The Determined Virgin

‘The abstract designs around the doorway?’ He’d been able to pinpoint the location of the gallery easily by the colourful whirls and swirls that invited customers in.

‘Mine,’ she confirmed.

‘I’m impressed.’ Small talk, designed to put her at ease, but true all the same. He released her from his gaze and glanced about them. ‘It’s a classy place.’

‘Thank you. I hope you enjoy the book.’

‘I’m sure I will. Can you spare time for that cup of coffee later?’ He smiled again, a practised smile that made him despise himself.

Rhiannon hesitated, then she said in a little rush, ‘You’ll have to wait while I cash up.’

‘No problem.’ He shrugged. ‘Shall I help you lock the doors?’

She looked a bit disconcerted. ‘I’ll do it when I leave.’

Was she afraid of being locked in with him? Gabriel didn’t know whether to be insulted, appalled or amused.

She did swing the big glass door shut and turn a sign on it to ‘Closed.’ Then she cleared the cash register and before disappearing into a back room, said, ‘Feel free to look around some more.’

Making it clear he wasn’t invited into the inner sanctum. What secrets could she have in there?

Gabriel used the time to inspect some of the gallery’s wares more closely, lingering at a large, abstract mosaic panel propped against a wall.

Coloured stones, metallic paint and twisted copper wire added richness and texture to apparent randomness, clashing colours and broken lines. But like some kind of optical illusion, the colours and lines gradually resolved into intricate, mesmerising patterns.

When Rhiannon joined him at last, a bag swinging from her shoulder and a light jacket over her arm, he said abruptly, ‘I want that panel. It’s your work, isn’t it?’

‘You saw the signature?’

He hadn’t but now he noticed the initials unobtrusively scribbled in a lower corner, on a piece of tile.

Not wanting to spook her, he thought better of confessing that he’d guessed, inexplicably certain that he was right. Instead he just smiled and shrugged as if she’d caught him out trying to be clever.

‘Are you serious?’ she asked him.

‘Very serious.’

He was intrigued anew by the emotional play in her face—doubt, uncertainty, totally at odds with her manner to her previous customers.

‘I’ll pick it up another time,’ he said, ‘but I can pay now if you like.’

‘That’s all right. I’ll put a Sold sticker on it,’ she promised finally. ‘And if you change your mind—’

‘I don’t change my mind once I see something I want.’ He looked straight into her eyes and saw a flicker of alarm.

Back off, he warned himself. This one’s different. He tried another smile. ‘Shall we go, then?’

‘Um…yes.’

Gabriel nodded. ‘Do you need that?’ He reached out, ready to take the jacket she held.

‘No,’ she said quickly. ‘I don’t think so.’

It was a warm summer evening. But he wondered if she’d have let him put it on her even if she were freezing.

What was he getting into here?

Rhiannon flicked the automatic lock and watched Gabriel pull the door closed behind them. The street lamps made his hair gleam almost bronze, the fairer streaks turning to gold.

Across the narrow thoroughfare, music with a deep, insistent beat blasted from a darkened bar. Gabriel glanced at the neon sign above and said, ‘I’d like to find someplace quieter, if that’s okay.’

Rhiannon nodded jerkily. ‘Not too small.’

His look was mildly questioning, and she said, ‘I like a bit of room to move, don’t you?’ He was a big man; surely he’d want to be able to stretch those long legs.

‘I know what you mean,’ he conceded easily. ‘Those cubbyholes where two pairs of knees won’t fit under the table and you have to take care not to accidentally bump your neighbour with your elbow aren’t very comfortable.’

They walked side by side, Gabriel with one hand in his pocket, pushing back the edge of his jacket, the other swinging loosely at his side. Tonight his suit was dark, and he had no tie. The opened collar of his shirt showed a glimpse of lightly tanned skin.

A young couple heading in the opposite direction, arms about each other and oblivious to other pedestrians, almost ran into Rhiannon. Gabriel’s firm touch on her waist steered her out of the way, then he dropped his hand.

After turning at the next corner, he paused at a lighted doorway. ‘How does this look?’

Through the glass doors Rhiannon saw a spacious room with people at cloth-covered tables under glittering but muted chandeliers.

‘Expensive,’ she said.

He laughed and pushed open one of the doors. ‘I can stand it. Will it do?’

‘Yes,’ Rhiannon agreed hastily and stepped inside.

