The Sapphire Affair (Jewel #1)(32)

Jake laughed and shook his head. “One, I don’t know who Duke is. Two, whoever he is, he didn’t send me your picture. Three, I have it, as I was saying before, because you’re hot.”

She furrowed her brow. “What? How does that compute?”

“Simply. Quite simply,” he said, reaching for his glass of water and taking a gulp.

She waited expectantly for an answer, even as worry thrummed through her. “How so?”

“Do you have a little sister?”

“No,” she answered quickly, wondering where this line of questioning was going.

“Well, I do, as you know. And she happens to be one of those wonderfully persistent sisters who wanted to know what I was doing last night, and I mentioned I had met a woman.”

She arched her eyebrow. “And she sent you a photo of me?”

He nodded. “She did. She’s like that. She also sent me an emoticon of lips smooching.”

Despite her simmering annoyance, her lips quirked up. Because that was kind of cute. “She did?”

He shrugged casually. “Like I said, she likes to razz me. But I don’t mind.”

“Fine. But why would she send you a picture of me?”

“She broke me down. That’s her special skill. She weaseled your name out of me when you were in the ladies’ room a little while ago. I was texting her, and she just sent me back the photo she found of you online.”

Hmmm.

His story added up. Mostly. Still, caution reigned, but she figured the fastest way to the truth was to lay her cards on the table.

“Scout’s honor? Because I’ve been burned, Jake. You seem like a good guy, and I like spending time with you so far. I just want to know for certain that Duke has nothing to do with this,” she said, gesturing from him to her, and the awareness that he was the first guy she’d had a date with since Duke made her throat hitch. “Promise?” she asked, her tone pleading, her voice threatening to break.




Maybe it was that quiver in her voice. Perhaps it was the way her eyes looked wet, like she was about to cry. It might even have been how scared she sounded. Whatever it was, he felt like shit now, especially given how he’d stretched the Kylie text into a big, fat white lie. He wished he didn’t have to fib so blatantly, but how was he to trust her? But he hated, absolutely hated, seeing a woman in this state.

“Duke isn’t involved. I swear. I don’t even know who he is. Who is this guy?” he asked, trying to be as gentle as he could. Then he stiffened as the possibility smashed into him. “Is he your boyfriend?” he asked, bracing himself.

She scoffed. “No—God, no. He’s an ex, though, and he tried to ruin my business. He enlisted a bunch of his friends to help him, too. That’s why the picture made me worry that you were connected with him, or who knows what,” she said, her voice still tough as she talked about the ex. But then it softened momentarily, and she whispered, “But I’m glad the picture just came from your sister. I think that’s sweet.”

Oh f*ck.

His heart lurched toward her.

He was a schmuck. She was too sweet. She was too lovely. He was the * for not telling her the truth. He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and tried to figure out what the hell to say. He didn’t want to ruin the job he’d been hired for, but he didn’t want to be a liar. That wasn’t the guy he was teaching his younger siblings to be. That wasn’t the man he wanted to be with a woman. He parted his lips to come clean, when she pointed to his phone.

“Can I see the picture she sent? You know, just to make sure it’s not a hideous one?”

He laughed. “Now, how could you possibly take a hideous photo?”

She tilted her head to the side and made a monster face, or maybe it was a zombie face, as she scowled and hissed. “Like that?”

He held up a hand. “Fine. Fine. That would indeed be a hideous picture, and I guarantee the one on my phone is not.”

Jake’s radar was quiet, but he still wasn’t sure if he was being played, so he kept on his armor of self-protection. But if she was being truthful, he didn’t want to blow it by treating her like an *. Like her ex had done.

He grabbed his phone from his pocket and cautiously swiped his finger across the screen. He clicked on the image from the text so it downloaded to his gallery, then he opened it, widening it so it spread across the screen. He turned the phone to show her. “See? No zombie monster face here. All hot. All gorgeous. Are we good?”

She studied it from her side of the table. “Hmm.”

“Hmm what?” he asked carefully.

“She got that from my website, right?”

The tiniest bit of heat spread across his cheeks as he tensed momentarily. Then he rolled the dice. “Yes,” he said, hoping to hell and heaven and back that Andrew had snagged the shot from her site.

“Ah, that is so cute that your sister looked me up for you,” she said sweetly, then in the blink of an eye, she swiped a finger across the screen, right to the last call received.

He yanked his phone back. But not in enough time. Because she’d removed her own phone from her purse and started to dial.

“Who are you calling?” he asked, his heart beating wildly with worry.

Her tone went from sweet to tough. “Just the number of the person who texted you the picture of me that’s not on my website. That’s on my personal Facebook page,” she said, then her eyes widened when she stared at her own screen.