I’ll Be There (4 page)

You've got no one to blame but yourself.

It wasn't the first time that thought had occurred to him. Especially in the last couple of weeks. He knew he was being difficult and was giving everyone a hard time just to prove he could, but it didn't seem to be working in his favor at all.

And now he had Gabriella in his house.

He hung his head and sighed. Clearly he must have died on that mountain because this was hell. There was no other way to describe it. At the office, he was able to keep some distance between the two of them—all it took was closing his office door. But here in his house? There was no place to hide.

Dammit.

Cursing, he looked up at his reflection again. He looked like hell, which was perfect considering he felt like it too. As much as he hated to admit it, both his father and Gabriella were right. He needed to get out of this…whatever it was you'd call it. He was spiraling out of control and if he didn't take some drastic measures soon, Zach was certain he'd never make it all the way back.

It just sucked that he needed help to get moving in the right direction.

And that the help came in the curvy and infuriating form of Gabriella Martine.

Making his way over to the shower, Zach turned the water on and stripped. When the steam began filling the room, he stepped under the spray and moaned with pleasure. The pressure of the water along with the heat went a long way toward making him feel almost human again. That feeling was rare these days. Even though he knew this feeling was waiting for him, some days it was just too damn hard to actually do it.

On the days he made it through a full physical therapy session, taking a hot shower was a necessity. Besides the relief it offered his muscles, the exertion he put forth made him sweat like he'd run a marathon. On the days he half-assed the exercises and threw the therapist out? Well, those days he tended to just sit and wallow in self-pity and sweat.

Something had to change. And soon. The sooner he got a grip on the situation and put enough effort in to prove to his father he was getting better, the sooner he could relax about his position in the company and send Gabriella back to the office where she belonged.

He scrubbed his hair and took a moment to put his irritation with her aside and just…think about her. The day she had walked into his office to interview for the position of his executive assistant, his jaw had practically hit the floor. She was stunning. Normally, he would have counted that against her—there was no way in hell he was going to get caught up in chasing his assistant around a desk or get romantically involved with her—but everything about Gabriella had been perfect. The qualifications listed on her résumé were written almost as if he had put them there himself.

So he'd pushed aside his initial attraction to her and promised himself he was a professional who could control himself around a beautiful woman.

Unfortunately, the longer she worked with him, the more the attraction grew. She was smart and witty, and she anticipated his every thought and need and made his life run seamlessly. She made him laugh and she made him think. He found himself seeking her out when he was on the fence about a client or a contract—sometimes even before he talked to Ethan. Zach knew he could take Gabriella with him to any kind of business function and she would be an asset.

More than once he'd had to stare down the men who lingered with her a little too long in hopes of catching her eye.

She was his…without really being his.

It was a hell of a situation.

Without even realizing it, he had put her up on a pedestal. She was the woman he measured all other women against—and she was a tough act to follow. More than one girlfriend had voiced her annoyance with being constantly compared to Gabriella.

Strange thing about those pedestals: sometimes what you see isn't the real thing. He found that out—quite by accident—and it had forever changed their relationship. No, that wasn't right. The universe seemed to be against him and it was a series of events that had changed everything.

Before, Zach loved interacting with his employees. He enjoyed having a fun work environment—basketball hoops in the conference rooms, Ping-Pong table and dartboard in the break room. He was a cool boss, and everyone loved him.

Or so he'd thought.

Then one Friday night, Zach had left to meet some friends for drinks. Halfway to the bar, he realized he had forgotten his cell phone back at the office. With a quick U-turn, he was back and riding the elevator up to the eleventh floor. Most of the lights were out but he knew a couple of the guys were working late to finalize a contract.

Zach had run to his office, grabbed his phone, and was going to simply head back out, but he wanted to check in and see how his team was doing with finishing up negotiations. He was only a few feet away from the door when he realized they weren't talking about the contract or the client.

They were talking about him.

And Gabriella.

“C'mon,” someone said. “You don't think he takes her on those business trips because of her dictation skills, do you?” Everyone laughed. “He's a lucky SOB, I can tell you that. It's amazing he gets any work done.”

“Who says he does?” another chimed in. “I mean, we're all here at seven o'clock on a Friday night and he's supposedly out with friends.” He snorted with disbelief. “I'd bet good money that by now he's got Gabriella's librarian bun all undone and is stripping her out of that crisp skirt and blouse.”

“Oh, but leave on the shoes,” another called out with a wolf whistle. “He better let her leave on those shoes. I mean…damn! The woman certainly rocks the hooker heels!” More whistles.

“I'm not going to lie to you,” the first guy said. “I actually Googled her.”

“Seriously? What did you find? Were there pictures?”

Everyone laughed. “A few, but they were all pretty tame.” Then he lowered his voice. “The thing is, before she came here to Montgomerys, it seems Gabriella worked for another high-profile company and rumor has it she was having an affair with a coworker—who just happened to be a top executive and married.”

“No way! Dude, how did you find out? It wouldn't have been on Google. She's not that newsworthy.”

“I know a guy who works for the company she used to. I asked some questions. And the most intriguing part?”

“What?”

“The guy she was screwing ended up getting divorced and marrying Gabriella's sister!”

“You're kidding me! That's so twisted!”

“So you think she came here prowling for another executive to mess around with?”

More laughter. “She wouldn't have had to look so hard. You see the way Zach practically drools over her whenever they're together. Hell, can you blame him? Like I said, he's a lucky SOB.”

Zach had heard enough. He'd stormed into the room like a raging lunatic and threatened each and every one of them with their jobs if he ever heard them talk like that about Gabriella—or him—ever again. He'd put them all on probation and stormed out.

