The Call Boy I Met in Paris – Episode 62
Justin glanced back at the closed reception doors. “What? Is my wife jealous because I had a private conversation with her sister?”
“Quit messing around.” Sophie kept hold of his hand, partly to stop him from escaping behind humor. “You mentioned the University of Paris exhibition, the café, and my mother. Stella looked terrified.”
“I thought it was a good opportunity to remind her of a lesson she may have forgotten after graduation.”
“What lesson?”
Justin’s mouth curved without warmth. “Copycats do not have nine lives.”
Sophie tried to remain serious, but the absurd threat broke through the tension. “That is not a real saying.”
“It is now.” He led her toward the quiet end of the corridor, away from the guests and cameras. “She understood me.”
“You threatened the woman who drugged me in a room full of witnesses.”
“I warned her that records exist and crimes have consequences. Those are facts.” Justin studied her expression. “Are you upset?”
Sophie should have been. His confidence raised the same unanswered questions that had followed him from Lake Enterprises, and his instinct to protect her sometimes came dangerously close to taking control. Yet all she could see was the way he had stood beside her when the entire room expected him to doubt.
“I do not know,” she admitted. “I just see you differently now.”
Concern replaced his teasing. “What happened?”
She looked at him beneath the soft corridor lights. The man she had once reduced to a paid role had defended her work, her reputation, and her mother’s memory without asking what any of it would cost him.
“You are more handsome,” Sophie said, testing the words. “And somehow sexier.”
Justin raised his brows, pleased. “Keep going.”
“Also adorable.”
“Adorable?” He placed a hand over his chest as if she had wounded him. “Try manly. Or masculine.”
Sophie laughed, and the sound released the strain she had carried since the café. When Justin drew her closer, she did not resist. For a moment, the ruined award celebration behind them mattered less than the realization that she no longer wanted their marriage to feel temporary.