Page 52 of Legal Attraction
He felt like a damn fool for getting played so easily.
Simon shook his head. “You don’t think anyone has ever gotten away with lying to a lawyer before this?” He snorted. “People lie all the time.”
Not Muriel. She’d been telling him the truth from the very beginning. He should have listened to her. Hell, he never should have taken the case against her.
“I hope not,” Stone said. “I hope my client’s telling the truth.”
“Why do you sound so cynical again?” Trevor asked Simon. “I thought you were all in love.”
“I am,” Simon freely admitted, when once he would have been embarrassed to confess his feelings—to having feelings. “And Bette would never lie to me. I was talking about clients, about this business.”
And all the lawyers nodded in agreement. As they knew, the law was a far cry from black and white. There were so many shades of gray.
“I trusted Bette all along,” Simon continued. “She was right about Muriel.”
“She was,” Ronan agreed. Muriel was as straightforward and honest as her true friend had claimed she was. He could only hope that she would be forgiving, as well.
But could she forgive what he’d done? He didn’t think he could forgive himself.
* * *
The dressing room lights burned hot and bright above the mirror in front of Muriel. But despite the heat, Muriel shivered. She had been so cold lately—without Ronan’s touch, without his kisses and his passion.
Did he know what she’d done? That she’d withdrawn the complaint? Or was he so furious that she’d filed it in the first place that he couldn’t forgive her?
The truth was out now—all over social media—and even some of the bricks-and-mortar media outlets had reported about her divorce debacle. Arte was getting all the publicity he’d wanted.
She couldn’t help but think he’d been wrong about there being no such thing as bad publicity. The public backlash had not been kind to him, threatening to shut down his musical before it even opened.
And there had even been threats of legal action, of charges being brought against him and his friends for lying under oath.
Muriel should have felt vindication. Her apartment looked like a funeral parlor again with all theI’m sorryflower arrangements. Everyone had apologized to her for believing her ex’s lies.
Everyone but Ronan...
She hadn’t seen him in over a week—since that night he’d run from her bedroom right after they’d had sex. Maybe wanting to tie him up had scared him off.
She would have expected a man like Ronan—notorious for his sexual prowess—would have loved a little sexual play. But apparently that was only if he was in control.
Was that why he’d run out? Because he’d been afraid he was losing control...?
Was he starting to have feelings for her, too?
Or was she only fooling herself like she had with Arte? He certainly had never been really interested in her—just in her money.
She sighed and made a face at her reflection in the mirror. The shoot was over. She had nothing she needed to change into—no hair or makeup to do.
In fact, from how quiet the photo studio had become, she suspected everyone had left but her. That was good. If there were reporters waiting outside, they might have given up by now. When everyone else left, they’d probably thought she sneaked out somehow. And she should have.
But she hadn’t wanted to go home to that flower shop. She could have called Bette to meet her somewhere. Or she could have gone out with some of the other models who’d invited her along to dinner and drinks.
Her stomach growled. And she regretted refusing their invitation. But she hadn’t been very hungry lately. At least, not for food.
She was hungry for Ronan. For even just a glimpse of him.
The press had been hounding him, too, and they’d caught him outside the office of Street Legal. He’d looked so damn handsome even as he’d lowered his head and ducked into a waiting limo without commenting to reporters.
What could he say?
