Page 78 of Angel Eyes

Good. All wasn’t lost yet.

“You should go and enjoy yourself. I’m sure another woman will be the last thing on his mind after having spent days without your radiant company. Speaking of radiance, I almost forgot.” I slipped a hand into the inside pocket of my jacket, pulling out a small leather box and handing it to her. “I brought something for you.”

“Is this the bracelet from the department store?”

“It is. How do you think I was able to get you released from custody? I might be charming, but that saleswoman was out for blood. Anyway, it’s yours now.”

She hesitated. “Cristian, I can’t accept this. You should give it to a friend or a girlfriend.”

I swallowed an uncomfortable lump in my throat. I had no one else to give it to, but she didn’t need to know that.

“My apologies. Of course you wouldn’t want it. I should have realized.” I reached for the box, but she held on to it, her eyes running a lap around my face.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it as a rejection. I only meant it’s too nice to give to someone who’s practically a stranger. But if you want me to have it, at least allow me to pay for it.”

“How about this instead?” I said, ignoring the wrench in my gut that warned me I was about to do something I would regret later. “Go out with Gabriel tomorrow and tell him the truth. No matter what, you’ll feel better for having been honest with him. If things work out, you can bring him to my restaurant opening, and we’ll call it an even trade.”

“That’s hardly a fair trade.” She looked down at the bracelet, the sapphires winking in the afternoon sunlight. “But all right.” The unsettling feeling in my abdomen expanded as her eyes returned to mine, crinkling in the corners as she smiled.

This girl is making me soft.

The only reason I was here was to accomplish a task for Marcel. And with the opening less than a month away, this was no time to become sentimental.

I had to be calculated, strategic.

Never mind the fact that the idea of Juliet getting caught in the crossfire of all this suddenly made me ill at ease.

Twenty-Seven

Gabriel

At eight o’clock sharp, I rapped on the door to Juliet’s apartment. Dressed in black tie and sweating bullets, I took a solid breath, clutching the bouquet of roses in my fist so hard that it was a wonder the stems didn’t snap.

Were the flowers too much? Should I have gotten pink instead of red?

Fuck, probably.

Needless to say, it had been a long time since I’d been on a date. Not that this was a date. At least, that’s not the way I had presented tonight’s charity gala at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild to Juliet when I’d met up with her earlier, tickets in hand and heart in my throat.

As soon as I’d stepped inside Café Procope, I spotted her at her usual table in the corner, huddled over her laptop and staring intently at the screen. For a moment, I lingered in the doorway, drinking in the sight of her. I could picture her cinnamon-sugar freckles from across the room when she wrinkled her nose, and when her lips hooked up in a smile, a dangerous thought careened through my head.

Mine.

No, not yet. I still had to earn the right to call her that.

So much had changed since my conversation with James, and now I was looking at this whole thing with Juliet in a new light. I hadn’t forgotten what she’d said about wanting to be just friends, and before now, I hadn’t been willing to fight her on it or give her a reason to believe this thing between us could be something real.

But that was all about to change, starting tonight.

The door opened to reveal Juliet in a midnight-blue evening gown that trailed over her figure, clinging to every elegant curve of her body. My eyes swept up to her face, and my Adam’s apple got caught behind my tie when I saw her usually rosy lips were painted blood red.

By all the saints.

How was it this woman was custom made to fit every one of my desires?

“Hi,” she breathed.

I wasn’t sure if I was imagining the warmth in those pretty green irises, but I would take it, real or imagined.

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