Propositioned By The Tycoon: Mr Strictly Business / Bought: His Temporary Fiancée / A Win-Win Proposition

And then there’d been the tent peg. She couldn’t blame that one on Roxanne, either. She’d seen Natalie’s daughter trip over the anchor rope and uproot the peg. Granted, the wet ground might have loosened it. But it was her responsibility to make certain such incidents didn’t happen. Period. That was the entire premise behind her business.

“I know what you’re doing, and you have to stop it, Catherine.” Dina crossed to her side and gave her a swift hug. “You’re going to drive yourself into exhaustion over something that wasn’t your fault, and that’s not going to help. Let’s deal with one issue at a time, starting with…” She pulled back. “What, exactly, did you promise Gabriel, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“That I’d move in with him.” Just saying the words was hard enough. She had no idea how she’d be able to handle the reality of living with him again. “I promised I’d stay with him until he figured a way to turn Elegant Events around. Though after last night—”

“As you said yourself, if anyone can do it, it’s Gabriel.”

“I don’t doubt he’ll be able to figure out why the business is losing money.”

“It is his specialty,” his mother admitted. “When he took over Piretti’s he nailed the financial end of our problems and plugged the leaks within a month. He’s only gotten better since. He can take apart a company and put it together again better than anyone I’ve ever seen. He’s even better at it than his father.”

“That’s what I’m counting on. It’s our other problems that he’s going to find a bit more difficult. If we can’t figure out why we’re unable to nail certain key contracts, how can he? And now, after the Marconi incident, that may not even matter. Somehow we’re going to have to come up with a dynamite scheme to rebuild our reputation.” She eyed Dina grimly. “I’m expecting a slew of cancelations the minute word gets out. And I doubt our contract is sufficiently bulletproof to keep them from walking.”

“Gabriel might be able to talk them around.”

“Someone better be able to.”

“So what’s the next step?” Dina asked. “Where do we go from here.”

Catherine rubbed at the headache pounding against her temples. “I have a meeting with Gabe in just under an hour. We’re supposed to discuss strategy. I’d like you to continue to man the office, if you don’t mind. You’ve always been incredible at sweet-talking the customers when they call.”

Dina’s smile flashed. “I give great phone.”

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Catherine laughed. It felt wonderful, almost a purging. “Yes, you do,” she agreed. “If you would do your best to give unbelievable phone today, I’d be grateful.”

“Anything I can do to help. You know that.”

“Yes, I do.” She caught Dina’s hand in hers. “How can I thank you for all you’ve done? Not just for today, but for every day over these past two years.”

The older woman shook her head. “There’s nothing to thank me for.”

“Please. Let me say this.” Tears filled Catherine’s eyes, as unexpected as they were unwanted, no doubt the result of exhaustion. “You took me in at a time I desperately needed someone. And you took me in despite the fact that I was leaving your son. You let me live here and took care of me during those first couple of months until I felt well enough to find my own place. Not only have you been a friend, but you’ve been the mother I never had.”

“Oh, sweetheart, now you’re going to make me cry. No one should lose their mother, especially not at such a young, impressionable age. If I’ve been able to fill in for her, even in the smallest capacity, I’m more than happy to do it. I just wish…” She caught her lip between her teeth, her expression one of intense guilt. “I have a confession to make.”

“Let me guess. You weren’t being altruistic when you took me in all those months ago? You did it because you were hoping Gabe and I would eventually patch things up?”

“You knew?”

“Let’s say I suspected.”

“I hope you’re not offended.”

Catherine shook her head. “Not at all.” With a small exclamation, she wrapped her arms around the woman she’d once thought would be her mother-in-law and gave her a fierce hug. “Thank you for everything. Just don’t get your hopes up about me and Gabe. It’s only temporary. After a few months he’ll realize that my leaving two years ago was inevitable. We simply aren’t right for each other.”

“I’m sure that’s precisely what you’ll discover. And I’m so sorry you’ve been forced into this predicament.”

“Dina?”

“Yes, dear?”

“You do realize that your kitchen cabinets have glass insets, don’t you?”

“Yes. I chose them myself.”

“And you also realize that in this light, the glass acts like a mirror?”

“Does it?”

“I’m afraid it does. I’d have an easier time believing you felt badly about my moving back in with Gabriel if I couldn’t see you pumping your fist in the air.”

“I’m not pumping my fist,” Dina instantly denied. “I’m giving you a totally sympathetic, albeit enthusiastic, air pat.”

