Page 25 of Legal Attraction
And she was the one who’d given them to the bar association. But why? If she had really done what those witnesses had said, why would she have been so upset? And why would she seem so certain that those witnesses had lied?
His blood chilled with the thought that they might have committed perjury. But no. He couldn’t be wrong.
“And I don’t know who gave them to her,” Bette said. “Muriel doesn’t even know.”
“How well do you know her?” Ronan asked.
Bette glared at him now, and there was a defensive snap in her voice when she replied, “Very well.”
He didn’t want to piss her off, especially not with Simon present. But he had to ask, “How do you even know her at all?”
“What do you mean?” Simon shot that question at him, and his voice was sharp, too, in defense of his girlfriend. “What are you getting at, Ro?”
Ronan sighed with frustration. “I just don’t understand their friendship.”
Bette obviously understood what he was getting at because she answered Simon. “He doesn’t understand how we can be friends because Muriel’s beautiful and famous, and I’m not.” Hurt flashed in her dark eyes.
And Ronan flinched. That wasn’t what he’d really meant, but it was a valid reason for them not to be friends. They seemed to have very little in common.
Simon’s arm tightened around his girlfriend’s small waist. “You’re beautiful and famous, too, sweetheart.”
She laughed, but with no bitterness or resentment. “Not like Muriel.” But she didn’t appear to be jealous of her friend. “She’s The World’s Most Beautiful Woman.”
Ronan agreed with her, but Simon apparently didn’t. Before he could argue with her, Ronan interjected, “That’s not what I meant at all. Bette, you’re sweet and nice and honest...” At least, he hoped, for his friend’s sake and his, that she was. “And Muriel Sanz is not.”
Bette laughed again. “Yes, she is. And that’s why we’re friends. I have never met anyone more straightforward or honest than Muriel is.”
He shook his head. It wasn’t possible. “But...that’s not what all those witnesses said.”
“They lied,” Bette said as if it was just that simple.
His doubts escaped in a snort of derision. “Really? All of them?”
“Why is it so easy for you to believe that Muriel is the one who lied?” Bette asked. “Because she’s a woman? Because she’s beautiful?”
Ronan narrowed his eyes now. How much did Bette know about his life? About his past? He turned toward his friend.
Simon shrugged. “She’s intuitive.”
“And a good judge of character,” Bette added. “I trust Muriel. I believe she’s telling the truth.”
Ronan didn’t want to believe it. Because if she was telling the truth, then she had every reason to hate him. Hell, he would hate himself.
He shook his head, refusing to accept it. All of those people wouldn’t have lied. No. Muriel was the liar and the manipulator, perhaps better even than his mother had been. He had to be careful. He had to protect himself before he got in too deep.
But he had a sick feeling that it might already be too late for that. He’d been smart to leave her alone in bed tonight and run. He probably should have run farther than he had, though, because he would have a hard time stepping back into that elevator and not pressing the button for her floor, not going back for more of her.
For the first time in his life, Ronan was beginning to understand his father. He was beginning to understand how a woman could become an addiction.
What would it take to cure him?
Losing his license?
Would that finally kill his attraction to her?
* * *
The doorbell rang, and even though she’d been waiting for it, the sound startled her. And Muriel realized she’d dozed off on the couch. She opened her eyes and squinted against the sun streaming through the tall windows.