They were ushered to a table and Gabriel asked, ‘Would you like a real drink?’

She shook her head. ‘Just coffee, thanks. I’ll be driving later.’ Besides, she wasn’t sure she could cope with drinking and this man as well.

‘Have you eaten?’

‘Yes.’ She’d had a take-away salad earlier in the evening, bolting it down between customers.

‘What about a dessert? I could do with one myself.’ He asked the waitress for dessert menus, and looked over the top of his at Rhiannon. ‘I can recommend the chocolate-cherry gateau, but the crème brûlée is good too if you want something lighter.’

She hadn’t been sure she wanted anything at all but, glancing the menu, she found her mouth watering.

‘Do you come here regularly?’ That was a safe topic.

‘Now and then. It’s handy to my office and the service is usually quick.’

Which implied that he didn’t often have time to spare—or didn’t like wasting it. Well, she didn’t suppose he’d got where he was by sitting around eating desserts and drinking coffee. ‘I’ll try the crème brûlée,’ she decided.

Gabriel opted for the gateau, and ordered their coffee. Then he laid his arms on the table and said, ‘Tell me about yourself.’

Rhiannon looked down and untwined the hands tightly wrapped about each other in her lap. ‘The gallery is my bread and butter, and I do mosaics when I have the time.’

‘Do you take commissions?’

‘Sometimes. Mostly I do my artwork at home and sell from the gallery.’

‘Where would that be…your home?’

She shot a wary glance at him. ‘Mount Albert.’

Gabriel leaned back in his chair. ‘So, are you an Aucklander born and bred?’

It sounded like an idle question, mere chitchat. Rhiannon shook her head. ‘I was born and bred in Pukekohe.’

‘A country girl?’ he quizzed.

‘Not really. We weren’t into market gardening.’ That was what the rich red volcanic soil in the area was known for. Making an effort to relax, she added, ‘My father had an electrical service business.’

‘Had?’

She waited a moment. ‘He’s in a nursing home now. He was involved in a motorway accident, along with my mother.’

‘And your mother?’ Gabriel asked quietly, his eyes darkening in sympathy.

‘She died. My father has some brain damage. He needs twenty-four hour care.’ A familiar sadness touched her, for the man her father had once been.

‘That must be difficult for you, as well as for him.’ Gabriel paused, searching her face. ‘When did it happen?’

‘Nearly six years ago.’ She looked down at the tablecloth, and it blurred before her eyes. ‘I’ve had time to get over it.’ If a person ever did get over these things.

He laid one arm on the table, forefinger idly tracing a circle on the cloth before he looked up again. ‘Did you have family to help?’

‘My grandmother.’ Without her, Rhiannon didn’t know how she would have survived that horrible year. ‘She was wonderful.’

‘I’m glad. You were very young to be bereaved like that. Do you have brothers or sisters?’

Rhiannon shook her head. ‘Do you…?’

‘A younger brother who works for me, heading the Australian office, and a sister in the States. My parents are divorced but they both live in New Zealand with new partners.’

It was common enough and he didn’t sound particularly traumatised. ‘How old were you?’ she asked.

‘Ten.’

At ten he would have been vulnerable. She wondered how long it had taken him to get over his parents’ split.

‘Now,’ he said, ‘I’m thirty-two.’

Carefully she offered, ‘I’m twenty-three.’

He made a rueful face. ‘I was hoping you were older.’

She should laugh, but instead she looked away again, fiddling with a spoon on the table. ‘I feel older.’

‘Why is that?’

Studying the distorted reflection of the room, she answered, ‘I’ve been running a business since I was in my teens.’

‘Early ambition?’

‘Not really.’ Seeing he was waiting for more, she explained. ‘After the accident and…and my mother’s death, my grandmother decided to retire from her business and put me in charge.’ It had meant giving up her university studies, and sometimes she regretted that, but the offer had been a lifeline. She’d been too traumatised to concentrate on study and exams, and since her father couldn’t work and she’d used the money from the sale of his business to care for his needs, she’d had to earn a living.

‘Your grandmother ran a gallery?’ Gabriel guessed.

‘A suburban handcraft shop in Onehunga. Needlework, ceramics, a few paintings and carvings. I sold my first mosaics there after I took it over. The gallery evolved over time, and people began coming to it from all over the city.’ Rhiannon halted to steady her voice, replacing the spoon on the tablecloth. ‘I inherited the business when my grandmother died.’

