The Billionaire's New Year Gift. Emma Darcy

have.

      It’s just your ego that’s smarting. You were sure he was interested in you, and obviously, since he hasn’t made a move to ask you out, he’s not.

      You should be glad. You’ve dodged a bullet. This is the best thing that could have happened…or not happened. Considering you’ve decided there was nowhere for a relationship with Alex to go, anyway.

      Yet no matter how many times she told herself all of this, she couldn’t stop wondering where he was tonight.

      And with whom.

      It was nearly eleven before Julie opened her gifts, and by then Alex knew it was going to be impossible to talk to her that night. Resigned, he watched her indulgently as she squealed and exclaimed over each offering. He’d say one thing for her. She might be spoiled and pampered, but she wasn’t jaded. He smiled wryly, remembering the Lotus. Well, maybe not totally.

      “Oh, Alex, they’re gorgeous!” she said upon seeing the tourmaline-set silver bracelet and earrings he’d given her. Coming over to where he stood, she kissed him. “Thank you,” she said softly. “You always know what I’ll love.”

      Love for her warmed him. Funny how she had so easily crept into his heart whereas he had always felt an off-putting distance with his brothers. Not for the first time, he wondered why that should be so. Perhaps it was being raised by a succession of nannies and the impersonal atmosphere of Harry’s mansion. Or maybe it was simply Harry himself, so absorbed in his business and his money that he couldn’t give much face time to his sons.

      After Julie finished opening her gifts, Alex pulled her aside.

      “I’m beat,” he said. “I’m going to head out.”

      “You’re such a party-pooper,” she said, pouting. “We’re all going to Twist, and Phoebe’s going to be so disappointed if you don’t go with us.”

      “You know how I feel about the club scene.”

      Julie just shook her head. “Twist isn’t a club. It’s fun. You’d like it.”

      Alex smiled. “I’ve been there. I’ll pass.”

      “Honestly, you’d think you were ninety instead of just thirty-six. You keep saying you’re not stodgy, but I’m having a hard time believing it.”

      Alex shrugged. “Actually, I was hoping we could get together for a while tomorrow. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

      Julie frowned. “You sound serious. What’s up?”

      “I’d rather not get into it tonight. How about having lunch with me tomorrow?”

      “Just as long as it’s not too early. I’m not like you. I don’t turn into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight.”

      “Some of us do work for a living,” he said mildly.

      “Tomorrow’s Sunday.”

      “You know what I meant.”

      They made arrangements to meet at a small seafood restaurant Alex liked that wasn’t too far from the house. Alex suggested one o’clock, hopefully ensuring that Julie might be on time. Then he said his goodnights to everyone and headed back to Jansen.

      The next day, promptly at one, Alex walked into the restaurant and secured a window table for two. As he’d expected, Julie hadn’t made an appearance yet.

      Alex ordered a glass of iced tea and the seafood appetizer the restaurant was known for—cold shrimp and crab in a spicy cocktail sauce—and settled in to wait.

      Twenty minutes later, he had eaten most of the appetizer, and Julie still hadn’t shown up. Sighing, he whipped out his cell phone and hit the speed dial number for her cell.

      “I know, I know,” she said when she answered. “Sorry. I slept through the alarm—I didn’t get home till almost dawn—but I’m on my way now. I’ll be there in ten.”

      Alex just shook his head. It was pointless to be angry with her. Since he knew she was always late, he should have just waited and arrived thirty minutes later himself.

      When she walked in—as promised, ten minutes later—he marveled at how fresh and pretty she looked. That was the advantage of being young. Late hours didn’t start to show until you were a lot older. Wearing a bright-yellow dress, long hair gleaming in the sunlight-filled restaurant, she resembled a younger version of Catherine Zeta Jones and drew admiring glances from the other diners. One man sitting alone at the bar stared at her so intently Alex was certain he was going to get up and try to talk to her. In fact, he leaned forward, putting one foot on the floor. But when Julie headed for Alex’s table, waving and giving him a wide smile, the man relaxed back in his seat again.

      Alex stood to greet her, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

      “This has got to be a record,” she said, “seeing you two days in a row.” Her perfume, something light and flowery, drifted around him.

      He pulled her chair out and she sank gracefully into it.

      “You look awfully pretty today,” he said, sitting again himself. “Hard to believe you got so little sleep.”

      She took her napkin out of her water glass and put it on her lap. “Thank you. Now that I’ve reached the ripe old age of twenty-two, I’m trying to take better care of myself.”

      Alex couldn’t have hoped for a better opening. “Funny you should say that, because that’s what I want to talk to you about.”

      Something in his expression or tone must have alerted her to the fact this might be a discussion she wouldn’t enjoy, because she frowned.

      Just then their waiter approached, so Alex didn’t continue.

      After she’d ordered something to drink, the waiter left them to study their menus.

      “Well?” Julie said. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on or am I going to have to guess?”

      “Why don’t we decide what we want to eat first? Otherwise we’ll keep getting interrupted.”

      She looked as if she wanted to protest, but finally she just sighed and picked up her menu.

      After placing their orders—Alex opted for the fried scallops, his favorite, and Julie ordered the crab quiche—Alex leaned forward and said, “Terrence talked to me last night. He’s worried about you.”

      “Why?”

      “He’s concerned that you might be involved with drugs.”

      “What?” She looked aghast.

      Alex studied her. Julie was a good actress, but he didn’t think her reaction was fake. She looked genuinely shocked.

      “Geez,” she said. “You’d think he’d know me a little better than that. I know why he thinks this, Alex, but he’s wrong.”

      “Why does he think it?”

      “Because Penn—you met him last night, the really tall one with the sort of reddish hair?—was busted at a party where they were doing coke. But I don’t do drugs. I never have. They scare me.”

      Alex felt tremendous relief. Her voice rang with conviction, and he believed her. “I’m really glad to hear that.”

      “Did you really think I might be involved in that scene?”

      “I didn’t know what to think. I only knew that Terrence is concerned enough to ask me to keep an eye on you while he’s gone.”

      “Where’s he going now?”

      “Singapore. Didn’t he tell you?”

      She shrugged. “He might have. He travels so much, I lose track of what he’s doing.”

      She