Page 27 of Legal Attraction
She didn’t doubt Bette’s feelings for her former boss, and he actually seemed invested in the relationship, too. He certainly spent enough time at her place.
“That’s not going to happen with me and Ronan,” Muriel said. He’d skipped out right after they’d had sex.
“I know,” Bette agreed. “So what the hell are you doing with him?”
“We’re notsleepingtogether,” Muriel murmured as she thought of everything they’d done to each other, everything she wanted to do with him still. “I’m playing him, too.”
Bette’s brown eyes darkened with obvious skepticism. “How’s that?”
“I want to get him to admit the truth,” Muriel replied. “I want to make him confess that he coerced all those people to lie about me on the witness stand.”
Bette glanced away from her then. Did she not believe that those people had lied?
“Do you think they were telling the truth about me?” Muriel asked.
“No,” Bette quickly replied. “Absolutely not. But I’m not sure that Ronan got them to lie about you.” She dumped out the doughnuts onto the table.
Muriel reached for a powdered one. She knew it would be custard filled; those were their favorites. Before she took a bite, she asked, “Then why would they?”
Bette shrugged. “Why does anyone do anything?”
“For money,” Muriel replied. “Or fame.”
“Exactly,” Bette said.
The people who’d testified against her had gotten both. The interviews they’d given after the trial had brought them their fifteen minutes of fame, and the magazines and television networks had probably paid for those interviews.
Could Ronan really have not suborned perjury?
“But what about those memos?” Muriel asked.
Bette sighed. “I think they were forged.”
“You believe Ronan?”
“He’s too smart to put anything incriminating in writing,” Bette pointed out.
And she was right. Ronan was smart. If he’d done something illegal, he wouldn’t have risked someone discovering what he’d done. He probably wouldn’t have documented it. Were the memos she’d received forged, as he’d claimed?
She cursed. She wouldn’t have filed her complaint with the bar association if she hadn’t been certain they were authentic. “But why would someone have given them to me?”
Bette sighed. “Someone is making trouble for Street Legal,” she said. “They’ve given case file notes to opposing counsel for another trial...”
“But were those notes real?” Muriel asked.
Bette nodded. “But that doesn’t mean the ones you were given are,” she said. “I really don’t think Ronan would have been so careless.” Her throat moved as she swallowed, as if she was choking on her words, before she added, “And I don’t think he would have suborned perjury.”
“Not even to win?” Muriel asked. Ronan Hall was all about winning. He had freely admitted that in every interview he’d ever given.
“He doesn’t take cases he doesn’t think he can win,” Bette replied. “So maybe he’s telling the truth, too.”
But Muriel couldn’t be certain that was the case. And until she was certain, she wouldn’t withdraw her complaint from the bar association, no matter how many times Ronan seduced her. Yet if getting her to withdraw her complaint was what he wanted, why hadn’t he asked her to do it?
He hadn’t asked her anything during or after sex. He’d dressed quickly and hightailed it out of her bedroom and apartment as if he’d been late for something else.
Or someone else...
Now she felt a curious pang of emotion, one that left a bitter taste in her mouth despite the sweetness of the custard and powdered sugar. It couldn’t be jealousy; it must have just been disgust. Anger surged through her.
“Even if he didn’t know those people were lying, he treated me like trash,” Muriel said. “He dragged my name through the mud. I will never forgive him for that.”
“Good,” Bette said. “I don’t want you to fall for the wrong man again and get hurt.”
“I won’t,” Muriel assured her friend. But she had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and it wasn’t the doughnut. She’d barely nibbled on that. It was fear.
No. She wouldn’t fall for Ronan. It didn’t matter how good the sex was between them. He wasn’t a good man. But he was the best lover she’d ever had...
Maybe she would just have to have a lot of sex with him, so much that she would get sick of it, that she would get sick of him.
