Scruffy? What the hell does that mean? Do I even own anything scruffy?
FIVE O’CLOCK FOUND Riley hovering over line sheets. In her mind, she saw a blur of sizes, colors, and stock numbers running like a pattern on repeat.
“How’s it going?” Claudia asked.
Riley started at her pleasant tone. “Great. It’s a bit hard on the eyes, but it’s going well. I’ve got some great ideas, and with another two weeks of studying, I think I’ll have this information ingrained in my mind forever.”
“Good. Remember, it has to be perfect.”
“Perfect. Got it.” Riley saw Josh heading their way, and she trained her eyes on the paper once again.
“Claudia, how’s our newest employee coming along?” Josh asked.
“Oh, she’s coming along,” Claudia answered.
Claudia’s seductive tone caught Riley’s attention. Claudia touched Josh’s arm and fluttered her lashes.
Oh no, you did not just do that. Riley tightened her fist around her pencil.
“I’m giving her a few extra pointers,” Claudia said.
Riley clenched her jaw against the green-eyed monster that had snuck into her mind, but she could feel the heat creeping up her neck, the tightening of every muscle in her body. She dropped her eyes back to the line sheets and stewed.
“Thank you, Claudia. I knew you’d step up to the plate,” Josh said.
“Always,” she replied in that bedroom voice again.
I bet you do.
“Josh, I wanted to talk to you about a few things. I’m tied up for a bit, but will you still be here in an hour?” Claudia asked.
At that, Riley pushed from her chair, sending it skittering a few inches backward. In the most casual voice she could muster, she said, “Excuse me. Nature calls.” She brushed past Josh, sure she was leaving a trail of smoke in her wake, but she was too annoyed with Claudia to care.
Chapter Fourteen
JOSH SPENT THE afternoon dealing with buyers, meeting with his accountant, and taking phone calls. He watched the minutes tick by, the phone pressed to his ear.
“There’s just one more thing I want to say,” Peter Stafford said.
Josh had been on the phone with Peter for the past twenty minutes, and he was anxious to wrap up their conversation.
“Josh, I’m sorry for appearing forward with Riley Banks. I wasn’t myself that evening,” Peter said. “And I’m afraid I embarrassed myself.”
It had been Peter’s interference that had sprung Josh into action. He was glad for the push, but he wasn’t about to let Peter know that. Never let a business associate have the upper hand—another of Treat’s lessons.
“I thought something was a bit…off,” Josh said.
“You have my sincerest apologies, and if I made Riley uncomfortable, I am truly and deeply sorry. I will apologize to her when I see her at the meeting after the New Year.”
Josh waited for Peter to elaborate on why he’d gone down that road with Riley, and when he didn’t, Josh let it drop. He accepted Peter’s apology, and by the time he came up for air, it was six forty-five.
He went to the design studio and was surprised to find that Riley and most of the staff had already left for the evening. With fifteen unspoken-for minutes before his conference call, he headed back to his office and called Riley’s cell.
“How’s my secret girlfriend?” Girlfriend. He liked that.
“Tired and cranky,” she said.
“Too tired to see me?”
“No way. You can take my crankiness away,” she said.
He loved her honesty. “Does your crankiness have something to do with Claudia’s pawing me this afternoon?”
“God, I sound like a whiny, jealous girlfriend, don’t I? I’m really not. I swear. But there’s something about her that I just don’t trust,” she said.
“That makes two of us,” Josh said. “Do you trust me?”
Riley waited a beat too long to answer.
“Ri?” Josh had been so young when his mother died, and he’d watched his father remain true to her year after year, both of which had driven him to be more careful with his emotions. He’d craved the same powerful love as he’d watched his father harbor, believing that if he did all the right things, then one day he’d have that same amount of love for a woman. Even as a teenager, he’d been able to control those urges, to analyze his feelings, and if he hadn’t felt something bigger than lust for a girl, he hadn’t taken her to bed. Josh knew he was different in that way, but he always imagined that when the right girl came around, she’d respect that about him and appreciate it. It was time for Riley to get to know him better and understand the man he’d always been.
