little redhead was only playing hard to get, as no woman has ever refused him.
“Don’t worry, you won’t need it,” Julia answered looking over her shoulder, giving him one last contempt-filled look before she joined up with Sharron, who had just finished with the booking in process.
“What?” Gabriel asked astonished, unable to believe that the little redhead was not interested in getting to know him. Feeling as though he had just been splashed in the face with a bucket of ice cold water, he watched the little chili pip walk away. What in the world just happened, he asked himself with a frown between his chartreuse-green eyes. No woman has ever talked to him in that manner, leaving his ego feeling a bit bruised after her rejection of him. Though, while stood watching her walk away, a smile started appearing on his face, he was very much intrigued by the fiery redhead and definitely wanted to get to know her. He was sure that if he pursued her, she would still warm up to him. He was confident of that, as every woman he has ever come in contact with has always fallen over their feet to get to know him, and he didn’t believe the little redhead would be any different. Whistling lightheartedly, he headed back to his office, looking forward to getting to know the fiery ice-queen.
It was already late in the afternoon when Julia and Sharron had finished unpacking and settling into their suite. Excited to go out exploring Nice, they started getting ready for a fun filled evening. On their way to the hotel earlier that day, they had seen a zillion restaurants they wanted to visit; the only problem was that they couldn’t decide which restaurant they wanted to visit first. While they were busy getting ready for their evening out, there was an unexpected knock on their door. As Julia was still in the bath, Sharron went to answer the door and was surprised to find a waiter at the door with a complimentary bottle of champaign, along with a dinner invitation from Gabriel Durand. She immediately accepted the dinner invitation without checking with Julia first.
After the waiter had left, Sharron ran to Julia’s bedroom, bubbling with excitement while she told her the good news.
“You should have checked with me first,” Julia said with unmasked displeasure. “There is no way I’m going to have dinner with that self-conceited jerk.
“You can’t do that, I already accepted his dinner invitation,” Sharron retorted, unable to understand her friend’s deep dislike of Gabriel Durand. Granted, he did make a mistake in the lobby and embarrassed Julia somewhat, but that was no reason to become so heavily set against the man.
“Nothing is stopping you from going. Since you are the one who accepted his invitation, you can go have dinner with him,” Julia said with finality, grabbing her purse off the bed and aiming towards the door.
“Julia, sometimes you drive me absolutely crazy,” Sharron said angrily, feeling as though she could slap some sense into her friend. “You know I won’t let you go out on your own. Wait for me, I just quickly want to fetch my purse,” Sharron said heading towards her room, returning a couple of seconds later, ready to go paint the town red with her friend.
“Okay then, let’s be on our way then,” Julia smiled and started heading towards the door.
“We must just remember to go past the front desk and leave a message for Mr. Durand saying that we won’t be able to join him for dinner,” Sharron said as they climbed into the elevator, but by the time they reached the ground floor they were so wrapped up in the excitement of exploring Nice, that both Sharron and Julia forgot to leave a message for Gabriel at the front desk.
At the hotel restaurant a bit later that evening, Gabriel sat at his private table, patiently waiting for his two guests to join him. The minutes ticked past one after the other, and still there was no sign of
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