Chapter Two
SYLVIE WAS HOPING to slip away before she was cornered by her weeping client or her grinning and smug opponent, so she took the fire exit instead of the elevator.
As she descended the stairs the click-clack of her heels echoed hollowly in the stairwell.
Then she became aware of other footsteps following her—firm, determined, purposeful.
She glanced around to see Jack Wilde on the level above her.
He continued to close the distance between them, smiling down at her with his dimples showing and his eyes glinting.
Sylvie didn’t want to appear intimidated by him by speeding up her pace, so she adopted a bored expression and waited for him on the landing above the next flight of stairs. ‘You need me for something?’
The glint in his eyes sparkled like a fizzing firework, and something fluttered deep and low in her belly like a trapped moth. ‘You could say that. Got time for a coffee?’ he said with a smile that made her knees threaten to buckle.
‘I have clients to see in half an hour.’
‘One coffee. Deal?’
Sylvie would have refused but she was caffeine deprived and, besides, she wanted to know why Jack was not against a forensic accountant looking over Hugo Winters’s financial affairs.
He’d been surprisingly agreeable, which had come as a shock to her.
Having anything to do with Jack would normally be a no-no for her.
But in order to help her client, she needed to suss out her opponent in this complicated divorce settlement.
What better way than meeting with Hugo Winters’s solicitor so she could get a better handle on how Jack would approach things?
But she didn’t want to appear too eager.
Jack had enough women saying yes to him without her joining the throng.
‘Is it wise for our clients to see us having coffee together?’ she asked. ‘I wouldn’t want Edwina to think I’m not solely committed to her best interests.’
Jack was now on the landing where she was and his height advantage was all the more apparent.
She had to crane her neck to look up at him.
But looking up at him was a mistake. A big mistake.
His mouth was generous, hinting at his undoubtable sensual skill set.
The bottom lip was a fraction fuller than the top and his white-toothed smile was highlighted by his dark stubble and the olive complexion of his skin.
She began to fantasise about how those lips would feel pressed hard against her own.
How the stroke of his tongue would feel against hers, how his arms would feel wrapped around her, drawing her close to his superbly toned body.
She hadn’t been kissed in months. She had deleted the dating apps after her last disastrous date with an ego-tripping jerk who didn’t stop talking about himself and his ex-partner the whole time.
Being near Jack Wilde triggered something in her she didn’t want triggered—desire. Raw, earthy, spine-tingling desire.
Jack was the last person she would consider becoming involved with, but then, that was a moot point because he didn’t have relationships that lasted longer than a day or two.
He was the king of the blink-and-you’d-miss-it fling and one-night stands.
She considered it beneath her to join the long list of his lovers.
She had pride on her side and she would cling to it with all her might.
Sylvie gave herself a mental slap for even thinking about Jack and his multitudinous lovers and raised her eyes to his.
‘One coffee. I don’t want to be late for my other clients.
’ She told herself she was tempted only by the prospect of caffeine and her interest in Jack’s tactics, not his charming company.
‘There’s a café nearby. I know the owner. I’ll get us a table away from the windows.’
Sylvie gave him a pointed look. ‘Thank you. I would hate to have myself linked to you in any way other than professionally.’
Jack grinned as if she had complimented rather than insulted him. ‘Come on. It’s only a block from here.’
A short time later, Sylvie found herself sitting opposite Jack in a swish café that had a tempting array of pastries in a glass counter near the cash register, and the divine fragrance of freshly brewed coffee teasing her nostrils.
Jack’s friend Ben Blackwood turned out to be an old schoolmate and they greeted each other with one of those ridiculously complicated fist bump handshakes and wide smiles.
Ben went to get their order, and while they were waiting for their coffee, Sylvie tried not to compare the two men, but Jack was by far the mostIt handsome and charming.
He had a magnetic presence that made her spine tingle every time he looked at her.
She fought to disguise her reaction to him but wondered if he sensed it anyway.
After all, he had a lot of experience when it came to women.
Of the three Wilde brothers, Jack was the standout playboy.
