Exposed: Misbehaving with the Magnate (2 page)

Josien turned her head and slowly, slowly, she opened her eyes, focussing first on Luc, and then on Gabrielle standing awkwardly beside him. With a swiftly indrawn breath, Josien closed her eyes and turned away.

Gabrielle felt the sting of bitter tears welling in her own eyes but she blinked them away, and made herself speak even though her words would come out ragged and choked. ‘Hello,
Maman
.’

‘You shouldn’t have come.’ Josien kept her face averted.

‘So people keep telling me.’ Luc’s face, when
Gabrielle glanced his way, was as hard and unyielding as the stones from which the chateau had been built. ‘I hear you’ve been unwell.’

‘Ce ne’est rien,’
said Josien. ‘It’s nothing.’

It didn’t look like nothing. Luc had been right. Her mother looked frail. ‘I brought you a gift.’ Gabrielle reached into her bag for the album of photos she’d put together so painstakingly. Rafe would kill her if he knew how many photos of him she’d included in the mix, but he didn’t know and she wasn’t about to tell him. ‘I thought you might like to know what Rafe and I have been doing these past seven years. We bought a broken vineyard,
Maman,
and brought it back to life. We’ve done so well. Rafe’s a brilliant businessman. You should be proud of him.’

Josien said nothing and Gabrielle felt her lips tighten. So what if Rafael had eventually gone as far away from Josien and this place as he could get? That was what people did when raised on a diet of scathing criticism interspersed with icy indifference. Rafe had never deserved any of the treatment Josien had dealt him. He really hadn’t. ‘I’ll leave it here on the end of the bed in case you want to look at it some time.’

‘Take it and go.’

Yeah, well. That was what you got when you believed in tooth fairies, happily ever after, and mothers who actually cared. ‘I’ve taken a room in the village,
Maman
. I’ll be in the area these next few weeks. I know you’re tired right now but maybe when you’re feeling better you could give me a call. Here.’ She fished a business card from her handbag. ‘I’ll leave you my number.’ Gabrielle’s words were met with more
silence. Gabrielle bit her lip—praying for one pain to subdue another, but Josien’s rejection had cut too deep. She should never have come here. She should have listened to Rafe and to Luc instead of listening to her heart. ‘So…’ Gabrielle felt the world sway, and then Luc’s hand was beneath her elbow, fragile purchase against the darkness threatening to engulf her.

‘Jet lag,’ murmured Luc. It wasn’t jet lag causing her to sway and they both knew it, but he afforded her the courtesy of an excuse for her body’s reaction and Gabrielle seized it.

‘Yes. It’s been a long day.’

‘Wait for me outside,’ he said as he gently shepherded her towards the door. ‘It’s about to get longer.’

Luc waited until the door clicked closed behind Gabrielle before turning to the woman in the bed. Josien Alexander was an enchantingly beautiful woman and always had been. Coolly unfathomable, she ran the housekeeping staff at the chateau with an iron fist and no second chances. She’d raised her children the same way. Luc had bowed to Josien’s will all those years ago because he’d seen the sense in sending Gabrielle away, but he saw no sense in Josien’s actions now. All he saw was pain.

Josien’s eyes were still closed as Luc strode back towards the bed but he didn’t need her eyes, only her ears. ‘My father told me of our duty to you before he died,’ he said grimly. ‘I’ve done my utmost to honour it. I’ve tried my damnedest to make allowances for your behaviour, Josien, but, so help me, if you don’t make time for your daughter while she’s here you can
pack your bags and leave this place the minute your health allows it. Do you hear me, Josien?’

Josien nodded, tears tracking noiselessly down her cheeks, and Luc struggled to contain his frustration and his fury. ‘You’ve never been able to see it, have you? No matter how badly you wound them or how hard you try to push them away…you just don’t get it.’ He looked at the photo album and his roiling emotions coalesced into a tight ball of anger directed squarely at the woman in the bed, no matter how fragile or beautiful she was. ‘You’ve never been able to see how much your children love you.’

Luc caught up with Gabrielle halfway along the hallway. He needed a drink. The thorn he’d never quite managed to extricate from his side looked as if she needed one too. ‘In here,’ he told her, and ushered her into the library that doubled on occasion as his formal office space, usually when he entertained clients and wanted to impress. ‘Where are you staying?’ he asked as he headed for the bar, reached for the brandy and poured generously.

