The Italian Boss's Secretary Mistress

‘No,’ Rose informed him wearily. ‘I’m not planning on moving out to Australia and I know you value what I do here.’

‘Then why?’ He gave one brief scathing glance at the offensive letter lying on his desk. ‘One polite paragraph is all I deserve after being an exemplary and generous boss to you over four years?’

‘I didn’t think you would like flowery speeches. And there was nothing more to say, anyway. I really am leaving because I think there are still things out there left to do and I can’t do them while I’m working here, even though, yes, you’ve been a very generous boss.’

‘Things left to do?’ Gabriel frowned.

‘I…yes…’

‘What things?’

‘A business course, as a matter of fact…’ Among other things, she thought, such as developing a life of my own, a life that included finding a suitable mate, settling down, having a family, doing all the things most women dreamed of from a young age.

‘You want to do a business course?’ He made it sound as though she had just revealed a secret yearning to fly to the moon.

‘As a matter of fact, I do!’ Rose tilted her chin up defensively, her normally serene face flushed with sudden annoyance that he found it so incredulous that she should have ambitions outside the ones he so kindly allowed her. ‘I left home at eighteen,’ she snapped, revealing yet more of a life she had previously been keen to keep under wraps, ‘to look after my mother and when she passed on I did a secretarial course, took a series of temporary jobs just so that I could get sufficient funds together to put myself through a really good intensive course…If you recall, I came to you as a temp…and ended up staying here permanently…’

‘You never said…’ Gabriel murmured, reading the dismay on her face as she contemplated her outburst. So his cool, calm, level-headed secretary had fire burning inside. Of course he’d suspected that from the very start. ‘What was your sister up to while you were looking after your mother?’ he asked curiously, sidetracked by that window into her private life.

Rose looked at his devilishly handsome face and tried to wriggle back to her secure guarded territory but he was having none of it. After a few seconds of thick, expectant silence, she shrugged and looked away. ‘Grace was at university and then she met Tom and everything got…very hectic for her. So. Anyway, that’s one of the things I want to do…’

‘And you’ve checked out these business courses?’

‘Well…’

‘No point spending time doing a business course only to find that it qualifies you to bounce right back here…’

‘Thanks for the tip, Gabriel. I’ll make sure I’m very careful what sort of course I sign up to.’

He was looking at her thoughtfully, so thoughtfully that her antennae pricked up, waiting for some passing remark which she suspected she wouldn’t like.

‘Naturally, I’ll work out my notice,’ she ventured into the lengthening silence. No response. She plunged on, wondering whether this silent tactic was designed to make her feel guilty. He certainly wouldn’t be beyond using every trick in the book to get her to stay, if that was his goal, especially now that he had a benchmark for comparison after three months of unsatisfactory stand-ins. ‘I intend to take just a couple of months off after I leave here, enjoy the summer…maybe even go abroad somewhere…and then the course will start in September…’

‘And it never occurred to you that we could discuss this…? Maybe arrive at a conclusion satisfactory to both of us…?’

‘Not really. I mean…’

‘Why not?’ Gabriel was in there like a shot. ‘Because underneath it all, you have a problem with working for me?’

‘Of course not!’ The last thing she needed, not that it mattered, was to leave Gabriel with the ego boosting impression that he had an effect on her.

‘Then why didn’t you come and discuss your dilemma with me?’

‘I really only thought about it when I was in Australia,’ Rose admitted. ‘I had time to think out there and to realise that I needed a change if I was to advance my career…’

Gabriel, struggling with the prospect of a litany of incompetent secretaries cowering and ducking for cover every time he raised his voice, mentally cursed her absent sister once again for introducing strife into his otherwise perfectly uncomplicated working life.

‘And I agree with you,’ he told her suddenly.

‘You do?’

