Enraptured Read online

  Bella stepped closer to peer up into the darkness, and she shivered. ‘Wow, that’s quite chilly in there.’

  He nodded. ‘There are no windows, and the walls provide a double insulation for this cavity. Sometimes, when the wind blows in a certain direction, it sounds like dear old Mona is moaning in here.’

  She shot him an exasperated look that brought a grin to his face. ‘So, what happened to “dear old Mona?”‘ she asked as she leaned further in to touch the iron railing.

  Gabriel leaned against the doorjamb. Bella’s face was in shadow, and her voice drifted to him in the darkness, a husky tone that slid over him like a silken glove. He hadn’t realised just how sexy her voice was. Usually she was coaxing, cajoling or commanding him, and he was reacting, but now, with his attention on her voice alone, he realised she had a low, musical tone that was inherently attractive. And he was still reacting. But she’d asked a question, and he was enjoying having a conversation that was totally unrelated to his shoulder, his injury, his lack of prospects. He was just hanging out with a beautiful woman.

  ‘My great-times-whatever grandmother and grandfather operated this place as a bed-and-breakfast, a bit of a pit-stop between Sydney and Wollongong for travellers, back in the day. Mona was one of her maids. Apparently Mona was renowned for the ‘special’ attention she gave some of the male travellers,’ he said meaningfully, and Bella edged toward him, to lean against the opposite doorjamb as she listened with interest.

  ‘And she wasn’t prejudiced with her affections. Married, single, widowed, divorced – if Mona liked you, she’d look after you.’

  ‘Oh, my. A friendly soul.’

  ‘Yes, well, apparently she got too friendly with another woman’s husband.’ Gabe frowned. ‘There seems to be a dispute over which husband, though. Some reports say a passing traveller, others say it was my great-times-whatever grandfather.’

  Bella’s jaw dropped, and he focused on her mouth – that sexy little mouth he’d been kissing just a little while ago. Quite frankly, he wanted to kiss her again. And again. And more. But she had made a determined effort to create a friendly distance between them, so he was willing take her cue.

  ‘Oh, dear,’ she whispered.

  ‘Uh-huh.’ He leaned in closer, lowering his voice for effect. ‘One stormy night Mona was bustling down these stairs. The official finding is that she tripped and fell, but everyone believes the wife found her and pushed her. Broke her neck.’ He raised his hands and mimed the snapping of the neck with a ghoulish glee that made Bella flinch. Then he raised one shoulder. ‘At least, that’s what they say.’

  ‘And she died here?’ Bella whispered, staring up at him with rounded eyes.

  He nodded as he leaned in closer. ‘Right where you’re standing.’ Friendly distance be damned, he wanted another taste of her.

  A loud thump echoed down the stairwell, and they both looked up. Gabriel frowned. He knew Ellie, Ramsey and their ‘supervisor’ were still in the kitchen, could hear their voices.

  ‘What was that?’ Bella whispered.

  ‘I’m not sure. Maybe something’s fallen in one of the rooms upstairs,’ he surmised. He started to enter the cavity, but Bella touched his arm.

  ‘No, if you don’t have a torch, let’s go up the main stairs. A stumble on these stairs would do irreparable damage to your shoulder in its current condition.’

  He rolled his eyes but grudgingly followed her back toward the dining room, through the living room and along the hallway to the main foyer where the grand staircase rose to the second level of the house.

  Bella jogged up the stairs while Gabe climbed them two at a time, easily keeping pace with her. He’d learned that jogging jostled his shoulder, and it wasn’t worth the ache.

  They walked along the main corridor, glancing into each room as they passed. ‘Wow, there are so many bedrooms,’ Bella observed.

  Gabe nodded. Thank goodness Ellie was on hand to clean them. It was one thing he’d learned when he’d first inherited the place. More bedrooms equalled more cleaning. He missed his one-bedroom bachelor pad.

  He stopped at his bedroom door and frowned. It was closed. He normally left it open. He grasped the handle and caught his breath. The brass knob was cold – really cold. He twisted the knob and pushed, stepping into his room.