‘In the village,’ she replied, careful not to let her fingers brush his as she took the half full glass from his outstretched hand and downed it in a single gulp. ‘Thanks.’ Her gaze went to the label on the bottle and her eyes widened. ‘What…? For heaven’s sake, Luc! This stuff has to be at least a hundred years old and expensive enough to make even you wince. You might
warn
a person before you handed it to them. I could try
tasting
it next time.’

‘Where in the village?’ He poured her another shot. She could taste it now.

‘I took a room above the old flour mill.’

‘I’ll have someone collect your bags,’ he told her curtly and downed his own brandy before setting the glass back on the counter somewhat more forcefully than necessary. Gabrielle flinched at the sound. She looked jittery, strung out. She looked like he felt. ‘You can stay here,’ he told her. ‘There’s room enough.’

But Gabrielle shook her head. ‘I can’t,’ she said with a stubborn tilt to her chin that he remembered of old. ‘You heard her.’ Gabrielle smiled bitterly and swirled the brandy in her glass. ‘She doesn’t want me here.’

‘When last I checked,’ he said, his voice deceptively mild, ‘Luc, not Josien, was master of Caverness. There’s room for you here. There’s no need for you to stay in the village. Simone, I’m sure, will be glad of your company.’

‘And you?’ Gabrielle lowered the glass from her lips, and pinned him with a grey-eyed gaze that held more than a hint of pain. ‘Will you be glad of my company too? There was a time when you couldn’t wait for me to leave.’

‘You were
sixteen
, Gabrielle. And if you don’t know the reason behind my encouraging you to finish growing up elsewhere then you’re not nearly as smart as I thought you were. One more week and I’d have had you naked beneath me. In your bed or mine or halfway up the stairs, I wouldn’t have cared,’ he said bluntly. ‘And neither would you.’

He’d surprised her. Shocked her. He could see it in her eyes. ‘Well, then…glad we cleared that up.’ She took another sip of her brandy and set her glass care
fully on the bench, as if even that small motion took up all of her control. ‘I suppose I should thank you.’

But she didn’t.

‘I lost my virginity to a handsome Australian farm boy when I was nineteen,’ she said in a low, ragged voice. ‘He was charming, and funny, and he made my pulse race and my body ache for more of him. He was everything a girl could wish for when it came to her first time, and it still wasn’t enough.’ Gabrielle headed for the door. Luc stood rooted to the spot. ‘I’ll be staying at the old flour mill for the next three weeks. If you could send word to me if my mother’s condition changes, I’d be very grateful.’

‘Why wasn’t it enough?’ Luc’s throat felt tight, the words came out raspy, but he had to know. ‘Gabrielle, why did he disappoint you?’

He didn’t think she was going to answer, but then she turned as she reached the door and speared him with a glance that held more than its share of self-mockery. ‘I really don’t know. Maybe he just wasn’t you.’

Luc waited until she’d shut the door behind her before he let his curses fly. He was a man who took pride in his self control. He’d worked hard for it; fought against his deepest nature to secure it. Only one woman had ever made him lose it. The results had been disastrous for all concerned. Josien had been hysterical, his father aghast, and Gabrielle…innocent, trusting Gabrielle had been exiled.

She’d lost her virginity to a handsome Australian.

Fury roared through him as he picked up his glass and flung it at the fireplace, his temper only marginally appeased when the glass exploded in a burst of glittering crystal shards.

‘Y
OU
shouldn’t have said that.’ Gabrielle had a habit of talking to herself whenever she felt stressed. She’d been talking to herself ever since she’d set foot back in France. Her footsteps made a crunching sound as she hurried across the gravel courtyard towards her hire car, every step taking her further away from Caverness and the people in it. She needed to leave before she broke down completely. She needed to leave this place
now
.

Gabrielle made it back to the village without mishap. She drove on the correct side of the road and didn’t lose her way. She even observed the speed limit. And when she got to the old mill house she locked herself inside her room before finally giving in to weariness and sinking back on the bed with her forearm across her eyes, as if by blocking her sight she could block out the memory of her conversation with Lucien. ‘You should
not
have said that.’