‘Of course I do.’ He leaned back, linking his fingers behind his head, and surveyed her with an expression of sympathetic understanding that she had never seen in evidence before. ‘You’re young. You’re clever…’ He allowed the throwaway compliment to sink in. ‘You want a career beyond taking orders from me. Not,’ he felt compelled to add, ‘that I haven’t given you your fair share of responsibility. In fact, considering your original duties were filing, typing and fending calls, you’ve come a long way. But that’s by the by…’

Rose tried to keep up with this surprising twist. Not that Gabriel wasn’t unpredictable. He was. She just hadn’t anticipated any such reaction to her resignation because, really, how many ways were there to react to a resignation letter? And so he was now accepting it. Why feel disappointed with an outcome she knew was inevitable?

‘I can understand your drive to go further…After all, I am a perfect example of someone who has been there, someone who was driven to better himself…’

‘I don’t plan on dizzy heights…’

‘Did I ever tell you that my parents started with nothing? That my father’s business began with dabbling in the rag trade? Just enough money to raise us without too much hardship but not so much that we didn’t know from very young the importance of an education and the importance of making the most of our talents?’

‘Don’t worry, Gabriel, I won’t be competing with you on your level in two years’ time…!’

Their eyes met in perfect understanding as he appreciated the gentle, teasing irony behind her remark and Rose looked away quickly. He might not have much inside information about her private life but in many ways he knew her better than anyone else ever had and certainly cottoned on to her quirky sense of humour quicker than anyone she had ever known. Even Grace had seemed left behind sometimes.

‘If you had told me sooner I would have happily arranged to fund your course.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Day release. Even two days a week. You keep the salary you’re at and the only condition is that you train up someone to fill in for you when you’re not here. And, when your course is complete, I guarantee you a junior position on the top floor. I was also thinking of rewarding your efforts here with a company car…’

‘I’m not sure…’

‘So we’re back to that invisible reason for quitting and since it’s nothing to do with what I have to offer by way of benefits, then it must have something to do with me…’

‘I told you, of course not!’

‘Then why don’t you give it a go, Rose…?’Gabriel leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk. ‘I don’t want you to go…’ His navy-blue eyes swept over her in a way that felt almost like a caress and Rose shivered with guilty pleasure. I don’t want you to go—lover’s words. ‘I need you,’ he compounded the ambiguous intimacy of his previous plea with a husky murmur. ‘If the arrangement doesn’t suit you, then you can leave me. No hard feelings.’ Then he did something he had never done before. He said please.

CHAPTER TWO

THE following morning found Rose on the phone, frantically trying to do some research into business management courses. When she had vaguely mentioned her desire for a change in career to Gabriel, she had had no idea that she would have been called to account. Yes, somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she had toyed with the idea of gaining a couple more qualifications, but really her decision to leave had been based on more pragmatic grounds. She had just thought it time to disentangle herself from Gabriel’s pervasive influence over her life.

Somehow she had been manoeuvred into the unenviable position of embarking on a course, which she had supposedly checked out in depth. In addition to this technical hiccup, she would now have to set about recruiting someone to fill in for her when she wasn’t around.

When she had discussed her situation with Grace, resignation had seemed the most appropriate solution and thousands of miles away, with a warm Australian sun beating down and the thought of London and her job like a hazy dream, she had imagined a clean cut conclusion. Her letter of resignation, some surprise on Gabriel’s part and a valiant attempt to persuade her out of her decision, but of course in her head she never wavered. Roll on two years and she could easily see herself in a fulfilling relationship with a mystery man, someone kind and thoughtful, with the sound of wedding bells clanging on the horizon.

She hadn’t banked on the reality of actually walking back in to her office, seeing him again for the first time in three months. She hadn’t taken into account how devastating his smile could be and she certainly hadn’t envisaged her big, powerful boss with his killer looks gazing at her in that pleading manner and begging her to stay.

She thanked heaven that he was out of the office for the day, giving her ample opportunity to begin researching courses. So far only two stood out as worth pursuing as they seemed to offer what she thought she wanted and both were within fairly easy commuting distance. By the time lunchtime rolled around she had arranged to see both towards the end of the week.

Keeping her afloat whenever she contemplated the rapid desertion of her cause was the thought that she had only promised Gabriel to give it a go, leaving her the option of walking away after three months if she chose.

She was still at her desk at six-thirty, playing catch-up with all the work she had pushed to one side having spent the morning on the phone to colleges.

