Page 40 of Legal Seduction
Chapter Eleven
SHEWASGONE. Simon knew it the moment he stepped out of the elevator. Of course he shouldn’t have been surprised; it was well after five. Everyone else was gone, too, except maybe for Stone.
His office was far enough down the hall that Simon couldn’t see if a light was burning under his door. But his own office was dark. He headed toward it anyway. Since he was just returning from a dinner meeting with a client, he had some notes to drop off on his desk.
He pushed open the door and uttered a sigh of disappointment when he confirmed it was empty. It would have been nice had Bette been waiting for him wearing only her naughty lingerie. But just as he’d suspected when he’d stepped off the elevator, she was gone for the night.
If she’d been there, he would have felt her presence in the tingling of his skin and quickening of his pulse. When she was around, he was always aware of her and the attraction that sizzled between them.
But attraction was all it was. She’d confirmed that this afternoon when she’d confessed that she wasn’t falling for him, that it had all just been a con.
Was that the only one she’d run on him? Or was there another one—a far more dangerous one—at least to the practice and to his pride?
The guys didn’t understand how a con worked. That she would leave even though she was making money off them. She’d do that if she was as smart as he’d known she was. Quit before you get caught—that was what had kept him out of prison while he’d been growing up.
His father hadn’t been able to say the same.
The other part of a good con was to disarm the mark’s suspicions with a confession—but only to confess something innocuous, like her pretending to fall for him. That way the mark wouldn’t suspect there were any more secrets.
He suspected Bette Monroe had many, many more secrets than what she’d confessed. And he intended to learn them all. But when he set his briefcase onto his desk, he found an envelope sitting on his keyboard addressed to him. He immediately recognized the artistic handwriting as Bette’s. She’d already turned in her letter of resignation. What was this?
After today he knew it wasn’t a love letter. She didn’t love him, had laughed at the possibility of ever falling for him.
Because she had someone else? Someone who was willing to support her? He could. Hell, he would if she asked. He doubted that was what this letter was about, either.
His hand shaking slightly, he tore open the envelope and pulled out the piece of paper. It wasn’t a letter at all. It was a job description—her job description. And at the bottom of the list of her duties was another, but it was his.
You need to post my position ASAP.
And he knew she wasn’t staying. What the hell had happened to him? He used to be such a good con artist. He hadn’t met a woman who he hadn’t been able to seduce into doing what he wanted. But while Bette had sex with him, she wasn’t malleable. She wasn’t staying.
And she wasn’t revealing any of her secrets.
He needed to turn up the seduction. Despite her claim of knowing him too well to fall for him, he had to make her love him. That was the only way he suspected he would get the truth out of her.
But he was beginning to worry that wasn’t what he really wanted from Bette Monroe. He wanted even more than the truth.
Did he want her love?
Despite all the women who’d claimed to feel that way about him, he’d never really believed it, just as Bette had seemed to doubt the profession of love she’d had. Was it because—like him—he’d felt like none of those women had known him well enough to love him?
Only his friends knew him well enough to love him.
But if he wanted Bette’s love, he would have to let her know him. Really know him. Not just what she thought she knew about him. After working for him for two years, she probably already knew him better than most. And then he’d told her more than he had anyone else.
Damn.
Who was conning whom?
Bette Monroe was far more dangerous than he’d thought. Even if she was the mole, she was only a danger to the firm. Now she had become a danger to him...
* * *
Bette flinched as she felt a twinge of guilt. Maybe she should have waited for Simon to return to the office before she left. But he hadn’t asked her to stay. Maybe he had assumed that she would.
But she’d finished her work. Most important, she’d listed the duties for her job description. He needed to know that no matter how much charm he turned on her, she wasn’t staying. These two weeks were already cutting in to valuable time that she needed to come up with more designs.
Pride coursed through her. She’d accomplished what she’d always dreamed of doing. She had her own line and for the premier retailer of lingerie worldwide. They loved her creativity and innovation.
