“How did that go down?”
She sighed. He’d always had a way of hitting her sore spots. “Not that well. She’s not speaking to me.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised, subtlety not being one of your strengths.”
With difficulty, Ellie ignored the taunt. She needed to keep her cool if she was going to get him on board. “Funny thing is, I think deep down she knows it’s a ruse, but she’s so desperate to get married and have kids she’s ignoring her suspicions. She’s going to be thirty next year and her parents have put so much pressure on her, she’s convinced herself she’s on the shelf. She’s ripe to be taken advantage of.” Ellie leaned forward in her chair, capturing his gaze. “I won’t let it happen, Gideon.”
“So how the hell am I supposed to help?”
“You know how she feels about you. No one matches up to you in her eyes. She’ll listen to you.” Ego boosting with a dash of guilt was surely the key to closing the deal here.
“Oh God, this is exactly what I don’t need at the moment.” He leaned back in his chair, crossing his strong, tanned forearms in front of him defensively. It took Ellie a moment to tear her eyes away from the lean muscles that roped beneath his golden skin.
When she did, he was looking at her with amusement. “It’s not like I did anything to lead her on.”
“I know, you just can’t help being a massive flirt.” She wanted to bite back the words as soon as they escaped. It was incredibly dangerous to provoke him like this, but it was so tempting.
“You know, for a second there it sounded like you were insulting me. I’d imagine that would be rather counterproductive considering you’ve come looking for my help.” Gideon’s eyes glinted with annoyance and he ran a hand through his dark hair in agitation, forcing it to stand to attention. “Anyway, it’s not like I slept with her, then left her brokenhearted.”
“No, she’s probably the only girl in Bristol you haven’t done that to.”
Cut it out, Ellie
. She was going to blow it if she couldn’t keep her mouth shut.
“Funny.”
“Look. She trusts you. You have this power over her. You can use it to make her see sense. Think of it like a Superhero’s power — but use it for good this time.”
“A Superhero, huh?” He cocked an eyebrow and produced a slow, lazy smile, sending a tingle of awareness though her body. She ignored it, and her erratic heartbeat.
“Yeah. Let it be your one good deed for the year.”
Ellie picked up the loaded fork that lay abandoned on his plate and took a tentative bite. “Ugh! Mushrooms.”
Gideon grabbed the fork away in irritation and dumped it back on his plate. “Are you sure we should be getting mixed up in this? She’s smart enough to know what she’s doing.”
“He’s done something to her, Gideon, and she can’t see how he’s using her.”
“How am I supposed to talk to her if she’s not allowed out alone?”
“We’ll get them to come away with us next weekend, pretend we want to celebrate the engagement with them or something they can’t say no to. I can distract him while you talk to her.” She looked straight at him. “And you can engineer a way to get him on his own, too, and warn him off.”
“Whoa, wait a second, how am I supposed to do that?”
“You know how persuasive you can be. I’m sure there’s something you can do to make him walk away. Everyone has their price.”
He looked at her aghast. “Are you seriously suggesting I pay him off?”
“I swear to God, I’ll pay you back. I’d offer him the money myself, but I’m a bit short at the moment.”
Gideon rocked his head back and let out an exasperated laugh.
“Okay Ellie, say I’m fool enough to go along with this hare-brained plan — what’s going to happen once we get her away from him?”
“Let me worry about that.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Look, I can be a shoulder to cry on, distract her enough so she doesn’t realize what we’ve done. Now that I’m on my own too, we can be the ‘single girls around town’ that we were before I met … Paul.” Her throat constricted as she said his name and she dropped her gaze to the table so Gideon wouldn’t see the hurt in her eyes. “Please?” She looked back up at him imploringly, “I’ll do anything.”
“Anything?” His bright, seductive eyes flashed at her, tickling her senses, and bringing back a feeling she hadn’t experienced in quite some time.
Why did it have to be him that made her react that way?
Once again, she pushed the feeling away, burying it deep.
“Within reason, Gideon. Please.”
