The Law of Attraction (20 page)

When Alisha took the small beige tufted chair across from the couch, Daniel remained standing, his palms braced on the back of the sofa. She planted her feet firmly on the floor and folded her hands in her lap. “Okay, Daniel. Say what you have to say and get it over with.”

He decided to do what he did best—argue his case—because this was a case he couldn't afford to lose. “You've ruined me.”

A hint of confusion followed by a flicker of fear passed over her face. “What?”

“You've ruined me. I can't even consider being without you.”

She laid a hand on her chest. “Oh, God, you scared me to death. I thought you meant—”

“My job? No. That's still intact, at least at the moment. But this isn't about my job. It's about us, our relationship.”

She no longer looked fearful. She looked resolute. “The way things stand now I'm not sure there can be an
us.
”

“Maybe not, unless you own up to a few things first.” He sidestepped the sofa, walked to the chair and stared down on her. “Do you compare me to Moreau every time we're together?”

“I don't know what you mean.”

“When we make love? When I'm touching you, inside of you, are you thinking about him?”

She bit her bottom lip. “No. Not once did he ever make me feel the way you do.”

“Then why are you comparing me to him now? Why do you think that I'd intentionally do what he did to you?”

“Because you want to win.”

“Believe me, if I'd really wanted to win, I would've, and nothing could have stopped me. But the truth of the matter is, I didn't give a damn about it. I only cared about you.”

Now she looked angry. “Oh, great. You're saying that you
let
me win?”

If not careful, he was severely going to screw this up. “No. You won because you're tough and you gave it all you had. I didn't.”

“But you did use the information I handed to you.”

Back to that again, and time to clear the air. “What if I told you I knew about the girlfriend before you told me about her?”

“For how long?”

“About an hour before you came to see me the other night.”

“And you didn't tell me.”

“I couldn't, and you know it.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw. “If I'd told you about her, you would've kept Massey off the stand and avoided a rebuttal. Since Allan Vera knew about this witness—and since he suspects we're involved—that would have caused trouble for both of us.”

Her eyes went wide. “The D.A. knew about us?”

“He saw us after the reception and he formulated an opinion from that. I didn't confirm or deny it, but I knew I had to fight to prevent any more speculation. I did it to protect you from the possibility of being disbarred.”

She didn't speak for a time as she might be finally viewing the situation with logic. “I guess you're right.”

“I know I'm right. And I'm right about us, too. We need to be together. Live together.”

She hugged her legs to her chest and refused to look at him. “I need some time, Daniel. You're not even allowing me to digest everything you've told me about today.”

He took a chance and moved closer to her. “In my experience as a prosecutor I've learned that only a small window of opportunity exists during an investigation, otherwise you might lose a suspect. I also recognize I waited too long to tell my mother I forgave her, and then it was too late. I'm afraid
if I wait too long to act on my feelings for you, that opportunity will pass me by, too.”

Now for the most important question of all. “Do you love me, Alisha?”

She covered her face with her palms. “Why are you doing this to me?”

He planted his palms on the arms of the chair and leaned into them. “Do you love me?” he repeated more firmly this time.

When she dropped her hands from her face, he saw the first sign of tears, and he hated that. “Yes.”

“Then say it, dammit!”

“I love you.”

He knelt before her and took her hands into his. “Good, because I love you, too. So much, it physically hurts me to think that we won't be together. Nothing matters except for us staying together.”

She didn't look quite so angry, but she didn't look completely convinced either. “Daniel, loving you only complicates things more. We can't afford to find ourselves in this situation again, and I can't afford to remove myself from the public-defender rolls until I get my practice established—provided the court hasn't already removed me.”

“No way. You're a good attorney, Alisha. You proved that this week. I would be surprised if you don't move up in the ranks and get handed some felony cases.”

“And if that's true, then therein lies the problem. We could very well be facing each other in a courtroom again. We know what happened this last time, and next time it could be worse, especially if we're living together.”

“That won't be a problem. I'm resigning from the D.A.'s office.” He'd made the decision that morning after being reprimanded by Vera and Pettigrew.

She looked totally shocked. “Would you repeat that?”

“I'm leaving the D.A.'s office.”

“When?”

“I'll stick around for a couple of months until I get the Jamison case where it needs to be and handle anything else that might be pending.”

“What about your aspirations for being the next D.A.?”

