He tightened his grasp for a moment before he dropped his hand. He knew how much it cost Claire to give him her trust. To give him the control. He wasn’t going to blow it.
* * *
THE CHARITY EVENT was a big success, Jason decided as he walked back into the tasting room. He didn’t like leaving Claire from time to time in order to handle a few glitches, but she understood he was still working. When he heard her lilting laugh, Jason turned and found her in the middle of the room surrounded by several men.
She was finally relaxing, Jason thought. At first she had drifted automatically to the corners of the tasting room, her back defensively against the wall. He also noticed she had researched the charity that was benefiting from the party. What kind of person studied for a party? Claire Miller, apparently.
But now she was talking more and smiling. No one but him would notice her rigid shoulders or her nervous habit of rubbing her thumb against her wineglass. He wasn’t sure what it would take to make her completely comfortable. It was as if she was constantly worried she was going to make a mistake. He wished he had the right words to relieve her anxiety.
But right now she was the center of the universe for the men around her, he thought dazedly. She was a goddess among her disciples. Several men drifted over to her circle as if they couldn’t help themselves. Claire bestowed a dazzling smile on one man, who blushed from the attention.
Jason watched the group closely. He wasn’t jealous that a random guy made Claire smile like that. He didn’t do jealous. Claire obviously had a type and he wasn’t it. No big deal. She preferred the suave and wealthy guys. Ambitious men who wore designer suits and owned their own businesses. Men like Max Blair.
Jason scowled at the thought of him. He had looked up the guy Claire was working so hard to impress. He wasn’t proud of his need to research Max. He could say it was to help Claire and get this favor done quickly and efficiently. But the truth was that he had been curious.
He had no idea why Claire admired the man. Granted, the only things he knew about the man were what he had found on Max’s website, but he wasn’t impressed. The guy’s résumé seemed to contain mostly casual snapshots of him with Hollywood starlets and aging rock stars. The guy bragged too much. Jason was sure some of Max’s accomplishments were exaggerations. No, that wasn’t it, Jason decided. He wanted them to be untrue. He wanted his accomplishments to be just as good in Claire’s eyes.
Jason strode toward Claire. He had to get her away from these tech millionaires. She turned her head to him when she saw him approach. His chest tightened when she smiled. The whiff of her perfume gave a kick of exhilaration into his blood.
He reached for her hand and was pleased that she accepted his touch. Jason gazed down at her bare fingers. An idea popped into his head and he immediately went with it. “Darling, where’s your ring?”
Claire’s fingers went rigid. “W-what?” Her eyebrows dipped and she stared at her hand. She gave the other men a quick glance before she stared at him.
“The one I gave you.” His thumb grazed her wrist and he felt her pulse pounding. “The diamond one.”
She gave him a look of consternation and he realized she wasn’t catching his clues.
“Remember,” he prompted her, “you said yes, a thousand times, yes.”
“I—I—I...” She snapped her mouth shut and gazed at him, bewildered.
He lifted her hand and she balled her fingers into a fist. Jason grazed his lips against her knuckles. “Don’t worry, Claire. We’ll find it. You probably took it off in the bathroom when you were washing your hands.”
Jason excused them from the group and Claire gave a stumbling, incoherent apology. She was stiff next to him as they made their way through the crowded room. She glanced over her shoulder, her movements awkward, before she spoke from the side of her mouth. “Jason, I can’t believe you did that.”
“Did what? Saved you from that group?” He asked as he guided her down the short corridor. He knew she didn’t need saving. The men had been eager to impress. Claire hadn’t seemed to notice that one had almost salivated over her.
She suddenly reared back her head. “Wait, were you suggesting that we were engaged?” Her voice squeaked on the last word.
Jason frowned. She was just now catching on to his big hint? “Yeah, what did you think I was talking about?”
Her cheeks turned bright red. She stopped walking and stood in front of the bathroom door. “We’re supposed to be pretending to have a fling,” she said in a low growly voice.