“I can still see you. Now you’re grinning like a maniac.”

“I’m just trying to put a happy face on your moving back in with Gabriel. Inside, I’m crying for you.”

Catherine pulled back. “It’s temporary, Dina. We’re not back together again.”

Dina’s smile grew wicked. “Try and tell Gabriel that and see how far it gets you.”

Forty-five minutes later, Catherine swept off the elevator at Piretti’s and headed for Gabe’s office. She’d dressed carefully in a forest-green silk suit jacket and matching A-line skirt, completing the ensemble with a pair of mile-high heels. It was one of her favorite outfits, mainly because it served as a complementary foil to her hair and eyes. The formfitting style also made the most of her subtle curves.

She’d spent the drive into the city planning how best to handle the upcoming encounter with Roxanne in the hopes it would take her mind off a far more serious issue—her upcoming encounter with Gabe. Though she’d agreed to move in with him, she hadn’t agreed to anything beyond that. Before she packed a single bag, she intended to set a few ground rules, which put her at a disadvantage right off the bat. Gabe, she reluctantly conceded, was one of the best negotiators she’d ever met and if she had any hope at all in gaining the upper hand, she’d need some leverage.

To her surprise, Roxanne was nowhere in sight. Considering how hard Gabe’s assistant had worked at turning the Marconi party into a grade-A disaster, perhaps she’d taken the day off to get some much-needed rest and restock on what must be a dwindling supply of venom and spite. Well, they’d have their little chat soon enough, Catherine decided. She’d make certain of that. It wouldn’t matter all that much if it waited a day or two.

The door to Gabe’s office was open, and Catherine paused on the threshold. He stood in profile to her in front of a bank of windows overlooking Puget Sound and she drank in the sight while heat exploded low in her belly and fanned outward to the most inconvenient places. For a split second her vision tilted and she saw, not a captain of high finance and industry, but the captain of a pirate ship.

At some point, he’d shed his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his snowy shirt, exposing the bronzed skin of his forearms. His tie had long ago been ripped from its anchor around his neck and discarded, and he’d unbuttoned his shirt, revealing the broad, powerful chest she’d so often rested her head against. With his feet planted wide and his hands fisted on his hips, all he needed was a cutlass strapped to his side to complete the image. As it was, he barked out orders with all the arrogance of a pirate. But instead of it being to a crew of scallywags, he had a wireless headset hooked over his ear.

“Tell Felder the offer is good for precisely twenty-four hours.” Gabe checked his watch, which told her that those hours would be timed to the minute. “After that, I won’t be interested in restructuring, let alone a buyout, regardless of how he sweetens the pot.” He disconnected the call and turned to face her, not appearing the least surprised to find her standing there. “Right on time. I’ve always appreciated that about you, Catherine.”

She waded deeper into his office. “I have a lot to do today, so I didn’t see any point in wasting either of our time.”

“We have a lot to do,” he corrected. “I’ve rescheduled my appointments today so we can formulate a tentative game plan for Elegant Events.”

She made a swift recalibration, mentally rearranging a few appointments of her own. “Thank you. I appreciate your taking the time.”

“It’s what we agreed to, isn’t it?”

He tilted his head to one side and the sunlight made his eyes burn a blue so brilliant and iridescent, it scattered every thought but one. She was moving back in with this man. Soon she’d share his life in the most private and personal ways possible. Share his home. Share space he’d marked as his. And though he’d never come right out and said it, she didn’t have a single doubt that he also expected her to share his bed.

It had seemed so natural before. Hasty breakfasts that combined food and coffee and brief, passionate kisses that would—barely—get them through the day before they were able to fall on each other again in the waning hours of the evening. Long, romantic dinners, though those became more and more rare as work intruded with increasing frequency. The heady, desperate, mind-blowing lovemaking. The simple intimacy of living with someone day in and day out. She’d experienced all that with him. Wanted it. Wanted, even more, to take their relationship to the next level. Instead, they’d been unable to sustain even that much of a connection.

How could she go back to what hadn’t worked before? How could she pretend that their relationship had a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding when she knew that it didn’t. What had happened in the past colored too much of the present for them to ever go back. She bit down on her lip. They couldn’t even forge a new, different sort of bond. It simply had no future, only a very brief, very finite now.

“Catherine?” He stepped closer. “It is what we agreed, isn’t it? My help in return for your moving back in with me?”