An Engagement in Seattle - Debbie Macomber [26]
Julia hesitated, then decided it would do more harm than good to refuse him. She sank onto the sofa across from him. Holding a decorative pillow to her stomach helped ease her discomfort over her state of undress, although not by much.
“How is your grandmother?”
“About the same. I talked to her doctor this afternoon and he said…” She paused, biting her lip. “He said we shouldn’t expect her to return home.”
“Is she in pain?”
“Yes, sometimes, although she tries to hide it from me. Listen, do you mind if we don’t talk about Ruth, either?”
“Of course not. I didn’t mean to bring up a subject that causes you distress.”
Julia lowered her eyes. “It’s just that…she’s so important to me. Ruth’s all the family Jerry and I have left.”
“Your mother died years ago, didn’t she?”
Julia wasn’t surprised he knew that, since he and Jerry had been friends since her brother’s college days, when they’d met in Europe. “When I was fifteen, and as you probably recall, my father,” she added, “died three years ago…shortly after the fire.”
Silence stretched between them. Julia’s pressure on the pillow increased. Even in the darkened room, she could feel his smoldering gaze move caressingly over her. He wanted her and was growing impatient. Her heart pounded with dread and some other emotion. Regret? Perhaps…yearning?
“Please don’t look at me like that,” she begged. It seemed as if his eyes were about to devour her. He wanted her to know how much he longed to make love to her. The memory of his kisses returned to haunt her and she tried to dispel the image before it took root in her mind and her heart.
“You’re very beautiful.”
She’d heard those meaningless words before. Beauty was fleeting and counted for little of real value in life. Being outwardly attractive hadn’t made her a better judge of character. It didn’t do one iota of good as far as her grandmother’s health was concerned. If anything, it had been a curse, because it attracted the wrong kind of man.
“This makes you sad?”
She shrugged. “Beauty means nothing.”
“You are wise to recognize that.”
“Then why do you mention it?”
“Because you were not beautiful, not in the same way, when we first met. It’s only recently that I’ve come to appreciate that you are a real woman.”
A real woman. Julia nearly laughed aloud. “This is what makes being married to you and not sleeping with you so difficult. Have you reconsidered yet, my love? Come with me, share my bed.”
“I…can’t, please don’t ask me.” Her response was immediate. Tossing the pillow aside, she leapt to her feet, needing to escape. “Good night, Alek.”
He didn’t answer and she didn’t look back as she rushed to her room. Her heart was roaring in her ears when she reached the bed. Not for the first time she felt like the fox in an English hunt, and the baying of the hounds was closing in on her.
“Julia.”
She nearly fell off the bed when she looked up and found Alek framed in her doorway. Her breath froze in her lungs.
“Someday you won’t run from me.”
“I wasn’t running from you.” It was a lie and they both knew it, yet Julia persisted in claiming otherwise.
His smile was more than a little cocky. “Someday you will come to me voluntarily.”
She wasn’t going to argue with him. He watched her closely in the muted moonlight and she studied him with equal intensity. She suddenly realized her top had inched up and exposed her breasts. Furiously she tugged it down, glaring at him as though he’d purposely arranged the immodest display.
He smiled roguishly at her. “As I said earlier, you are very beautiful.” Then he turned and left.
After a sleepless, frustrating night, Julia was in no mood to deal with a long list of complicated problems. Virginia, her middle-aged assistant, looked apologetic when Julia arrived at the office early the next morning.
“Please get my brother on the line when you can,” Julia said. Her mind was made up. She wanted out of this farce of a marriage.
“He’s already called for you.” Virginia hugged a file folder against her chest. “He asked that you call him the moment you got here.”
Julia reached for