What had she said to him? What had he said back?
Her grandmother could be downright mean and manage it with a smile on her face, but Lexi didn’t think Josh was the sensitive type. He appeared immune to emotions. She’d become receptive to his moods over the last days. He hadn’t exactly opened up to her, but she felt they were getting closer, and he seemed happy.
Until this morning.
He’d made such beautiful love to her. For the first time she’d sensed it was more than mere sex. There was a true connection between them. She’d woken up to a feeling of well-being, a burgeoning sense of happiness. She’d tried not to analyze it too deeply because Josh had made it more than clear that he was not sticking around, had no interest in anything of a more long-term nature. So she’d told herself to take what she could and not get in too deep. And maybe afterward, they could be friends.
Then he’d come back, and the relaxed lover of the last few days was gone. He seemed tense, not happy. And while she tried to blame her grandmother, she suspected there was something else going on in his head.
Now she looked at him, seated behind his huge steel desk, dressed in a charcoal gray suit with a white shirt and a dark red tie. He looked different, the rough edges smoothed away. She wanted to go across and kiss him, to snuggle in his lap, but something about him radiated standoffishness, and she couldn’t quite get up the nerve to push past that.
He cleared his throat, and she realized she’d been standing staring at him for a good minute.
“You look smart,” she said.
“I had a meeting with the bank.”
“Oh. I hope it went well.”
“It did.” After loosening his tie, he pulled it over his head and shoved it in his desk drawer. Then he unfastened the buttons on his shirt, revealing the V of golden skin at his throat. Sitting back, he studied her out of those stunning blue eyes. “Sit down, Lexi.”
God, he was bossy. “Aren’t we going to lunch?”
“In a minute. I need to talk to you about something first.”
She took the chair opposite him and sat, hands on her lap, trying to subdue the worry gnawing at her insides. He could hardly dump her. He was married to her and had promised her the next six months, and she had come to believe he was a man of his word. But he could very easily distance himself, and she didn’t want that.
His eyes held a guarded expression.
Had she messed up somehow? Come across as too needy? Maybe she hadn’t been quite so good at hiding her emotions as she thought she was.
She studied his desk. It was immaculate. As was the whole office. So different from her own. Maybe he’d realized he couldn’t live with her any longer. He’d said at the beginning that he hated mess and he hated chaos.
Had he had enough of both?
She bit down on her lip and then glanced back at him. He was frowning at her.
“How did the meeting with your grandmother go?” he asked.
She shook her head to get her thoughts together. “Fine.”
“She didn’t say anything about us?”
“A little. But mostly just that she was happy to see me happy.” She gave a rueful smile at his expression. “I know. I didn’t believe her either. I think she’s up to something, but I have no clue what.”
“You don’t think she suspects the marriage is a sham?”
She wanted to shout that it wasn’t a sham, but that was being stupid and not honest with herself. She’d been living in a little bubble these last few days. Her little fantasy bubble. “Probably. But I don’t think she can prove it. If she could, she would have done something by now.”
“I got a phone call this morning from an ex-colleague of mine. He set up his own private investigator business. He told me he’d been approached to get background information on me.”
“Who by?”
“He wouldn’t tell me. Client confidentiality, but he wanted to give me a heads up. It was yesterday and he’s been trying to get hold of me since.”
“Oh. And you think it’s my grandmother.”
He shrugged. “I can’t think of anyone else who would investigate me right now.”
“Could she find anything?”
“Probably. It would be easy to prove we haven’t been living together.”
“Maybe we could say that was a glitch. All married people go through problems. We’re together now. Hopefully that’s enough. I’ll check with my lawyer.”
“He knows about us?”
She nodded. “He’s a friend of Uncle Jamie’s. He set up the original paperwork.”
“Good.”
But he still didn’t look happy. Something else was bothering him, and she wanted to understand, to help him get over it. “There’s something else?”
He raised a brow. “No.”
She nibbled on her lip a bit more, looked up, and found his gaze fixed on her mouth, a hot, hungry expression in his eyes, which he blanked out as soon as he noticed her watching. He wanted her. But he was trying to hide that fact. He hadn’t hidden it before. What had changed?