Boardrooms of Power. Heidi Betts

his hand under her T-shirt so that he could touch her right here and now, in the middle of the garden and in sight of whoever happened to be around.

      ‘You’re wearing a bra,’ he murmured into her ear. ‘Very bad. In this hot weather, the constriction to the blood circulation could be downright dangerous.’

      Rose laughed huskily. ‘Would you recommend that I take it off?’

      ‘Without further ado. Right now, in fact.’

      Rose went red and looked around her. Daring and sexy was fine in the safety of a dark room at night, but daring and sexy in the middle of the day, in full view of spectators, was a different matter.

      ‘There’s no one around,’ Gabriel drawled, placing both hands on her bottom and grinding her against him. ‘In fact, you could wear your birthday suit here safe in the knowledge that you would be free from prying eyes.’

      ‘What about Wilson and the other chap who was with him?’

      ‘Gone. And because we’re on a hill top, we have a commanding view of anyone coming up, not that anyone’s likely to. They’ll all be too busy cleaning up after the storm. They’ll have put their binoculars away for the moment.’ He slid his hands up, under her T-shirt, and efficiently unclasped her bra. When he saw her shocked expression, he grinned wickedly. ‘Not something else you haven’t tried, Rose?’

      ‘There isn’t much opportunity to strip off in my back garden,’ she told him, ‘not unless you want an audience.’

      ‘So you’ve never made love in a public place?’

      ‘No!’

      ‘Close your eyes.’

      ‘What?’

      ‘Close them and go with the flow…’

      She did, helplessly allowing him to pull her T-shirt over her head, followed by the circulation-constricting bra. The warm sun felt wonderful against her bare skin, as did Gabriel’s sudden intake of breath as he looked at her abundant breasts.

      There were a million things he should be doing. For starters, he needed to go into the town, find the local bar and a telephone point so that he could connect to the outside world and start doing some work. Life in London hadn’t ground to a halt because there had been a spot of bad weather on an island halfway across the Atlantic.

      He also needed to start thinking about doing some basic clearing up. The workmen would take care of the outside, but he would have to ascertain what kind of damage had been done, if any, to the interior of the villa, see what would be covered by insurance and start working on it.

      On the other hand…

      He could, as he had advised her to do, go with the flow…

      What harm was there in playing truant for a day or two? When such irresistible delicacies were on offer?

      ‘Of course, if you’re going to enjoy the sunshine, you’re going to have to apply some sun cream.’ His eyes blazed across her bare breasts, sending a shudder of electric awareness zinging through her. ‘Why don’t we have a look around the grounds, just make sure that nothing too immediate needs to be seen to, and then we can take some lunch down to the beach? See what damage has been done there. Hmm?’ The irresistible delicacies were too powerful a temptation and Gabriel flicked his thumbs over the pert nipples. Rose felt her breath catch.

      ‘Good idea,’ she croaked.

      ‘And I’ll take my shirt off as well, to keep you company. Now we’ll both need to apply the sun cream…’

      Rose thought that the trip was developing into some kind of wonderful, surreal experience. Having sun cream smoothed over her bare breasts by Gabriel was beyond even her wildest imaginings, and she had had a few of those over the years. She didn’t have an idea where the experience would take her but, for the first time in her life, she was living in the moment and for the moment and relishing every second of it.

      They strolled around the grounds, which had been damaged by the high winds, but not substantially so. Gabriel pointed out what would need to be done and filled her in on his plans for the place, pointing out what was intended to go where, asking her what she would choose for this place or that place, seemingly interested in everything she had to say.

      Her own private preferences spilled over into her professional advice. How could she remain the consummate secretary when she had slept with her boss and was now walking side by side with him in nothing more than a slip of a skirt? How could she be clipped and businesslike when every so often, as though he couldn’t help himself, he would turn to her and kiss her, then touch her breasts, caress them, tease her pouting nipples into peaks? Impossible.

      And the scene was almost domestic when they prepared a light lunch together to take down to the beach. They chatted as though they had known each other for years, as indeed they had, Rose reflected. Four years of picking up all the bits and pieces that comprised someone’s personality. They had never shared an intimate moment in all those years, but she still felt as though she knew him intimately and she was surprised how much he knew her even though she had never allowed him entry into her private life.

      The beach was much as they had both expected. On the walk down, Gabriel pointed his plans for converting the rocky ledge halfway down into a sunbathing patio.

      ‘With the perfect view of calm blue sea,’ he said.

      ‘Provided the calm blue sea decides to behave itself.’ She had become used to her breasts being bared to the sunshine. It felt wonderfully free. Ahead of her, Gabriel was holding a makeshift box in which they had packed some corned beef sandwiches, some water and a packet of biscuits. It was the best they could rummage up at short notice, not that he seemed to mind. For someone who could afford caviar and champagne on a starched linen cloth with a butler to pour, Gabriel seemed surprisingly happy with the scant offerings from the cupboard.

      Rose thought that no picnic could have been better. Even the clutter of branches and coconuts on the beach, not to mention the seaweed and coral that had been dredged up from the storm, was enough to ruin the perfection of the experience.

      They had managed to unearth a huge blanket of sorts from a cupboard that contained various assorted items of linen, presumably used by the workmen. To Rose, this was as close to paradise as she could possibly get.

      ‘Now,’ Gabriel said, settling down next to her on the blanket, ‘I think there’s still a spot of sun lotion to be applied considering you’ll have to take off that very impractical skirt you’re wearing.’

      He whipped the sun lotion out of the box and squirted a generous amount on to the palms of his hands. Rose gave herself over to the smell of the salty air, the warmth of the sun and the expertise of Gabriel’s hands as he stroked the cream onto her breasts, paying a disproportionate amount of attention to her nipples, which were standing stiff and erect. She felt like a luxuriating cat. Whenever she stirred, he told her to lie back and relax. He needed her, he told her huskily, to remain perfectly still if he was to do a thorough job.

      ‘And close your eyes,’ he commanded. His need to possess her, mentally and physically, was overpowering. He worked his way down her stomach, massaging the cream into her skin. She was silky-soft and warm from the sun.

      But this time, before he could get her to that mindless point of no return, Rose scrambled up and pushed him back on to the blanket.

      ‘I’m going to make love to you this time,’ she told him. ‘You’ll do everything I tell you to do…and the first thing is to keep absolutely still…so that I can rub this lotion over every inch of you…’

      Rose thought that she could easily get used to making love in a public place, or at least in a deserted cove on an island in the middle of the blue ocean. With this man. The man she loved and always would love to the ends of the earth.

      She didn’t want to think beyond the feel of the blanket under her, the sound of the sea, gentle and docile now as it lapped against the sand, the sensation of the