Page 52 of Legal Seduction
“With another law firm?” Trevor asked.
“With a fashion house,” Simon said. “She’s going to have her own line with a major retailer.” He would have told him which retailer, but Bette hadn’t wanted him to know she designed lingerie so she probably didn’t want his partners to know, either.
But Ronan named the retailer.
“How the hell do you know that?” Simon asked. It had taken him nearly two weeks to find out.
“Because Muriel Sanz will be exclusively modeling Bette’s Beguiling Bows,” Ronan replied, his voice gruff with bitterness.
“Muriel Sanz?” Simon recognized the name of the model and not just because she was famous. “You obliterated her in her divorce.”
“She did that to herself,” Ronan insisted. “She’s a lying, cheating bitch, and I had the witnesses to prove it.”
“So what does that have to do with anything?”
“She’s the one who reported him to the bar,” Stone said, “for the subornation of perjury.”
Simon sucked in a breath.
“She and Bette must have cooked up the evidence together,” Ronan said, “using our letterhead.”
“Anyone in this office could get ahold of our letterhead,” Simon pointed out. “Hell, anyone we mailed anything to would have a copy of our letterhead, like Muriel’s lawyer. You have nothing connecting Bette to that report to the bar.”
“They’re friends,” Ronan insisted.
With the exception of her former roommate John Paul, and she hadn’t introduced them, Simon hadn’t met any of Bette’s friends. They hadn’t had that kind of relationship. It had only been sex.
Would that end today with her last day of work?
Or would she continue to see him if he asked? Or begged? He’d never begged. And he wasn’t about to start now. Not even for Bette.
“Just because Muriel is modeling her line doesn’t mean they’re friends,” Simon said. “Not everyone who works together is friends.” He wasn’t certain how much longer he would be friends with Ronan if the guy continued to bash Bette.
Trevor pulled Simon back a little farther as if he sensed that Simon still wanted to swing.
And Stone cautioned Ronan, “Simon’s right. You have no proof that Bette has anything to do with you being reported.”
Ronan uttered a ragged sigh.
And Simon felt a twinge of pity for his friend. “The bar will dismiss the report,” Simon assured him. “They’ll figure out the evidence is fake.”
“Then Muriel Sanz will be the one in trouble,” Trevor added.
Ronan nodded. But then he stepped closer to Simon and warned him, “Just because we haven’t found any proof that Bette’s involved doesn’t mean that she isn’t. You need to be careful.”
Simon was afraid that it was already too late for that. But he reminded his friend, “Today is her last day. She won’t have anything more to do with Street Legal.”
“What about you?” Ronan asked. “Will she have anything more to do with you?”
He shook his head and yet he didn’t know. Would she want anything to do with him once she was gone? Or would she be too focused on her new career?
He should have been relieved that she wasn’t like all the other women with whom he’d hooked up. She wasn’t looking for roses and a ring. She didn’t want a future with him or with any other man.
And maybe that was what made her so damn sexy. But hell, he found everything about her sexy. While he couldn’t force her to keep working for him, he wasn’t ready to let her go completely. Not yet. Maybe not ever...
And that scared him far more than he’d ever been scared in his life.
* * *
