Exposed: Misbehaving with the Magnate (11 page)

‘You know, you sound just like him.’ Gabrielle eyed him suspiciously. ‘Have you and Rafe been communing by bat phone again?’

‘No.’ Luc shook his head and his hands stilled. ‘I like what you and your brother have built with the Angels Landing wines, Gabrielle. I respect your plans to expand into the European market. But from a purely business perspective there are other ways to achieve the same result. You’d be far better off hooking into someone else’s storage and distribution facilities for a while and building your brand before committing to such a large outlay.’

‘I know,’ she said. It felt good to talk this over with Luc, even if they were potentially vying for the same
piece of land. ‘I guess I just liked the old place. Nothing to do with business, I know, but it had a nice feel about it. It felt right.’ She set her hands to Luc’s bare chest and shuddered at the pleasure the contact afforded her. ‘Try running that one past Rafe.’

‘If you did purchase Hammerschmidt would Rafe return and make it a viable vineyard?’

‘Rafe won’t return,’ said Gabrielle. ‘Not to live. He’d definitely want it viable but he loves Australia. He’s accepted there. Harrison—’ Gabrielle took a deep breath ‘—Rafe’s father gives him a lot of support. Harrison owns grazing property rather than vineyards but he’s thrilled by Rafe’s progress. He takes an interest. He holds a stake in the business. They get along well.’

‘Would Harrison consider a move to Hammerschmidt to oversee the vineyard’s renewal?’

Gabrielle hadn’t considered that option before. ‘He might, but again he has his own properties to run. There’s really only me. I’ve worked alongside Rafe for seven years, Luc. You don’t think I could bring that old vineyard back to life?’

‘Could you?’

‘Yes. With guidance I dare say I could. Although probably not as quickly as you could. I’d have to do it in stages. Buying the place would clean us out. There’d be very little money left for renovation.’

‘You’d live in the house?’

‘I’d reclaim some of the house, to start with, so I could live in it. As for the rest…I really don’t know what I’d do with the rest.’

‘You’re not alone there,’ he said wryly. ‘I haven’t
quite figured out what use the house would be to me either. Perhaps for Simone…perhaps we need to consider who would live where if one of us ever married.’

Gabrielle’s hands stilled along with the rest of her body. He felt her sudden tension, damned if he didn’t. ‘Is that likely in the near future?’

‘I don’t know,’ he murmured, lifting his gaze from her body to her face, his eyes intent and his face carefully composed. ‘Is it?’

‘What do you mean?’ Gabrielle shied away from the notion that Luc was considering her for marriage. She didn’t want the role or the duties that went with it. She only wanted Luc. ‘Are you asking me if I would want to live here as your wife?’

‘Would you?’ he said quietly. ‘Could you be comfortable living here as my wife?’

With Josien as housekeeper? With the pressure to fit into the upper echelons of society here? She, the lowly housekeeper’s daughter? ‘No,’ she said raggedly. ‘Not without a lot of adjustments that I’m not sure I have the ability to make. I can be your lover, Lucien. But I wouldn’t make you a good wife.’

‘Why not? Because you don’t want to be or because you think others wouldn’t like it?’ He didn’t sound angry, more curious.

‘It’s complicated,’ she said.

‘Not that complicated,’ he countered. ‘You know the chateau and you know the House of Duvalier business.’

‘From the point of view of a child,’ she reminded him. ‘The child of a servant.’

‘Employee,’ he said curtly. ‘Josien’s an employee. Yes, she retreated to Caverness with two young children in tow when her marriage to Harrison didn’t work out. Yes, she took on the role of housekeeper, but even then I wonder if she didn’t play the part to spite her prince more than anything else. She knows more about society protocols and the smooth running of a chateau than any princess I know. She’s been offered more domestic management positions than I can count. Men have tried to court her—rich and poor and titled as well. She owns three apartments that I know of—a small one here in the village and two luxury apartments in Epernay. Josien’s an independently wealthy woman in her own right, Gabrielle. She could step into any part of society whenever she wanted to, just like that,’ he said with the click of his fingers. ‘And so could you.’

‘But…’ Gabrielle reeled beneath the barrage of information contained in Luc’s statement ‘…why does she stay?’

‘Because it suits her,’ said Luc with a shrug. ‘When it no longer suits her I dare say she’ll move on. I’ve offered Josien a sales position in the Paris office, Gabrielle. I offered it to her last night, with Simone’s encouragement. Simone thought—
we
thought—you might be more comfortable around here with Josien gone.’