The idea of meeting with his friends no longer appealed to him. He'd gone home and stewed the entire night, guilt eating him up alive. He'd had no idea people looked at them that way. The thought of Gabriella walking into that environment on Monday nearly made him ill. So the next morning he'd called and asked if he could talk to her. In person.

Looking back, he'd heard something in her tone that should have clued him in to the fact that it wasn't a good time. She'd hesitated, made excuses, but in his typical fashion, he had only thought about what he wanted to do, and had gone over to her place. When he'd arrived he'd found she wasn't alone. Her family was in town—her parents, her sister, and her brother-in-law.

If only he had kept his mouth shut and just apologized and went on his way. But no. He'd stayed and pulled her aside to give her a heads-up on what he had heard. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one prone to eavesdropping and soon her whole family had joined in. Zach had expected them to come down hard on him and defend Gabriella.

But they hadn't.

Instead they had all shared knowing smirks and commented on how some things never changed. Gabriella's cheeks were flushed but she never met his gaze.

“What is wrong with you?” Zach had said when he confronted her about it. “Why are you letting them say these things to you? They're wrong! The guys at the office are wrong. Dammit, why aren't you defending yourself?”

And then, clear as day, his ever-efficient assistant stunned the hell out of him. “It won't make any difference. Trust me.”

“Why?”

“You can't argue the truth,” her sister had said, practically salivating at the chance to tell the story. “I mean, she had an affair with her boss. Her
married
boss.” Then she shrugged and linked arms with her husband, that damn smirk still on her face. “We had hoped she'd learned her lesson but…guess not.” And then she'd laughed. They all had.

Except for him and Gabriella.

He'd looked at her, his eyes imploring her to deny it, to defend herself in some way. But she didn't. All she'd managed was to look at him and say, “You need to go.”

“I'm not leaving you here like this. I won't just walk out while these…
people
are talking to you this way!”

“They're my family,” she'd stated quietly.

Zach came from a big family and had an even bigger extended family, and not once in his entire life had he witnessed any of his relatives behaving like this. It didn't matter if it was one of his brothers or his sister or any one of his cousins, if someone was being…
bullied
like Gabriella was? He would go to the mat defending them.

“Gabriella, please,” he'd begged, leaning in toward her. “Tell them to leave. You don't need to stand here and take this abuse in your own home. Please.”

“I want
you
to leave, Zach,” she'd finally said. “You're my boss, nothing more. The longer you stay here creating a scene, the worse you're making it.”

He'd wanted to stay. He'd wanted to argue with her and then take her with him—anywhere to get her away from these horrible people. “Let's go someplace and talk. I need to understand…”

“If you'd like my resignation, I completely understand,” she had said flatly as she stared down at her shoes.

He hadn't wanted her resignation. Zach had known he wasn't going to get anywhere with her now. So he'd left. It had never settled well with him that he'd left her there, but she had made her position clear. And from that moment on, things had never been the same. In a span of twenty-four hours, everything Zach thought he knew about his life had changed.

His employees thought of him as a sleazebag who banged his assistant.

And Gabriella—who behaved chaste as a nun around him—had had an affair with a married man.

And he, Zach, meant nothing to her.

The rest of that weekend was a blur. When they had returned to the office on Monday morning, he had pretty much left his good-guy persona at the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniel's. The Ping-Pong table was removed, as were the dartboards and basketball hoops. He ran the office like a militant dictator and no one dared to argue with him.

To this day, he and Gabriella never talked about or even made reference to what he had witnessed at her home or how it had changed everything.

Except the fact that he was still attracted to her. Maybe even more now than ever before.

Shit.

The water in the shower was beginning to cool and Zach shut it off and reached for a towel. His left leg was starting to shake, and he knew he would need to sit down as soon as possible and stay off of it for as long as he could today. This was how it started—he pushed himself, then the trembling began, then the tingling, and then…nothing. He'd go numb. Normally, he recognized the signs and always managed to throw out whoever was here. There had only been one therapist to witness it.

He was fired the next day.

Gabriella wasn't an idiot. She was going to know something was wrong. If he could manage to get dressed quickly and get out to the living room and onto the couch, though, he might have a chance of distracting her. There was undoubtedly enough work to keep them going well into the evening.

It was his only hope. He had to keep her attention on whatever work she'd brought with her and nothing else. She'd think he was just being a hard-ass.

She'd never know the truth about what was really going on.

About everything.

Ever.

* * *

Hours later Gabriella stood and stretched. They had gone through every file she had brought with her. Twice. She was beginning to see signs of the old Zach emerging but there was still…something. She couldn't put her finger on it but she knew him too well. There was something wrong and she couldn't tell if it was work related or if he wasn't feeling well.

Or if he was still miffed about her being there.

Every once in a while he would grimace, but he hadn't gotten up once since he came out of his bedroom after his shower. In the back of her mind, Gabriella knew it probably had something to do with him just not being as mobile as he used to be—something she wasn't used to just yet.

But she had a feeling it was something more.

“Are you feeling all right?” she finally asked.

Zach's head shot up and he glared at her. “Of course. Why?”

“Well, you just seem a little…tense. You keep making a face. Are you in pain?”

“I fell off a damn mountain, Gabriella. What do you think?”

“If you need to rest…we can take a break. We kind of worked through lunch. Would you like me to pick something up or do you have something here I can get for you?”

“I'm not an invalid!” he snapped. “If I want something to eat, I can damn well get it for myself.” He paused and took a deep breath through his nose and released it before speaking to her again. “Why don't you go get something for yourself?”