  Chapter 7

  Bella followed Gabriel into his room. It had a similar Victorian décor to the rest of the house, and her attention was momentarily caught by the four-poster bed. The navy blue curtains and the dark wood created an intimate ambience that was seductive in its simplicity.

  The room was dark, so Gabriel turned the light on, the wrought-iron and stained-glass lamps on the table giving a warm golden glow that still didn’t quite pierce the gloom. As they walked further in, Bella finally saw what had caused the noise.

  A drawer leaned against the ornately carved dresser, its contents strewn across the floor. Underwear. Bella frowned as she stared at the drawer. In its position against the dresser, she couldn’t understand how it could have just slipped out.

  Gabriel started to pick up his socks and underwear, and Bella crossed to pick up the drawer and slide it back onto its runners.

  ‘Maybe moaning Mona doesn’t like the way my underwear is sorted,’ Gabriel commented dryly. ‘Although why women are so fascinated by my underwear is beyond me.’

  Bella bit back a smile. Visions of him parading around in his underwear popped into her mind. After massaging him and getting a really good look at his torso, she’d like to see him in his underwear. Actually, she’d like to see him out of it, too. She caught herself – she shouldn’t be thinking along those lines. He was her client. That was all. Underwear schmunderwear.

  He winced a little as he reached with his injured arm to put some clothes in the drawer, and she frowned. She’d been working on him for days now, and she would not have expected his shoulder to have the aches and muscle twinges that he still experienced. It was almost as though all her hard work was undone overnight and she had to start again in the morning, working on the muscle groups to get out the kinks before they could do any exercises.

  ‘What kind of bed is this?’ she asked, walking over to it.

  ‘Um, a big one..?’

  She looked over to see his sexy grin as he crossed to the other side, the large mattress stretching between them like a naughty adult play area. Gabriel pressed down on the mattress. ‘It’s a good firm one,’ he told her, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

  She gaped momentarily. He was – he was flirting with her. His lips were parted in a sexy grin, and the light-hearted conversation took a lot of the strain from his expression. For a moment, he looked as young as his file suggested him to be, and, well, he was gorgeous.

  She put her hands on her hips. ‘I meant is it an ensemble or a slat base?’

  He frowned. ‘I’m not sure, actually. The timber frame hides the base, and I can’t strip or remake the bed, so up until Ellie arrived the physio changed the sheets.’

  She nodded. ‘Okay. Well, let’s take a look.’ She moved some of the pillows, and laughed a little. ‘You have a lot of pillows,’ she commented.

  Gabriel grimaced. ‘I don’t understand why folks think a bed needs to be ‘dressed’. It’s not going anywhere.’

  ‘But it looks nice,’ she told him as she pulled some of the covers back, momentarily distracted by the faint scent of his aftershave that rose from the linen. Something sexy and spicy.

  ‘I’ll give you a hand.’ He rounded the bed and reached for the base of the mattress with his good hand, easily lifting it to reveal the wooden slats beneath.

  ‘Well, well, well. I think I know what your problem is,’ she murmured as she stared down at the wooden frame. Two slats underneath were out of position. One was twisted so that it sat a little higher than the rest. With the large mattress on top, one wouldn’t necessarily notice it, but it would be enough to make a little ridge in the mattress. The other slat had dropped from its slot, and
hung below the line of the frame.

  She gestured to the slats. ‘Those two bits of wood, sitting there like that, would actually ride right where your shoulders would be if you lay down on the mattress.’

  Gabriel frowned. ‘I didn’t notice,’ he admitted.

  Bella shook her head as she leaned over to correct the position of the wooden beams. ‘You probably wouldn’t. You’re already in pain, already uncomfortable. You’d probably just pass it off as a result of the injury – but it could explain why you need some manipulation in the morning. Your muscles are knotted from your sleeping position.’

  Gabriel’s eyebrow rose as he lowered the mattress onto the frame. ‘Seriously? Do you think a small detail like that would really have that much of an impact on my injury?’

  She smiled up at him. ‘Your bed and mattress can have a significant result on your back, neck and hip muscles as you sleep. If it’s not all properly aligned, your muscles have to compensate, and that’s why you get knots. Try it now.’

