Chapter One #2
“I actually had most of a language degree completed by nineteen, but my education was interrupted.” Thanks to that absolute turd weasel, Gilbert.
She washed away the bitterness on her tongue.
“I started over when I moved to Australia. Transferring the credits wasn’t an option, but I still managed to finish early.
I would have preferred to be further ahead by now, but…
” She had needed to lick her wounds. Be someone else.
Someone who didn’t make stupid mistakes.
“Is this new job articling?”
“No. That’s what I should be doing, but I’m sick of school.
” She rolled the stem of her glass between her finger and thumb.
“This is just a maternity cover as an EA, but it’s a good opportunity and puts me back into the real world.
Plus, I’ll be closer to my sister and her children.
They’re growing fast—” She stopped herself from prattling.
“This is the real reason I didn’t want to tell you about it. It makes me sound very dull.”
“It could all be a lie to disguise the fact you’re really an assassin.” The corner of his mouth dug in before he hid the faint smile behind his glass.
“True. Siobhan isn’t even my real name.” She waved a dismissive hand. “That’s both a joke and the truth. Siobhan is my second name.”
“What’s your first name?”
She wrinkled her nose in reluctance. “I don’t share it. Not because I don’t like it. I was named for my great-grandmother and I don’t mind keeping her alive in that small way.”
Her name was Doreena. Siobhan had grown up as Dorry. Her family still called her that, but hearing it was something she both loved and hated. It made her feel connected to them, but it was an uncomfortable reminder of that silly girl who had screwed up so badly.
“I just prefer Siobhan.” Siobhan had her act together. Siobhan didn’t make dangerous mistakes.
“Here I thought you were going to admit to hiding from the law.”
“I love that you think I’m that interesting.
No, the bald truth is I’m related by marriage to some very rich people.
” She watched him, looking for signs he already knew, but only saw mild curiosity in his expression.
“That’s how I can tell Cristal from Dom.
” She tilted her glass. “I was stung by someone who used me to get close to them so I changed my name to distance myself.”
That was a very watered-down version. It was also a warning that she wouldn’t allow it to happen again.
Anyone else would have asked: Who are they?
Joaquin gave an impassive blink. “Why contract law?”
“Are you suffering insomnia and need something to put you to sleep? Why are we still talking about me?”
“I’m interested.”
Was he? He was listening attentively, but his motives were impossible to read. He was most likely trying to get lucky. Perhaps he was lonely. Maybe he was an assassin trying to blend in by having a drink with a stranger.
She really wanted to take him at his word, though. She was feeling a deep pull of attraction and yearned for it to be mutual.
“It’s another deeply unsexy answer,” she warned. “When I was young, our family went through some hard times. One of my sisters got into estate law to pay the bills. Probate and such.”
“Not the direction desperate women usually take,” he noted with a twitch of his lips.
“Right?” Siobhan grinned, but the truth was Cinnia had also been the girlfriend of a very rich man and had taken flack for it, even though that wasn’t how she’d kept their family afloat.
“She always said there was good money in doing the tedious work no one else wants to do. I have a good memory and I read fast. I’m detail-oriented and I can be cutthroat when necessary.
I love the idea of achieving something difficult by wielding fine print. ”
“This is the sister who paid for your room?”
“No. I have three. The one who booked the room is married to a pro athlete. She travels with her husband and collects tons of points so she didn’t technically pay for it.
This—” Siobhan indicated the designer jacket she wore over a snug cashmere sweater and pleated trousers “—I stole from another sister’s closet.
She works in fashion. I take what fits and hope she doesn’t notice. ”
“Ah. You’re not hiding from the law. You’re hiding from her,” he accused.
“Truth. She’s vicious when crossed.”
“Are they all in Australia?”
“No, we’re sprinkled everywhere.” This was getting too personal so she turned it around. “What about you? Siblings? Any crimes against them you’d like to confess?”
His expression lost all its ease. His gaze dropped to the glass he was pinching.
“I had a brother. He passed eighteen months ago.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t know.” He took a hefty gulp of champagne. “We’d grown apart. Things were complicated.” His expression shuttered and he looked out the window. “I feel strongly that I let him down so yes, in that way I committed a crime of negligence that I’m trying to make up for with his children.”
