Since I Saw You (Because You Are Mine #4)(15)
There was no way in hell she was going to work with his insolent brother.
• • •
Morning sunlight poured into Ian’s corner office when she entered it three days later. She was jumpy from nerves, but knew she looked calm on the surface. It had taken a lot of energy to stifle her anxiety over what had occurred with Kam, but she’d had several days focusing on business in New York to do it. She’d carefully constructed a lie for why she couldn’t work with Kam, but her story seemed full of holes. Surely Ian, of all people, would never believe it.
Maybe she wouldn’t have to convince him after all, she reasoned as she approached Ian’s desk. She’d spoken to Ian last evening before her flight back to Chicago. Their discussion had been a practical rundown of her meetings in New York. Ian had only mentioned Kam in regard to his personal visits with family. Nevertheless, Kam might have told Ian in the interim what had happened between them Monday night. Perhaps Kam had already suggested he was the one who didn’t want to work with Lin?
Not knowing the lay of the land only amplified her barely restrained anxiety.
As usual, Ian sat behind his massive carved hardwood desk, talking to someone on his earpiece, his fingers moving fleetly over a keyboard placed in front of him. Despite his multitasking, his blue eyes met hers as she handed him the latest numbers from Tyake, one of his subsidiaries. She immediately recognized the glance of significance at a chair before his desk, her heart sinking a little. He wanted her to wait.
Residual anger, hurt, and humiliation crowded her consciousness when she considered the possibility of Kam spilling the dirty details to Ian. How could she have been so stupid? Her impulsivity shocked her to the core. She sunk into one of the upholstered chairs before his desk, a nauseating feeling of dread rising in her belly.
“We’ll wait and see how the Nikkei opens tonight and go from there,” Ian was saying, glancing over the contents of the file she’d handed him. Lin had known who was on the other end of line almost immediately by their topic. His typing fingers paused as he signed off from his conversation with Alexandra Horowitz, one of his vice presidents.
He pulled off his earpiece.
“Good morning,” she greeted him with false, brisk cheerfulness.
“It is one, isn’t it?” he commented quietly, glancing toward the floor-to-ceiling windows. The brilliant sunlight turned his usually cobalt eyes into gleaming slits of sky blue. “Francesca has that showing tonight. She’ll be pleased weather won’t stand as an excuse for people not to come.”
“She must be very excited.”
Ian’s brother Lucien and his wife Elise had opened a sophisticated boutique hotel and restaurant in the Prairie Avenue district several months ago, where Elise also worked as the executive chef. Francesca had been so inspired by the elegant brick structure where Lucien had situated the hotel that she’d completed a collection of some of Chicago’s architectural vintage classics, buildings evocative of a different era and graceful lifestyle. Lin had arranged for the Gersbach meeting with Kam to take place at the reception for Francesca’s showing, with dinner to follow at Frais, Elise’s new restaurant.
“Francesca has sketched for this collection, isn’t that right?” Lin hedged, hoping to avoid the inevitable topic of Kam for another few seconds.
“Yes,” Ian said wryly. “It’s been hard for her, being put off the paints while she’s pregnant. I’m betting she’ll be covering herself with the stuff once the baby is born.”
There it was, that far-off look Ian got in his eyes whenever he spoke of Francesca. It pained her far less today than it had in the past. Lin recalled vividly the first time she’d ever seen that expression—so different from Ian’s typical brutally sharp focus. It’d made her jealous to see it, she admitted, but there had also been a strange feeling of happiness going through her as well, witnessing such a determinedly lonely man finally lose himself thoroughly in thinking of another. She’d long ago accepted he’d never look that way for her. The pain had become a distant ache that bothered her less and less with each passing day.
“Francesca would deserve it,” Lin said with a smile. “How difficult for her, to have to abstain from something so entwined with her existence. I’m glad she’s found some alternatives, though. Francesca is nothing if not resourceful.” She arched her eyebrows and gave him a small smile. “I’m assuming you got her a gift, something for her opening?” It was a little standing joke between them. Lin used to purchase all the gifts for the various women he used to see before Francesca. When Ian met Francesca, however, Francesca had understandably protested about his having Lin choose gifts for her. Ian had to take a crash course in buying personal, thoughtful gifts, and he’d come a long way.
“I’m sending flowers, and I got her a first-edition photography book on classical architecture she’s been wanting from Lucien’s shop,” he said, referring to a vintage bookstore situated next to the Coffee Boutique in Lucien and Elise’s hotel.
Her grin widened. “You’re becoming an expert. The day is coming when you won’t need me anymore.”
His gaze sharpened on her. “Don’t say that. You’re one of my most prized assets. I can’t exist without you. Or at least Noble Enterprises can’t. Speaking of which, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”