The press was often reporting on his latest fling, and he only had to be seen with someone once for speculation about his love life to go viral.
‘How long were you at boarding school with your friend?’ Sylvie asked to keep her mind from drifting into the dangerous territory of imagining what Jack was like as a lover.
‘Eleven years.’
Sylvie raised her eyebrows. ‘So, you went when you were…?’ She didn’t have time to do the maths before he answered.
‘Seven, right after my parents were killed.’ He spoke without emotion; it was as if he was simply reporting an event in the past that had little or no effect on him. But she could see a fleeting shadow pass through his blue gaze and there was no sign of his charming smile.
Their coffees arrived at that moment and Sylvie waited until the young waitress had left before probing a bit more. ‘Were you all going to go to boarding school at some point even if your parents hadn’t been killed?’
He gave a shrug of one broad shoulder and picked up his coffee cup, looking at the black liquid rather than meet her gaze.
‘At some point, yes, but we went a little bit earlier than planned.’ He lifted his coffee cup to his mouth, and she stared at his lips as they took a sip of the fragrant brew.
She found herself thinking of his sensual lips touching hers, caressingly, drawing from her a response that no one else had been able to do.
She derided herself for her weakness. It was not like her to become obsessed with a man.
She had never been in love, not even close.
She had only felt the mildest stirrings of lust on dates with other men, and she had never been physically satisfied by sleeping with a date, which was one of the reasons she had stopped dating.
Her period of celibacy was by choice and yet… gulp… Jack Wilde.
She watched him swallow another mouthful of coffee and then the tip of his tongue came out to brush across his lips and something hot and liquid pooled between her thighs. How could she get turned on by simply watching him drink coffee?
Sylvie picked up her own cup and took a sip and almost purred with relief as the caffeine hit her bloodstream. ‘Whose idea was it to send you to boarding school? Your grandparents?’
Jack put his coffee cup back on his saucer with a clink of the china connecting.
‘My grandfather’s. My grandmother was against it, but his word was law.
’ He gave a crooked smile that didn’t make the distance to his eyes and added, ‘He likes to think it still is, but since his stroke a while back he’s had to relinquish a bit more control than he likes. ’
Sylvie took another sip of coffee, then put her cup down, absently stirring the liquid with a teaspoon even though she didn’t take sugar.
‘It must have been a terrible time for you and your younger brothers, not to mention your grandparents losing their only child.’ She might not like Jack Wilde but she would be a monster not to feel some empathy for him being orphaned so young.
It was amazing he had grown up confident and sure of himself after he had lost his parents so early in his life.
Or had losing his parents made him step up, to grow up way before his time?
Another dismissive shrug of his broad shoulder. ‘It was but I had to accept it and move on. I was lucky to have had my parents the longest given I’m the eldest son. Jago remembers them but Jonas, being only three at the time, has virtually no memories of them.’
He picked up his coffee cup again and met her gaze. ‘What about your parents? Where do they live?’ He kept his gaze trained on hers over the rim of his cup as he took another sip.
Sylvie put her teaspoon down on the saucer.
‘My mother lives in Surrey. I don’t have any contact with my father.
Not since my parents divorced when I was ten.
’ Why are you telling him anything about yourself?
It made her aware of how easily Jack could get under her guard.
She would have to be careful around him.
She didn’t want him knowing every detail of her difficult childhood and the struggle it had been to overcome the poverty her father had thrown her and her mother into post-divorce.
Jack raised one dark eyebrow in an arc. ‘Am I right in guessing that’s what motivated you to become a divorce lawyer?’
Sylvie gave a tight smile. ‘It’s one of the reasons but not the only one.’
‘What are some of the others?’
She gave him a frosty look. ‘Aren’t we here to discuss the Winterses’ divorce instead of talking about our life stories?’
‘You started the back-story discussion.’ He said it without rancour and his smile had returned to its most charismatic.
Sylvie ignored his comment and veered the subject back to where she wanted it. ‘Why did you accept my request for an independent forensic accountant? I thought you’d push back on that, especially as you’ve only just been engaged by Hugo Winters. You haven’t had much time to look over everything.’