  He shot her a dubious look as he sat down on the bed, then moved so that his whole body lay supine on the mattress. His eyes widened.

  ‘Hell, that’s a major difference – and I didn’t even notice the discomfort before. It feels much better.’

  ‘Let’s see how that affects your shoulder and neck problems,’ she said. ‘It will take a while for your body to adjust to the new position, but you should find a definite improvement on your shoulders and neck.’

  Lightning flickered outside, brightening the room briefly. She crossed to the window and looked out.

  ‘Wow, it’s bucketing down out there.’ The topiary and bushes where bending in the stiff coastal winds, the rain slanting on the diagonal. She flinched when the winds changed direction and threw the rain at the window, like marbles against glass. Gabriel rose from the bed and joined her at the window, looking down as Mother Nature unleashed her fury.

  ‘I like weather like this,’ Gabriel commented. ‘It’s the kind of day where you can’t do much at all on a site, so I always associate it with playing hooky. A surprise holiday.’

  Bella smiled. ‘I like curling up in bed and reading a book in this kind of weather,’ she said absently, then realised they were standing close to his bed, and she wanted to do something other than read a book in it.

  And just like that she went from relaxed to feeling awkward and gauche. She met Gabriel’s eye for a moment, and his gaze was dark and focused.

  ‘Gabriel. Bella.’ Ellie’s voice wafted along the hall to them, and they heard her light tread on the stairs.

  Immediately Bella stepped back from the window, back from Gabriel.

  ‘Lunch is ready,’ she called out.

  ‘I’m going to be the size of a barn by the end of this,’ Gabriel muttered. ‘Didn’t we just finish morning tea?’

  Bella glanced at her watch, and was stunned to see that nearly two hours had passed. Talking with Gabriel, touring the house – the time had flown. He was very easy to talk to, when he wasn’t being the rude grouch he had worked so hard at becoming.

  ‘I wonder if their ‘supervisor’ will be joining us,’ Bella said, a smile on her face as she led the way out into the hall, trying to tone down the awareness she felt at having Gabriel walking so close behind her.

  ‘It wouldn’t surprise me,’ Gabriel muttered. ‘This place is beginning to feel like a neighbourhood drop-in centre.’

  Bella chuckled as she walked down the stairs. ‘Admit it, you like having us around. If we weren’t here, you’d be all on your lonesome.’

  A hand touched her elbow, and she paused on the bottom stair and turned to look up at Gabriel.

  ‘I do like having you here,’ he said sincerely, his voice low.

  She blinked, then smiled shyly up at him. ‘I like being here,’ she admitted.

  ‘Ah, there you are. Ellie has lunch laid out in the kitchen for you. I’ll run Misty home in this weather,’ Ramsey said as he walked down the hall from the kitchen, guiding the little old lady ahead of him.

  ‘Oh, you don’t have to go to that trouble, sonny,’ Misty croaked. ‘I can always stay here, with you, until you’re ready to go home this evening.’

  Ramsey blanched. ‘Uh, no, Misty, it’s no trouble.’ He grabbed her coat and bag from the table in the hallway and bundled her up hastily. He turned to Gabriel. ‘I’ve nailed some plywood to the window frame for now, it should keep out the bulk of this weather.’

  ‘Uh, Ramsey, if you’re going anywhere near town, can I ask you a favour?’ Bella asked hurriedly as Gabriel continued on down to the kitchen.

  She spoke quickly with the maintenance worker, elaborating on her plan until he nodded and she was confident he understood what she was after, before following Gabriel into the kitchen. Their earlier conversation had given her an idea that she hoped would provide an activity that would hold Gabriel’s interest and build on skills he currently held, long buried as a result of his injury.

  ***

  ‘I really don’t like this,’ Gabriel muttered later that afternoon as he sat at the kitchen table with Bella.

  ‘You really don’t like a lot of things. Get over it.’

  He shot her a brief glare before he turned his attention back to his task. Nobody could ever accuse of her of pandering to his whims.

  He clutched a pair of tweezers in his hand, and was concentrating on picking up the grains of rice that Bella had poured out onto a baking tray, so that he could clearly see them on the dark background.