She was hardly aware of Gabriel until his shadow on her desk alerted her to his presence, then she glanced up, involuntarily sucking in her breath as their eyes met.

‘I guess you missed this…’ He raised his eyebrows and grinned. ‘Hence the fact that you’re still here slaving away while everyone else has gone…’He dumped an assortment of files on her desk. ‘A few more bits to keep you busy but you can sort them out tomorrow. One or two problems with that new build hotel in the Caribbean. We need to source a more reliable supplier. Roberts in Barbados should be able to help you with that one.’ He moved round to see what she was doing on her computer and Rose breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn’t found her scrolling down colleges in the London area.

‘This is what I missed,’ he murmured with heartfelt sincerity. ‘Your efficiency. Knowing that I could leave the office and not return to find things in utter chaos and some bloody incompetent woman weeping behind her desk somewhere.’

Rose clicked off her screen and gritted her teeth together. And that was just what she hadn’t missed! His never-ending appreciation of her as his perfect secretary.

‘Which is why I would like to take you out to dinner tonight.’

Her head swung round as she edged out of her chair, taking care to avoid making physical contact with him in the process.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I’m inviting you out to dinner,’ Gabriel repeated, taken aback at her patent lack of enthusiasm. ‘You’ve been out of the country for three months…’ He frowned and tried hard to suppress his annoyance at her studiously blank expression. ‘There are work matters to discuss and there is no way we would get the concentrated time to discuss them in the office.’

‘Well…’

‘If I don’t bring you up to speed with things, you’ll find yourself left behind and the last thing I need is to have to set aside yet more time during the working day to sort things out.’

‘Of course,’ Rose said politely. ‘I’ll just fetch my jacket.’ She logged off the computer, aware of his eyes following her every movement, and was self-consciously aware of her body as she stuck on her black linen jacket, a recent purchase that was just right for the fairly warm late spring weather.

Along with her change in shape had come a change in wardrobe. Out had gone the frumpish size fourteen clothes she had once hidden behind and in their place was an array of size tens, clothes with shapes and textures and colours she had never really been able to carry off before.

‘I’d rather we weren’t too late, though,’ she said, bending down to scoop up her handbag which was on the floor by her desk. ‘I still have unpacking to do. And you needn’t worry about me falling behind with my work. I intend to spend the weekend at home with some of the files making sure that I know exactly what’s going on with all our accounts.’

‘Right.’

‘Where are we going to eat?’ Rose glanced down at her working clothes. ‘I’m not really dressed for anywhere too fancy.’ And Gabriel didn’t really do cheap and cheerful. Not because he was a crashing snob but because he never really had any need to. She should know. She had booked enough restaurants for him in the past to realise that gingham tablecloths and bare floorboards were not his style. Something a little wicked stirred inside her.

‘I know a very good Italian,’ she said, pausing to look at him. ‘And it’s close to where I live so I can get home relatively quickly once we’re done…’

‘Fine.’ Gabriel was already regretting his invitation. It had not been meant as a working dinner, despite what he had said, and he now felt as though he had been pushed into a corner, forced to gear everything towards business when really he wanted to unwind and, if he were honest with himself, find out a bit more about the woman who had gone to Australia and returned completely changed.

‘You don’t mind, do you?’

Gabriel shrugged. ‘One restaurant is as good as another when it comes to discussing work.’

He called his driver to collect them from the front of the building and discovered that he was only marginally interested in what Rose had to ask about what had been happening in the office during her absence.

By the time they had reached the restaurant a solid forty minutes later, having waged war with the late evening traffic that had reduced some of the roads to gridlock, he was mightily fed up with discussing mergers and acquisitions. He was even more fed up with the interested but impersonal tone of her chatter. He couldn’t remember ever having had such a pressing urge to get behind the smoothly calm surface and see what lay there.

‘I hope this isn’t too casual for you, Gabriel.’

Gabriel narrowed his eyes and tried to work out whether there was a certain insolence in her voice, although when he looked at her she just seemed politely concerned.

