Free An Exquisite Challenge by Jennifer Hayward Page A

worked for, she’d whispered something overtly sexual in his ear in the middle of a crowded party and they’d ended up in bed together that night and every other night for the next eight months. She’d pretty much moved into his San Francisco condo and the rumor had flown: Gabe De Campo might finally have been caught. He, in his misplaced belief that he could have a relationship that rose above his parents’ business partnership, had thrown himself into it like a man without a brain.
    Big mistake. Maybe he should have seen it coming. Maybe he should have seen how Darya’s ambition was a match for his, how she never would have been happy running the vineyard with him instead of climbing the corporate ladder. Maybe he should have recognized the distance growing between them as they pursued their separate agendas. But he hadn’t. He’d been too blind with the bright light Darya had been, until the Sunday when he’d returned home from New York to find that note. The note that had taken his uncertain belief in relationships and crushed it as easily as his machines annihilated a ton of grapes.
    His mouth tightened. He hadn’t tried to call her. Hadn’t tried to get her back. Because from that moment on, before he’d even heard the senior partner had left his wife and married Darya, Gabe had ceased believing in love. His parents’ marriage might rival the arctic in its coldness, but it worked. And that’s what he would have. It was simpler that way.
    Which made him wonder exactly where his fascination with Alex lay. He watched her out on the lawn, directing traffic like a law enforcement official. She drove him pazzo, no doubt about it. But on another level, he had to admit she intrigued him. Not just the fact she’d been bright enough to make it to the top of her profession without postsecondary education. That didn’t surprise him in the least. It had been the look on her face when she’d admitted that chink in her armor to him. Those words from that day in the cellar kept coming back . I was a bad girl, she’d said, as if she’d expected that to shut him down. Instead he wanted to know more. Much more.
    He rubbed his fingers over the stubble covering his chin. That was a problem. She was a far bigger problem than he’d pegged that night at the hotel. The way he’d wanted her from the beginning had multiplied into an inconvenient obsession to have her. He needed to fix this before he crossed the line.
    Taking someone else to bed was a possibility. Maybe Riccardo was right. Maybe that was exactly what he needed.
    He picked up his smartphone, pulled up the contact details of the opera singer who’d been all over him at a party a few weeks ago and dialed the number. Five minutes later he had a breathy acceptance of a dinner date.
    If only solving all his problems was that easy...
    * * *
    Things had gotten better AE—after the explosion, as Alex liked to call it. Whether Gabe had decided to trust her or had finally acknowledged he didn’t have time to micromanage, he was letting her run with the event. They were finally knocking things off at the speed they needed to.
    If she could just forget how blindingly hot that moment in his office had been. But even her best efforts at denial couldn’t completely wipe it out of her head. She had had a taste of what Gabe would be like now. And it was impossible to forget.
    In the end, she reverted back to what she knew was true. Men were fickle. Gabe might have an “inconvenient” attraction to her—but it didn’t go beyond craving her female assets. Not worth a career-limiting move guaranteed to trash her future. She knew, because she’d suffered through an almost fatal one.
    Wasn’t about to go there again.
    “That’s it.” Susan shoved the tape measure into her hand and got to her feet. “I have all the stuff I need. Let’s get out of here and blow off some steam.”
    Alex wrapped her hand around the tiny silver square, her lips twisting in a rueful smile.