He looked at her, his eyes caressing her face as though he was looking for something. “I did.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know you paid for them. But I know you didn’t shop for them.”
The lingerie was elegantly sexy, but not blatantly trashy, and the clothing was the same.
“My assistant helped. I’m not very good at picking clothing for a woman,” he admitted, sounding like he didn’t want to admit there was anything he didn’t do well. “I’d be happy if you were always naked.”
“She’s willing to do your shopping?” she questioned, ignoring his provocative comment.
He shrugged as he took her hand and tugged her into the shower. “Of course. She’s my assistant.”
The pulsating jets of hot water soothed the muscles in Kristin’s body that she hadn’t known existed until she’d started doing sexual calisthenics with Julian.
He picked up her sponge and body wash, turning her so he could wash her. Kristin tried to keep her mind out of the gutter as he glided the slick sponge all over her body. “Maybe she doesn’t like doing your shopping for a new wife.”
The poor woman had to have a thing for Julian. Kristin couldn’t imagine that any female could work for him and not have some kind of crush on him.
“She didn’t mind.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because she told me,” he answered sensibly.
“Any woman is going to say that to her boss.”
Julian turned her around, taking his time cleaning the front of her body as he answered, “Why do you say that?”
“I’m saying maybe she has a thing for you. Sometimes, when a woman works that closely with a guy, feelings get involved.”
“Are you jealous, Scarlet?” he asked curiously.
“Of course not,” she replied defensively. “It’s just natural that something like that could happen.”
“Look at me,” he beckoned, handing her the sponge when he was finished.
She made a motion for him to turn around, but he didn’t move.
“Kristin, look at me,” he cajoled again.
Lifting her head, she finally met his gaze with a challenging stare. “What?”
“You don’t need to be jealous of my assistant, or anyone else for that matter. She happens to be happily married with several great-grandchildren. I’ve asked her many times if she wanted to retire, but she swears she enjoys having me for a boss. I pay generously, and my employees are loyal. She loved picking out things for my new wife because she keeps up on the current fashions.”
Her face flushed as she made another impatient gesture for him to turn as she looked down at his chest. He spun around, but not before he’d thoroughly surveyed her expression.
She felt somewhat foolish, being envious of a woman who probably looked at Julian as a son. “Well, can you thank her for me? She has great taste,” she finally answered as she scrubbed his back with more force than was probably necessary.
“I know she’ll like hearing that,” Julian answered evenly. He let her work for a minute before he confessed, “I was jealous, too. When I saw you out on a date with somebody else, it nearly killed me.”
“I wasn’t jealous,” she protested instinctively.
“You were, and I kind of like that. Jesus, I feel so fucking possessive of you that it scares me sometimes. It’s a relief to know that sometimes you feel a little bit the same way as I do,” Julian rumbled.
“I didn’t know we were married when I agreed to go out on a blind date. I wasn’t sure I’d even see you again anytime soon,” she told him breathlessly, her heart racing from his admission that he had hated seeing her with another guy.
“Doesn’t matter. All I could think about was if he had touched you, I’d take his head off.”
“He didn’t. It was a date that Mara set up. He was nice enough, but he wasn’t . . .” She stopped herself, almost realizing too late what she was going to say.
“He wasn’t what?”
“Never mind. It’s not important.”
Julian turned and took her shoulders. “It is important,” he insisted. “That guy you were with . . . He wasn’t . . . what?”
Silently, she washed the front of his body quickly, finally finishing her statement. “He wasn’t you. He wasn’t a pain in my ass from the moment I met him. He didn’t come up with nicknames or challenge me to be more all the time. He didn’t make my body sing when I looked at him, and he sure as hell didn’t make me as angry as you do.”
Foreplay.
The word drifted through her mind in Julian’s husky voice, just like it so often did when she was annoyed with him.
“Good,” Julian said in a satisfied voice. “Then I guess I’ll let him keep breathing.”