The Billionaire's Runaway Bride (5 page)

His eyes snapped to hers, then traveled down to her full, red lips. “I beg to differ,” Jason said only a moment before another couple moved over to greet them.

Sophie was too stunned from his quick comment to do more than go through the usual dinner chit-chat. Jason thought she was a beauty? She looked up at his incredibly handsome face with its smoothly shaven jaw, intense dark eyes that smiled at whatever the other couple had just said. He glanced down at her curiously but then turned his attention right back to the other couple.

She must have misunderstood, she told herself, sighing inwardly. It would be nice to be considered beautiful, but it just wasn’t in the cards. She had pale, white skin and obnoxious red hair that curled out of control in every direction when it was not controlled with pins and hair spray. Raving beauty? Sophie almost shook her head in regret. No, she would never be a stunning beauty. She had settled a long time ago for ‘not ugly’.

Dinner was a trial. She looked at the name tags on the place settings and almost stomped her foot in frustration. She was at the opposite end of the table from Jason. But why should that bother her? She didn’t want to be near him, did she?

She thanked the man next to her who pulled out her chair and seated herself. The man introduced himself as Frank Warhol, a banker from New York City. The man to the left of her was Dennis Andrews, who mentioned something about real estate but she didn’t listen to the whole tale since it went on and on.

As course after course was served, Sophie started to relax somewhat. The wine was delicious and she drank more of it than she probably should have. But each time she glanced down to the end of the table, she saw Jason deep in conversation with the other people around him.

She refused to be a wall flower any longer so summoning up all the courage she had managed to build within herself in the short months while she’d lived on her own, she turned to smile at Frank who immediately smiled back and went into some very interesting stories about life in New York City. The whole end of the table was laughing by the end of his story about children trying to “squeegee” his windshield. Apparently, the kids made money by cleaning the windshields of drivers but when it happened three or four times in a one mile period, he had become frustrated. He sounded like a very nice man who cared a great deal about his city.

The man to her right wasn’t as humorous, but it was flattering that he attempted to talk to her so often. She felt a warm glow as the man told her about his properties in Scotland and Whales. As he spoke, she sipped her wine and nibbled at each course of food placed in front of her and she pretended like the two men were actually vying for her attention by trying to come up with the more humorous or interesting story. She knew it wasn’t true, but it was such a nice fantasy, she let herself dream a little longer. By the time dessert was served, she felt warm and happy. If the candles danced a little too much, she didn’t really care.

As the party adjourned to the drawing room for coffee and more conversation, she was flattered when both Dennis and Frank tried to take her hand to escort her into the drawing room.

“That will not be necessary,” a deep voice said from behind the three of them.

Sophie turned and smiled dreamily up at Jason who stood several inches taller than both men. “Hello, Jason. Did you like the fish?” she asked.

Both Frank and Dennis chuckled softly although Sophie didn’t understand the joke.

“Thank you, gentlemen, but I think I can escort my wife myself,” he said. Was it just Sophie’s imagination or did he put extra emphasis on the word ‘wife’?

Regardless, both men backed away from her immediately and Jason pulled her arm through his. Sophie was so relaxed, she leaned against his strong arm and sighed. Fifteen minutes later, she no longer felt very relaxed. In fact, she was feeling very hot and uncomfortable. Jason had his arm around her waist and his thumb was rubbing against her side. He also had her plastered against the side of his body and wouldn’t let her put even an inch of space between them.

She tried to listen to the couple in front of them but had to put the coffee cup down onto the table beside her. It was rattling too much because her hand was shaking. Jason had moved his hand to her neck and casually rubbed the tense muscles, every once in a while, his finger touched her ear lobe as if by accident, but Sophie knew from experience that Jason knew exactly where to touch her to make her shiver. And he was doing it now.

This was very odd since Jason had never touched her in public before. First at the house while putting her coat on and now this, with several people looking on. It was a very odd experience and one that Sophie was unable to move away from, even if she wanted to. But she knew she didn’t want to. No matter what had been wrong with the rest of their lives, Jason had been able to make her resistance melt with just a simple touch. Right now, her body was on fire for him and all he was doing was touching her neck and ear lobe.

She supposed she was smiling at all the appropriate times during the conversation because the woman was not slowing down. Sophie knew the older woman was describing her grandchildren’s latest antics but if tested, Sophie would be hard pressed to even remember the names, much less any incident the woman was relating.

“Please excuse us, Maltilda,” Jason said once the woman stopped to take a breath. “I can see that my wife is feeling tired and I should be getting her home to bed,” he said with a gracious smile.

“Yes, of course. I can see that she’s overly tired.” And without another word, Matilda pulled her husband along to discuss her grandchildren with another couple.

“I’ll make our excuses to Dorothy. Can you wait here?” he asked, looking down into her eyes.

Sophie understood his message and it terrified her. “No, I’m not ready to leave,” she said nervously.

“Yes, you are,” he replied firmly. Without another word, he moved off to speak with Dorothy McCay who immediately walked over to where Sophie stood, rooted to the floor.

“Sophie, it was so nice to see you again. I’m grateful you were able to make it tonight. Frank and Dennis are still talking about you,” she said with an odd look on her face. “Whatever did you talk about during dinner?” she asked.

Sophie was almost wringing her hands in nervousness as to why Jason wanted to leave so quickly. So she couldn’t remember anything that was said during dinner although less than an hour had passed since they’d all left the dining room. “Oh, this and that,” she finally said.

Dorothy was not convinced but she relented at Jason’s obvious impatience to leave. Sophie wanted to stay but she also noticed other people getting up and saying their goodbyes as well. It became obvious to her that anything less than leaving would seem odd.

