Cradling his face in my hands, I smiled up at him. "Tristan, there's no reason for you to be upset. I promise there's no one else but you for me."
His expression remained unchanged, and I saw I wasn't getting through. Without another word, he turned and walked away, leaving me unsure where we stood but sure we could work out whatever it was later.
By three o'clock, I was ready to head out to see Jordan to cruise the bridal magazines and call my sister to tell her the good news too. I searched for Tristan, hoping to tell him I was leaving, but he wasn't in his office or our bedroom. As I walked down the hallway from our room, I heard his voice in the front living room and entered to kiss him goodbye.
One step into the room and I stopped dead at the sight in front of me. Next to the couch we'd sat on that first night, Tristan stood with some woman with gorgeous long, blond hair and legs longer than my whole body. She was standing entirely too close to him and fixing his tie like she'd done it before and felt completely comfortable with her hands on him. I only saw her from the side and hated her.
Then I heard her speak and the hate was purer than anything I'd ever felt.
"Tristan, this tie isn't going to work well. You need something brighter." Her voice was intentionally sultry, like she was affecting a sexy voice instead of using her normal one.
For his part, the man I'd just agreed to marry the night before stood like a statue as she fawned over his collar, but that didn't make it any better to watch. Jealousy coursed through my veins, making my hands ball into fists at my sides.
"Excuse me, am I interrupting?"
Tristan looked around the woman and smiled, but when she turned to look at me, her expression telegraphed loud and clear that, in her mind, I wasn't welcome.
"Nina, let me introduce you to my assistant. Kacey, this is Nina."
I waited for him to explain to Kacey who I was to him, but the words never came out of his mouth. Insecurity mingled with jealousy to create a noxious pain in my gut, and I walked toward them. Holding up my left hand, I said, "I'm his fiancée. Nice to meet you."
She extended her long, skinny arm and shook my hand with her bony hand that had just been fondling Tristan's tie. Her blue eyes slid over me from head to toe and back up again, and I was sure she was judging me.
"My pleasure. We're just getting ready for his interview this afternoon with Executive Homes. They plan to do an entire spread on him and this stunning house of his."
Ours. I wanted to correct her but as she stood looking down at me, I suddenly felt small and insignificant. All I could get out of my mouth was, "That's nice."
Then she asked, "Will you be staying?"
The way she said it made me feel like I was an intruder. I looked at Tristan for some support, but he simply stood behind her looking back at me. His silence was deafening and hurtful. I felt like a visitor in my own home, and suddenly, all I wanted to do was run.
As well as I could, I calmed my anger and said, "I'll leave you to your business. I don't know what time I'll be home, Tristan. Perhaps I'll stay in the city with Jordan. She's been wanting me to go out. I'll let you know."
Kacey looked relieved to see me go and returned to fiddling with Tristan's collar, but I noticed as I turned to leave that Tristan's eyes had narrowed ever so slightly. If he could hang out with his little friend, I could hang out with mine.
I marched out of the living room with my head held high and hoped neither of them saw how shaky my legs were under me. On top of the jealousy and insecurity churning in my stomach, now I was angry. Not only had he never told me his assistant was a female—a stunning one who looked like the actresses who accompanied him to formal events, no less—but he stood there like a statue, never saying a word to let her know how much I supposedly meant to him.
Jenson was nowhere to be found, so I waited outside by the car, preferring to shiver in the late fall weather of upstate New York than stay inside with Tristan and his assistant. It could have been twenty below and I wouldn't have felt the cold I was fuming so badly. The man who had made me the happiest woman in the world less than twenty-four hours earlier now had just let some gorgeous Amazon woman make me feel like an outsider with my own fiancé.