And by the way, I’m not sunshine and light all of the time! ’
Silence pooled between them.
‘Where did that come from?’
Jennifer inwardly winced at whatever impulse had driven her to say what she’d just said. He’d straightened, opened his eyes and was staring at her with his head tilted to the side and a questioning look.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ she muttered with a hint of defensiveness.
‘Well, tut-tut, it does, in fact.’
‘Why?’
‘Because if we’re supposed to be involved with one another on a romantic level, then surely I would need to know more about you than is currently on offer. So that our charade is all the more believable.’
It hadn’t occurred to Gabriel that Jen might be offended by what he’d said. He enjoyed that she was straightforward. He liked the fact that she occupied the unique position in his life of being the only woman on the planet who never tried to impress him.
He liked that she was never moody, that she never took out her frustrations on him. Over the years, he’d rarely cancelled any dates he made with her, but when he had, she’d shrugged it off as no big deal.