Free An Exquisite Challenge by Jennifer Hayward

you within the hour. What else do you have?”
    “It’s all in here.” She pushed the folder across the desk. “The menu and the interview schedule are the priorities.”
    “Bene.”
    “Gabe—”
    “Leave it alone, Alex. That was an act of insanity on both our parts. Enough said.”
    She swallowed hard, tried not to be intimidated by the coldness coming off him like an arctic current. “I know how much this means to you. Let me do my job and I will not let you fail.”
    He looked at her for a long moment, then his dark lashes came down to veil his gaze. “No more executive decisions, Alex. Or two days, two hours before the event, I will fire you. I promise you that.”
    She nodded. And got the hell out of there before she did something else that was incredibly stupid.

CHAPTER SIX
    G ABE SPENT THE next week reviewing every person who’d ever been involved in the development of The Devil’s Peak with Pedro, from those who’d supervised the pruning of the vines to get the tannins just right, to those in the lab who were intimately familiar with the finished product, hoping to find something, anything that would point to a leak.
    They racked their brains but could find no one with the right combination of access, motivation or strange behavior of late to warrant looking into. Thomas’ background checks didn’t turn up anything. It was distressing, to be sure, that a Devil’s Peak imitator supposedly existed, but Gabe wasn’t prepared to go on a witch hunt and alienate his employees on the basis of rumor. He didn’t even know how close the wine was to his. Which meant he hadn’t told Riccardo or Antonio about it and didn’t plan to until he had more to work with.
    He sat back in his chair and looked over at Pedro, the sixty-two-year-old, third-generation winemaker who’d taught him everything he knew about blending. “We need to get our hands on Lane’s wine. You have any friends in the valley who can help?”
    Pedro shrugged. “No one wants to cross him. But I can try.”
    “Grazie.” Jordan Lane was the undisputed king of wine in California. No one wanted to touch him, because they’d be blackballed within a minute of doing so.
    Pedro sharpened his gaze on him. “Have you thought about moving our special project up? Going with that instead for the fall campaign?”
    “It’s not ready.”
    Pedro shook his head. “ You’re not ready. The wine is.”
    “You know the plan,” Gabe reminded him, a tad defensively.
    “ Sì. You are focusing on The Devil’s Peak because you know Antonio will support a traditional blend more than the Malbec.”
    “It’s not about what Antonio wants. It’s about doing the right thing for the market. Launch a superior wine that gets us noticed to pave the way, then hit them with the game changer.”
    “You may not have a choice.”
    No, he conceded. He might not. But what he needed to focus on now was what he could control, which was getting The Devil’s Peak out the door. And these bloody launch events, which were eating him alive.
    He stayed and went through some approvals for Alex, but every time he looked at the gleaming desk in front of him, a vivid picture filled his head of what had almost happened between them. He couldn’t say he would have stopped. Infatti, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have. The desire to assuage the frustration she roused in him as easily as taking her next breath had been too strong.
    Was still too strong for reason. Cristo. He tossed the pen down and raked his hands through his hair. She was making him lose it. Lose the control he was legendary for.
    She had stopped him from breaking his own rule.
    One complete loss of control with a woman was enough for a lifetime.
    Darya had stolen his breath the night he’d met her at a cocktail party in Pacific Heights. Younger and less jaded then, he’d fallen for her long blond hair, sparkling blue eyes and aggressive desire for him. Bright, on the fast track at the partnered law firm she