‘Oh.’ Gabrielle put the heels of her hands to her eyes, grateful for the darkness, that small reprieve from the bombardment of information that her brain would have to process. Not sight, not right now. Not colour or the wary look on Luc’s face as he told her what he and Simone had done. ‘You fired her? Because of me?’

‘Not fired her. Encouraged her to consider the many options open to a woman of her abilities. And, yes, because of you. She hurts you, Gabrielle. And I won’t have it. Not in my house.’

‘Oh, Luc.’

‘I did warn her,’ he said. ‘Look at me, Gabrielle. Tell me I’m not a fool for thinking you’d be more comfortable here without Josien around.’

She lowered her hands to his shoulders and raised her gaze to his. ‘You’re not a fool,’ she said. ‘Part of me’s horrified that you’re encouraging Josien to move on because of me. Part of me thinks this could have been avoided altogether if only I’d stayed away from Caverness and from you. I could have stayed away from Caverness, and happily,’ she confessed. ‘I don’t know that I could have stayed away from you.’

‘Stay with me again tonight,’ he murmured. ‘Come over after you finish your work. We can go out to dinner. We can go anywhere you like. Just…be with me.’

‘I can do that,’ she said as his hand came up to cradle her head.

‘Humour me,’ he said when next he broke their kiss.

‘What do you think I’m doing?’ He kissed her again and need roared through her. Would this hunger for him never ease?

‘Make love with me,’ he whispered, and proceeded to show her exactly how he liked that done.

Another week passed. A week in which Gabrielle worked hard on putting a fledgling distribution network together that might support her admittedly
crazy plans for purchasing the Hammerschmidt vineyard. Rafe had Angels Landing, Luc had Caverness, Simone had…many things she could call her own although Gabrielle couldn’t think of anything specific. Even Josien owned residential property. Gabrielle wanted a place to call home too. Not Angels Landing, not Caverness, somewhere else. A place that beckoned to her, somewhere she could fill with new memories and her own belongings. A place where a woman could stare out a window and smile and plan and dream big dreams.

Somewhere like Hammerschmidt.

The auction was tomorrow. She could almost justify, on paper, a purchase bid slightly higher than Luc’s. All she had to do was convince Rafe that it was a good idea.

Damn, but she hated making late night pleading phone calls. And tonight she intended to make not one, but two.

It was mid-morning in Australia and Rafe was working. He sounded good humoured. He’d been working in amongst his barrels of wine, he told her. An activity that never failed to lift his spirits.

‘Did you get the latest figures I sent you?’ she said.

‘I got them.’

‘Did you go over them?’

‘Yes.’

‘What do you think?’

‘I think you want to bid on the Hammerschmidt place,’ he said dryly. ‘And I still think it’s unnecessary.’

‘From a business perspective, maybe. Probably. I know it’s risky, Rafe, but if we got it at the right price
it would be a good investment. A good base for European operations. I’d like to bid for it.’

‘You’ve fallen in love with it,’ said Rafe heavily.

‘Yes.’

‘Do you know if anyone else is interested in it?’ said Rafe.

‘I know that Luc plans to bid for it.’

Silence at that, and then a heavy sigh. ‘He’ll have more money to throw at it, Gabrielle. You
know
this.’

‘I know. We’ve talked about it a bit. There’s no animosity between Luc and I on this, Rafe. We’ve looked at the place together, talked about what whoever buys it might do with it. A lot of the ideas I sent you about the phased redevelopment of the property came from Luc.’

‘Remind me again why he’s helping you if he plans to bid for the property himself,’ said Rafael curtly.

‘Because he wants to,’ replied Gabrielle defensively. ‘He likes running the different scenarios. I think he sees it as a challenge.’

‘Would Luc redevelop the vineyard in stages too?’

‘No, he’d do it all at once.’

‘Gabrielle…’ Rafe paused as if he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to ask. ‘Just how much time have you been spending with Luc?’

‘A bit.’ Gabrielle grimaced and shut her eyes tight. She never had been any good at lying. ‘A lot.’

‘Are you sleeping with him?’

‘We don’t really sleep all that much.’

Silence at that and another heavy sigh. ‘So you’re sleeping with him, planning to bid against him tomorrow for a property you both want, and presum
ably you intend to continue sleeping with him after that?’

‘Yes,’ she said warily. ‘Something wrong with that?’

