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“Maybe later, then.” He took a half step back from her, giving her some much-needed space to breathe. “Callum said your mom has been calling every hour. You’d better deal with it or he might send someone over there to sort out the problem for him.”
Great. Exactly what she needed. A conversation with her mother. Not that she didn’t usually love talking to her mum. It was just that her mum could see through Julia in ways no other person could, and she would know as soon as Julia opened her mouth, that something was wrong. Talking to her mother was a minefield. Maybe she could just send her a text? Or an email? She could do an email. Maybe.
“You hungry?” Joe interrupted the discussion she was having with herself.
“I think so.” A nervous stomach meant she didn’t always feel hunger when she should, but she was aware she hadn’t eaten much on the plane. Airline food was notorious for being badly cooked, and she couldn’t risk getting food poisoning, so she’d stuck to nuts and crackers for the duration of the flight.
“I’ll order something from room service. Did you check out the kitchens already?”
Julia’s eyes sprang up to his. She studied him for a moment, but he didn’t seem to be making fun of her.
“Yes, I did,” she said cautiously.
He nodded. “Good, then call your mom while I order.”
For a moment, Julia couldn’t believe he’d taken her foible in his stride. It was something she’d have to think about. Later. Joe turned away from her, an
d for some reason, him leaving her space didn’t make her feel better.
“I think it would be best if I send her a vague, but upbeat, email instead.”
“Babe, she’s your mom. You know how to deal with her. But if I did that to mine, she’d hunt me down until she got the real story.”
So would Julia’s mum. On second thought, maybe she’d send a text instead.
Joe reached for the room phone. “What do you want?”
“Fries and bananas.”
Joe looked at her. “Fries and bananas?”
“Yes. The bananas come with their own packaging and fries are deep fried, which will kill any bacteria.”
“Babe, please tell me you don’t plan to spend this whole trip eating fries and bananas.”
“No.” Unless she couldn’t find anything else she thought was safe enough to eat. In which case, the answer would be a most definite yes. Anyway, if she added nuts—in their shells, of course—then she’d have a balanced diet. Almost. “Can you see if they have any nuts? In shells?”
Joe shook his head and ordered the food. While he was doing that, the porter arrived with her luggage from her previous hotel. Julia had to go through it to make sure nothing had been tampered with, which made her irritated with Joe for adding to her stress and messing up her perfectly organised plan.
She had her bag open on her bed—thankfully, the lock hadn’t been tampered with—when Joe sauntered into the room.
“Want to play cards?” He leaned against the doorjamb, his arms folded and his ankles crossed.
Cards? “I thought I’d eat and then get some sleep.” She also thought she’d spend as little time as possible with the man who made every hair on her body stand up—as though reaching for him.
“Not a good idea. It’s too early. If you go to sleep now, your body clock won’t adapt properly and you’ll have jetlag longer.”
“Is that true?” She wouldn’t put it past the charming monster to use pseudo-facts just to get her to do what he wanted.
“Babe, would I lie to you?” His smile was pure devilment.
“Yes.”
He placed a hand over his heart. “Come play cards with me while we eat.”
His faux-innocent look was setting off all kinds of alarm bells. This was another reason she stayed away from Joe. She was woefully out of her depth with the man.
“What kind of cards, exactly?”
