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“Oh, my.”
Jess leaned in to look more carefully and scrolled through the various posts. Photos of her and Jordan were plastered all over the screen along with some very unflattering captions about her.
Out with one of New York State’s most eligible bachelors... Why the same dress both nights?
One of the richest men in this hemisphere...can his date afford...?
Mystery lady with Jordan Paydan can’t be bothered with another outfit...
Jess felt her pulse pounding through her veins. Great. Just great. The whole world was talking about her. Correction, they were making fun of her. Wait till the parents of her pupils got a load of all this. And her mother!
He should just go ahead and say it. That he’d tried to tell her. He’d tried to convince her to get a more suitable dress at the boutique in his building. And he literally owned the building. But her pride had made her stubborn that night and she’d said no.
To think she’d actually entertained the notion that she could fit into the life of someone like Jordan Paydan. How could she have forgotten who she was? How could she have lost sight of the fact that she didn’t belong in his world? The women who did belong there never wore the same outfit twice, let alone to two consecutive events. She’d been fooling herself to think she could be enough for someone like him. As if she needed any more proof given the way he’d been avoiding her since they’d been intimate.
“Jess, I’m really sorry.” Jordan spoke through her thoughts. “I should have seen this coming. I tend to get a bit of attention every time I’m seen with someone new.”
She bit back a harsh retort at that comment. So now she was simply someone new as far as he was concerned. Someone for the New York tabloids to make fun of at her expense in their quest to achieve a few clicks.
Just further salt in the wound.
“Why are you here, Jordan?” she asked again, not even bothering to hide her irritation. “Did you want to tell me that you told me so? That I should have listened to your advice and let you donate me a dress?”
He blinked at her in confusion. “What? Of course not. And donate is certainly the wrong word.”
“Is it?”
“Yes!” he said in a loud voice that echoed off the ceiling. He pointed to the screen. “And I’m only here because I wanted to show you this, to give you a heads-up that it’s happening.”
“You could have called me to warn me. Instead, you asked Clara where I was and made it a point to come find me. So you still haven’t answered my question.”
He rammed a frustrated hand through the hair at his crown. “Maybe I didn’t want you to have to face it alone when you first saw it? Is that such a mystery?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. One thing for certain—you definitely are a mystery.”
His eyes narrowed on her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I can’t figure you out.”
“What puzzle about me are you trying to unravel, Jess?”
Her jaw dropped at the question “Are you serious? You really need to ask me that? Since you’ve arrived in this town, you’ve kept yourself completely closed off. But when we spend any time together, you’re warm and giving, the most dynamic man I’ve ever been with. Then you seem to completely shut down again. I don’t see you for days.” She had to swallow past the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat. “I guess I was just hoping...”
“What?”
“I was hoping that pattern would break after the night we spent together in your penthouse.”
A wealth of emotion clouded his eyes. But perhaps she had imagined it, for the very next moment they hardened with a glint of steel.
“You’re right.”
“I am?”
He nodded. “In that we needed to talk about what happened that night.”
Part of Jess wanted to kick herself for bringing on this conversation. There was no doubt she was going to hate what she was about to hear. Well, she’d never been one to shirk unpleasantness if it was necessary.
“So let’s talk, then,” she prompted, bracing herself for what was to come.
He drew in a deep breath, didn’t quite meet her eyes. Oh, yeah. This was going to be bad.