Oh. She understood that need to self-flagellate far too well. She couldn’t help reaching across to set her hand on his hard wrist, offering what little compassion she could.
“It’s so easy to believe there will be ample time later, isn’t it? You don’t have to talk about him if you don’t want to, but you can. I understand complicated very well.”
His gaze came up from where she touched his wrist. For a few seconds, she saw into his soul, where regret and glimmering coals of self-directed anger lived.
She felt the walls within her shift. They didn’t fall open, but they angled as though adjusting to nest against his. It became a shared beveled wall. It was the sensation of sitting back-to-back with someone. Not aligned, exactly, but occupying the same space.
He is lonely.
His hand shifted to take hold of hers and the mood altered again. Excitement flared within her, shocking in its intensity. There was a reciprocal flash in his eyes, one that made her skin burn where his thumb stroked across the backs of her knuckles.
“Let’s talk about something else,” he said.
“Something simple?” she suggested shakily, not moving her hand but very, very aware of how her fingers twitched in his loose grip. “Quantum mechanics, perhaps? Or fate versus free will?”
His mouth pulled sideways. “I lean heavily toward free will. You wouldn’t have got the job you wanted if you hadn’t applied. You wouldn’t be having a drink with me if I hadn’t invited you. You sat down because you wanted to.” His thumb skimmed across her skin again, short-circuiting her brain.
“But you wouldn’t have asked if we hadn’t wound up in the same elevator,” she challenged shakily. “Perhaps that was kismet.”
“Please,” he scoffed in that sinfully sexy accent of his. “I took one look at the attractive woman beside me and made a deliberate decision to shirk the calls I ought to be making.”
“Say more.” She was trying to hide that she was barely able to breathe under the lazy way he scanned her features. “I’m the mousy one so I’m usually overlooked.”
“Who are you comparing yourself to? Your sisters?” He shook his head in refutation, fingers shifting to twine with hers in a way that felt very intimate. Now his thumb stroked at the base of her thumb into her inner wrist. It was deeply distracting. Arousing.
“How…um… How would you know?” Her suspicions reared. “Have you met them?”
“No.” There was no subterfuge in his expression as he continued making love to her hand with his innocuous touch, sending signals into her chest that made her breasts tingle. “But I can’t imagine there’s any way to improve on perfection.”
A bubble of incredulous laughter escaped her. She flushed with pleasure, though. “Your efforts to seduce me are working.”
“I prefer to think of it as an invitation. It’s up to you whether you accept.
Free will and all that.” He shifted his glass aside so he could use his other hand to reach across and brush a loose tendril of hair behind her ear.
His fingertip caressed her ear and the edge of her jaw.
“Would you like to order something to eat? Before we get drunk on champagne?”
“And each other?” It was a corny thing to say, but in her case, it was becoming all too true. She was losing her appetite for food and was no longer thirsty for champagne. She was falling into lust for the first time in her life.
“Mmm,” he agreed in a rumble. “You’re certainly intoxicating.” He brought her hand to his mouth and nuzzled his lips into her palm.
Every bone in her body melted.
This wasn’t the adolescent inquisitiveness that had driven her to kiss boys who were nothing but bravado and hormones. It wasn’t the romantic infatuation that had drawn her into the bed of a dishonest man. This was something exciting and enthralling. A pull that was filled with promise. With need.
She had agreed to have a drink in a seize-the-day impulse.
It was another step toward coming out of her self-imposed exile.
She had already been high on being chosen for her merit, not her connections.
This was another octave of that. He knew nothing about her except what she’d told him.
It felt good to be desired purely for herself.
It felt good to feel. For the first time in a long time, the numbness of betrayal was falling away. She felt feminine and desirable and brimming with her own sexual power. She felt like indulging herself.
“Why don’t we take the champagne to your room?” Her voice thickened with a mixture of shyness and the eroticism that was taking her over. “We can order food later.”
“That is an act of free will I can get behind.” He kept her hand as he rose and drew her from her chair.