tonight and look where it had ended. Edward would be furious with her! She’d cheated on him and he had every right to feel betrayed. If the roles were reversed, she would….no, she actually wouldn’t feel the same way. The lovely and vivacious Jessica Mallory came to mind as well as the way Edward had been looking at her during the dinner party before James had arrived.
That wasn’t a valid excuse, she told herself firmly. Edward hadn’t gone and made out with Jessica, he’d only been looking at her with interest. And that interest was only because Edward was trying to help the woman out of a bad situation due to a ridiculous legal document. Goodness, she couldn’t believe what a hussy she was. “No, I’ll have one of my assistants show you the pieces and that way you won’t have to tie up your whole evening.”
James took the blanket from her and shook his head. “No. You’ll show me the pieces. If you don’t want to go out to dinner afterwards, that’s fine. But you’ve seen my house and only you know what would work and why.”
Unfortunately, he had a point, damn the man. “Fine. We close tomorrow at six o’clock,” she said with frustration and humiliation in her voice.
James drove her home that night and started to get out of the car to walk her to her door. But she jumped out of the car quickly, bending down before closing the door. “Thank you for a lovely evening. Your house is beautiful and I’ll have things ready for you tomorrow.” She didn’t give him a chance to respond before she flew up the stairs to her home, opened the door and slammed it closed behind her.
James watched with both amusement and frustration. He thought he’d made progress with her tonight but obviously he needed to be a bit more straightforward. He wondered if she’d started thinking about Edward and fury surged through him. He’d be damned if he’d allow her to think of another man when he was with her. He pulled out of her driveway and drove home, working on his strategy for the following night.
Chapter 4
Julianna walked to the back of her gallery, impatient with both herself and James. She’d told him very specifically that she closed down the store at six o’clock and here it was, fifteen minutes until six o’clock and the irritating man still hadn’t shown up. She’d promised to show him the items, but if he wasn’t here in time, she wasn’t going to wait for him! He could just come by during normal hours.
Throughout the day, she’d actually burned up a lot of anger at the man. She was even wearing underwear just because she didn’t want him to show up and think that her lack of those garments were an invitation for him. Which meant she’d been uncomfortable all day long, wishing she could just get his visit over with so she could call Edward and find out if he might be available for dinner tonight. They usually met once or twice during the week for a meal and then again on the weekends for whatever function was happening that he chose to attend. She’d rather not attend any of them, preferring to stay home with a good book or to watch a movie by herself. She hated those ridiculous social engagements but knew that they were important to Edward’s business.
She wondered what it would be like to attend functions like that with James. She suspected that it would probably be a lot more fun. Edward tended to talk business with lots of numbers sprinkled into the conversation. These were things she understood in the abstract, but in reality and the details, she had zero interest in deciphering. And his numbers were so complicated he was completely out of her league.
She’d only been to one function while on James’ arm but that night had been…okay, she couldn’t help admitting that it had been fun. Even arguing with the obnoxious man had been stimulating. Any time he’d spoken to a friend or colleague, the conversation had been more jovial, not a single number brought up but lots of teasing and joking. Even she had to admit that James could work a crowd well.
She shook her head and looked around, realized that she was just standing in the middle of her gallery with a silly grin on her face. She wiped the grin off and took a deep breath. She had paperwork