Page 41 of A Baby to Make Her His Bride

“Irina laughed so hard.” Vienna could still hear the cruel ring of it. “She said I wasn’t smart enough to work at the company. That I would only embarrass Dad by being there. Granted, my grades were very average, but—”

“It was a job-shadow. Aday.”

“He said no and I couldn’t bring myself to ask again. Ever. I should have known better than to ask at the time. It didn’t matter what I wanted to do, Irina would mock me for it. Puberty was absolute hell, when I was growing into my body. She always wanted to be the center of attention, even if that meant getting negative attention by insulting me in front of my friends or criticizing my sketches in an art competition. The online trolls loved what they saw as a feud between us, when it was really just her saying mean things about me. That’s why I’m still such an easy target for them. She trained them.”

“Where is she now?” Jasper asked in a falsely pleasant tone.

“Marrying Orlin Caulfield, if there’s a god.”

He barked out a laugh.

“The point is, she did a number on my belief that I can do anything right. It doesn’t help that I’m human and actually do make mistakes. The marriage that was supposed to prove to my father that I was an asset to the company turned into a disaster. Then, when I filed for divorce and thought,There, I’m putting that behind me and starting with a clean page...”

They shared a wry look.

“I’m glad you told me this.” He took her hand as they came out of the park and steered toward the pedestrian crossing to their hotel. “I’m going to guess she was jealous because you’re actually very beautiful. I’m sure she felt threatened by that.”

Vienna must have winced at that because he said, “Vienna,” with a mix of gentle scold and astonishment. “Please tell me you know how beautiful you are.”

“I know how to tick the boxes on what most people think is beautiful,” she said helplessly as they moved into the portico of the hotel. “Blond streaks and shaped brows and...” She brushed at the stylish linen culottes she wore with a bralette and satin blazer. “Fooling people into thinking I’m beautiful isn’t the same as being beautiful.”

She released his hand to skip into the revolving door then crossed the lobby, trying to get away from that conversation, but Jasper brought it into the elevator with them.

He leaned on the wall, staring at her. “The most beautiful woman I have ever seen was wearing my T-shirt and no makeup. She didn’t even have her hair brushed. It was all piled on her head with a crunchie—”

“Scrunchie,” she corrected, laughing, but also blushing. She remembered that morning all too well.

“She told me to stand still and wasn’t even looking at me, which drove mecrazy. So all I could do was look at her.”

“Iwaslooking at you! I was drawing you.”

“And you looked so happy doing it that I wanted to stand there forever.” He launched himself across the elevator and caged her against the opposite wall. “But it was so freaking erotic I couldn’t handle it. And youdidn’t even notice.”

“Buddy, I was drawing you.” She tapped the middle of his chest. “Just because it was from the waist up doesn’t mean I wasn’t aware of what was going on below the edge of the page.”

His hot gaze drifted to her mouth and he might have kissed her, but the bell pinged and the doors opened.

He straightened away and motioned to the German-speaking couple that the car was going up, not down. They were left alone again.

Vienna looked to him, expecting—hoping—he would come back to her, but he was facing straight ahead now, his cheeks hollow.

“It was a good drawing,” he said, as if the flirtatious lunge hadn’t happened. “I kept the sketchbook. It’s in Vancouver. I meant to give it to you.”

“I have dozens of sketchbooks and I’m not afraid to buy more.” It was true. Some women had a shoe fetish. Hers was an eternal search for exactly the right tooth on the right size of ivory paper, bound in a way that pleased her.

They entered their spacious suite. It was tastefully decorated in whites and blues and silver. The drapes were pulled back on the wall of windows, offering gorgeous views of Santiago and the mountains. Through a pair of double doors, the king-size bed still showed the wrinkles from their nap when they had arrived.

Would they use it for anything more than sleeping?

Vienna glanced again at Jasper, wondering how to open that conversation when that, too, was baggage she still carried.

He was looking at her.

“What?” she asked, glancing down at her jacket to see if she’d spilled something at lunch.

“I’ve been thinking about asking the nurse something.”

The nurse had her own room on a lower floor. Aside from checking in daily and responding to texts, she was mostly free to do her own thing.

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