The Billionaire's Runaway Bride (11 page)

“With lots of windows so you could see your plants, eh?”

“That would be nice,” she agreed.

“Go upstairs and change, then meet me back down here.”

Sophie rushed up the stairs, thrilled that they were going to be spending time together without anyone else around. She hesitated for only a moment when she thought of conversing with him. She didn’t think she could entertain him very well, but then was reassured that the movie would take up most of their time together and she only had to get through dinner. From past experience, she knew that he enjoyed witty dinner companions who had a wealth of knowledge on just about every subject. In the beginning, Sophie had read dozens of magazines and kept up with all the latest books on the best sellers list just so she could be knowledgeable on subjects and entertain him during meals. It was almost a competition at times to keep him more amused than the other women who flocked to him, flirting with him and probably suggesting much more when she wasn’t in hearing distance.

But she didn’t know the current events anymore. In fact, if it didn’t pertain to Jason’s activities within a newspaper or magazine, she hadn’t absorbed the news, too wrapped up in her own healing process. She’d given up on trying to impress anyone when she’d left him that day. She’d only wanted to dig in the dirt and heal her wounded pride.

Sophie showered, dried and pulled on a clean pair of jeans. She searched through her wardrobe, desperate for a shirt that wasn’t so big another person could fit into it. She found one finally in the back of her drawer. It was a simple, long sleeved white cotton shirt that she’d worn underneath a jumper a long time ago.

The white shirt looked great against her skin, she realized. She turned her face from side to side in the mirror, looking for the yellow undertones Evelyn had mentioned, but with the white color, her skin just looked creamy and softer.

With shaking fingers, she dabbed on some lipstick and was encouraged by the way it made her look. The reddish pink brightened her face much more, now that it wasn’t worn down by a dark brown or black color of clothing.

Her breasts were still too small and without the shirt to hang down to her knees, she realized that her jeans were too loose, almost hanging on her hips. But she realized that her appearance was a vast improvement. What would Jason think? Would he dislike the way she looked?

Sophie knew she’d never know until she walked downstairs to find out. She looked at the closed door and debated her appearance. But deep down inside, she knew she looked better. She liked the new look. Should she really care if Jason did or not? She knew she shouldn’t but she did. How did women become so confident that they didn’t care what their spouses thought of their appearance?

She walked down to the screening room tentatively and was relieved when Jason just waived her over to one of the low, comfortable looking sofas. There were chairs and sofas as well as tables between each. The walls were a soft gold with dim lights recessed into the ceiling.

“This is a screening room?” she asked, wondering where the television was.

“Of course,” he replied, standing up and taking her hand to pull her down next to him.

“Okay. Where is the television?” she asked curiously.

He didn’t answer but picked up a remote control and pressed several buttons. “Did you have a preference on movie?” he asked as the lights dimmed and a portion of the ceiling opened up. A screen scrolled down on silent mechanisms and Sophie stared in fascination at the toys he had at his disposal.

“I don’t think I have a preference. I haven’t seen a movie in years,” she said, remembering the only time she was able to go to a movie was when she was in boarding school and her father didn’t know anything about it. So it had been about eight years since she’d been to a movie.

“How about an old Cary Grant movie?”

“Sounds perfect,” she replied.

The movie suddenly appeared on the screen with only a few more buttons pressed. She sat back next to him, more aware of his presence than of the movie. But by the time the credits scrolled through at the end, she was completely engrossed. She didn’t know how it had happened but she found herself curled up next to him, his arm around her shoulders and her head resting on his.

“Ready for dinner?” he asked quietly.

Sophie was again aware of his body next to hers, of his heat seeping through her clothes. Now that the movie was no longer on, she was on fire for him and felt his thumb rub against her shoulder.

“I suppose so,” she replied, her mouth suddenly dry.

Instead of getting up, he pulled her closer and kissed her mouth, his tongue requesting entry. Sophie was beyond denying him. She wanted him badly. She knew that in just the three days she’d been back with him, she had become addicted to his touch, to the release he was able to give her and the euphoria she felt afterwards. Last night, she’d missed his touch so she wanted it more now. Desperate to feel more of him, she turned to face him more completely.

Jason didn’t need any more prompting. He pulled her up so she was straddling his hips, his hands sliding under her shirt, his long fingers spanning her ribs and resting just underneath her breasts.

Sophie moaned, desperate to feel his hands on her. She moved, adjusting her body to better fit his. Her arms moved around his neck, kissing him to show him her need.

Within moments, he pulled her shirt over her head, his mouth already covering her breast. The feeling of the lace and his mouth was almost too painful and she reached behind her to unsnap her bra.

Jason took over after that. He quickly unsnapped her jeans and stood her up, then slid her jeans down her leg, her underwear following quickly behind her jeans. She stood there, completely naked with him fully dressed.

“Jason?” she asked, feeling vulnerable in front of him.

Jason pulled her back down onto her lap and pushed her back slightly. “I can’t wait,” he said urgently and adjusted his own jeans so he was free. Within moments, he entered her and Sophie cried out, the feeling of his rough jeans against the velvet hardness of him was too much to bear. She climaxed instantly, her mind unable to function beyond the here and now. She was vaguely aware of Jason finding his own release and fell down onto his chest, her face buried in his neck as her embarrassment took over. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

Jason chuckled. “Why not?” he asked. “I remember doing this several times over the past few days.

“Yes but that was in a bed, in our bedroom. Not down here where anyone could come in.”

