Page 251 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet
A fool in love with a woman I wouldn’t let go of again.
“I won’t let it happen again,” she agreed, and I loved her conviction, her courage, because I knew she would face down anything that tried to come for us.
“We have a limited time to prepare,” Yara said from just inside the door. “So, while I appreciate the beauty of this moment, please untangle yourselves, and let’s get to work.”
We ignored her.
“You haven’t kissed me yet,” she pointed out, tipping up her head so that red mouth bloomed open for me.
“No, I won’t stop if I do,” I admitted gruffly. “It’s been a long month.”
Her eyes crinkled at the corners, the gray flaring brightly like sunlight through storm clouds. I watched her laugh, held her to me while it moved through her, and I felt better than I had in weeks.
“Let’s get to work then, and you can kiss me when this is all done, and you’re free,” she suggested.
“Just ignore me, that’s fine,” Yara called to us dryly.
We laughed together, and even though we got to work, we did it holding hands through the bars.
Yara and Elena had built a good case.
In fact, it was so iron-clad that, under normal circumstances, I would have felt positive about the outcome being in my favor.
But I knew Dennis O’Malley was not the kind of man to accept defeat lying down. He was a small man with a Napoleon complex who was never happy unless he was the star of the show.
When I was escorted into the courtroom, he was sitting behind the table for the prosecution smiling like the cat who ate the canary and then all of its brothers and sisters.
This was obviously not a good sign.
It became obvious why he was so smug when he immediately addressed the judge for a motion to disqualify Elena from remaining on my legal team because of a personal conflict of interest.
“Well, that is a serious accusation,” Judge Hartford said with faux shock. “What do you have to say for yourself, Ms. Lombardi?”
Elena stood, utterly unflappable and poised. “My name is now Mrs. Salvatore, Your Honor.”
There was a dead beat of silence where it seemed no one even breathed.
And then chaos exploded in the courtroom.
The clack of camera shutters falling and the snap of flashes, the rising murmur of people speculating about what the hell had happened when I’d fled the country and how had I returned married to my lawyer.
“Order!” Judge Hartford bellowed, thumping his gavel down mightily. “Order now. Anyone found talking will be held in contempt.”
Slowly, the noise petered off, though in its wake was a silence so thick it seemed to buzz with anticipation.
“Your Honor, lawyers are allowed to represent their spouses as clients if there is consent,” Elena pointed out calmly.
She didn’t fidget or gesture when she spoke in court. Her posture was perfect, her language stripped of all traces of Italian, and her voice carefully modulate in tone. It should have been disconcerting to see my ice queen back in play, but I found it arousing to watch her cold strength and beauty, knowing I was the only one who could make her melt.
“Yes,” the judge agreed. “If you had a pre-established relationship before you entered into a lawyer/client relationship.”
We’d known this was a possibility going into trial. Dennis would throw everything at us to get something to stick, and he knew now that she meant something to me. I’d humiliated him by fleeing the country under his nose, and this was just a piece of his retribution.
I also knew Elena didn’t care whether she was actually on the bench when she had already done all the work she could, but it made my blood seethe to think that Dennis had timed this to embarrass her.
“We did, actually,” she said.
Another flurry of murmurs and camera flashes came from the gallery.
