The Earl's Outrageous Lover Page 0,18
this deadline, she wouldn’t have the weight of all those workers on her shoulders and she would be able to find a job, settle down and live out her life on her own terms.
Chapter 4
Jessica opened her eyes, staring at the phone on her bedside table. Why on earth was the man calling her so early? She stared at the name on the handset, wanting to just ignore the call and go back to sleep. Instead, she pressed the button to accept the call. “Hello?” she greeted the enigmatic man who had haunted her sleep with his dangerous, all-knowing eyes.
“What are your plans for the day?” Edward asked in a demanding, fully awake voice.
“Excuse me?” she asked sleepily, glancing at the clock on the side of her bed. It was barely five o’clock in the morning and she hadn’t gotten to sleep until the early hours of the night. She wanted to sleep until noon and then figure out what she was going to do today. She wanted to toss her phone across the room and pull the pillow over her head so she could go back to sleep. What she definitely didn’t want to do was force her brain to work and her eyes to open at this crazy hour of the day. Or night, she thought as she peered sleepily at her windows and noticed that the sun wasn’t even up yet.
“I asked what your plans were,” he repeated, keeping the amusement out of his voice. He’d called her early enough so that he could shift his own schedule if needed. “I have a luncheon today where I can introduce you to several eligible males. Can you be ready by noon?” he asked as he increase the speed on his treadmill. What was it about talking with Jessica, especially when he knew that she was still warm in her bed, probably covered in thick blankets and soft sheets? Did she perhaps sleep in the nude? He cranked up the speed several more notches at that thought, trying to work out his frustration on the treadmill.
Jessica yawned and rolled onto her back, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “Lunch,” she repeated, still trying to interpret the word and make sense of this conversation. Did she have lunch plans? She forced her mind to wake up and think about her schedule. She had planned to learn to shoot a handgun today, suspecting that the shooting range would be filled with men who might be strong and interesting. “Umm….no. I don’t think I have lunch plans.” She wasn’t positive about that though. She sighed and rolled onto her back. “Actually Edward, I’m not sure what my lunch plans are today. I’m not even sure if I’m going to eat lunch. I can’t look that up because even electronic devices don’t work this early in the morning. They need sleep too, you know.” She had no idea if they did or didn’t work before sunrise and had no intention of finding out.
He smothered his laughter but the amusement at her declaration came through in his tone. “All evidence to the contrary.”
“Huh?” she said while yawning at the same time.
“Never mind,” he said, unable to stop the laughter. “How about if you pull your cell phone away from your ear for just a moment and check your calendar? I bet it might be up to the challenge of providing your schedule even this early in the morning.”
Jessica had no response to that so she did exactly as he instructed. When she’d tapped up her calendar, she peered at the words, finally focusing enough to read what she’d entered for today’s schedule. “I was going shooting today,” she said with yet another yawn.
There was a long silence while Edward processed that news. “Shooting? As in cameras?” he clarified, pressing the incline button several times, suddenly feeling his stress level increase once again.
She tried to straighten the sheets and blankets on her bed but she wasn’t ready to come fully awake yet so she gave up the effort.
“No. Shooting bullets, not a camera.”
Another long pause and she pictured him closing his eyes in irritation. “Jessica, are you telling me that you are going to head out and learn to shoot a rifle today?”
She rubbed her eyes, but still wouldn’t open them up. If the sun wasn’t up, there was no point in her being up either. Sun and Jessica, they were a team, she thought sleepily. “Well, handguns, actually. I wasn’t going to tackle