Gabriel’s Inferno Trilogy by Sylvain Reynard Page 0,125

neck—would be far lovelier than any of the art I own, including Holiday’s painting.”

She shook her head.

“I’ll ask you again someday. Now, how about a reservation tonight at Scaramouche? It’s one of my favorite restaurants.”

“I don’t think dinner out is a good idea.” Julia was still trying to catch her breath.

“Why not?”

“Didn’t you say we shouldn’t be seen in public?”

Gabriel frowned. “But I know the owner. I can reserve the chef’s table where we’d be away from prying eyes. Unless you’d rather go to Harbour Sixty to see Antonio. He has been pestering me to bring you back.”

“Really?”

“Really. He told me all about the meal you shared with him and his family at the Italian-Canadian Club.”

“Antonio was very kind to me.”

Gabriel nodded and moved as if to kiss her, but she placed a hand on his chest.

“I can’t go to dinner with you tonight. I have a meeting with Katherine Picton tomorrow and I’m not ready for it.”

“Tomorrow?”

“She invited me to tea at her house. She kind of scares me.”

“Wait till you meet her. She looks like someone’s grandmother, but don’t let that fool you—she’s brilliant and definitely no-nonsense. She’ll expect you to address her as Professor Picton, and she doesn’t do small talk or speak of anything personal.”

“Only pretentious Oxonians prefer to be addressed as Professor,” murmured Julia.

He frowned until she winked at him.

“She’s very formal, but she’s a hell of an academic, and if you can work with her, it will be very good for you. Just be on your best behavior, and I’m sure she’ll take to you. As much as she is capable of doing.”

Julia shivered, and Gabriel responded by tightening his arms about her.

“Don’t worry, she’ll be interested in your proposal. I’m sure she will want you to change it, but if I were you, I would accept her corrections without argument. She knows what she’s doing.”

“I’m sure she has more important things to do during her retirement than supervise graduate students.”

“She owed me a favor. I told her I had a brilliant student who I didn’t feel comfortable supervising because she was a friend of my family, and Katherine agreed to meet you. She’s pretty skeptical about today’s youth—she doesn’t think they’re as talented or as hard working as they were when she was in graduate school. So she didn’t promise me anything.”

“You didn’t have to do that for me.”

Gabriel wound a lock of her hair around one of his fingers. “I wanted to do something nice. I’m sorry you weren’t able to go to Harvard.”

Julia looked down at her hands. “It led me back to you, didn’t it?”

He smiled, even with his eyes. “Yes, it did.”

After an intense moment, he shifted his body so he could check his Rolex. He groaned.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I have to go. I have a meeting.”

“I should go too.”

She climbed off the couch and walked quickly to her knapsack, slinging it over her shoulder and searching for her coat.

Gabriel crossed the room in three strides and put his hands on her shoulders. “Stay. I won’t be long, and I’ll come right back.”

She brought her lip between her teeth and grazed on it thoughtfully.

He poked his thumb in between her teeth and her lip, effectively freeing her scraped flesh. “Don’t. It troubles me when you do that.”

He withdrew his thumb quickly lest she misread his intention, but not before accidentally making contact with her tongue. It was difficult to tell whose accident it had been.

“What’s your meeting about?”

Gabriel began rubbing at his eyes. “It’s with Christa. It’s going to be unpleasant. But it would go much easier if I knew that you would be here waiting for me.”

“I have so much work to do, and I have to call Paul. Apparently he went to my apartment last night to check on me.” Julia’s speech quickened. “I sent him a text telling him I was fine. I said I wasn’t going to have to drop your class, but that I had to find a new director. I don’t know how I’m going to explain having Katherine Picton as my advisor.”

Gabriel fumed. “You don’t owe him an explanation. Tell him it’s none of his business.”

“He’s a friend.”

“Then mention something about a connection between your Harvard application and Katherine. She’s a friend of Greg Matthews.”

Julia nodded and began buttoning up her coat.

“Wait.” He walked over to his study and disappeared for a few minutes. When he returned, he pressed an old hard-cover book into her hands.

She read the title, The Figure