Gabriel cast her a quick glance. ‘When?’

‘Almost three years ago.’ The cancer that killed her had been mercifully quick, but her death had left a huge hole in Rhiannon’s life.

‘Tough,’ he commented. Perhaps guessing she didn’t want to talk about that, he said, ‘Opening in High Street’s a bold move.’

‘It’s a risk, but I did my homework. I’m ready to move on.’

He gave her a thoughtful look. ‘You’re not given to taking risks lightly, are you?’ he said slowly.

How could he know, on such a brief acquaintance? Her neck stiffened warningly. ‘I like to know where I’m going.’

‘Sometimes it’s fun to take a step in the dark. You never know what it might lead to.’

His eyes had turned silver again, in the light from a chandelier overhead. They held hers for a long moment.

The waitress brought their desserts, and the moment broke. Rhiannon picked up her spoon, turning her attention to the dish before her.

After her first mouthful Gabriel asked, ‘How is it?’

She forced herself to look at him, finding nothing but polite inquiry in his eyes. ‘Very nice. Wonderful.’

He watched her take the next spoonful, then dug his own spoon into his gateau, asking, ‘You don’t have any trouble with the arm?’

‘It was only a bruise.’

Deceptively casual, he said, ‘Do you want to tell me why you were so frightened?’

Her hand tightened on the spoon. An unseen tremor passed through her. Without looking at him, after taking a breath to school her voice to an even tone, she said, ‘You startled me, that’s all.’

Steadily she went on eating.

After a few mouthfuls, steering him away from her life story, she asked, ‘How did you start in the air-freight business?’

He cast her a keen look but said, ‘I fell into it more or less by accident. I was working at the airport in the customs department, and when a freight firm was threatened with receivership it seemed a good chance to buy in and see if I could make a go of it.’

‘You had the money for it?’

‘The bank was good to me.’ He grinned. ‘Though I had to convince them I could turn the business around and make it a paying proposition.’

‘You must have been very persuasive.’

He had his coffee cup in his hand, looking at her over the rim. ‘I can be very persuasive when I want to be.’

The disconcerting glint that sometimes lurked in his eyes was there again. She had to make an effort not to look away.

‘And,’ he said, ‘my grandfather, bless him, offered to guarantee me for a loan.’

So he’d had a fond grandparent, too. Maybe that had helped when his parents split up.

Forking up a piece of gateau, Gabriel considered it. ‘The old guy’s gone now. He had a big globe on a brass stand in his living room, and I remember him explaining to me the concept of travelling around the world from one place to another until you arrived back where you started.’

‘How old were you then?’

Gabriel swallowed the morsel of gateau. ‘About five, I think. Ever since, a globe has reminded me of him. Maybe that’s why the idea of buying the air-freight company appealed.’

He lifted his cup to his lips. Her gaze slipped to his throat, caught by the movement under his skin. She watched with fascination until he lowered the cup and she hastily turned her attention to her plate. ‘It can’t have been easy when you started,’ she commented.

‘It was a challenge.’ He launched into a brief description of his career—the rocky beginning, the setbacks on the way, the eventual success—and she found herself caught up in his obvious enthusiasm.

Then he paused. ‘I guess that’s more than you ever wanted to know.’

‘No. It’s exciting.’

‘Is that what excites you? Talking business?’ His brows rose and his lips curved.

Rhiannon floundered. The innuendo was subtle and his eyes held laughter, but a flush rose from her throat and stung her cheeks.

Taking pity, he said, ‘I’d call downhill skiing exciting, parachuting, hang-gliding…and a few other things.’ For a moment a wicked gleam lit his eyes. ‘But biz talk?’ He shook his head. ‘You haven’t lived, baby.’

Rhiannon seized on the final word. ‘I’m not a baby!’

‘I’m nine years older than you,’ he reminded her.

‘Yes, Grandad.’

The gleam this time was retributive. ‘And I’m not your grandad.’

Rhiannon gulped down a mouthful of hot coffee. He didn’t look like anyone’s grandad. ‘Have you done those things? I mean…downhill skiing, hang-gliding…?’

‘And the rest?’ A crease appeared in his cheek. He was trying not to laugh. Held by that shimmering gaze with its veiled, provocative challenge, Rhiannon was suddenly breathless.

