Since I Saw You (Because You Are Mine #4)(68)
“How is Ian doing with fatherhood soon approaching?” he murmured.
“Oh, very well. He’s very excited,” Lin said, trying to speak loud enough to include Kam in the conversation and dilute Jason’s intimate manner.
“I would have never thought I’d see the day when Ian Noble settled with one woman so happily,” Jason continued, his voice volume very low. She glanced uneasily at Kam, but he was staring stonily out at the filling, gilded auditorium. As usual, she had the distinct impression he missed nothing about what was happening, however, despite Jason’s clandestine manner. “Do you think it’s possible now that Ian is finding so much contentment on the home front there might be the slightest opportunity that he’d loosen the reins on you, Lin?”
She blinked and turned to stare at Jason in amazement.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I was wondering if you would reconsider my offer about coming to work for Klinf. For me,” he said, his dark eyes moving over her face.
She smiled stiffly. Oh no. She’d thought he was over this. “Thank you again for the offer, Jason, but my answer hasn’t changed.”
“But your situation has, surely?” He noticed her bewildered expression. “Ian won’t be half so proprietary over you now that he’s so involved with his wife and future child. And for you, surely the appeal of being at his beck and call every second of every day has dimmed as well.”
It took her a moment to unfreeze her tongue. The icy hand that had seized her heart remained tight. She hated it, but some of the things Jason was saying now, and had said to her in the past, were not all that dissimilar to her own thoughts on the matter recently. Still, she’d never let Jason know that. “I’m a Noble executive. I hardly see how his having a wife and child affects my employment.”
“Don’t take offense, please,” he implored quietly, grabbing her hand. Her head turned as she shot Kam a nervous glance. From her side vision, she saw his long legs tense and shift. “I just meant that loyalties often alter when such large changes occur in an employer’s life,” Jason continued near her ear. “Yes, even when the alterations are in his personal life. You’re a practical woman. You must realize that.”
She turned toward him briefly.
“I realize no such thing,” she stated unequivocally. She pulled her hand away from his. What had gotten into him? She’d never seen Jason this way. Luckily, the lights dimmed and the audience hushed.
“We can speak more about it at the intermission,” Jason whispered.
She opened her mouth to tell him there was nothing to discuss, but the orchestra began to play. She sat there, watching the stage unseeingly, feeling trapped between Jason’s inexplicable crassness on one side and Kam’s silent, smoldering intensity on the other.
She had never enjoyed the opera less, despite the superiority of the performance itself. Jason and Kam seemed as tense and dissatisfied as she felt as they stood in the crowded lobby at intermission, waiting for some drinks.
“And what do you think of Vasquez, Kam? Do you think he’s adequate to the role?” Jason asked Kam pointedly, referring to the young South American tenor playing the part of Otello.
“He’s good,” Kam said with his typical laconism.
Lin had a sinking feeling when she noticed Jason’s smirk. Kam’s brief response had clearly been precisely what Jason expected from his pompous ideas of who Kam was. Why had she ever let Ian talk her into this? Beyond the fact of Jason’s strange, competitive mood, it clearly had been a mistake. Kam was not enjoying himself any more than she was.
“I’m not so sure I can agree with such eloquent praise,” Jason said drolly, taking their drinks from a waiter’s tray and passing them around. “I’ll admit to being a bit disappointed, given all the hype over Vasquez. Otello is one of the great acting challenges in opera. Vasquez has none of the flare and fire of Bardo, for instance, wouldn’t you agree, Lin?”
“Bardo blustered his way through Otello,” Kam said harshly. Jason looked at Kam in amazement, Lin with abrupt trepidation. “Vasquez has ten times his power vocally, and despite his supposed gaucheness, is much the subtler actor. If it came to a showdown of the two men, Vasquez would demolish that strutting peacock Bardo. Excuse me,” Kam said so abruptly that Lin jumped. He turned and walked away.
Lin resisted an urge to laugh at Jason’s slack jaw. Jason looked at her with his mouth still hanging open.
“Did I say something to offend him?”
“What do you think, Jason?” she snapped. When she saw his surprise at her outburst, she inhaled and calmed herself with effort. Kam had already cut down Jason to half his size, even if Jason didn’t seem aware of his suddenly dwarfed stature. This night would not be made better by her further insulting one of Noble Enterprises’ business associates. She just wished this event were over.
“He doesn’t really like crowds,” Lin said, attempting to be neutral despite her cool tone. “He probably just went to use the facilities or to get a breath of fresh air.” She hoped what she’d said was true and that Kam hadn’t just left the opera house for good. She wouldn’t put it past him.
“He’s an odd one, isn’t he? If he didn’t look so much like Ian, I’d never believe they were related.”