Page 63 of Hate to Crave You
Julianna felt like she’d been slapped.
“I’m notdoinganything to you,” she said, her voice shaking. She sucked a breath in, forcing herself to be calm and think. He clearly wasn’t able to do so right now. “Would you just…try to focus and think, Roman? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all day. I’ve been talking to you about dinnerall day. I texted you about meeting me here earlier this afternoon. If I was going behind your back, why would I tell you what I was doing?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were having lunch with her?” he fired back.
“Because we were having lunch as friends!” she snapped, her own temper snapping perilously close to the brink. “Don’t you ever have lunch with a friend?”
“Not one who’s connected to a deal as big as this one!” His blue eyes were so cold, they almost burned as he glared down at her.
“The only way she’s connected to it is through her last name!” Julianna retorted hotly. “She doesn’t have anything to do with the minesorthe tech arms of Templeton Legacy. She and her sister are involved with the stores,notthe mines.”
“Oh, so she knowsnothingabout the sale her father is doing?” Roman snapped.
Julianna opened, then closed her mouth.
He read more into what was there and she knew she should have said something. She just didn’t know what to say. “I’m sure she knows something, but that has nothing to do with why we had lunch,” she insisted. “Am I supposed to ask your permission before I meet my friends now? Is that what you’re saying?”
“You know what?” He bent low, shoving his face into hers. “You do what you want. I don’t care.”
With that, he turned on his heel and stormed off.
Julianna took a step after him, but her legs shook under her and she ended up bracing a hand on the table to keep her legs from wilting under her. What in the hell had just happened?
* * *
Her legs were still shakingwhen she returned back to the table.
Moira took one look at her and said, “Oh, no. Honey, what happened?”
“He thinks I’ve been using you to get an unfair advantage about the deal with your father,” Julianna said, lowering herself into the seat across from Moira.
She was terribly glad to be off her feet. She reached for the wine glass only to laugh in despair when she found it empty.
“I think you need something stronger than wine,” Moira said, raising her hand to flag down the server.
It didn’t take long to get a double of Glenlivet fifteen year and Julianna took one sip before dropping her head into her hand. “I don’t understand what just happened, Moira.”
“Honey, he’s a man. They don’t always think things through,” Moira said sympathetically.
“I don’t get it,” Julianna whispered. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with him all day to let him know about meeting with you and he thinks I went behind hisback?”
Moira took her free hand and squeezed. “Again, he’s aman.”
“I guess that explains that old phrase,can’t live with them, can’t kill them.” Julianna laughed weakly and blinked back tears. She felt like somebody had ripped her chest open, yanked her heart out, then messily tried to piece her back together—and not everything fit.
Long, aching moments of silence passed and Julianna sipped her whiskey as Moira sat back and let the servers clear the meals neither of them were interested in now.
“You want to finish this up via a phone call tomorrow?” Moira asked. “I’d give you more time, but frankly…we don’t have it.”
“We might as well discuss it now.” Julianna waved a hand. “It’s not like not talking about it is going to magically undo anything, is it?”
“No. I guess not.” Moira huffed out a short breath. “But when I see Roman again, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”
“Moira…”
Moira shook a finger at her. “Don’t tell me I can’t either. He’s being an ass and I’m your friend. It’s my job!”
Julianna sniffed and managed a smile for the other woman before sitting up straighter. She took another, stiffer sip of Glenlivet then put the glass down. Slipping her hands under the table, she fisted her hands, then relaxed them, trying to center and focus herself. “Okay, so what exactly is this deal you want to talk about?”