“I don’t know, Ellie, it all sounds a bit … ”
Diplomacy lost the fight with desperation. “Gideon.” She cut him off, leaning in, menacingly. “I’m not budging from this chair until you agree to do this. I can make life very difficult for you. I’m not above a bit of stalking, and if you don’t agree right now, your current eye candy will have to finish her meal sitting on my lap.”
Ellie crossed her arms defiantly and stared across at him, her heart racing, inwardly begging him to relent. Maybe she’d gone too far? But desperate times called for desperate measures, and if he didn’t agree she had no idea what she’d do. He was her only real hope.
He regarded her for a moment with a dark, penetrating gaze. “Okay, I’ll do this for you, but only because your family has been so good to me.” He ran a hand over his closely shaved jaw. “And you’ll owe me. Deal?”
She hated the idea of being in debt to him, but she didn’t have any choice if she was going to save her friend from making a huge mistake. “Deal.”
Gideon nodded in acceptance, and she breathed a sigh of relief and secretly wiped her damp palms on the edge of the fine linen tablecloth. “Come over to my flat tomorrow, and I’ll explain the plan.”
“Whatever, just go now.”
Ellie got up to leave.
“Are you still in your Redland flat?” The carefully guarded tone of his voice halted her in her tracks.
“Yeah, I can’t bring myself to sell it yet.”
“See you at seven tomorrow then.”
“Thanks, Gideon. You won’t regret it.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
• • •
Gideon knocked at the door to Ellie’s garden flat at seven on the dot, but she stood for a moment to collect herself before opening the door to him. She’d taken more care with her appearance this time, catching her unruly curls back in a band and making sure she’d applied make-up to both eyes — purely so he’d take her more seriously of course.
He looked great as usual, and when he leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, she had to turn away so he wouldn’t notice the tell-tale flush she felt sure was lighting up her face like a warning beacon.
She made for the kitchen and felt him follow her into the depths of her chaotic flat.
“I can’t believe it’s a year since I’ve been here. It looks exactly the same.” His deep voice seemed to further warm the air around her. It took all her willpower to remain casual.
She hated how he made her feel. She knew what he was really like beneath that charming persona: arrogant, self-serving, and egotistical.
So why did she still want to jump his bones?
She turned to face him, noticing his gaze sweeping around the ordered chaos of the room and raised her eyebrows, motioning the letter ‘T’ with her fingers.
“I’d love one. Milk, no sugar.”
“I remember.” She moved through into the tiny kitchenette.
“Hmm. A bit different in here though,” he said, looking around the brightly colored walls. They had previously been plastered with photos but there were now obvious gaps where pictures had been recently removed or ripped in two.
“I needed a change of scene.”
There was a flash of concern in his expression, which made her uneasy. She hated to think of him judging her.
“Clearly,” he said, pressing his fingers against an old photo of her at University.
He moved away and leaned casually against the work surface, watching her performing the tea ritual. She wished he’d stop looking at her; he was making her nervous. He seemed to fill the tiny space with his dominating presence, and she was hyper aware of the magnetic-like pull he radiated, drawing all her senses toward him.
When she turned back to him, his gaze scanned her face, his brow furrowed. “I can’t believe I haven’t seen you since that birthday party here.”
“You can say his name. I’m not going to go all weepy on you. I’m totally over him.” Ellie tried for “staunchly defiant,” but gave herself away when tears welled in her eyes.
Gideon sized her up, as if trying to decide something, before turning back to look at the wall, mercifully giving her time to collect herself.
“It’s great to see you interested in something outside these four walls again. I thought you were never coming out of that hermit’s shell you’ve been hiding in.”
“Yeah, well, Penny’s important to me. She was great after Paul left. I don’t know what I’d have done without her.” She shook her head, trying to fling away the sadness that had begun to bear down like a lead beret.
“Are you sure you want to do this? It’s a bit over the top. Perhaps you’re over-reacting because of what happened with Paul,” he said.
She gripped her mug tightly and fought for control. The last thing she wanted was to break down in front of him. “Look, all we need to do is highlight his weaknesses and make sure Penny stops to think about what she’s doing. Then, once she realizes his game, get the bastard where it hurts and send him on his way, pronto.”
