Page 24 of Resisting the Lawyer (Dirty Hot Resistance 3)

“That cost me twenty dollars!” I grumble.

He shoots me a look. “I’ll get you a better one.” He walks over to me then puts his hands on my shoulders, saying gently, “Elise, go to bed. You’re very drunk.”

I shake off his hands. “So what? I have a right to get wasted after the week I’ve had.”

He follows after me.

I round to him, feeling upset. “Do you know how many times I’ve been called a slut?” I show him ten fingers. “Seventeen! I counted.” I ignore the flare of cold fury in his eyes and continue, “And for what? I didn’t want to sleep with him. I just agreed to a date. And I…” My voice catches, “I told him to use a condom. I begged him but he didn’t listen.” Bitterness floods my voice. “I kept Sophie away from him. I adhered to the contract and everything.”

“What contract?” Lucas’s voice is sharp.

I don’t listen to him, angry now. I’m so angry at the way I’m being treated. I’m quivering with rage right now. Maybe it’s the alcohol, my emotions being all over the place. “Maybe I should just consider leaving,” I finally say, my tone sour. “That’ll fix everything.”

“So, you’re just going to run away?” Lucas’s voice is silky.

It grabs my attention.

The look on his face is similar to the one I had seen this evening and I don’t know why I’m not scared. Instead, I lift my chin up, and demand, “So what if I am?”

He takes a step towards me and I’m intoxicated enough not to step back, something inside of me churning at the way he’s watching me. One of his hands settles on my neck and the other winds itself in my hair in an intimate way. It’s the way he’s standing so close to me, looking down at me that finally robs me of my speech and I stare up at him, my heart beating loudly in my chest.

“You’re quite bold when you’re drunk,” he murmurs, his hand covering my throat in a way that has me trembling, but not in fear. “You’re not quitting your job.”

I open my mouth but the way he’s looking at me, so calmly, has me saying dazedly, “Okay.”

He seems satisfied at this and then asks, “You mentioned a contract.”

I still.

Shit.

I pull away from him as I shake my head. “No. Its nothing.”

He advances towards me.

I stare at him, helplessly, as my lower abdomen tightens.

“Doesn’t sound like nothing.” He’s hovering over me once again.

This new version of him that I’m facing overwhelms me. It’s intoxicating in a way I’ve never felt before so I shove at him. “Go away. Every time you get close to me, I can’t think!”

He looks oddly pleased with this and he doesn’t budge. “You didn’t answer my question.”

I have to bite my tongue to hold in my secrets. The pain clears my mind enough for me to say, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

This time he smiles at me. “You know I can find out either way.”

I bare my teeth at him. “It’s none of your business.”

He puts one hand and in his pocket and with the other, in a move oddly reminiscent of this evening, he grips my chin in iron-clad hold, and tells me, softly, “You are my business, Elise.”

My heart nearly leaps out of my chest.

7

Lucas

Elise has been holding onto her secrets and while I hadn’t been intending to show her ruthlessness lurking inside me when we had stood in the lobby earlier today, I had been infuriated beyond belief.

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