It had been seven years since she’d last seen Luc. Seven years of complete indifference on his part. No phone calls, no letters, no contact. Not once. A sixteen-year-old girl had deduced from Luc’s actions that he’d
simply been playing with her when he’d kissed her all those years ago. That the housekeeper’s daughter had meant nothing to him.

Not once, not
once
, had it ever occurred to her that Luc had been trying to protect her from a relationship she’d been nowhere near ready for.

Still wasn’t ready for if her recent reaction to him was anything to go by.

So she had money behind her now, and self-esteem, and a good deal more to offer a man on an intellectual level. That still didn’t equip her to deal with the likes of Luc Duvalier. Luc, whose brooding black gaze could make her forget every ounce of self-preservation she’d ever learned.

How many minutes in his company had it taken her to test the strength of her physical reaction to him? Two minutes, or had it been three? How long had it taken her to lay herself bare for him? Telling him that her first lover had been a disappointment to her. Gabrielle groaned and rolled over onto her side, burying her head in a pillow and pulling the blue chenille bedspread around her for comfort. What kind of woman told a man that?

A woman who’d never quite forgotten the ecstasy and the agony of a single stolen kiss, said a voice that would not be silenced.

A woman who’d known all along that no one at Caverness would bid her welcome and mean it.

A fool.

Luc didn’t usually wait impatiently for his sister to return home from her work, but this day he did, seeking Simone out in the kitchen, never mind the box of fresh
fruit and vegetables in her arms or the fact that she hadn’t yet managed to put the box down.

‘
Bonjour
, brother of mine,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I come bearing good food and even better news. The sales figures are finally in and we,’ she said, setting the bags on the counter with a flourish, ‘had a
very
good quarter.’

‘Congratulations,’ he said, but something in his voice must have alerted Simone to his turmoil for she turned sharply, set the box down on the bench, and took her time looking him over.

‘Something’s wrong,’ she said warily. ‘What is it?’

‘Josien had a visitor this afternoon.’

‘Who?’

‘Gabrielle.’

Luc watched his sister’s face light up with wry resignation. Simone and Gabrielle had been close as children. Closer than sisters, never mind the huge gap in social standing between them. ‘Gaby is here?’ asked Simone. ‘Here as in here at the chateau? Where?’

‘Here as in staying in the village, and before you start in on my manners, yes, I offered her a room, which she declined. Dammit, Simone! Why didn’t you warn me that you’d sent for her? And why the hell didn’t you tell Josien?’

Simone’s expression grew guarded. ‘I left a message on Gaby’s answering machine saying her mother was ill. That’s all I did. What was there to tell?’

‘You knew she’d come,’ muttered Luc darkly.

‘I thought she’d call first.’

‘Well, she didn’t.’

‘So what happened?’ asked Simone warily.

Luc gave it to his sister straight. ‘Josien wouldn’t talk to her. Wouldn’t even look at her.’

A barrage of swear words followed his announcement, none of them becoming to a lady. ‘So then what happened?’ demanded Simone. ‘Did
you
make Gabrielle feel welcome?’

‘Sort of.’

‘Sort of? For heaven’s sake, Luc, you’re a grown man! Would it have killed you to behave like one?’

‘I did behave like one,’ he said grimly.

Simone halted, midway between the fridge and the counter. ‘Oh, hell,’ she said. ‘You still want her.’

Luc didn’t deny it. What he didn’t reveal to his sister was just how intense his desire for Gabrielle had been. He’d barely been able to control it. And he needed to. ‘Gabrielle needs a friend right now, Simone, and it can’t be me,’ he said gruffly. ‘I don’t want to do wrong by her again.’

Simone’s gaze softened. ‘Dear heart,’ she said. ‘The way I remember it, you’ve never done Gaby wrong. Others have—most certainly they have. But not you.’

‘You’re a little biased,’ he said.

Simone smiled. ‘Only a little.’

‘She’s staying at the old mill house,’ he offered next and exhaled his relief as his sister upended a wicker basket full of oranges onto the counter and hastily started refilling it with a variety of foodstuffs from the refrigerator. ‘You’re going after her?’

‘Of course I’m going after her,’ said Simone. ‘Isn’t that what you want? Somebody has to make her feel welcome.’

