The fury that swept through him at Julia’s attack on Esa gave Finn the biggest shock of a day already filled with surprises. He’d never seen Julia behave this way, not even when she was outraged with him for taking over his father’s business. It was like she’d just removed a mask and shown him what she really looked like.
And the sight wasn’t a pretty one.
“Look, I don’t know anything about this and I’d appreciate it if you stopped jumping all over me. From what I know about Esa she’d never consider doing what you’re alleging.”
“You’re a fool if you believe that. She would expose me in a heartbeat. You don’t know anything about it. She would love to ruin my chances with Gavin. She and that viper sister of hers would laugh until they cried, and then one of them would likely try to scoop up Gavin on the rebound.”
“You told me that you were miserable with him, that he couldn’t begin to please you in bed. Why are you so worried about it?” Finn asked, referring to the night she’d accosted him in his lobby.
“Well, that may very well be but that doesn’t mean I want the world to know it. I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you cornered me in my lobby and begged me to fuck you.”
“How dare you! I’ll have you know that—”
“Stop,” Finn said, interrupting her tirade. He couldn’t really grasp everything that Julia had been saying but he knew one thing. This conversation was over. As far as he was concerned Julia’s behavior this afternoon had created a big, fat period on the end of the chapter that had been their relationship.
When he told her so she stared at him in disbelieving rage for a few seconds.
“You never did have what it takes,” she accused, her gimlet green eyes flashing with disdain. “I should have known from the beginning you would fold just when you got to the finish line of making a big name for yourself.”
Finn shook his head slowly. How could he have possibly been so mistaken about a woman? He said the first thing that came to his head. “God I’m lucky. What if I hadn’t seen this side of you until after I’d married you?”
She started as if he’d slapped her but Finn was beyond caring about her feelings, beyond caring about her one way or another. She’d been right about one thing. He did have abysmal taste in woman.
“It’s time for you to leave.”
She threw him a vitriolic look before she turned and left, slamming the door behind her as she went.
“Good riddance,” Finn muttered under his breath. He sat down heavily on his couch, both his brain and blood running a mile a minute.
He got up abruptly after a while and stared at the darkening lake. The sun died a brilliant, fiery death in the west, casting bright orange reflections on the glass surfaces of the eastern high-rises. By the time it had completely set Finn’s anger at Julia had largely calmed.
It wasn’t her fault that he had crap taste in women, after all.
He picked up his cell phone and dialed directory assistance.
Chapter Seventeen
Esa kept herself busy for the rest of the afternoon cleaning her loft and catching up on work, trying not to fret about whether or not Finn would call, whether she should call him or if she should just forget about him altogether.
As if that was even a remote possibility.
At least after her talk with Rachel she felt better prepared to confront Finn again. Well, sort of—if this wild anticipation and trembling anxiety could be called better prepared.
When her phone did finally ring at around six-thirty she was so tense that she spasmodically jerked the medical file she’d been holding. Papers clattered and skittered onto the wood floor.
“Hello?” she asked, unable to fully disguise the tremor in her voice.
“Esa? It’s Finn.”
“Oh, hi. You got the right number this time,” she attempted cheerfully, trying to ignore how the sound of his voice made her heart pound loudly in her ears. “How are you?”
&nbs
p; Her brow furrowed in the brief silence that followed.
“Finn?” she prompted anxiously.