To Sin with the Tycoon

But she was awed by the whole first-class travelling experience. Gabriel was picking that up with antennae finely tuned to women and their responses. She wanted to play it cool, to keep that work hat firmly pinned in place, but she also wanted to stare around her at the plush surroundings, the muted subservience of the airline staff, the luxury...

They would be staying at one of the most expensive and high-profile hotels in Paris, a hotel that took luxury seriously. It was the only hotel in which he stayed when he was in the city and they knew how to look after him.

He felt a kick of pleasurable anticipation at seeing her face when they walked in.

He was a teenager again, trying hard to impress a girl...

Except, his teenage years had been a little too busy for such distractions. Escape had taken priority over making out with girls, not that that had been a problem for him. Besides, he wasn’t in the business of impressing anybody. He didn’t have to.

The limo that would be driving them wherever they wanted to go while they were in Paris was waiting for them at the airport when they arrived and Alice glanced over to him with a dry smile.

‘Don’t you ever do things the way most normal people do?’ The question was directed more at herself than it had been to him, although he picked up the half-murmured remark and chose to answer as soon as they were in the back seat of the car.

‘Why would I do that?’ he asked with a careless shrug, angling his big body so that he was facing her. She had tucked her hair behind her ears and was wearing ear rings, little pearl studs that were a far cry from the wildly extravagant costume jewellery most girls her age would probably have worn.

Infused with silly holiday excitement, and guiltily feeling a bit like a princess after her first-class experience, now in this chauffeur-driven limo, Alice laughed.

‘You don’t do that enough,’ Gabriel said gruffly, surprising himself with that observation, but meaning every syllable of it.

‘Do what?’ Alice rested back against the seat and looked at him through half-closed eyes.

‘Laugh.’

‘I didn’t realise that being at work was a laugh-a-second experience,’ she said, but there was no sarcasm in her voice which was lazy and relaxed. ‘Do you do anything for yourself at all, Gabriel?’ she mused aloud and he gave her a toe curlingly slow smile.

‘I make money. A lot of it. Beyond that, I pay people to take care of everything else.’

‘But surely that can’t be satisfying all of the time?’

‘Are you going to give me a mini-lecture on all the great things money can’t buy?’ He thought back to his fractured, troubled past. Money would have bought a hell of a lot for him back then, which was probably why he had become so intensely focused on making lots of it. ‘Because, if you are, there’s no way you can sell it to me.’

‘Money can’t buy love.’

This time Gabriel laughed out loud but there was an edge to his laughter that Alice picked up and her brown eyes were curious as they rested on his handsome face.

‘Oh, but I’ve found just the opposite.’

‘That’s not love...’ How had they ended up having this very personal conversation? She sat up and leaned against the car door.

‘No, but it works for me,’ Gabriel told her drily. He hadn’t taken her for a romantic, but was she one at heart? Perhaps all women were. Or at least, they were in love with the idea of being in love: the excited trip to the jewellers; the wedding planning; the meringue of a white dress on the big day; the happy-ever-after, as if such a thing existed. The fact was, the relationships didn’t last. They all collapsed in varying degrees. He was a prime example of that, although in his case the degree of collapse had been severe, if the two people who had stupidly had sex and produced him had ever had a relationship at all. It was doubtful, although that was something he would never know. He had been dumped as a baby, taken into care and his life had been kick-started from that point.

‘What about marriage? Settling down?’ She couldn’t resist giving in to her curiosity and he raised his eyebrows questioningly.

‘What about it?’

‘Aren’t you tempted at all...?’

‘Not that I’ve ever noticed. I long ago came to the conclusion, my dear little secretary, that the one thing I can rely on is money. I know how to make it and I’m fully aware of the uses I can put it to. There are no unpredictable variants when it comes to money. It might be hard and cold but it doesn’t make demands, it doesn’t nag and it doesn’t want what’s not on the cards. It also...as you have experienced...buys me exactly what I want, when I want it.’