The Earl's Outrageous Lover by Elizabeth Lennox Read Free Book Online

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 replied with more enthusiasm than she felt right at the moment.  She wished she could stay right here and listen to James talk about his funny stories and ignore Edward’s grim expression.  She’d snuck a peek at Edward often and thankfully he was chuckling over the tales.  She loved to see him laugh, even his eyes crinkled when he laughed which she suspected was very seldom.
    He wasn’t ever looking at her, though.  He kept his eyes on James or Julianna the whole time, avoiding her as if she were some sort of ugly duckling that was abhorrent to him.
    With a sigh, she stood up to indicate that they should move into the dining room.  James immediately stood and took Julianna with him and, as Jessica watched him pull the blond woman out of the room, she felt as if her only friend had just abandoned her.  She’d hoped to have a private word with James, ask for a bit of help in pushing Julianna and Edward out the door since their presence wasn’t really