Page 66 of Legal Desire
“I tried telling you,” he said.
“Not very damn hard.”
That was true, and he flinched at the direct hit. Sure, she’d stopped him the night before and in her office. But he could have told her had he not been so afraid of losing her.
“I came here to apologize,” she said. She gestured at the television. “I knew you didn’t want anyone to know that you were going to run. Now I know why.”
“So you are the source for this story?” Ronan asked, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
Trev ignored his friend. And she did, too. “You know who it is,” he said.
She nodded. “Edward.”
He was the only one who could have overheard what they’d discussed in her office. “That’s why I said that,” he explained. “I knew it would make him run right to the press.”
“Edward?” Simon asked. “Your assistant?”
She nodded again.
“But why?”
Trev glared now at his partners. They were so concerned about the damn mole that they didn’t realize what was really going on, that Trev was losing the one thing he hadn’t even realized he’d wanted.
Love.
In fact, he’d thought he’d wanted nothing to do with it. He’d never intended to risk his heart. But it didn’t matter that they’d agreed on no emotions. He was emotionally involved. Hell, he was in love.
Maybe Ronan, who was usually oblivious, realized that because he tugged Simon out of the office. Once in the hall, he closed the door behind them, shutting Trev and Allison inside together.
Alone.
He’d faced some tough juries and judges in his career as a lawyer. But he’d never had any doubts that he could sway them to his side, that he could convince them to trust him and accept what he told them.
Until now.
Now, when it mattered most, he wasn’t sure he would be able to win Allison over again. Or had he ever really had her?
He’d thought so when she’d been so insistent that he distance himself from her. He’d thought she’d cared more about him than herself.
And that was when he should have told her the truth. But he’d been afraid that this would happen, that he would lose her.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“About what?” she asked, and she arched a red brow over one of her pale eyes. “About Edward?”
“About us,” he said.
“Yeah, I’m sorry, too,” she said. And she turned and reached for the doorknob. “I’m sorry it ever happened.”
But he held the door shut, like he had before. He wasn’t going to let her leave. He couldn’t lose her. Just the thought of it had his chest aching with a hollow feeling he hadn’t felt since his mother had left him.
Allison couldn’t leave him, too. “Damn you,” Trev murmured. But he wasn’t sure if he was cursing her, his mother or himself. Probably himself.
He was the one who’d screwed this all up. He could only hope that she would give him the chance to fix it—to fix them. “Don’t go,” he implored her.
She was wrong. She’d been so wrong about every man currently in her life. Maybe she’d even been wrong about her grandfather. Maybe he hadn’t been as sweet and honest as she remembered.
Trev certainly wasn’t. He held the door shut. She couldn’t budge it. She couldn’t escape him. So she turned and put her back against the door and stared up at him.
