The meal couldn’t end soon enough for him, although he didn’t think he could actually sleep with her in her mother’s house. Thinking about having to wait until they were back in London brought a painful ache in his groin. He could barely focus on the conversation she was having with him.
‘If you’d rather I stay somewhere else overnight,’ he told her gruffly, ‘then I’m happy to oblige.’
‘What makes you say that?’
‘The fact that you tried so hard to dissuade your mother from her hospitality.’
‘I’ve never known my mum to dig her heels in the way she did,’ Alice confessed, closing her knife and fork on what had been a superb meal. ‘But, no.’ She shot him a flushed, determined stare and her heart picked up speed as he met her gaze and held it for longer than was necessary. ‘She would be upset if you disappeared to stay in a bed and breakfast. In fact, she would probably blame me. She probably blames me for trying to over-protect her.’ The admission was forced out of her and she lowered her eyes. ‘If I hadn’t been so...forceful, who knows? She might have found Mr Right a bit sooner.’
‘He may not be Mr Right,’ Gabriel told her gently. ‘But he might just be the guy who takes her out of herself, someone she’s willing to have fun with even if it doesn’t last the course...’
‘What are you trying to say?’
‘It’s better to feel something, anything, rather than hide behind a wall in the hope that you don’t end up getting hurt.’ He was uncomfortably aware that this was advice he didn’t actually follow to the letter himself, although his lack of emotional involvement had nothing to do with getting hurt or not getting hurt. He had no need to commit, so he didn’t. There was no Mrs Right for him because that was a complication he didn’t need. He was perfectly fine as he was, unlike Pamela Morgan, who wanted more. Unlike her daughter, who probably wanted more as well.
‘And you think that’s what I’m doing?’ Alice bristled but there was a charge in the atmosphere that was thrilling. And she couldn’t peel her eyes away from his lean, dark face.
‘You want more of me...’ He sat back and allowed his eyes to roam over her; lazy, indolent, darkly sexy eyes that made her body burn. ‘Why don’t you stop running scared,’ he murmured, ‘and just take what you want? Take what you can’t tear your eyes away from.’
‘You are the most conceited person I have ever met in my entire life!’ She was breathing fast and, God, he knew exactly how she was reacting to him. Knew it and liked it.
‘You want to touch...I can feel it. Do you know why? Because it’s the same for me. I want to touch you too. Why do you think I spent hours driving down here on the spur of the moment?’
But you will never get hurt, Alice thought. You can touch and then walk away unscathed...
But was that enough of an excuse to run scared? If her mother could get involved with someone, as Gabriel had told her, then why couldn’t she? How many times would she spend her life running scared when faced with the possibility of getting hurt?
And yet the thought of any other man having the same impact on her as Gabriel was far-fetched, almost beyond belief. He wasn’t the gentle kind of guy who would gradually entice her back into the world of trust and love, the kind of guy she had vaguely pinned her hopes on finding at some point in her life. He was the dynamic, darker-than-sin, more-dangerous-than-the-devil kind of guy who would take her places she had never been and leave her broken-hearted when he walked away.
‘Shall we go?’ he asked huskily and Alice nodded mutely.
‘This was never the plan,’ she said shakily, once the bill had been paid and they were standing outside the restaurant.
‘What was never the plan?’
‘This. Me. You... It’s not a good idea.’
‘Life is about taking risks or else what’s the point? I’ve spent my life taking risks. I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t taken risks.’
‘What do you mean?’
Gabriel laughed but his dark eyes never left her face. ‘Maybe one day I’ll explain.’ He threaded his fingers through her hair and tugged her towards him. ‘Do you want me to kiss you? Because if you don’t then this is your opportunity to say no and to walk away, and we can go back to playing our game of “it never happened”.’
‘Kiss me...’
Alice lost herself in that kiss. It was a crazy place to be doing this because she might get spotted. It was a small village and the fact that her mother had spent much of her time there confined to her house didn’t mean that there weren’t many locals who didn’t pop in for chats, to see how she was doing, to have tea or the occasional supper. Any one of those locals would have hot-footed it right back to Pamela Morgan with tales of her daughter being seen outside that new Italian restaurant kissing a man.