Gabrielle woke to the sound of vigorous pounding on her door. She sat up with a groan, slung her legs over the side of the bed, and pushed the heavy fall of dark curls from her face before checking her wristwatch for the time. Eight p.m. French time and the early hours of the morning by Australian reckoning. She’d slept for almost three hours. Now she’d never get back to sleep for the night. ‘Who is it?’

‘Simone,’ said yet another voice from her past, albeit a voice currently heavy with impatience. Gabrielle went to the door and unlocked it gingerly before swinging it open. She didn’t know if she could cope with any more blasts from the past today. Between them, Luc and Josien had proved quite sufficient. She stared for a moment at the elegant raven-haired beauty in the navy-blue suit, trying to reconcile the image of cool sophistication standing before her with the hoyden that had been Simone. And then she saw the magnum of champagne in the woman’s left hand and the basket full of delicacies at her feet and knew that the hoyden was alive and well beneath those daunting designer clothes.

‘Look at you, sleepyhead,’ said Simone, and Gabrielle found herself enclosed in a warm and perfumed embrace. ‘I couldn’t believe it when Luc told me you’d come home. Why didn’t you call me? I’d have picked you up from the airport. I’d have made all the arrangements. Oh, look at you!’ Tears gathered in Simone’s expressive brown eyes. ‘I always knew you’d grow to be even more beautiful than your mother. It was always there. In your eyes; and in your heart.’ Simone pulled back. ‘Luc told me what happened with Josien,
Gaby. I could
strangle
her. Josien
did
call for you, I swear she did. I thought she wanted to make amends. I’d have never left that message for you otherwise. Never.’

‘I know,’ said Gabrielle. ‘I knew my welcome would probably be somewhat…cool. But I came anyway. You must think I’m crazy.’

‘No,’ said Simone gently. ‘Not crazy. Hopeful. I made us a picnic,’ she said, stepping back to the door to retrieve her basket. ‘And I don’t care where we eat it.’ She hefted the magnum up to eye level to reveal the label. ‘The day you left I stole two bottles of our oldest and finest and hid them in the caves. I swore on my sainted mother’s grave that the day you returned we would drink one of them. Of course, I never expected you to stay away so
long
. What kept you?’

Gabrielle felt her lips curve, she couldn’t help it. Finally, a welcome without restraint. ‘I was busy growing up and carving out a life for myself in Australia,’ she said dryly. ‘And I want to know what you’re saving the second bottle for.’

‘You’ll see,’ said Simone. ‘About this picnic…Shall we eat it here on the bed or shall we dine somewhere where we can see the clouds? We could head for our old picnic spot.’

‘So we could.’ Gabrielle eyed Simone’s attire sceptically. ‘You look every bit the successful businesswoman you always vowed you’d be, but are you sure you’ll be able to walk up the track in those shoes without breaking your neck?’

Simone looked down at her stiletto-clad feet and frowned. ‘You’re right. I really hadn’t thought this
through. Luc shoved me out of the house so fast I forgot to change clothes.’ She stared at the small double bed, then cast her eye around the poky little room. ‘I lied. I do care where we eat and this isn’t the place. We’ll have to go back to Caverness so I can change clothes.’

‘No,’ said Gabrielle hastily. ‘No way. I’m sorry, Simone. I’ll meet you up at our picnic spot if you like, but I’ve had enough of Caverness for one day.’ If Gabrielle went back to the chateau right now she’d only start throwing things again. Namely herself. At Luc.

‘It’s just a house,’ said Simone, and, at Gabrielle’s level stare, ‘Okay, a castle. A very big castle.’

‘No.’

‘I’ll smuggle you in and smuggle you out,’ said Simone. ‘Just like the old days. No one will ever know.’

‘Luc would know.’ He’d always known.

‘All right then,’ said Simone. ‘Let’s approach this like rational, sensible, intelligent women. I’ll just borrow your clothes and get changed here.’

‘I like it,’ said Gabrielle. ‘But I’m warning you I shopped for clothes in Singapore on the way over and had to sit on my suitcases to get them to shut. There’s wreckage within those cases that I’m not sure you’re ready for. There’s chaos in there that I’m not sure
I’m
ready for.’

