Page 9 of Legal Attraction
She hesitated as she neared the doorway where he stood. But then he stepped back into the hall. “I didn’t come here just to watch,” he said. “That’s not my thing...”
She narrowed her eyes with suspicion. Was it just that everything he said sounded like sexual innuendo or was he actually implying that there was something between her and Lawrence?
Of course, he had seen Lawrence kiss her. But Lawrence kissed everyone.Everyone.
“Good night,” she called back to the photographer. He barely glanced up from the computer monitor to wave.
As she walked down the hall of the old warehouse, she turned to Ronan and asked, “Why did you come here? And how did you find me?”
“I have my sources,” he said.
And that chilled her blood even more. “I am well aware of that,” she said. “But I can’t believe they actually got it right this time.”
He stopped at the elevator and turned toward her, his dark eyes narrowed. “So all those witnesses were lying and you’re the only one telling the truth?”
“Yes,” she said. Her grandparents had raised her with values—one of which being that it was never okay to lie, not even little white ones. Too bad thosewitnesseshadn’t been raised the same way she had.
“Why would everyone else lie?” Ronan asked her.
“You tell me,” she challenged him. “Did you pay them?” He must have. What else could they have had to gain, except for some time in the horrible spotlight that the scandal had shone on her?
He chuckled. But he didn’t answer her question. He just turned and pressed the button for the elevator.
What would it take to get him to confess to somehow coercing those witnesses into lying? He was rich. So he didn’t need money. He had probably used his own to pay them off since Arte hadn’t had much money until he’d taken most of her savings—and the apartment and car—in the divorce. He didn’t even know how to drive.
The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open with a swoosh of noise and air. Muriel sucked in a breath at the thought of getting into another elevator with Ronan Hall.
He stepped back and waited for her to pass through the doors in front of him. “Come on,” he said. “As long as you don’t mess with the control panel this time, we’ll be fine.”
She hesitated. “We could take the stairs...” It would probably be safer—for a few reasons.
“We’re on the twelfth floor,” he reminded her. “Did you take the stairs up?”
“No.”
“So you don’t have a problem with using the elevator,” he said as if he was cross-examining her again, the way he had on the witness stand. “You just have a problem with taking the elevator with me.”
While his cross-examination had been ruthless, he hadn’t shaken her. But then, she’d had the resolve of the truth on her side. He didn’t have that, so maybe she could shake him. But she was not going to get a confession out of him unless she was alone with him. Dare she go through with her plan? Dare she be alone with him?
Because she knew what was going to happen...
The attraction between them was too strong—so strong that it could probably even overpower the anger and resentment and distrust between them.
She stepped into the elevator car. And when she automatically reached for the control panel, she pulled her hand back to her side. She was not going to risk getting stuck with him again.
He chuckled as he stepped inside with her. Then he reached for the panel. She didn’t see which button he pushed; she just assumed it was for the lobby. In the heart of the Garment District, the building’s tenants were mostly fashion designers along with a few photographers. There was no place to have a drink there.
Muriel really needed that drink. Hell, she needed more than a drink. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten. And she was not the type of model who starved herself. She enjoyed food too much.
Fortunately, the fashion industry appreciated curves now over skin and bones. Or she wouldn’t have been able to get any work. Now she was sought after...
Professionally. Personally—not so much. Men weren’t eager to date the man-eater the media had painted her as being. She’d overheard people talking about how she was too intimidating to the opposite sex now.
Ronan Hall hadn’t appeared too intimidated the other night. And he must not have been or he wouldn’t have sought her out again.
The doors closed, shutting them into the stark car together. This elevator wasn’t nearly as fancy as the one in her building; it was all bare metal and wood, and it was bigger—big enough to carry crates of garments from one floor to the next.
She didn’t have to stand anywhere near Ronan. But it didn’t matter how far away she was from him; she could feel his presence. It was as if electricity arced between his body and hers.
