Legal Desire

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

TREVHADAsick feeling that he’d made a terrible, terrible mistake. As he’d told his partners, everything she’d said had made sense. Why would she sabotage them when it would also reflect poorly on her firm?

Sure, maybe he’d come up against her father on a case before. He couldn’t know for certain when she didn’t use her last name. But he had a feeling that if he had, she would have worked doubly hard to help Trev win just so her father would lose.

And if she’d had any real daddy issues, she probably wouldn’t have taken on Street Legal as a client in the first place.

His partners were not as convinced of her innocence as he was, but he’d left them mulling it over to chase after her. Of course, she’d already left the building before he’d been able to break away from that business meeting.

But he’d rushed right over to her office the minute he’d been free. Of course, Edward stood guard in the reception area, staring resentfully at Trevor over his desk.

“What are you doing here?” her assistant asked. “I thought you all fired her.”

Trev shook his head. “She told us to go to hell.” Or had it just been him?

Edward smirked. “Can you blame her?”

Had the little weasel been with her at the office? Trev couldn’t imagine her telling her assistant everything that had transpired. His suspicion must have showed because Edward added, “I’ve never seen her as upset as she was when she came back from Street Legal. She was just about ranting and raving about your accusations.”

Trev flinched. While the others had piled on their suspicions, they had all been his accusations. He was the one who’d accused her first—to them. Maybe he should have waited more than that weekend before sharing his suspicions. Maybe he should have waited until he’d actually found evidence against her.

Because now he had a feeling that evidence didn’t exist...

She wasn’t the mole.

“I need to talk to her,” Trev said.

Edward snorted. “Are you crazy? She will kill us both if I let you back there.”

Trev didn’t doubt what the man said. She had been furious when she’d left Street Legal.

“I’ll calm her down,” he assured her anxious assistant.

Edward snorted again. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Neither is you keeping me from seeing her,” Trev pointed out as his patience wore thin. He’d already wasted time talking to his partners when he should have stopped her from leaving before he’d talked to her.

Before he’d apologized...

No wonder she was so furious.

And if she tried to kill him, he wouldn’t blame her. It was a chance he was willing to take—for her. He walked past Edward’s desk and headed down the hall that led to her office. Edward jumped up and called after him, loudly, “Don’t go back there! I’ll call security. I’ll call the police!”

But Trevor didn’t have to look back to know that he wasn’t picking up the phone. He wouldn’t want to miss a minute of Trevor’s confrontation with his boss.

Trevor reached the end of the hall and the door to her office. He hesitated for a long moment before turning the handle. Then he drew in a deep breath and opened the door, releasing the breath with relief when he found it unlocked. Not that a lock would have stopped him.

He would have kicked it down to talk to her—after he’d seen that look on her face. Her ice queen mask had slipped. She’d looked devastated and outraged. She had not looked guilty. Even his partners had remarked on that. Of course, none of them were trusting enough to believe that proved her innocence. Until Trev found the real mole, they would all still suspect it was her. And they wanted the practice and him to have nothing to do with her.

But just as he hadn’t wanted her telling him with whom he could be friends, he hadn’t wanted them to do the same. Not that he was friends with Allison.

Hell, he wasn’t sure what they were.

Lovers.

Enemies?

She looked up as he entered, and he saw the anger and resentment in her beautiful pale blue eyes. “Get out!” she shouted, but her voice cracked with the command.

She’d yelled at him before to get out—of her apartment.

He’d ignored her those times, just like he intended to ignore her now. But he didn’t think he’d be able to change her mind as easily as he’d told Edward he would. Instead of stepping back through the door, he closed it behind him.

Allison jumped up from her desk and stalked toward him. Her finger pressing into his chest, she said again, “Get out! Get the hell out of my office!”

He caught her hand in his and held it against his chest. His hand encircled her wrist where he could feel her pulse pounding madly. “Please let me explain,” he implored her.

“You did,” she said. “You and your partners said everything you needed to back at Street Legal. I don’t have to hear any more.”

“I don’t think it’s you,” he said.

She snorted and struggled to free her hand from his grasp. But he pulled her closer, so her long, willowy body pressed against his. He felt the tension in her but he also felt the heat.

She was so damn hot...

How had any of them ever considered her an ice queen?

“I did think it was you,” he admitted.

“That’s why you wanted to get close to me,” she said. “To get evidence against me. I heard it all. I heard everything!”

He moved one hand to her hip and pressed her against his erection. “That’s why I wanted to get close to you,” he said. “Because I want you!”

As furious as she was with him, he wanted her. He could see the desire in her eyes, too. Her breath escaped in a soft gasp. But she shook her head as if trying to deny the desire. Then she murmured, “No...” She narrowed her eyes as she stared up at him. “You started this whole seduction as a way to get information out of me.”

Seducing her had never been his plan until that kiss. But at the moment he didn’t dare tell her that his political aspirations were a lie. She was already furious with him for not telling her the truth about the mole.