‘Why should it be too casual?’ he asked as they entered the restaurant. It was more of a pub than a restaurant, with after work people milling around by the bar area, while others were seated at wooden tables in small, animated groups. And, to his surprise, Rose seemed to be known at the place. Someone materialised out of thin air, smiling and kissing her on both cheeks before showing them to a table tucked away at the very back.

‘Because I know you tend to like more expensive places.’

‘Oh, do I?’

‘Yep.’ She turned to him and smiled dryly. ‘Don’t forget I book them for you.’ She lowered her eyes and slipped into her seat. ‘Beautiful women like expensive restaurants, you once said. They enjoy the goldfish bowl feeling, hence you go to places where seeing who’s there is half the fun.’

‘I once said that?’

‘You did.’

‘I’m surprised you didn’t accuse me of being shallow.’

Rose shrugged, glanced at him and glanced away. ‘Each to their own. Besides, I work for you.’

‘That’s never stopped you from speaking your mind.’

Rose flushed and remained silent. Yes, she had always spoken her mind, had never been scared to disagree with him and he had allowed her to be as open as she felt. Was that one of the reasons why her emotions had become involved, even though she had tried desperately hard to rein them in? He might be a hard task master, with almost zero tolerance of anything that smacked of laziness or stupidity, but he was also the fairest man she had ever met and willing to listen to anyone’s opinions, provided they could be backed up. It was an immensely persuasive side of his personality and one to which she had been exposed for four long years.

‘Is this your local?’ Gabriel asked, changing the subject. He looked around and, after a few minutes, his gaze finally rested on her. ‘I didn’t imagine that this would be your kind of place.’

‘Why is that?’ Rose answered with asperity.

‘Because…it’s pretty noisy.’

‘And I’m more of a library kind of person?’

‘You’re putting words into my mouth, Rose.’

‘I’m tired.’ She was grateful for the waiter’s interruption, placing her order without bothering to look at the menu. ‘Why don’t you fill me in on what’s been happening? I know a bit from your emails, but if you give me some details it’ll be easier for me to catch up.’

‘That Australia flight’s a long one,’ Gabriel said, avoiding the subject of work, which seemed unutterably boring just at the moment. ‘I can understand why you’re tired. And I expect you miss your sister as well, hmm…?’

‘Yes. Of course I do. Although they’re planning on returning to England to live some time next year. Both of them feel it’s time to come back home now that baby Ben is on the scene.’

Their food arrived and Rose was amused to see surprise register on Gabriel’s face as he noted the quality of the dishes. He looked up, caught her eye before she could look away, and grinned.

‘Now I’m going to get a sermon on the foolishness of people who pay over the odds for a meal they can easily get somewhere else at half the price…’

‘No, of course not.’

‘I would come to places like this if it weren’t for the fact that clients and women expect more elaborate entertaining.’

‘I can understand the clients, but maybe you need to mix with a different kind of woman.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Say what?’

Rose, who had not really been paying much attention to what she had been saying, looked up to find his midnight-blue eyes fixed on her. Weren’t they supposed to be talking about work? Wasn’t that the whole point of them being here?

‘I’ve never really known what you think about my…women…but I guess you must have had opinions on them over the years. After all, you’ve met them all…’

‘Not really…’ Oh, yes, she had opinions on them! Beautiful, empty-headed, utterly unthreatening. For a long time she used to wonder how a man as dynamic and astute as Gabriel could ever be interested in the stereotype of the blonde bimbo. Yes, she could understand his need to have a beautiful woman on his arm. Like attracted like, after all. But wouldn’t he have been more challenged by a woman who had something to say for herself? Then gradually she had realised the simple truth, which was that he didn’t want to be challenged. He got enough challenge with his work. What he wanted was docility. When he eventually decided to settle down, he would doubtless want that same docility from a woman who would be content to serve him, have his children and patiently stand by while he worked all the hours God made. Behind the passion and seduction of his work, he would require a soothing, calming domestic life.

‘Is that why you’re looking at me with such disapproval?’ Gabriel asked and Rose caught herself with a little start. While she grappled with the dilemma of working out how to lead the conversation back into safe waters, Gabriel seized the moment to press her for an answer.

‘Was I?’

‘Oh, yes. Your little mouth was pursed tightly with disapproval!’

