The Earl's Outrageous Lover Page 0,14
London now? I thought I remember you mentioning that while we were in Switzerland recently.”
Edward almost rolled his eyes. “James is one of the preeminent real estate developers in the world, tackling projects that others think are too risky. I wouldn’t describe what he does as ‘weird’, Jessica.”
“I guess that makes your fortunes rise and fall precipitously,” Julianna stated, her blue eyes suddenly lit by an inner fire that hadn’t been there before.
Jessica laughed, her curls dancing once again right along with those gold earrings that made her eyes sparkle even more brightly although she had no idea what was going through Edward’s mind. He tried to push the anger aside and focus on the evening but from the moment the blond man had entered the room, Edward’s anger had grown exponentially. Especially witnessing the easy going camaraderie he shared with Jessica.
He didn’t want to have that with the brunette, he told himself angrily, so why was he so furious with the other man? He preferred the calm nature of Julianna versus the exuberance of Jessica. Despite those thoughts in his head, he couldn’t he pull his eyes away from Jessica’s lush figure and beautiful, smiling face. And why was he so furious that another man was touching her? Touching her exactly how he’d like to be doing.
Well, not exactly. He’d like to be doing a whole hell of a lot more than just hugging her, he thought grimly.
Jessica handed James the glass, then came back around the bar to resume her seat. “James is the only one I know of that can take a risky project and consistently make it profitable. Investors beg for the opportunity to do business with him even though many of them don’t understand the complexities of the project themselves. They just know about his track record and don’t care about the risks. James can overcome just about any challenge.”
James was uncomfortable with her praise, so he decided to change the subject. He took a seat next to Julianna and questioned Jessica about her marriage predicament. “Tell me how many hearts you’ve broken since last we met,” he said as he took the offered drink.
Jessica glanced over at Edward, then quickly away and sighed. “Alas, I’ve been a very good girl since we last met.”
James lifted an eyebrow in her direction. “Why do I find that hard to believe?”
She grinned right back at him, refusing to admit she’d done anything inappropriate. “Perhaps because you have a very suspicious mind?”
He laughed and he shook his head. “That’s true enough, but I’ve also witnessed you in action. Those men in Belgium were fawning over you left and right and you didn’t even notice.”
Jessica waved that aside. “You’re being ridiculous, James. No one fawned over anyone.”
He looked at her with concern. “You really don’t know how many men were in love with you, do you?”
She blushed and rolled her eyes. “You’re exaggerating. Tell me about the house you’re building in Aruba. Last time we were talking you said that you were having problems with the pool. Have you been able to resolve that issue?” she asked changing the subject because the last one was making her uncomfortable and causing Edward to become even angrier for some reason. Did he think she’d just been sitting back and waiting for the men to come to her? She had a deadline! The man needed to understand that his uncle had gone out of his way to introduce her to as many men as possible. He had no right to judge her in that way.
They spoke about various problems with adding a pool to an arid environment such as what Aruba experienced most of the year. Jessica had to laugh at the foibles James was having with some of the workers. Apparently, James wanted to help with the building of the house but the workers were horrified that someone who was paying them would want to do the work as well. James had all three of them laughing at his hilarious stories of the workers’ expressions and their dismay when he started doing manual labor right alongside each of them. Only Jessica knew that James had made his start in life by working as a construction worker in high school, which eventually moved him into creating his own real estate company.
“Dinner is ready,” Beth said from the doorway once the laughter died down.
Jessica looked over at the kind housekeeper and sighed. What might happen over dinner, she wondered. “Thank you Beth,” she