She had always liked being a woman, but tonight like didn’t even come close. Joanna knew she wasn’t unattractive. She wouldn’t have become Addison’s wife if she was, but she also knew there was a fine line between conceit and confidence.

Before leaving her room, Joanna had stood in front of the mirror and found herself holding her chin a smidgen higher. For a moment, it had bothered her, but then she remembered she was the wife of Addison Kane. She told herself she needed to look the part and act the part, but in the back of her mind, in the crevices Joanna rarely allowed herself to acknowledge, lurked something else, and as she had stared into the mirror, it bubbled to the surface. She wanted Addison to like what she saw. She wanted to beguile and tempt, and have Addison notice her not as a trespasser in her home, but as a desirable woman. Those thoughts had caused Joanna to jerk back her head at such a velocity she startled those assisting with makeup and hair. Fighting to curb her blush, she had quickly left the room, but she could not escape the question she kept asking herself. How in the hell had she fallen for Addison Kane?

Robert looked up from his book, hesitating before it registered that the stunning woman standing in his doorway was his daughter. He had seen her at good times and bad, and as a child and a woman, but he had never seen her like this. “Wow.”

“Hi Dad,” Joanna said quietly.

“You look...you look positively ravishing.”

Robert had never known his daughter not to smile at one of his compliments, so this was a first, and the expression she wore didn’t seem to fit the occasion. “Why the frown?”

“Am I frowning?” she said, coming into the room.

“A little.”

“Just a few worries, I guess.”

“Worries? About what?”

“It’s just that tonight is terribly important to Addison. I wouldn’t want to do anything that would cause her any embarrassment.”

“And you honestly think you would, dressed like that?”

“It’s not just about the clothes, Dad. I’d hate to disappoint her. That’s all.”

Robert set aside his book and studied his daughter. Her face was clouded in sadness, but in her eyes, he saw a sparkle, a vibrant flicker of something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Rubbing his chin, he said, “It seems you’ve come a long way since you married her.”

“What do you mean?”

“I remember a time not too long ago when you didn’t give a toss about what she thought of you or how you looked, yet now you’re all about pleasing her.”