“I do trust you, Josh. But I don’t know much about your life in New York, so I have no idea what things were like before me.”
Josh took a deep breath and sat on the leather couch facing a wall of windows behind his desk. He stretched his long legs out and leaned back, glancing at his watch. They had only minutes; it was not nearly enough time to say the things he wanted to say. Instead, he simply replied, “Don’t believe everything you think, Ri, okay?” He wished she were beside him, snuggled in beneath his arm so he could kiss the top of her head and explain his past.
“How do you know what I think?” she asked.
“I know what people think. Trust me, Ri. Tonight we’ll talk.” A knock on his door caught his attention. “I gotta run. I’ve got a call at seven, but I’ll be there at eight, okay?” The door opened slowly and Claudia came in.
“Have a sec?” Claudia asked.
Josh held up one finger. “Eight?” he said into the phone, feeling a bit like a bug caught in a spider’s web. Damn, he wanted to tell Claudia about him and Riley, just to remove the secrecy and tension. The knots in his shoulders were nothing compared to the wrath Claudia could unleash once she found out about them. Maybe I should have terminated her ages ago. His loyalty to Peter was like a noose around his neck that he’d never minded until Riley came back into his life.
“Sure.” Riley’s voice was almost a whisper. Then the line went dead.
Josh stood and ran his hand through his hair. Running on little sleep had left him fatigued, and he needed a hot shower—and time with Riley.
“I’ve got a call in two minutes. Is it quick?” he asked.
Claudia flashed an unusually warm smile, sending a chill of worry up his back.
“I’ll come back. I have some work to do anyway.” She closed the door on her way out, and Josh breathed a sigh of relief—for the moment.
Twenty minutes later, he was reaching for his coat and keys when there was a soft knock at the door and Claudia pushed it open.
“I saw the line light go off. Have a minute?” She didn’t wait for an answer.
Josh leaned against his desk and glanced at his watch. “Just one,” he said.
She sat on the couch, her leather skirt hiked up to the top of her thighs. She swung her long legs out and crossed them at the ankle. “Riley’s making strides,” she said.
Josh let out another relieved sigh. “That’s great.”
“She’s got a long way to go, but I think she’s really working hard to find her way.”
“She’s very talented. I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Claudia leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. Her blouse bloomed open, revealing the mound of her breast and the edge of a lacy cream bra. Josh averted his eyes.
“You’re making me nervous,” Claudia said. “Can you just sit for a minute? I don’t bite.”
He half expected her to say, Unless you want me to. He didn’t budge. “What’s up, Claudia?”
She pursed her lips. “I just thought we should catch up a bit. We haven’t really spoken about anything…special…you wanted me to do lately. You know, designs, or any special preps for the Bliss line. I just wanted to be sure I was prepared for whatever you might need.”
Josh swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. Claudia was an attractive woman, and there was no denying her seductive ways, which might strike a powerful hold on a different sort of man. But Claudia’s blatant abuse of Josh’s loyalty to her uncle repulsed him, and as he watched her playing out her seductive ruse, he wondered if his loyalty to Peter was worth it.
She dug around in her enormous Louis Vuitton bag. “I met someone the other day, an editor for Vogue. Someone new.”
“Someone new? I haven’t heard of anyone new coming to Vogue.” Now he was interested. Surely his publicist would have the details before Claudia.
“He’s not there yet. But he will be.” She looked up quickly, and the contents of her purse dumped over her legs and onto the floor. “Oh, shoot. I’m so sorry.”
Josh bent forward to help her pick up her belongings. With a handful of lipstick containers, eyeliner, and her wallet, he lifted his eyes to return them and came up eye to eye with Claudia, her lips an inch from his.
“Thank you,” she whispered. She ran her tongue slowly over her lower lip. “I really appreciate how highly you think of me, Josh, and if ever I can do anything for you…” She let the end of her sentence hang in the air between them.