Free The Billionaire's Runaway Bride by Elizabeth Lennox Page B

from the previous night’s activities.
     
    She smiled as she remembered his uncontrollable passion. And it had all been for her. She relished the fact that he hadn’t been able to stop, or even slow down. She pulled a brush through her hair, secretly thinking back to the events and wondering how she could make it happen again.
     
    This day was more relaxed than the previous one since she wasn’t furious with Jason today. She still worked in the garden, digging in the roses and mulching whatever struck her fancy. She knew she was horrifying Fred, the full-time gardener Jason employed but she didn’t care. She kept well out of his way though. He didn’t blatantly glare at her but his anger was palpable whenever he saw her.
     
    She considered leaving well enough alone and letting him do his own work. But then what would she do? She had no job and no possibility for a job. She wished she had something she could do on her own but until she figured out what she was going to do about her marriage, her only option, the only thing she knew how to do and loved doing, was gardening.
     
    By lunchtime, she received another note from Jason informing her that they would be having guests for dinner that night. The note almost put her into another bad mood but she was too relaxed to work up any real anger.
     
    That was before she came downstairs that night. She saw Jocelyn and Evelyn immediately. It wasn’t hard since they were standing in the entry way to the living room. She saw Jason talking with several other people and felt bad that she hadn’t come down sooner. She had taken her time in the shower but hadn’t heard Jason come in so had thought she’d had more time.
     
    “Good evening, Sophie,” Jocelyn said, a smirk on her face as she took in Sophie’s brown dress with a demure collar. Sophie wished she didn’t have to walk into the living room now. It was always difficult to face new people but now Sophie had to enter while being framed on either side by Evelyn, who was dressed in a beautifully tailored ice blue, silk evening suit and Jocelyn, who was equally fashionable in a flirty, pink chiffon dress with a sequined, halter bodice. Surveying the two, she knew that she would look like a sack of potatoes in her drab, brown dress that hid her body with fabric.
     
    “Your hair!” Jocelyn said, the look of horror on the woman’s face made Sophie reach up self-consciously to try uselessly to tame the curls. “Sophie, dear, why don’t you let me do something with your hair? It looks a little….wild,” she finished politely.
     
    Sophie’s eyes flew into the room and searched for Jason. Would he think her hair was wild? She saw him over in the corner talking with another man she’d never met. “Do you really think it is odd?” she asked, worried that she was looking silly.
     
    She saw the look that passed between Evelyn and Jocelyn and shook her head. “No need to say anything,” she said, stopping whatever Evelyn was about to say. She looked again at their fashionable outfits and turned around. “Tell Jason I’ll be down in a few more minutes.”
     
    She hurried up the staircase, hoping no one else had seen her. She wished she had some small amount of fashion sense. But she supposed that some people had it and others didn’t.
     
    Once in her room, she quickly braided the curls into a thick plait, then pinned the mass up on the back of her head. She looked horrible again, but at least she didn’t look silly. Just plain.
     
    “Well, this is it,” she said to her reflection.
     
    “What is it?” Jason said from behind her.
     
    “My hair,” she said, putting her hair brush down on the table.
     
    He walked up behind her and started pulling out the pins. “I thought you were going to leave it down? I saw you downstairs a moment ago and it was down around your shoulders. Why did you change your mind?”
     
    “No, Jason, stop!” she said but it was too late. His hands were too fast and he already