Page 32 of Legal Attraction
CHAPTER NINE
“THISISN’TWHATI seduced you for,” Ronan said as he picked up the envelope. After that mind-blowing sex, he wasn’t sure he’d seduced her for any reason but pleasure. He had never had as much in his life before he started having sex with her. “It’s just an envelope.”
With nothing but her name scrawled across the front of it. He didn’t recognize the handwriting, not that it was very easy to read since the thick black marker with which it had been written had smeared and bled through the orange paper.
“That’s what those documents were in,” she said. “Someone shoved it under my door. When I found it, I thought Bette must have slipped them to me.”
“It wasn’t Bette.” He accepted that now. She cared too much about Simon to put their practice at risk.
“No. I don’t know who it was,” she said with a sigh. “So I guess I haven’t given you what you seduced me for.”
“I seduced you so you’d go to the bar association and confess that those documents were forged,” he explained.
She laughed. “If I agreed to that, you’d be suborning perjury all over again.”
“I didn’t,” he said. He’d never had to coerce anyone into lying. They usually did it freely, on their own. But in this case, he hadn’t been aware of anyone lying but her. “I would never do that.”
He would never risk his license or the reputation of the practice. He’d worked so hard to get off those streets and help his partners form Street Legal. It meant too much to him. Hell, it and his friends were all he really had.
Muriel’s beautiful green eyes were intense as she studied his face, as if she was trying to discern if he was lying or telling the truth. “You freely admit that winning is everything to you.”
“In interviews?” he asked. “Press releases? We didn’t hire that PR firm to make us look like losers. Who’s going to hire an attorney who’s okay with losing?”
“Apparently not my ex,” she murmured.
“You hurt him badly,” Ronan said. He needed to remind himself of that, of how dangerous she was. She’d broken Arte Armand. He had to make sure she didn’t break him, too.
She shook her head, and her thick, black lashes fluttered as if she was fighting back tears. “I. Did. Not. Hurt.Him!”
Borrowing Simon’s gesture, he arched a brow to express his skepticism.
“I didn’t,” she insisted. “He hurt me.”
She wasn’t broken, not like Arte had been. She wasn’t sobbing. But her eyes were bright. He couldn’t be certain those were tears glistening in them, though. He couldn’t be certain that she was really feeling anything at all.
Was she still playing him? She’d already admitted that she had been.
“Why did you seduce me?” he asked. Not that he minded. He had quite enjoyed her seducing him. In fact, if he’d enjoyed it any more, he probably wouldn’t have survived.
She was an incredible lover. But more than that, they fit, as if their bodies were meant to be together. And their sexual appetites were the same—voracious.
He wanted her again. Even after just having one of the most intense orgasms of his life, he wanted her again. Hell, he needed her.
She stared at him blankly, maybe because of the abrupt way he’d changed the conversation.
So he reminded her, “You said you were seducing me, too. Why? What do you want from me?”
Hopefully more of what they’d just done—a whole lot more—because he wasn’t sure he was ever going to get enough of Muriel Sanz.
Her beautiful green eyes narrowed as she glared at him. “I wanted to seduce you into admitting that you coerced those people into lying about me.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry I can’t give you what you want, either.”
Her full lips curved into a small, sad smile and she murmured, “Then I guess we both lose this time.”
He didn’t feel like he’d lost until she turned to walk out the door. He couldn’t let her leave, not like this. He reached out and caught her, wrapping his hand around her wrist to spin her back to him, back into his arms. Her breasts slammed against his chest, and the breath left his lungs. And as he stared down at her beautiful face, his heart began to pound fast and hard and erratically.
She felt so right in his arms, as if it was where she belonged. But that wasn’t possible. Nobody belonged in Ronan’s arms. He wasn’t the type who stayed to snuggle after sex. And he didn’t want to snuggle now.
