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‘I was the star pupil, actually,’ Beatrice corrected. ‘It was more a case of guilt by association. Alicia was always in trouble.’
‘So, you were the good twin?’
She nodded, but then thought for a moment. ‘Actually, even though Alicia might have been the naughty one, she was far nicer than me.’
‘Nicer?’
‘Yes.’
‘Nicer?’he checked again.
‘I could be mean. Well, according to Alicia.’ She shrugged, intending to end the introspection, but found she lingered there. ‘I was jealous, maybe.’
‘Of...?’
Many things—from Alicia’s gold earrings to the ease of her smile and the way she made friends with strangers. How, even if Beatrice had been the so-called ‘clever one’, Alicia had always known what to do.
‘She had lovely gold earrings.’
‘Oh?’
‘Turns out I’m allergic to gold.’
‘No?’
‘Yes, I come up in welts. Still, she was right; I could be mean.’ She shrugged. ‘You know what girls can be like.’
He didn’t, particularly. But he would like to know what this woman was like. There was a potentially life-changing meeting ahead of him, but it was forgotten for now.
For Beatrice truly fascinated him.
She was seriously beautiful. Yet it was not immediately obvious that her beauty ran deep beneath the surface too. He hadn’t seen it at first.
In truth, it had irritated him that he’d needed to employ her in the first place. The necessity of employing someone to handle his private life had naturally irked him. It had, at first, felt like an invasion. Yet she was brilliant at her job. Rarely did he have to meet with his father’s aides now; he had started to comfortably leave all that to Beatrice.
Julius liked how she’d said upfront that she didn’t care what he did and that his private life was his own. He liked her impassive features and the fact that to her he was like a phone to turn on, on a Monday—a schedule to arrange in her notebook.
When had his irritation started to grate on him in another way?
How had it shifted so that he wanted those lips to part and smile, or to hear her laugh?
When had the gap between Friday and Monday started to stretch...?
When had he discovered it washerprivate life that he wanted to dwell upon?
He wished he had paid better attention to her résumé, so that he could better understand how the very English Beatrice was in fact Sicilian. Her well-schooled voice, her education, told him she came from a well-to-do family...
Julius wanted to cheat. When Jordan had discussed offering Beatrice a full-time position, he had wanted to ask for her file. But he hadn’t.
Julius found he wanted to hear it from her own pinched lips. He wanted the prim and uptight Beatrice to open up a little to him.
‘I’m going to find out what’s causing the delay,’ she told him, but he shook his head.
‘Don’t.’
She swallowed and sat back down.
‘So, you were the star pupil at a convent school?’ he asked.
