The hostess couldn’t take her eyes off Jared, and every time she turned to see if we followed her, her gaze lingered too long. I thought it would serve her right if she tripped, but she managed not to.
Whispers eddied behind us through the dining room. She led us to a private room and seated us by a window, and I exhaled the breath I’d been holding when she closed the door. I’d once been comfortable with that kind of attention, but that had been when I’d been successful and at the height of my beauty. It occurred to me that some of the diners might have thought I was Jared’s latest conquest, or—considering his reputation—that I was trying to seduce him.
Jared hadn’t seemed to notice anything untoward, but then, he was used to being handsome and rich and drawing every woman’s eye in the r