He flashed a smile. “I’ve got to hand it to you, I never thought you had an evil streak. It’s quite refreshing.”
She felt him watch her as she took a sip of her tea, intensely aware of how chaotic she must seem to him.
For years, she’d watched from the sidelines as he’d dazzled every woman he came within ten feet of, winning them over with his easy charm and stunning looks. He had a way of making even the plainest girls feel beautiful. She’d seen it in their faces when he talked to them. He flattered and excited them, making every one of them fall in love with him. It was his special talent, one that he took full advantage of and used regularly. Except on her. For some reason he’d never shown her the same interest, given her the same attention as the others that flocked round him, desperate for his praise.
The thought of him questioning her reasons made Ellie uncomfortable, but he didn’t know the full story of her break up — nobody but Penny did, not even her parents — and she wanted to keep it that way.
“So where are we carrying out this ambush?” His question jolted her out of her train of thought.
“I haven’t figured that out yet. We need somewhere away from his comfort zone, somewhere he can’t run away from easily.”
“We’ll use my house in the country.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Seriously? I thought it was still being renovated.”
“Finished, as of last week. I need to do some checks on the building works, so I’m going down there anyway.”
“That would be perfect.”
“No problem.”
She’d never been to his family home before. He’d never even invited her brother to visit him there, so his offer was both astonishing and exciting in equal parts. After his grandparents passed away within months of each other last year, he’d set about stripping the place and renovating it to his own taste, eradicating any trace of them.
How must it feel to want to eliminate all signs of your family? The idea of it made her shiver. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like not to have her family around.
She found her gaze lingering with his but turned away quickly, her heart sending disturbingly heavy thumps up into her throat.
He moved away into the living area and she heard the sofa cushions groan as he sat down. She was so tense, her body felt like a tightly coiled spring on the verge of pinging loose. This was ridiculous. It was just Gideon, playboy extraordinaire and long-time breaker of hearts. She would be mad to let him get under her skin. She needed to pull herself together.
“So, how do we get them there without it seeming too contrived?” His question made her jump. “We don’t want her to see straight through it.”
She threw her shoulders back and turned as casually as she could to face him. “I’ll phone her and say I bumped into you, and you suggested we all celebrate her engagement at your house for a long weekend before she gets married. I’ll ask my brother and Ali to come too, I doubt my parents will make it, but it’ll be like old times, all of us holidaying together.”
Gideon sighed. “Do we really need to drag Gareth into this?”
“We need it to sound feasible. She’ll think it’s strange if it’s just you and me.” A hot flush crept up her neck again at the mere suggestion of the two of them participating in anything together. This was ridiculous. How was she going to pull this off if she constantly had to hide her face from Gideon?
“Remind me never to get on the wrong side of you,” he said.
Ellie shot a quick grin in his direction, then focused back on her plan. “Okay. We need to figure out how we start the charm assault. Then how we move on gradually to the undermining attack until we’ve got him by the balls.”
“Ellie?”
“Hmm?”
“You’re scaring me.”
She turned to find him smiling at her, and tried hard to concentrate on a rogue piece of hair sticking up on his head and not the way his mouth quirked at the corner.
• • •
One week later Gideon’s car made its leisurely way along a winding road, passing through jaw-droppingly beautiful countryside. Ellie was too caught up in her plans and schemes to notice the magnificence of the surroundings.
“I think we’ve worked out the best way to make the intervention a success, but we might need to improvise at points as time’s against us.”
Gideon glanced over at her as she leafed through the notebook that contained the details of “Code-name Expose and Destroy,” as they’d begun to refer to it.
“You know, it’s starting to sound like a murder mystery weekend. You’re not going to ask me to wear a fake mustache and cravat are you?”
Ellie grinned at him “I was thinking more tight trousers and flexing muscles.”
Gideon looked aghast. “Christ.”
The air between them felt heavy with a sexual undercurrent — or was she just imagining it? It occurred to her that she couldn’t think of a single time before this when she and Gideon had been alone together. Previously, they’d always been surrounded by friends or family, which had made it easy for her to draw away from him.