  One by frustrating one, he picked up a grain and dropped it into the measuring cup by his side. It was mind-numbing, it was annoying, and his fingers ached from clutching the tweezers. And didn’t that make him sound like an over-complaining princess. He remembered a time when he was happy to test his body, to further hone his muscles, and after these last few weeks with Bella he had begun to show an improvement in his range of movement. Now she was focusing on his fine motor skills. Sure, she’d explained how this exercise would hopefully re-train the muscles and nerves in his fingers, and over time he was beginning to notice more feeling in his fingers, and he could clench his fist properly, so overall he was more than happy to do whatever Bella told him. It was just that – well, this was so boring.

  Footsteps clumping along the hall signalled Ramsey’s return.

  ‘Keep doing what you’re doing, I’ll be right back.’ Bella rose and hurried out into the hall. He could hear their quiet murmurings as he surveyed the grains on the tray. He eyed the plastic cup next to him. He could just up-end the rice and funnel it into the cup. That would be a faster way of getting the job done.

  ‘That’s not the point,’ Ellie said as she bustled into the kitchen with a basket of laundry that she set on one of the chairs. ‘It’s the repetition of the exercise that makes it work.’

  He shot her a frown. ‘You always seem to read my mind,’ he grumbled.

  She smiled. ‘You are so easy to read,’ she shot back, and started folding the clothes.

  ‘Here he is,’ Bella said as she came in with Ramsey, and Gabriel leaned back in the chair, grateful for the interruption. Bella moved the tray away from him.

  Ramsey carried a small toolbox and set it down on the table in front of him. Gabriel’s eyebrows rose.

  ‘What’s this?’

  ‘It’s a toolbox,’ Ramsey informed him. ‘For you.’

  For a moment Gabriel was speechless. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had given him a gift, particularly of tools. Not since he was a young apprentice and his parents had chipped in to help him buy his basic kit for Christmas one year.

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Open it,’ Bella urged him.

  He flipped the clasp and lifted the lid, his eyebrows rising as he surveyed the contents. There was an array of knives, chisels and a palm-handled carving set inside, alongside blocks of wood and…soapstone?

  ‘You can start with carving in the soap, just to get your hands used to the grip, so you get som
e practice.’

  He gazed up at the three faces surrounding him. Ellie had stopped folding and was eyeing him with an expression that was almost indulgent. Bella gazed at him uncertainly, and Ramsey – well, Ramsey was already reaching into the box and pulling out some of the objects.

  ‘Let’s start with a basic design,’ the older man said as he lowered himself into the chair Bella had vacated.

  ‘You can carve?’ Ellie asked in surprise.

  ‘Of course,’ Ramsey answered, not looking up as he started to unwrap the soap.

  Gabriel blinked as he turned to look up at Bella. ‘What—? How did you know?’ It was the most thoughtful thing anyone had ever done for him.

  ‘Believe it or not, we physios make good listeners,’ she said, and winked.

  He was so touched that for a moment he wasn’t sure how to respond. He reached over to grasp her hand. ‘Thank you. Just – thank you.’

  She nodded. ‘I’ll leave you in Ramsey’s capable hands.’

  ***

  Bella put her book down and leaned over to switch off her lamp. The rain had stopped mid-afternoon, but dark clouds remained, and the night sky outside her window was a black canvas, missing the stars she’d grown accustomed to seeing.

  She snuggled down under the covers, a smile on her lips. It had been a good day. Actually it had been terrific. Gabriel had happily spent the rest of the afternoon carving under Ramsey’s tutelage, with the older man displaying an unexpected flair for intricate patterns. She’d had to call a halt to it eventually, so as not to strain Gabriel’s hand, or his eyesight.

  And for once, he hadn’t complained. Ramsey had appeared a little disappointed that he had to pack the set away, but Gabriel had smiled happily, and it had made such a difference, knowing that he was content with his day, that even though his muscles ached, it was a good ache that came from working, as he’d explained to her over dinner. She’d gotten the sense that he was used to being busy, used to being useful, and the enforced inactivity from his injury had been a constant source of frustration for him.