“I had sex with you because you’re beautiful and exciting and sexy as hell,” he said. And he pushed his erection against her again. His cock ached to be inside her. He ached for her. “Did I want information, too? Yes. Wouldn’t you if someone had been sabotaging your firm?”

“My firm was sabotaged, too,” she pointed out. “When a client is made to look bad, I do, too.”

“I get that,” he said. And he shook his head with self-disgust. “I should have never suspected you.”

“Why did you?”

“Access,” he said. “You were the only one with access to every case that was involved in the sabotage.”

Her brow furrowed. “The only one?”

“We checked out everyone else,” he insisted.

“Like you’ve been checking me out?” she asked.

And he smiled as he heard a trace of jealousy in her voice. “Not me,” he said. “Simon checked out Bette. And Ronan, Muriel.”

And Hillary Bellows had never been a suspect. But that hadn’t stopped Stone from checking her out.

“It’s not me,” she said, and she lifted her chin with pride. Then she blinked hard as if fighting back tears. “I am not the mole.”

“I know,” he assured her. “I know it’s not you.” And to comfort her, he lowered his head and brushed a gentle kiss across her lips.

At least he’d intended for it to be gentle. But then she parted her lips, and he deepened the kiss. And passion ignited even faster and hotter than it usually did between them. As he’d imagined doing earlier, he reached for that long row of buttons on the front of her dress.

Then he’d thought it would be fun to undo them all, that it would draw out the anticipation of seeing her naked. But now he was too impatient. He undid only a few, his fingers fumbling, before he lifted the dress from the bottom and pulled it over her head.

And then he saw what she wore beneath. The underwear was purple, too, like the dress. And it had those damn beguiling bows on it. One held the underwear together at the front. And another held the bra together between the cups.

His fingers twitched, anxious to pull those bows loose. But Allison stepped back—out of his reach. Had she only let him undress her to tease him? To let him see what he would be missing?

Trev had a bad feeling that for the first time in his life he might be compelled to beg. He reached out to her, his hand shaking slightly, and implored her, “Please...”

His plea struck Allison harder than any of his accusations had. He wasn’t just using sex as a way to manipulate her or get information out of her. It was clear from the desire on his face, and the tension in his muscular body, that he wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him.

And she did want him.

Too much to deny herself or him the sexual satisfaction they always found together. She reached up and tugged loose that bow between the cups of her bra until it fell away from her breasts. Then she lowered her hand to the bow on her panties.

And Trevor groaned.

His face was flushed, his nostrils flaring. He was as overcome with passion as she was. And they had barely touched.

She touched now, sliding her fingers beneath her panties instead of undoing that bow. She gasped as she felt the wetness of her curls. She was already nearly coming, just from the way he looked at her.

He stared at her so hotly. “Allison...”

She needed him. Needed to feel him inside her, filling that hollowness that had hurt so much earlier. She attacked his buttons now, undoing his shirt before pushing it from his broad shoulders. Then she reached for the snap of his jeans. But his hands were already there, pushing his pants and boxers aside to free his cock.

He must have already torn open the condom because he rolled one on before he tugged loose that bow on her panties. Then he lifted her, guiding her down onto his sheathed shaft.

She arched and stretched, taking him deep. Then she moved—frantically—wanting to release the unbearable tension inside her.

He lowered his head, kissing her lips, then her throat. Then he arched his back and moved his head lower, to her breasts. She leaned back to give him better access. As he tugged at one nipple with his lips, she came. Instead of crying out, as she always did, she bit his shoulder.

He wasn’t quite as quiet as he released a low groan, thrusting deeper as he came. His body shuddered, his legs staggering a bit beneath their combined weights, before he released her.

She staggered a little, too, her muscles lax from the powerful release.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

And she had no idea for what he was apologizing...until he added, “That was too fast.”

She shook her head. She’d been ready for him. She was always ready for him. Was that desire she felt for him clouding her judgment, though?

Should she forgive him for not being completely honest with her? He slipped away into the bathroom off her office, and while he was gone, she hurriedly dressed.

She wasn’t certain if they’d locked the door, and if they hadn’t, Edward might be so bold as to just walk right in. She really needed to fire him. He was even nosier than Trevor had been about her life, about her past.

Now she knew why Trevor had been so interested, though.

“Don’t,” he said as if he’d read her mind. He had come out of the bathroom without her even noticing. He pressed his fingers to the furrow on her brow. “Don’t even think about it. I have no doubts anymore about you. And I shouldn’t have had any. You’re right. Making us look bad makes you look bad.”

She nodded. “Do you have any other suspects?” she asked.

“Besides you?”

She glared at him now. But she knew he was only teasing. She felt as if he really did believe her. Her sabotaging them made no sense. She’d worked too hard to make them as well-regarded as they were.

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“It’s been going on for months,” she said—since it had started with his last class-action case. “And you don’t have any ideas?”

“Bette, Muriel...” He shrugged. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“There’s nobody from your past or the partners’ that might come after the practice?”

He shook his head again. “Not anyone with access to our case files.”

Only her...

She could understand now how she had looked guilty. But their staff was large. “What about a worker?”