But not frightened.

Gabriel didn’t press her, to her great relief. This was too new a sensation to be taken at speed. He said nothing more until he’d demolished his gateau, then he sat back as she finished off her dish. ‘What did you do with those tiles?’

She told him about the church commission, answering his questions regarding tools and techniques. When she mentioned using tiles from demolition sites, he said, ‘The building next door to mine is being pulled down.’

‘Oh?’ She hadn’t been near there recently.

‘Maybe you should have a look.’ Pushing away his empty cup, he asked, ‘Do you want another?’

Rhiannon declined, not wanting any more coffee but curiously reluctant to move. She was, she realised dazedly, enjoying herself.

Only they couldn’t stay here all night. She fumbled for her bag and put on her jacket. ‘Thank you for this, it’s been nice.’

Rain had fallen while they were in the restaurant, and when they stepped outside the pavement was wet and shining under the streetlights, the tyres of passing cars hissing on the road surface. Still warm from the day’s sun, the asphalt steamed slightly.

‘It could be slippery,’ Gabriel said, his hand coming to rest on Rhiannon’s waist under the jacket. ‘Is your car in the parking building?’

‘Yes, but you don’t need to come with me.’

‘I’m going to pick up my car. And anyway, I wouldn’t desert you in the street.’

She was very conscious of his barely perceptible touch on her waist all the way there. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation, and she didn’t pull away until she took out her keys and unlocked her car.

Before she got in he stopped her with a light hold on her wrist, and her gaze flew to his face. A whole colony of butterflies seemed to have taken up residence in her stomach, and she conquered the urge to pull away, standing very still while consumed by conflicting emotions of dread and curiosity.

A faint frown appeared between Gabriel’s brows. He bent his head quite slowly and brushed his lips against her cheek. ‘Goodnight, Rhiannon.’

Then he opened the door for her, standing back when she started the engine.

Watching the tail-lights disappear down the ramp, Gabriel flexed his fingers, then folded them into his palm. He could still feel the warmth that had emanated through Rhiannon’s thin blouse, and found himself fantasising about the smooth skin underneath the fabric, imagining tugging the garment from the imprisoning band of her skirt and running a finger along the groove of her spine, while he held her close…

It had taken considerable will-power to resist sliding his arm about her, resting his hand on her hip, nestling her shoulder under his. He’d felt the tiny tremor that seized her when he’d put his hand on her waist, and had made himself stop right there. In another woman he might have guessed the tremor indicated sexual awareness, but with Rhiannon…

He could hope, but she’d given no sign of welcoming his touch. And she’d been very composed, almost cool, since he’d walked into the gallery.

He went to the elevators, jabbing at the button.

Damn, she had been cool. Decidedly so. Cool and cagey. Not giving much away, except when he’d made an oblique, mildly sexual remark and she’d blushed like a schoolgirl.

So the coolness was a blind, a facade. Hiding what?

Fear. The word was stark, shocking.

He might never have suspected if he hadn’t caught her off guard that first day, scaring her witless with a single, asexual touch and an offer of help. She hadn’t been able to cover up so well then, her defences stripped for a few minutes by pain.

They were good defences.

The elevator doors slid open for him. A pretty young woman standing in the middle of the car gave him a small social smile as he entered and pressed the button for his floor. He could feel her covert glances but didn’t return them.

Rhiannon in the same situation had backed into the corner.

She’d been anxious from the moment he entered.

The woman he was sharing with now stepped forward when the elevator glided to a stop at her floor, and gave him a lingering sidelong glance as she left. He had no urge to follow her before the doors closed again.

In the gallery, on her own turf, Rhiannon had been perfectly sure of herself with her customers, and her manner had scarcely changed when Gabriel approached, except for that slight, involuntary alteration in her expression, like an invisible glass mask.

The mask had slipped when she spoke of her work, but it went right back at any hint of masculine interest. As though she had no idea how to deal with it.

She didn’t know how to flirt.

The doors opened and he stepped out. He smiled, unaware of the slightly tigerish quality of the smile.

Maybe he could teach her.

His purchase of the panel gave Gabriel an excuse to call at the gallery on Saturday, when Mosaica was open until two.

Ten minutes before closing time he found Rhiannon alone behind the counter, her head bent over a notepad.

‘Hi,’ he said, and she looked up, her eyes glazed for a moment.