“Ah. Now I understand. You like only the bedroom, eh? It seemed like you liked it just fine right here,” he said, his hand coming to cover her bare bottom.

Sophie hid her face in his chest and he chuckled softly. “How about if we go find something to eat. I’m guessing that the kitchen staff is already gone for the day so we might have to scrounge for something to eat.

Sophie only nodded her head and stood up, pulling on her clothes quickly. They walked down to the kitchen and found plenty of food to eat so they made a sandwich for themselves and pulled out a jar of pickles. The whole time, Jason asked her questions about the plants she had bought and the different ideas she would do with the yard if she had her preference. He encouraged her to deal with the gardener more sternly and let him know exactly what she wanted.

“I thought the gardens were the way you wanted them to be,” she commented, excited by the idea of doing whatever she wanted without the limitations on funding she’d had to deal with because of her previous clients’ budget restrictions.

“I don’t really care what happens to the gardens as long as I don’t have to take care of them,” he teased. “So if you want to change something, either inside or out, please do so.”

At night, Sophie curled up in bed. She tensed when he came into bed, not sure what he would do. But all he did was pull her close to him, cradling her in his arms. Sophie was sound asleep moments later.

Sunday she found herself alone in bed and wondered if she had only dreamed of sleeping in Jason’s arms. She walked downstairs, wondering if she could talk to him in the breakfast room but he wasn’t there either.

When she didn’t find him in his library, she broke down and asked Higgins where he was. She was ashamed that she didn’t know where her husband was but she was too curious to keep on searching the house.

“He asked me to tell you that something came up at work. He said he would be home in time for supper.”

Sophie was disappointed but she took her bucket of gardening tools out to her small patch of new garden and spent the day considering all her options.

She discovered that, although she wanted to be independent, she was still in love with her husband. No matter how little interaction she had with him, she admired him too much to not have her feelings involved. And he was too kind and considerate to her. But kindness had nothing to do with her feelings. She knew that just about everything with the man she liked. She loved his smell, his irritating raised eyebrows when he disagreed with someone, she loved the way he kept his temper under control despite the fact that he genuinely disliked something someone said. In those cases, he even encouraged people to speak their opinions. She remembered several dinner parties where a man had disagreed with Jason. In one instance, the man was trying to convince Jason not to buy out his company. Jason had listened to the man’s arguments and by the end of the evening, had agreed to back out of his suit to buy the company. She even remembered reading a month later that the man and Jason were starting a venture together.

Personally, she didn’t agree with him all the time. She didn’t understand why he kept Jocelyn and Evelyn around so much. He didn’t seem to like them but he encouraged them to attend most of the dinner parties he held at the house.

Oh, there were things she disliked about him. Such as the fact that he worked so hard and didn’t always tell her what he was doing. She would have liked it if he had woken her up this morning to tell her what he was doing instead of slipping out of the room and telling one of the servants.

So what was she going to do about it? She asked herself that question for most of the afternoon as she finished with her small patch and started moving some of the other plants from the other gardens in a more pleasing design.

She could continue with her quest to be freed from the marriage. But deep down, she knew she didn’t really want that. It had only taken four days and she was right back in love with him. She even admitted that she was secretly thrilled that he had come to find her, not that she had suspected that he’d been looking for her, nor had she hidden from him. But the fact that he had come for her meant something, didn’t it? He could have easily accepted her divorce petition and married someone else very easily.

So again, she wondered, what was she going to do about the situation? She couldn’t dress well, she wasn’t an extrovert who could throw huge parties easily and then there was her red hair. Maybe she should exclude her red hair from the list of things against her. Jason constantly touched her hair and each time she’d tried to pin it up, he’d just taken it right back down again.

So really, all she had to fix was to become more fashionable and change her whole personality, she thought, chipping away at the hard dirt surrounding an azalea bush that was being smothered by a magnolia tree.

The odds against her were pretty high. How was she to overcome those odds?

She would learn to shop, she said, finally freeing the roots of the azalea and finding it a new home several feet away in a more open area. If other women could do it, so could she. It wasn’t that she hated to shop, really. She loved feeling the new clothes and the textures. She just didn’t know what would be right for her red hair and pale skin.

Sophie went to bed that night, still missing Jason and trying to figure out what she was going to do with herself to change her image into something Jason would both respect and want to fall in love with.

She woke to the phone ringing the following morning. Rolling over, she noticed that Jason’s side of the bed was rumpled so he had obviously slept with her during the night. But she hadn’t heard him come in nor had she heard him get ready for work this morning.

The thought that he hadn’t bothered to even say hello to her bothered her so deeply, she considered giving up on her plan on making him respect her and fall in love with her. The odds were overwhelmingly against her.

But by the time she finished her morning tea, she had gained back some of her perspective.

“I will not be a doormat any longer,” she said out loud to the empty breakfast room.

Dressing in her most sophisticated outfit, which wasn’t saying much since it was her only non-black jumper, she phoned Jason’s secretary and asked for an appointment with Jason in an hour.

“Of course, Mrs. Randal. Mr. Randal will always be available for you,” she said politely.

Sophie only hoped it was true.

Michael drove her to Jason’s office and she was struck by how different his business life was. She’d only read stories in the newspapers about his business activities. But she’d never been to his offices before. His company apparently took over an entire fifteen story building. Where his home was the epitome of old school, titled England with all the ancestry and history available, right down to the ancient oak trees lining the property and driveway, Jason’s office was all steel and glass. The lobby was intimidating with its marble and chrome décor along with forbidding security guards keeping all visitors from entering the bank of elevators without permission.