“Bette—”

“Bette was obviously proven to have nothing to do with it.” She’d seen the managing partner out and about with his former assistant. They were very involved.

But then so were she and Trevor, and he’d suspected her of being the saboteur.

“What about Miguel?” she asked. And she shivered even as she suggested it.

Trevor laughed as if the thought was ridiculous.

“I came there today to see you,” she said. She touched her bra through her dress. “To show you my new outfit. Miguel brought me back to Simon’s office. He opened the door.”

As if he’d wanted her to overhear their discussion about her...

Had he been trying to help her? Or hurt her? She couldn’t read the receptionist any better than people claimed they were able to read her.

Trevor’s brow furrowed now. “That is weird.” Then he shook his head. “But Miguel has always been so loyal. He appreciated us giving him the job too much to risk it.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s jealous that you all started out in the same place but you and the partners made a lot more money.”

His brow furrowed again.

“And you said the opposing counsel for that pharmaceutical company got something from your case notes,” she remembered. “I’m sure they paid dearly for it. Maybe this person—”

“Mole,” Trevor said.

“Maybe this mole is just about making some extra money.”

He shook his head. “No. Muriel didn’t pay for those forged documents that she turned over to the bar association. And Hillary Bellows certainly didn’t pay for anything from Stone’s case files.”

“So it’s about a grudge, then.” Miguel made sense to her since he probably went back with them as far as the partners did with each other. She would have suggested that it could have been one of them, but she remembered how furious Trevor had gotten when she’d told him to distance himself from his friends. If she accused one of them of having betrayed him, she had no doubt that they would be over.

They should be over—whatever it was that they had.

After knowing he’d been keeping secrets from her, she wouldn’t entirely ever be able to trust him again. Not that she’d really trusted him.

She’d learned a long time ago never to trust anyone. But her grandfather...

Unfortunately, she’d begun to think Trevor was more like her grandfather than her father. She’d been wrong.

He was staring at her again as if he was trying to read her mind. And she wondered if he truly believed she wasn’t the mole or if he was still trying to play her.

He’d told his partners that he would come up with something new to try to get the truth out of her. Was this it? Pretend to believe in her innocence?

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“It’s not your problem,” Trevor told her.

And for a moment she was confused—then she realized that he thought she was just saying that she didn’t know who the mole was.

“We’ll figure it out,” he said. “And I’ll let you get back to work.”

Fortunately, she did have other clients because no matter if his partners and he believed her or not, she was no longer going to work for Street Legal.

“I’ll see you later?” He said it as a question. He must have sensed her withdrawal.

She wasn’t certain if he would or not. She wasn’t certain she trusted him or herself enough to be with him again. Maybe it was better to end the personal relationship along with the business one.

She just offered him a short nod as she walked back behind her desk. She wanted it between them. But he rounded it, too, and leaned down to press his mouth to hers.

“I will see you later,” he said determinedly.

The penthouse wasn’t the only property her grandfather had owned in the city. She could go someplace else, someplace he wouldn’t find her. And she just might, to protect herself.

At the thought of not being with him, that hollow feeling spread in her body—in her heart. She nodded again.

He must have been satisfied with the response because he headed toward the door. It had only been closed behind him for a few moments before it opened again.

She glanced up from her desk, hoping it was him, hoping that he could somehow convince her to trust him again. But it was Edward.

“You didn’t knock,” she pointed out. And she was glad he hadn’t just walked in earlier—when she and Trevor had been having sex.

But that was all it had been.

They didn’t make love. They weren’t in love...

But then what was that ache in her chest?

“Turn on the TV,” Edward directed her. But he didn’t wait for her to find the remote on her desk. He found it himself and turned on the flat screen that was on the wall across from her desk.

“It’s no secret,” a local television reporter said, “that the Street Legal law practice has been having some difficulties lately. What has been strange is that the PR firm that has helped make Street Legal a household name has not been issuing any statements to address those difficulties. Now we have learned why. A source close to both the law practice and the PR firm has informed me that McCann Public Relations has actually been sabotaging the practice.”

The reporter was a young woman with whom Allison had often had drinks. While the ambitious reporter always pumped her for information, she also spoke candidly with Allison about her own life—her love interests, her goals. She’d thought they were friends. How could she have reported this without talking to her first?

It was just another reason Allison had to trust no one, especially not Trevor. Had he been here, distracting her while his partners had been feeding these lies to the reporter?

The young woman continued, “We don’t know yet her motivation for trying to take down the practice she helped build up, but given the reputations of the four partners, it could be the case of a woman scorned.”

It hadn’t been. But Allison felt scorned now.

Trevor had to have known about the report. And still he’d had sex with her.

She had been such a fool.

“Are you okay?” Edward asked with concern.

Allison stood up and for the first time since she’d overheard that meeting at Street Legal, she felt as if she’d found her footing again. She wasn’t okay. She was furious.

And no matter how the hell sexy Trevor Sinclair was, he wasn’t going to seduce her out of doing what she was about to do.

As she stormed from the office, Edward called after her, trying to stop her. But there was no stopping her now.