Rose glared at him and he grinned back at her, knowing very well that his description would have got under her skin. It wasn’t like him to tease. Up until now she had rebuffed every effort he had ever made to move their relationship on to a more cordial basis and he had obligingly backed off, but something had changed and, although he couldn’t put his finger on it, he knew that he was rather enjoying the change.

He smiled down into the glass of wine he was cradling in his hand. She had stuck to water but, with a driver waiting patiently for him outside, he had decided to have a couple of drinks.

‘What you do in your private life is entirely up to you.’ Rose heard the primness in her voice with mounting irritation. ‘If you choose to go out with women whose IQs are in single figures, then that’s your business!’

‘Ah. I never took you for an intellectual snob,’ Gabriel murmured in an infuriatingly meek voice.

‘I am not an intellectual snob!’ Rose defended hotly.

‘And how,’ Gabriel continued with pseudo-thoughtfulness, ‘can you condemn women who like having money lavished upon them unless you’ve been in that position before?’ He paused. ‘Have you?’

‘No, but…’

‘I mean, how do you know that you wouldn’t enjoy being taken to the finest restaurants? Having pearls and diamonds bought for you? Being flown to Paris or Venice for the weekend?’

‘I don’t recall booking too many flights to Paris or Venice for weekend jaunts,’ Rose said tartly. Gabriel had no problem in spending vast sums of money on gifts for the women who came and went in his life but setting aside time for them was an entirely different thing. He rarely had time off and when he did he invariably went back to Italy to visit family. She should know. She didn’t think he had ever booked a flight himself.

‘You know what I mean,’ Gabriel said irritably.

Torn between abandoning the conversation and standing up for herself, Rose took the plunge and for once set aside her determination to keep her thoughts to herself. ‘I don’t have to have expensive things bought for me to know that it wouldn’t be what I wanted. My parents both instilled in us a healthy awareness that money doesn’t buy happiness.’

‘Oh, I know that money can’t buy happiness,’ Gabriel agreed readily. ‘At least not happiness of the lasting kind, but it can buy fun…’

‘Depends if you think fun is having a six-month fling, dusting yourself down and moving on,’ Rose muttered.

‘I take it you don’t think it is…’

‘This is a ridiculous conversation. Weren’t we supposed to be talking about work? Apparently, I need to be brought up to speed just in case I get left behind.’

Gabriel knew damn well that his comment had been totally unjustified, but hell, he had invited the woman out to dinner only to find that she had no desire to go so apologising wasn’t on his list of priorities. Nor was discussing work. He couldn’t think of anything duller than discussing acquisitions, profit and losses, breakdowns in supply and demand with one of his hotels, not when the alternative was so much more interesting.

‘There’s no chance that you’ll get left behind, Rose,’ he said placatingly. He nodded to the waiter to clear their plates and when another glass of wine was offered he looked enquiringly at her dubious expression.

‘Please don’t tell me that that nasty concept called fun also includes the occasional bit of alcohol…’ That, he was pretty sure, would really get her bristling, and it did.

‘Of course I have a drink now and again! I do have a life outside work, Gabriel.’

‘Tell me about it.’ He was in there like a shot, having dispatched the waiter to bring them a glass of wine each. Large. ‘No boyfriends with lavish spending habits—that would be unhealthy and bad for the soul…’

Rose opened her mouth to respond and then shut it. Instead she gave him a wry look. ‘The devil finds work for idle hands, Gabriel. I feel very sorry for those poor girls if you were like this with them.’

‘Like what?’ Gabriel asked piously.

‘Barbing them.’

‘None of them would have been equipped to handle it.’

‘Or maybe you respected them more…’ Rose insinuated quietly.

‘Don’t be bloody ridiculous. Is that what you really think? That I don’t respect you? Or are you just fishing?’ When she didn’t answer, he raked his fingers through his hair and gave her a brooding, frustrated look. ‘They were bloody useless, the lot of them. I meant it when I said that I needed you, Rose. I do.’ His magnificent blue eyes flicked over her and he added, wickedly, ‘Need you and want you…’ He watched slow colour infuse her cheeks.