Boardrooms of Power. Heidi Betts

was alive. Motionless but alive. And hairy. The sound of the storm outside was nothing compared to the pounding of her heart. Could spiders smell fear? she wondered. Like sharks?

      She washed her hands. Then, and she didn’t know how she managed to achieve this, she tiptoed across to the door, one eye on the spider, the other on her flight path, yanked it open and literally leapt on to the mattress, colliding with Gabriel, who awoke with the sudden alertness of a cat.

      ‘What the hell is going on?’

      ‘There’s a tarantula in the bathroom!’ They both spoke at the same time but her shriek was definitely a few hundred decibels above his.

      ‘Get up!’ Rose demanded frantically. ‘You have to go and kill it! Now!’

      ‘You mean before it kills us?’

      ‘It’s not funny, Gabriel!’ Rose felt close to tears. ‘I have a…real fear of spiders.’ She imagined it crawling out of the bathroom and scurrying across the wooden floor to her mattress and she broke out in nervous perspiration.

      ‘Okay. You wait here.’ He levered himself up, glanced around for something, finally settling for one of the glasses, and disappeared into the bathroom, taking care to close the door behind him.

      In his absence, Rose huddled as tightly as she could in her sheet and tried not to think of small, furry creatures finding their way underneath it.

      Where was the calm, practical secretary now? She groaned to herself. She could barely look at him as he exited the bathroom with a grin on his face. Not that she could actually see the grin, but she knew it was there from the lope of his walk.

      ‘Where is it?’ Rose asked in a small voice. ‘I’m sorry. I’m not being much help so far, am I?’

      Gabriel lay down and turned to face her. ‘I put it through the window. It was more scared of me than I was of it.’ He lightly stroked her hair away from her face and Rose didn’t tense up as she normally would have. ‘I know you don’t like being the damsel in distress, but there’s no need to apologise for being afraid of a spider. You’re not the exception. Most people are afraid of spiders.’

      ‘Except you.’

      ‘I fear nothing.’

      That drew a smile from her, but only for a second, then she sobered up and said quietly, ‘But that’s not why I’m here. To be a burden that needs looking after—scared of spiders, scared of thunder and lightning. I’m not functioning properly at the moment, I’m afraid.’

      ‘Why is that, I wonder? Maybe you’re homesick.’ Gabriel had never been so intensely aware of a woman in his life before. If he edged one inch closer to her, he would explode. ‘Maybe you’re missing what’s-his-name…’ He realised, with some surprise, that what’s-his-name had actually been on his mind. ‘What is his name? Did you ever say? Oh, yes. You did. Joe. Maybe you’re missing Joe. Being in love can do strange things to a woman.’

      Rose, lulled into a cocoon of security, with the gale force winds gusting outside and the rain as clamorous as hailstones clattering down on a tin roof, was yanked back to reality by the mention of Joe. Joe, whom she had completely forgotten. Joe, perfectly nice and suitable Joe, who was supposed to be her passport to overcoming her feelings for the very inappropriate Gabriel Gessi.

      She pulled away, suddenly horrified by her compromising position.

      ‘Can it? Yes, I suppose it can.’

      Not the answer Gabriel was hoping for. Not when he was in the process of freely admitting to himself that he wanted this woman, for reasons beyond his comprehension.

      ‘What does that mean?’ he found himself asking.

      ‘It means that this conversation is inappropriate.’

      ‘Nothing that’s going on here at the moment is appropriate, or hadn’t you noticed? We’re halfway across the world. We’re being buffeted by a hurricane outside. We’re sharing a mattress on a floor. I’m all but naked and so are you.’

      ‘I…I…’

      ‘Yes?’ Gabriel prompted silkily. ‘You…what? Want to disagree with something I’ve said?’

      ‘I don’t think we should be having this conversation!’ Rose heard the panic in her voice and wondered whether he had detected it as well.

      ‘Why? We could talk about work but somehow…I don’t think the circumstances are quite right for that.’

      ‘We should go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day. Lots to do.’

      ‘I was sleeping until you jumped on me.’

      ‘For a reason!’

      ‘But now I’m fully awake and so are you. So let’s discuss this sudden love you think you’ve discovered. I’m curious how it can all happen so quickly.’

      ‘And I’m curious as to why you’re curious in the first place!’ Desperation was beginning to lace itself in between the panic but the option of returning to her room was now non existent after the tarantula episode.

      ‘Because it’s out of character,’ Gabriel told her. ‘And anything that out of character can’t be right.’

      ‘You think you know me, but you don’t,’ Rose muttered, half truthfully because he sure as heck didn’t know how she felt about him.

      ‘You mean you’ve always hopped into bed with men you’ve only known for a couple of hours?’

      ‘I haven’t hopped into bed with anybody!’ Rose objected and immediately regretted her talent for telling the truth when she saw him smile smugly.

      ‘Now, that’s more like my Rose.’ Some men knew women and Gabriel was one of them. Women loathed being stereotyped. Rose might be sharper, cleverer, funnier and a damn sight more on the ball than the women he had always dated in the past, but she was still a woman. And a woman he wanted. Increasingly. Everything about her had been getting to him recently and lying on a mattress next to her, admittedly under some pretty weird conditions, was not conducive to his attraction abating.

      Every primitive instinct in him reared into ferocious life. He had never felt anything like it before. His need to have her, right here and right now, was overwhelming. Accustomed as he was to being in control, the sensation of suddenly being swept along on a roller coaster ride of desire was strangely erotic.

      ‘Because I’m dull?’ Rose snapped.

      ‘Anything but.’

      ‘I haven’t slept with Joe because we’re still in the process of getting to know one another.’ She wondered how this situation fitted in with her getting to know another man. And, never mind the situation, how her feelings of suppressed excitement at lying next to Gabriel fitted in with her plans for moving forward with her life, trying on a bit of healthy dating for size. How was she ever going to progress any relationship with a man if her body was still so stubbornly and frantically aware of her boss? How? ‘I don’t believe in rushing into things. Not if they’re to last.’

      ‘And you think what you and some man you’ve spoken to a couple of times have is going to last?’

      ‘Why not?’ Rose said defensively. She was finding it impossible to tear her eyes away from him and the soft, lazy drawl of his voice seemed to drown out the chaos of the weather outside. How was that possible? she wondered. And how was it fair?

      ‘All relationships have to start somewhere,’ she whispered. She turned away abruptly and lay on her back, staring upwards at the ceiling. He hadn’t laid a finger on her but he might as well have, because her body was responding to his proximity with a mind of its own. Her breasts ached and the moistness between her legs was a shameful reminder of how insanely attracted she was to him. She knew that she was breathing heavily and quickly but she didn’t care because it was a feat in itself to have broken the mesmerising spell of his gaze.

      ‘No