Tempting the Artist (2 page)

“
You do know those four
words are a mood killer right?” His deep voice still held a hint of
sleepiness, but his eyes were alert and as penetrating as
usual.

When Christina didn’t respond, he
lifted up and adjusted himself, tightening the drawstring of his
pajama bottoms. She knew she should have stopped him before it went
this far, but how could she? His lips and hands were magical,
capable of clouding her mind.

He handed her the shirt that he had
just helped her out of and stood staring as she slipped her arms
into the sleeves. A mixture of emotions tumbled in her gut and her
hand rested against her chest as if that could help her breathe and
steady her pounding heart. If he wasn’t disappointed in her for
putting on the brakes with what almost just happened, he was sure
to be pissed at her after they talked.

Luke blew out another breath and
grabbed her hand, leading her to the only other furniture left in
the living room, a sofa.

They sat next to each other, and he
stretched his long legs out in front him, his head resting against
the back of the furniture. “All right talk to me. What’s going on?”
He turned his head slightly to look at her. “Did something happen
while we were at the gallery?”

Earlier they had attended an art show
featuring Sasha Knight’s work, Christina’s favorite artist. She had
thought about coming clean with Luke while there, especially since
the show was her main reason for wanting to stay in New York for
another day or two.

Just tell him.

“
I’m not flying back to
Cincinnati with you in the morning. I’ve decided to stay in New
York for another day.”

He studied her for the longest, not
speaking. Tension bounced off him like hail against a tin roof, and
Christina braced herself for an argument. Their relationship was
perfect, but springing this on him after a month of planning,
probably wasn’t going to go as well as she hoped.

He stood and eased over to the corner
fireplace, rubbing the top of his head with one hand, and the other
on his hip. “You’ve decided to stay?” He turned back to her and
leaned against the marble surrounding the fireplace, his muscular
arms now folded across his broad chest.

This was a good sign. He appeared
calm, yet the tension between them could still be felt even ten
feet away.

“
I know I probably should
have said something sooner, but I want to stay until the end of
Sasha Knight’s show. I know we saw most of her new work, but I
heard there would be some new pieces on display
tomorrow.”

“
Are you kidding me?” His
voice rose with each word. “You have several of her paintings and
have attended every one of her shows. Why the hell do you need to
stay longer? And why didn’t you tell me sooner? We’ve had this
weekend’s travel planned for over a month.”

“
Luke, calm down.” She
stood, but maintained her position near the sofa.

“
I am calm,
dammit!”

“
No, you’re not. You’re
trying to start an argument.”

“
I’m a lawyer, Christina.
Arguing is what I do, especially when someone is withholding facts
from me or screwing me around.”

“
I’m not trying to screw
you around. I’m just saying—”

“
Stop!” He lifted his hand
and glared at her. “I want to make sure I have this correct. My
woman who came to New York to see me and help me finish packing,
suddenly tells me that she’s not traveling with me. The same woman
who I have had countless conversations with regarding the move, as
well as the travel arrangements. And you’re telling me I should be
calm about this bit of information that you’re
just
springing on me?”

“
Yes, but—”

“
What the hell am I
supposed to think, CJ?” She stood rooted in place as he slowly
approached her. “You know me well enough to know that I don’t like
half-truths. So if that’s what you’re giving me here, you need to
come clean now. I’m leaving New York to get away from the bullshit.
I’m not trying to take on more bullshit.”

Instead of answering his questions or
commenting, she remained silent. She had a good reason for wanting
to stay. She just wasn’t ready to share that reason with him or
anyone else for that matter. Yes, she knew he didn’t play games,
and she also knew how he felt about trust and honesty. He had never
gone into great detail, but she sensed that he’d trusted the wrong
person in the past and had been hurt.

“
Can’t you just accept that
I’d like to stay for another day or two? I’ll be in Cincinnati
before you know it. What’s the big deal?”

Why’d she say that? His harsh laugh
sent a chill down her spine. He was around six feet tall, but it
was as if he grew several inches instantly. This was probably the
Luke Hayden, who showed up to court every week. This was the
attorney who had never lost a case, and this was the attorney who
was a force to be reckoned with.

“
What’s the big deal?” he
mocked her, his voice low and menacing. “The big deal is that you
waited until the last possible minute to tell me as if you’re
hiding something. I’m sure the desire to stay a day or two longer
didn’t just pop into your head tonight, and besides that, you’re
making a fool of me. Here I thought you’ve been coming to New York
to see me, when it’s clear there’s something else going on. And
before you say anything, I’m not buying that you’re that in love
with Sasha Knight’s work.” Silence circled them as his dark,
penetrating gaze bore into her with the intensity of a masonry
drill bit through a concrete wall. “Is it someone else?”

“
No!” She rushed to him,
her hands on his rock-hard torso. “Baby, no. There’s no one else. I
swear to you.” How could he even think she would be involved with
someone else? Sure, she might be evading his questions, and sure
she wanted to stay in New York a little longer. But there was no
way she was interested in anyone else.

He stepped out of her grasp. “Then you
need to tell me what’s going on.”

“
Luke.” She reached out to
him, but he took another step back as if her touch caused him pain.
“Let’s not do this. I don’t want our wonderful night to end like
this.”

“
Then tell me what the hell
is going on.” Apparently, she hesitated too long. He raised his
hands. “Never mind. I’ve dealt with enough lies from others to last
me a lifetime. I don’t need them from you too.” He turned away and
headed to his bedroom, but stopped, his back to her, his hands
gripping each side of the doorjamb. “You might not be planning to
leave New York anytime soon, but have your shi… You’ll need to be
out of here by six a.m.”

