Assignment: Baby. Jessica Hart

      ‘What’s wrong with it?’ he said stiffly.

      ‘Nothing, if you think cuddling means holding someone at arm’s length and shaking them up and down.’

      ‘I didn’t realise you were such an expert,’ he said with a snide look.

      ‘I’m not,’ she said, ‘but I know how I like to be held.’

      She didn’t have to say that it wouldn’t be the way he would hold her. ‘Perhaps you should give lessons,’ snapped Gabriel, unaccountably provoked. He could imagine her doing it, too, with the same cold efficiency she did everything else. No doubt she would allot special cuddling windows in her diary and keep one eye firmly on the clock to make sure they didn’t run over schedule.

      ‘Lessons would be extra,’ Tess snapped back, ‘and I’m already on double overtime this evening.’

      ‘Don’t worry, I hadn’t forgotten,’ said Gabriel sourly.

      Grudgingly, he held Harry a little closer and walked up and down in what he hoped was a soothing manner. Not that it made the slightest difference to the volume of the baby’s crying. So much for Tess and her advice on cuddling.

      ‘What’s taking so long?’ he demanded at last, breaking the hostile silence. ‘It’s only milk, isn’t it? Anyone would think you were preparing a five-course meal.’

      Tess gritted her teeth. ‘I’m being as quick as I can. I’ve got to check the temperature before I can give it to him.’

      Craning her neck to refer to her scribbled notes, she shook the bottle and upended it to squeeze a few drops of milk onto the inside of her wrist. It felt just warm, but not hot, just as Bella had said it should.

      Relieved, Tess looked around for somewhere to sit, but it wasn’t the kind of kitchen designed to be cluttered up with tables where you could read the paper, drink coffee, let things pile up and generally gather mess. The chairs set perfectly around the glass dining table looked downright uncomfortable, and in the end she sat down a little dubiously on one of the cream sofas.

      ‘OK, let’s try him with this.’

      Gabriel handed a bawling Harry over with relief. Tess pretended not to notice when their hands brushed, and concentrated on presenting the baby with the bottle. Fortunately, Harry knew more about bottle-feeding than she did and, once he recognised the teat, he soon settled into sucking.

      Their sniping momentarily forgotten, Tess and Gabriel watched warily, and were just allowing themselves to relax when he coughed and choked milk down the front of his Babygro. Too late, Tess remembered the bibs that had been tucked in a bag with the nappies.

      ‘What’s happening?’ said Gabriel.

      ‘I don’t know, do I?’ Tess sat Harry upright and patted his back, which seemed to be the right thing to do, for he stopped spluttering. Cautiously, she let him have the bottle again. ‘I’d no idea what a tense business it was looking after a baby.’ She sighed.

      ‘Me neither,’ Gabriel agreed with feeling. He had taken off his jacket and was standing at the glass table, loosening his tie with one hand and pulling papers from his briefcase with the other. ‘Give me executive stress any day!’

      ‘I wouldn’t have thought that was something you suffered from,’ said Tess and Gabriel glanced up at her with a frown.

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘No one could call your management style relaxed,’ she pointed out, thinking of the last frantic weeks putting the Emery bid together. ‘You only seem to operate under high pressure.’ She bent her head back over the peacefully suckling baby. ‘I’m surprised you even know what executive stress is!’

      ‘Of course I know what it is,’ said Gabriel irritably. ‘I hear my executives whining about it often enough! It’s not something I’ve got a lot of time for, I admit.’

      ‘Not everyone thrives under pressure the way you do,’ said Tess. ‘You have no idea what it’s like to work in an office where the pace is relentless, where the boss storms around making unreasonable demands of his staff and everything always has to be done yesterday.’

      Gabriel’s fearsome brows twitched together. Looking up from his papers again, he found his gaze resting on her bent head, the brown hair caught the light and gleaming with gold, reminding him of her eyes. He could see the pure line of her cheek, the downward sweep of lashes, that small but stubborn chin.

      He wrenched his eyes away. ‘It doesn’t seem to bother you.’

      Tess glanced up briefly and then away. ‘I cope with it,’ she said. ‘That doesn’t mean I like it.’

      ‘You don’t have to like it,’ said Gabriel, reverting to his brusque manner to disguise the sensation that had stirred so strangely inside him as he watched her cradling the baby in her arms. ‘You just have to do the job you’re paid to do, and that’s helping me put the Emery bid together. Once we get that in, you can start worrying about stress! Until then, we’ve got better things to do.’

      He glanced at his watch. ‘We ought to be able to get quite a bit done tonight. I’ve got to redraft the introduction, and I want you to cross-check every single figure we put forward. There’s going to be some stiff competition for this contract, and we can’t afford to look sloppy.’

      ‘You want me to check figures tonight?’ said Tess incredulously.

      ‘I am paying you overtime,’ Gabriel reminded her.

      ‘For helping you with Harry!’

      He brushed that aside. ‘Since you’re here, you might as well help me with the bid, too. There’s no TV, no books. There’s just you, me, and a whole heap of paperwork. What else is there for us to do this evening, after all?’

      The sardonic note in his voice brought a flush to Tess’s cheeks. Most men and women could find something better to do with an evening alone together, but she and Gabriel didn’t have that kind of relationship, did they? They might be alone in his apartment with the whole night ahead of them, but he was still her boss and she was still his PA.

      ‘In the circumstances, nothing,’ she agreed stiffly.

      ‘You don’t have to help,’ said Gabriel with an indifferent shrug. ‘It’s up to you if you want to lose your job.’

      Tess’s head jerked up and she stared icily at him. ‘Is that a threat?’

      ‘No, it’s not a threat.’ Gabriel’s voice was flat and hard and as cold as her own. ‘It’s reality. We need this contract. If we don’t get it, I’m going to have to reconsider my investment in SpaceWorks. In that case, the company will fold, and your job with it. It’s as simple as that. Contraxa is a leader in its field, and our reputation depends on consistent quality and success. We can’t afford to be associated with failures, even in a minor division.’

      Tess knew that what he said was true, but she couldn’t help bridling at his casual dismissal of the company where she had worked so loyally for over ten years. SpaceWorks was more than a minor division! ‘I wonder you bothered with us at all if we’re that unimportant!’ she said tightly.

      ‘Because I believe in taking risks to get what you want,’ said Gabriel. He dropped the last of the papers from his briefcase onto the table where they landed with a dull slap. ‘SpaceWorks isn’t important now, but it’s got the potential to be very important indeed. If my gamble pays off, it will give me the toe-hold I need to expand into Europe. It’s a global market now, Tess. You’ve got to stay ahead of the game, and you don’t do that by playing safe.’

      ‘Sometimes playing safe is the only option.’ Tess sighed a little, thinking of Andrew with still another year to go before he finished his education. ‘Some of us have got commitments. We can’t all afford to take risks.’

      ‘That’s why I avoid making commitments,’