They drove home in the car in silence, Sophie sitting as far away from Jason as she could get. She didn’t want him touching her anymore, afraid of where it might lead now that they were alone. It had been detrimental to her concentration while surrounded by acquaintances in a brightly lit living room. It would be devastating to her resolve to stay out of Jason’s arms if he touched her in the darkness of the car.

As soon as the car slid to a stop in front of the house, Sophie rushed out of the car and up the stairs to the relative safety of her own room. She breathed a sigh of relief when she was able to close the door and lean against it.

Looking up at the ceiling, she wondered what Jason thought of her hasty departure but then told herself she didn’t really care. She looked up at the ceiling that was painted with a heavenly scene filled with cherubs in ice blue with silver wings dancing on clouds with golden rays of sunshine. She wished she could be that carefree. If only Jason loved her and she felt confident in that love.

But Jason was only her husband and obviously he didn’t love her. Why had he married her, she wondered. Besides pity, she thought as she carefully unclasped her pearl necklace and walked across the room to her dressing table.

Odd, she thought. Her dressing table was missing her brush and mirror. Perhaps someone had just cleaned things up after she left.

Pulling the zipper down on her dress, she walked over to the closet to hang it up. But as soon as she opened the doors, she gasped in the shock of what she was seeing. Her entire closet was empty. Rushing over to the dresser drawers, she pulled open one drawer after another but they were all empty.

“They have been moved into their proper place, Sophie,” Jason’s deep voice said from behind her.

She swung around, holding her dress in place since it was unzipped. “What are you talking about?” she demanded.

He pushed away from the door jamb he’d been leaning against and walked over to her. “I mean, your clothes and all your toiletries have been moved into our bedroom. We will no longer sleep in separate rooms.”

“Why?” she asked, her breath catching in her throat as she felt his warm fingers lightly brush the bare skin her open zipper revealed.

“That’s an odd question for a wife to ask. Most married couples share a room. It was never my intention to not do that in the beginning. Over the past few months, I’ve realized that I’d made many mistakes. This time, I’m going to correct them. Starting with sharing a room like a normal married couple,” he said and took her hand to lead her into the adjoining room.

“Jason, I thought you wanted your own room,” she said, pulling back from his hand. But he wouldn’t release her hand. When she wouldn’t move, he just put a firm hand to the small of her back and guided her into the next room. “Why are you afraid to move into the other room, Sophie?”

“I just don’t understand what you want from me?” she said desperately, digging her heels in and refusing to move. She looked up into his handsome face and squared her shoulders. “If all you need is a wife, then find a willing one.”

Jason looked down into her stormy eyes with an inscrutable expression. “I think I have one. Would you care to put that to the test?”

“I’m not!”

“Are you challenging me?” he demanded, one hand coming to touch the rapidly beating pulse at the base of her throat. “You know how much I love a challenge, Sophie.”

She stepped back but his hands grabbed her, refusing to let her step out of his reach. “Jason, this is ridiculous!”

His eyes turned angry at that point. “No, Sophie! What is ridiculous is you running away from our marriage without any notice or reason and not telling anyone where you could be found, not calling to let anyone know that you are okay. Do you know what you put the staff through?”

The first part of his words started to sink in but the last words broke through. “The staff?” she demanded angrily. “Why in the world would I care what the staff thought of me? I’m not answerable to them!”

He grabbed her arms and pulled her close, so close her breasts were touching his chest and she could feel his angry breath on her cheek. “Then what about me, Sophie? Didn’t you think about me? I had no idea where you were!”

“As if you cared! Did you even know I was gone? How many days did it take for you to even look for me?” she asked, refusing to let the tears fall although they were hovering on her eyelids. She would not cry in front of him. She wouldn’t let him know how much he could hurt her. She’d given him too much power over her before and she wouldn’t do it again.

“Are you saying I wasn’t aware of you?” he asked incredulously.

“Isn’t it true? I was your wife only in the bedroom. And wasn’t I a sap, then?” she said, roughly pulling out of his arms. She took several steps away from him, furious with the memories.

“Don’t do that,” he said, pushing angry hands through his hair.

“Why not? Because we had a great sex life?”

“Don’t you dare say you didn’t like it, Sophie. Because we’re just about to prove that you did.”

“Well there’s more to a marriage than just good sex.”

“Great sex,” he clarified.

“Whatever,” she said.

“Sophie, what has gotten into you?” he said, his voice turning coaxing instead of angry. “This isn’t like you.”

She turned her back on his gentle words which were more devastating than the angry ones. “It is now. I didn’t like who I became. I wanted something different and couldn’t find it with you.”

One hand reached up as if he were going to touch her but he stopped and put his hands on his hips instead. “What did you want? I’ve never denied you anything,” he retorted.

She looked through the inky black windows, not seeing anything but his distorted reflection in the window panes. “Freedom,” she said angrily. “I didn’t want to be your wife.”

“Not true, Sophie. What happened to make you change your mind? Everything was fine in the beginning.”

His words hurt because they were true. She’d been deliriously happy initially. Until she’d known the truth. Oh, how much that truth had hurt her pride! “It wasn’t enough!”

“What wasn’t?” he asked softly.

“Everything,” she said, turning to face him.

Jason came over to stand in front of her. He looked at her hair, her skin, her lips and instantly, Sophie’s body started shivering, knowing what would come next. She wanted to run, to hide so he couldn’t touch her and make her melt, make her betray herself. But his eyes held her captive. “I don’t know what you want but I can definitely give you what you need,” he said and his mouth covered hers in a kiss filled with promise and passion.