When they cleared, her smile was uncertain. ‘Hello.’

‘You remembered?’ He glanced over at the mosaic and the red sticker fixed to it.

Rhiannon seemed to gather herself, assuming a professional air. ‘I was going to phone you on Monday and ask if you want it delivered.’

‘I’ll take it myself.’

‘Now? Certainly.’

The door chime momentarily drew her attention to a middle-aged Japanese couple entering. Then she turned to the door standing ajar behind the counter and called, ‘Peri?’

A broad-shouldered young man appeared, with smooth brown skin and large dark eyes, his black hair a mane of luxurious waves secured in a ponytail. A tie-dyed muscle shirt and purple leather pants hugged his lovingly honed chest and thighs, and he flashed a dazzling Tom Cruise smile at Rhiannon. ‘Yeah, boss?’

‘Mr Hudson’s buying the mosaic over there. Could you pack it for him please?’

‘Sure.’ Peri ambled over to the piece and lifted it with effortless care before shouldering his way back through the doorway.

Her voice crisp, Rhiannon said to Gabriel’s shirt-front, ‘How did you want to pay?’

Reaching for his credit card, Gabriel experienced a flash of annoyance. From her manner, he could have been any stranger off the street. And seeing Peri had shaken him a bit. When Rhiannon mentioned an assistant he’d assumed a female one, not a hunky young guy who believed in making the most of his obvious assets.

It called into question all Gabriel’s guesses and assumptions. If she didn’t mind having that around every day she was hardly man-shy.

Just shy of certain men. Him, for instance.

Handing over the card, he studied her bent head as she processed the payment, remembering with a certain relief that she’d denied being in a relationship.

The Japanese couple were holding a murmured debate over a large wooden bowl, turning it over and running their fingers across the smooth finish. Rhiannon handed back Gabriel’s card and said dismissively, ‘Peri won’t be long,’ then went to speak to them.

Peri reappeared with the mosaic encased in sturdy cardboard. ‘Here you are, mate. I mean, sir!’ He threw a comical glance at Rhiannon, but she was concentrating on the tourists, who didn’t have much English. ‘Want me to carry it? How far to your car?’

‘No thanks,’ Gabriel assured him shortly, not keen on following all that splendid musculature along the street. ‘Just leave it here for now. I’m waiting to speak to your boss.’

‘Sure.’ Peri leaned the parcel against the end of the counter, giving him a rather sharp glance.

The couple decided to buy the bowl and, as they approached the counter with Rhiannon, she asked Peri to find a box and prepare it for posting.

While he bore the bowl off to the back room and Rhiannon patiently deciphered where the couple wanted it sent and took their payment, Gabriel stood by. After they had bowed their way out, she turned to him and indicated the wrapped mosaic. ‘Is Peri going to carry that for you?’

She made to turn, presumably to call the assistant, and Gabriel reached out a hand but dropped it before his fingers touched her arm. ‘I don’t need Peri.’ As she paused, he said, ‘Have you eaten?’

‘On Saturday we’re usually very busy, and I don’t bother until the shop closes.’

‘Have something with me?’

‘Why?’

Hadn’t she ever heard of a date? He raised his brows and she looked flustered, biting her lip as her cheeks coloured.

Gabriel went to Plan B. ‘I want to discuss a possible commission.’

Her eyelids flickered. ‘What kind of commission?’

‘Let me buy you a late lunch and we can talk about it.’

Her gaze lowered, and he saw the front of her blouse—teamed with dark green jeans—flutter as she took a breath. Then she raised her head and her eyes met his. ‘All right.’

Gabriel was unprepared for the surge of triumph that made him want to grab her and kiss that gorgeous, tempting mouth. Instead he nodded and said, ‘When you’re ready.’

He found them an umbrella-shaded outdoor table at a café-bar. Rhiannon was glad to be offered the choice instead of going inside.

Over her Niçoise salad and Gabriel’s curried kumara fritters he asked her, ‘How long has Peri been with you?’

‘Since I moved into the new place. I’d sold some carvings for him over the last couple of years, and he helped out before Christmas.’

‘He’s a carver?’

‘His uncle taught him traditional Maori carving, and Peri’s particularly interested in incorporating Maori motifs into modern design. But it doesn’t pay enough to live on, and I figured I’d need an assistant when I moved into town, so I offered him the job.’