Tempting the Artist by Sharon C. Cooper Read Free Book Online Page B

should have handled things
differently with Luke, but she couldn’t believe Jada condoned his
behavior.
    “ CJ get serious. You had suddenly decided
to stay in New York instead of coming back to Cincinnati with him.
That probably had him imagining the worse. The poor guy probably
didn’t know what to think.”
    “ He should have known me
well enough to know that I had a good reason. It had nothing to do
with being involved with another man.”
    “ How would he know that?
You guys were still getting to know each other, and it was a long
distance relationship. I’m sure he had no idea that there were
secrets between you two. You could have handled that situation
differently. You should have handled it differently especially if he meant
anything to you.”
    “ Do you still care for
him?”
    “ There hasn’t been a day
that’s gone by that I haven’t thought about him. I know you never
believed in everyone having a soul mate, but I honestly believe
that he’s mine.”
    “ I don’t know if I
necessarily believe that everyone has a soul-mate, but being
married to Zack has made me consider the possibility. Falling in
love with him was like finding the missing puzzle piece to my life.
We fit. I’m a better person because of my hubby.”
    “ You can say that again,”
Christina mumbled and then burst out laughing when Jada elbowed her
in the arm almost knocking her off the bed. “I’m just sayin’, you
were a mess before he came along. Selfish, superficial, and I could
go on.”
    “ Yeah, well don’t. We’re
not talking about the old me. We’re talking about you. So answer me
this, if you really cared about Luke, why didn’t you just tell him
months ago what was going on with you?”
    Christina had asked herself that
question a thousand times. Her other life had been a secret for so
long, the thought of sharing it with anyone other than Jada seemed
impossible.
    “ I’m not sure. I guess I
just don’t want any negative vibes circling me. When people don’t
understand something, they tend to shoot you down.”
    “ I know I promised to keep
this secret, but honestly, I don’t see what the big deal is. So you
have another life. So what? I kinda get why you haven’t told the
family, but why not Luke? Is it that you don’t trust
him?”
    “ At the time I was still
getting to know him.” The more she thought about it, the more she
realized that she was making everything harder than it needed to
be. “In hindsight I wish I would have just told him.”
    “ He’s a lawyer. Couldn’t
you have just given him a dollar and hired him? I think at that
point, everything would have fallen under some client
confidentiality thing.”
    Christina laughed. Leave it to Jada to
come up with something like that. “I’ll have to keep that in mind
if ever he gives me a chance to make things right between
us.”
    “ So are you going to tell
the family soon? You don’t want them to hear from someone
else.”
    “ Yeah, I know. I guess I’m
just afraid they’ll judge me.”
    “ They might, but you’re a
grown ass woman. Who cares what people think?”
    “ Honestly? I do.” She had
told her sister that she didn’t care what others thought, but deep
in her heart, she did care. “I don’t want Grampa to be disappointed
in me.”
    “ Oh please. If he can get
over Toni being arrested or get over all the nonsense that I’ve
been a part of, he can deal with your stuff.”
“Yeah … maybe.”

Chapter Five
     
    Sitting in his office, Luke took out
his cell phone and pulled up a picture he had taken of Christina
during her last visit to New York. Despite being angry at her, he
couldn’t bring himself to delete the photo. After seeing her three
days ago, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Just when he thought
he had moved on – bam. She shot back into his life like a meteor
plummeting to earth, leaving a trail of her lust-inducing
scent.
    He tapped his cell phone screen,
increasing the size of the photo and stared