Since I Saw You (Because You Are Mine 4)

It took her a moment to unfreeze her tongue. The icy hand that had seized her heart remained tight. She hated it, but some of the things Jason was saying now, and had said to her in the past, were not all that dissimilar to her own thoughts on the matter recently. Still, she’d never let Jason know that. “I’m a Noble executive. I hardly see how his having a wife and child affects my employment.”

“Don’t take offense, please,” he implored quietly, grabbing her hand. Her head turned as she shot Kam a nervous glance. From her side vision, she saw his long legs tense and shift. “I just meant that loyalties often alter when such large changes occur in an employer’s life,” Jason continued near her ear. “Yes, even when the alterations are in his personal life. You’re a practical woman. You must realize that.”

She turned toward him briefly.

“I realize no such thing,” she stated unequivocally. She pulled her hand away from his. What had gotten into him? She’d never seen Jason this way. Luckily, the lights dimmed and the audience hushed.

“We can speak more about it at the intermission,” Jason whispered.

She opened her mouth to tell him there was nothing to discuss, but the orchestra began to play. She sat there, watching the stage unseeingly, feeling trapped between Jason’s inexplicable crassness on one side and Kam’s silent, smoldering intensity on the other.

She had never enjoyed the opera less, despite the superiority of the performance itself. Jason and Kam seemed as tense and dissatisfied as she felt as they stood in the crowded lobby at intermission, waiting for some drinks.

“And what do you think of Vasquez, Kam? Do you think he’s adequate to the role?” Jason asked Kam pointedly, referring to the young South American tenor playing the part of Otello.

“He’s good,” Kam said with his typical laconism.

Lin had a sinking feeling when she noticed Jason’s smirk. Kam’s brief response had clearly been precisely what Jason expected from his pompous ideas of who Kam was. Why had she ever let Ian talk her into this? Beyond the fact of Jason’s strange, competitive mood, it clearly had been a mistake. Kam was not enjoying himself any more than she was.

“I’m not so sure I can agree with such eloquent praise,” Jason said drolly, taking their drinks from a waiter’s tray and passing them around. “I’ll admit to being a bit disappointed, given all the hype over Vasquez. Otello is one of the great acting challenges in opera. Vasquez has none of the flare and fire of Bardo, for instance, wouldn’t you agree, Lin?”

“Bardo blustered his way through Otello,” Kam said harshly. Jason looked at Kam in amazement, Lin with abrupt trepidation. “Vasquez has ten times his power vocally, and despite his supposed gaucheness, is much the subtler actor. If it came to a showdown of the two men, Vasquez would demolish that strutting peacock Bardo. Excuse me,” Kam said so abruptly that Lin jumped. He turned and walked away.

Lin resisted an urge to laugh at Jason’s slack jaw. Jason looked at her with his mouth still hanging open.

“Did I say something to offend him?”

“What do you think, Jason?” she snapped. When she saw his surprise at her outburst, she inhaled and calmed herself with effort. Kam had already cut down Jason to half his size, even if Jason didn’t seem aware of his suddenly dwarfed stature. This night would not be made better by her further insulting one of Noble Enterprises’ business associates. She just wished this event were over.

“He doesn’t really like crowds,” Lin said, attempting to be neutral despite her cool tone. “He probably just went to use the facilities or to get a breath of fresh air.” She hoped what she’d said was true and that Kam hadn’t just left the opera house for good. She wouldn’t put it past him.

“He’s an odd one, isn’t he? If he didn’t look so much like Ian, I’d never believe they were related.”

Lin ignored the invitation to join in a sniping match about Kam. She sipped her champagne, thinking about the impatience on Kam’s face when he’d soundly put Jason in his place just now and walked away. Kam thought she was wasting his time, and Lin had to agree with him in this instance.

“Speaking of crowds, can we find a private place to talk?” Jason interrupted her preoccupation. “We have a few minutes before the intermission is over.”

Lin sighed. She didn’t want to talk to Jason in private, but maybe she’d better just kill this idea he had of her working for him once and for all. Besides, there were a few other things she needed to clarify with him.

“All right. But only because I’d like to hear why you’re being so rude to Kam.” Jason blinked at her bluntness, but quickly recovered.

She followed him to a deserted alcove that led to a closed-off stairwell. Jason reached for her champagne glass and set it, along with his, on the marble column at the foot of the stairs. The sounds of the crowd were muted here. Lin stiffened when he placed his hands on her upper arms.

“Why are you acting so strangely tonight?” she demanded, her irritation with him undisguised.

“I’m sorry for upsetting you before the performance began,” he said quietly. “But I think you know as well as I do that the Noble Enterprises of today is not the same company as it was yesterday.”

“You’re right,” Lin said coolly. “It’s more diverse and financially vibrant than it’s ever been.”

“Thanks to you, in large part,” Jason said, rubbing his hands up and down her bare arms. “And what have you got to show for it, Lin?”