‘Unleash it,’ said Simone, and released the champagne cork quietly and without spilling a drop of the precious liquid. ‘I live for chaos.’ Setting the magnum on the bedside table, Simone began to rummage through the basket at her feet. ‘I could have sworn I put some
champagne flutes in here somewhere. Special picnic ones.’

‘Plastic ones?’ said Gabrielle.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Simone. ‘Heathen. Where have you been
living
these past seven years? Ah, here they are.’ She brandished them aloft with a flourish. ‘Not plastic. Polish crystal. Perfectly shaped, beautifully balanced, and as delicately made as petals on a rose.
Plastic
champagne flutes,’ muttered Simone with a shudder as she filled the two glasses and handed one to Gabrielle. ‘God help us and welcome home.’

They ate atop the highest hill in the area, surrounded by grapevines and with the rooftops of the chateau spread out below them, and, in the distance, the rooftops and church spires of the village.

‘What will you do while you’re here?’ asked Simone after the last crumbs of cheese had been nibbled and the last sliver of pâté had been devoured. ‘Luc said you planned to stay in the area for a few weeks.’

Gabrielle nodded. ‘I came here on business as well as to see
Maman
. Rafe and I make wine these days.’

‘Oh?’ said Simone, her voice a little too offhand to actually
be
offhand. ‘What kind of wine?’

‘Cabernet sauvignon, mostly, and some cabernet merlot. For the high end of the market and worth every cent. We’re looking to extend our export opportunities into Europe and set up a distribution arm. It makes sense to look for premises in the place we know best.’

‘Rafael wishes to return?’ said Simone.

‘No. Not Rafe. Just me.’

‘Oh.’

‘Don’t sound so disappointed.’ Gabrielle slid Simone a sideways glance.

‘I’m not disappointed,’ said Simone with a toss of her head. ‘Not at all. I’m just…curious. What kind of operations base are you looking for? Business premises or residential property?’

‘Both.’

‘With or without land attached?’

‘Depends on the land,’ said Gabrielle. ‘Why?’

‘The old Hammerschmidt vineyard is on the market,’ said Simone. ‘The vines are in a dreadful state, the winemaking equipment is fifty years out of date, and the house needs a lot of attention, but the cellars are good and the location is excellent. Luc’s been looking into acquiring it.’

‘Really?’ said Gabrielle dryly. ‘And you’re telling me this why?’

‘Because it would probably suit your purposes.’

‘If it did I’d be in direct competition for the property with Luc.’

‘Really?’ said Simone airily. ‘Could be fun.’

‘For whom?’ said Gabrielle. ‘Seriously, Simone, I appreciate your help but where’s your sense of family duty? Your loyalty to Luc and to your family business? There was a time you put loyalty to family before your own happiness. Where did
that
Simone go?’

Simone’s expression grew shuttered. ‘That Simone grew up to regret not holding tight to her happiness with both hands. I’m older now. Wiser.’

‘Trickier,’ murmured Gabrielle.

‘That too.’ Simone sipped at her champagne and stared at the valley spread out before her, half of which
she owned. ‘So how is he?’ she said tentatively. ‘Rafael.’

‘Driven,’ said Gabrielle with a wry twist of her lips.

‘Is he happy?’

‘I really don’t know.’

‘Is he married?’

‘No.’ Gabrielle took pity on her childhood friend and gave her the information she sought. ‘He’s had a few relationships over the years. Less than he could have had. Nothing he ever put before his work.’ Gabrielle sipped at her champagne. ‘He’s building an empire,’ she said softly. ‘Proving his worth, over and over, to a mother who never loved him, an heiress who wouldn’t believe in him, and a best friend who didn’t support him.’

‘That’s not a fair call, Gabrielle.’ Simone’s voice was low and tight. ‘It wasn’t like that.’

‘I know,’ said Gabrielle. ‘And on an intellectual level, Rafe would agree with you. He knows Luc’s hands were tied when it came to setting up in business with him. He’s quite capable of admitting that you and he were far too young to be thinking about marriage, let alone eloping to Australia. He
says
he works like a dog because he enjoys it. But if you ask me—and you did—the real reason he works so hard is that the ghosts from his childhood won’t let him stop.’