‘I’m glad to hear it.’ He didn’t want to begrudge her the peace of mind that was sorely lacking in his own life.
Her eyes searched his. Gael wasn’t sure what she found, but her face lost a little of its tightness. He exhaled, realised he was breathing a little easier, and then turned when he sensed they were no longer alone.
Ethan approached on his crutches. ‘The crew are about to head out, and the cast and I are heading for the airstrip. Goldie, do you want to join us? Or...?’ he paused, his eyebrows lifted.
Gael shook his head. ‘There’s no need. I have my plane here. We can all fly back to Durban on my jet.’ He nodded to Ethan’s plaster cast. ‘I’m sure you’ll be much more comfortable on my plane than on the turboprop.’
Ethan laughed. ‘Now, there’s an offer I’m not about to refuse. We’ll meet you at the plane?’
Gael nodded. Waited until his director hobbled off before he turned to find Goldie regarding him with a steady look.
‘Without inciting an argument, can I ask why you’re here?’ she asked.
He shrugged. ‘My partners wanted an update. So did I. And Durban is great at this time of year, I’m told.’
‘So you’re here on a working vacation?’ she probed.
The inkling that he wasn’t wanted deepened a pang he didn’t want to acknowledge. About to tell her he hadn’t taken a vacation in a decade and wasn’t about to take one now, Gael paused. ‘Why not? I’ve been told I’m “grumpy and insufferable” lately. So maybe a timeout is just what I need.’
That minuscule smile reappeared. ‘Did whoever dared to make that observation get away with their lives?’ she teased, and fell into step beside him as he headed for the last remaining vehicle left in the deserted dirt car park of the game reserve.
‘Sadly I had to rule out homicide. Doing away with my future sister-in-law before she becomes my brother’s wife—or even at any time after that—will not end well for me. My only choice was to remove my grumpiness from her presence.’
Her smile widened, turned into a laugh.
Something twitched in Gael’s chest at the sound—a feeling of wanting to join in, to revel in her warm amusement at his own expense.
Her cute nose wrinkled when he stopped beside the truck and stared at him. ‘So you’re here to foist your grumpiness on us instead?’
He opened the door and saw her into the passenger seat. Shutting the door, he leaned an elbow on the open window. ‘I’m in the land of cheetahs, fireflies and stunning sunsets, amongst a thousand other pleasures. I’m certain I’ll find a useful outlet for my mood,’ he murmured.
The sparkle in her eyes didn’t dim, but her amusement altered as a different sensation arced between them. Gael recognised it. Waited for her to recognise it too. He didn’t exactly plan on doing anything about it—she’d made her feelings abundantly clear that day in his conference room—but the moment felt too visceral to dismiss. So he stood there, with her breathtaking face and body mere inches away, and watched her eyes darken as sexual awareness zapped the air between them.
Abruptly, she averted her gaze from his. ‘Can we go, please?’
‘Of course,’ he murmured.
Despite his intimation otherwise, he was here solely on business. Although in hindsight he accepted that he might have handled their morning-after differently, he stood by his decision to keep his hands off Goldie Beckett.
For one thing, she was now effectively his employee—and mixing business with pleasure never boded well in the long run. His brother and Elise might have proved the exception to the rule, but statistics weren’t in favour of such occurrences ending well.
For another, he hadn’t forgotten what he’d witnessed in that auditorium at Othello. Her virginity might have proved that she hadn’t gone through with the director’s proposal, but Gael had seen her allow the director’s touch. Had seen her take the keycard, watched her consider the proposal. As much as he wanted to explain that away, he couldn’t.
Especially as since then Goldie had as much as admitted that her career was her top priority. That she would do anything to further it. Who knows what would have happened had Gael not come along? Hell, her immediate reaction to being drunk for the first time in her life had been to enquire whether her actions had affected the opportunity he’d been offering her.
On some level Gael admired her dedication, and it was undeniable that she had the talent to back the ambition. But the thought of her doing whatever it took left a bitter taste in his mouth, reminding him too much of the issues he was dealing with when it came to his mother. Rightly or wrongly, he couldn’t think of one without thinking of the other. They both struck a little too close to home and, despite her attempting to explain herself to the contrary, he hadn’t been able to erase Goldie’s last performance with that director in the auditorium from his mind.
As a tool for enabling him to keep his hands off her it was effective, he mused as he slid behind the wheel and turned on the ignition.
The ride to the private airstrip where his plane was parked was conducted in silence, and took less than ten minutes.
On the plane, he let Goldie wander off to take a seat next to Ethan. As much as it struck an unpleasant chord within Gael, he ignored the feeling and struck up a conversation with the actor playing Alfonso, who was glad to connect with a fellow Spaniard, even though Gael only half paid attention to their discourse.
His gaze was drawn inexorably to the woman chatting in low tones to Ethan. Her occasional husky laugh bounced across the space between them and sizzled along Gael’s nerve-endings.
He was almost relieved when the plane landed in Durban forty minutes later. This time an appointed driver chauffeured them to Umhlanga and the Oyster Box Hotel, where the cast and crew were staying. After agreeing to have a proper meeting with Ethan the next morni
ng, he trailed after the departing Goldie. She was standing in front of the private lift that served his suite when he joined her.