Christina startled when he slammed the
door behind him.

Why couldn’t I just tell
him?

Three Months
Later

Luke Hayden rocked in the high-back
office chair and tapped his pen against the top of the mahogany
desk. Three months and two weeks to the day, he had landed in
Cincinnati, Ohio, and immediately started a new life at the law
offices of Atwater, Rouse & Stevenson. To say they operated
differently than the law firm he’d left in New York would be an
understatement.

He pushed away from the desk and
walked across the office to the coffee pot. “I definitely got what
I asked for,” he mumbled to himself. A slower, calmer environment,
which didn’t include eighty-hour work weeks was different. Yet, the
jury was still out on whether or not the move had been a good one.
Initially, he couldn’t wait to get to Cincinnati and start anew.
Not only because it was past time for him to leave New York, but
also because he thought he and Christina had the start of something
good.

She had called him three times since
he’d arrived in Cincinnati and three times he let those calls go to
voicemail. She might have been right that they needed to talk, but
despite missing her like crazy, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t
allow her any more space in his head, or in his heart. The problem
was, there wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t think about
Christina. Maybe he should have been more understanding of her
change of plans back then, anything to keep what he thought they
were building together. But he had been jerked around enough in
court by opposing counsels. No way was he going to let a woman make
a fool of him or play with his heart.

He poured a cup of coffee and raised
the mug to his lips, but stopped midway when someone knocked on his
office door. Before he could answer, the door swung
open.

Gary Rouse stepped into Luke’s office
as if he had been invited. “When do you want to meet on the Goss
case?” He held up a thick folder and dropped down onto the
upholstered chair in front of Luke’s desk, crossing one ankle over
his knee.

Repulsion simmered in Luke’s gut at
the sight of Rouse, and he gripped his coffee mug tighter.
Slimeball. Stupid Jerk. Asshole. All names that Luke used to refer
to his archenemy. Up for a partnership, Gary’s claws came out the
moment Luke took up space in one of the corner offices. Anthony
Rouse, a senior partner who happened to be Gary’s father, had
informed Luke that the office setup was temporary, until they made
some internal changes. Apparently the changes hadn’t been made.
Luke still had the office. But from day one, Gary saw the setup as
Luke moving in on his territory. Little did Gary know, Luke wasn’t
interested in a partnership.

Been there, done
that.

Luke walked back to his desk and set
the coffee mug down, still not responding. He didn’t like Gary. A
slick talker to the nth degree and a royal pain in Luke’s ass, it
was taking Herculean strength not to tell his fellow attorney what
he could do with his cases. But Luke also knew oh too well that
anxious feeling an attorney gets when he or she is up for partner.
The desire to be the best and win every case to snag the
partnership. He remembered the feeling prior to becoming a senior
partner. But it wasn’t until those last months in New York that he
felt the weight of the responsibility. That last case made him
realize the man he had become. A man he didn’t like.

“
You can check with Robin
in the morning and find out when I have an opening this week.” Luke
reclaimed his seat. He could easily check his schedule to determine
a good time to meet, but why should he? Gary was the one who needed
his assistance, not the other way around. From day one, the guy
treated Luke as if he were a paralegal or some first-year law
student. They both knew that Luke had enough past experiences and
successes to replace any one of the senior partners at Atwater,
Rouse & Stevenson.

“
I just want to know. Who
goes from being a high profile New York City defense attorney to a
construction litigator in Cincinnati, Ohio?”

Damn. Not this shit
again.
Luke gripped the edge of his desk. A
scathing retort teetered on the tip of his tongue. If he had to
have this conversation with Gary one more time, he was going to be
the one needing a defense attorney. He wanted more than anything to
tell the pompous jerk where he could go, but there was no sense in
making the growing tension between them any worse.

“
Is there something else
you need Attorney Rouse?” Luke leaned back in his office chair and
stared the man down. The guy was a punk. It was no wonder he’d been
there for seven years and still hadn’t made partner. “Because if
there isn’t, you can show yourself out of my office.”

Gary glanced back at the closed door
before he leaned forward in his seat. “Yeah, there is something
else. I need you to pack your shit and find somewhere else to
practice law. We don’t need you coming in here trying to make the
rest of us look bad just because you’ve practice at a big-time firm
in New York.”

Luke studied the man who was around
his same age, thirty-five, yet there were days when his nemesis
acted as if he was still in high school. Short with an athletic
build, Gary flirted with all of the secretaries, came to work late,
and most days left before everyone else. It didn’t help that his
father coddled him. Despite all of that though, Gary was old enough
and should have been wise enough to know when it was a bad idea to
step to another grown-ass man with some bullshit.

Luke stood slowly, his pulse pounding
in his ear. He had never been very good at holding his temper when
dealing with an adversary, but years of defending some of the
country’s most dangerous people had taught him how to tread
lightly.

Gary also stood. His height inferior
to Luke’s. Wariness swam in his eyes, and he jerked back when Luke
placed his palms faced down on top of his desk.

“
Don’t let this suit fool
you, asshole.” Luke’s voice was low and lethal, reminiscent to a
stealth bomb designed to seek and destroy. “I have worked my butt
off for the last ten years keeping my clients out of jail – some
not guilty, but most guilty of the crimes which they had been
accused. Don’t think I don’t know how to get away with murder.” He
let his words sink in as he stared Gary down. “Now get the hell out
of my office.”

The scowl on the man’s face let Luke
know that this wasn’t the last confrontation they’d
have.