Rafe snorted. ‘I guess not.’ And with concern rippling through his voice, ‘You’re playing with fire, Gabrielle.’

‘I know,’ she said in a small voice. ‘Luc’s told me his stop bid.’ She breathed in deep, gathered her courage, and gave it to him straight. ‘It’s twenty million. Can we afford to pay more than twenty million?’

More silence. Gabrielle pictured her brother pacing away his frustration, his blue eyes razor sharp and his golden hair glinting in the half light of the cellars. ‘I ran your business plan past Harrison,’ said Rafe. Rafe didn’t sound happy, he sounded resigned. ‘We can afford the twenty million but only just. Not without risking Angels Landing, and not without Harrison taking a stake in it. I want you on the phone to me when the bidding commences.’

‘You’ll be asleep.’

‘Trust me,’ he said grimly. ‘I’ll be awake for this. I want your promise that when I say stop, you’ll stop.’

‘I promise,’ she said.

‘No matter who’s bidding,’ he said. ‘No matter how close you think they are to their limit price.’

‘Got it.’

‘No matter how much you want this vineyard.’

‘I promise,’ she said again. ‘On my soul, Rafe. I promise to stop bidding the moment you give the word.’

‘All right,’ he said. ‘On your soul and mine, let’s try and bring this one home.’

Gabrielle’s next phone call was to Lucien. He’d gone to his Paris offices for the day. He sounded tired and somewhat tetchy. She didn’t know if he was home yet, but he hadn’t called her and he hadn’t come over.

‘I’m in my office at Caverness,’ he said when she got hold of him. ‘And I have your mother and Hans with me.’

Oh. ‘Are you on speaker phone?’

‘No.’ Just a general warning that he wouldn’t be talking to her freely, then.

‘So if I started talking dirty to you…’

‘You would definitely live to regret it.’

‘Are you coming over later?’ she asked him.

‘It’ll be late,’ he said. ‘I’ve work to finish up first.’

‘I don’t mind late.’

‘You could always come here,’ he said quietly. With her mother and Hans sitting beside him and doubtless listening to every word he uttered.

‘I—I’d rather not. Not tonight.’ While a little voice inside her berated her for being a coward.

‘Your place, then,’ he said as if it didn’t matter. It was the same conversation they had every night, albeit phrased a little differently. His place or hers, as long as he could sleep with her and wake to her. ‘Your mother has some news.’

‘Am I going to like this news?’

‘Here, I’ll put her on.’

‘No! Luc—’ Too late. ‘Hello?’

‘
Bonjour
Gabrielle.’

‘
Maman
,’ she said carefully. And waited.

‘Luc’s been telling me of your plans to stay in the area.’

‘Oh.’ Had he?

‘And of your plans for the old Hammerschmidt vineyard should your bid tomorrow be successful.’

‘Oh.’

‘I just wanted to wish you luck,’ said Josien. She sounded as if she meant it. ‘And to let you know that Hans has accepted a permanent position with an elderly widow in the south of France. She’s frail and in need of care.’ There was a long pause. ‘She’s in need of a housekeeper too. Perhaps the position will be filled by the time I’m ready to return to work, perhaps I won’t be interested in taking on another housekeeping position, I’m really not sure of my plans just yet but the fact remains that Hans has invited me to go there with him and I’ve accepted his offer.’

‘Oh.’ Gabrielle didn’t quite know which bombshell she should respond to first. That Josien was leaving Duvalier employ or that she and Hans had decided to move on together. ‘I wish you every happiness,’ she said finally. ‘Whatever you decide to do.’

‘I—thank you,’ said Josien quietly. ‘I would like—if you wouldn’t mind—I would like to see you tomorrow morning before the auction. I moved out of the chateau proper and back into my own quarters yesterday. So it would mean that you would come there. For breakfast perhaps, or a mid-morning coffee? Shall we say ten o clock?’

Clamping down hard on her fear of all the hurtful things Josien might have to say to her, Gabrielle said yes.

Luc came to her later that evening, looking weary and stern, and ever so slightly dishevelled. But his eyes lit
up when he saw that she’d prepared a supper for him and he wasted no time in devouring it and then reaching for her. He made love to her lazily, expertly bringing her to orgasm before surrendering to his own. These past two weeks of being with him every night had taken some of the urgency away from their lovemaking but none of the passion and sensuality. Luc could make her yearn for him, soar for him, weep for just that little bit more of him.