“If the Massey case did nothing else, it taught me that I don't want to play the political game.” It also taught him that some things were much more important, namely her.

“What are you going to do now?” she asked.

“I've accepted a job as lead counsel for the new advocacy center. I've decided that for the past few years I've been trying to put my father in jail. Now I'm going to honor my mother by helping women like her and helping families stay together.”

Her expression softened, giving him hope. “That's wonderful, Daniel.”

“It's what I want to do. But there is another problem. It's only part-time. However, I think I've come upon a solution that would benefit us both.”

She hinted at a smile. “What would that be?”

“Come here.” He pulled her up, led her to the sofa and positioned her beside him, keeping her hands in his grasp. “If you could use a part-time partner, I'm available. We can start with the White case. Now I'll be free to help you win that one.” He rubbed his thumb over her wrists. “And when you move in with me, we can share expenses. I also have some money put aside in trust. The funds were left over from my inheritance. I gave some of it away, but I still have quite a bit left for our kids' college funds.”

Her mouth opened, then dropped shut before she said, “Our kids?”

“Yeah, unless you don't want any.”

“Aren't we kind of jumping the gun here?”

He grinned. “You're right. But I'll fix that right now.” He dipped his hand in his pocket, withdrew the pair of plain white panties and offered them to her for inspection. “For you.”

Alisha held them up and read the script splashed across the front in bold black letters. “‘Will you marry me?'”

“You bet I will,” he replied.

Her smile came into full bloom. “Where did you get these?”

“I bought them. Actually I ended up buying two pair. The lady at the embroidery shop said the silk pair wouldn't work. They thought I'd lost my mind, but I wasn't worried about that because you're worth it.”

Alisha studied them awhile longer before draping them on the ring finger of her left hand. “They're too big, but I can have them sized.”

Daniel rubbed a hand across his nape. “I thought about a ring, but I decided you might want to pick it out. And we can't really tell anyone for a few weeks, at least until the publicity dies down. I don't want to do anything to hurt you.”

“I know that now. I trust you.”

Three simple words that meant everything to Daniel. “That's the one thing I needed to hear you say more than anything, other than you'll marry me. We don't have to do it tomorrow or even next month. Just as long as we do it.”

She touched his face with reverence, alleviated the ache that had plagued him since yesterday, since the day that he'd realized no other woman would ever move him the way she had. The way she still did, and always would.

“I don't know what I'm going to do with you,” she said.

“And I don't know what I'm going to do without you if you tell me no.”

She smiled at him. “You won't have to find out.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes, that's a yes.”

They shared a kiss that started out tender and, as usual, turned passionate in a matter of minutes. Alisha pulled away first, but her smile eased any of Daniel's cause for concern. “Are you sure I'm awake? I mean, this isn't some weird dream, is it?”

He pushed her hair away from her shoulders and circled her breast with a fingertip. “Yeah, you're awake, at least for the moment. You look tired. I probably should let you go to bed.”

She hid a yawn behind her hand. “I'm not that tired—and I'm more than ready for bed.”

He slid his hand beneath the T-shirt and cupped her breast. “You want to try on those panties now?”

She tossed them onto the chair. “Maybe later. You'd just have them off me in a matter of minutes.”

He outlined her lips with his tongue. “True. Are you ready for bed now?”

She responded by standing and pulling him to his feet. “Yes, as soon as we dispose of one more thing.”

“Our clothes?”

“The wager, or have you forgotten that?”

“I don't see any reason to worry about that since I think we've both won. And besides, I got you in the bargain, and that's all that I want.”

She looked at him a long moment before saying, “I really do love you, Gunther.”

“I love you, too, Lola. And if you give me five minutes, I'll show you how much.”

She began releasing the buttons on his shirt with one hand while undoing his belt with the other. “Oh, I'll give you more than five minutes. In fact, I plan to give you more than you can handle.”

“Hey, I'm up for it.”

Boy was he, Alisha thought when she lowered his fly.

On the way to the bedroom they tossed clothes aside like debris caught in a whirlwind. They didn't bother to remove the papers strewn across the bed, although said papers soon ended up on the floor. They didn't even bother to turn down the spread or turn off the light.

Their lovemaking started out playful before quickly turning passionate. Alisha experienced joy in the purest sense of
the word in the company of the iceman.
Her
iceman, whom she managed to melt with very little effort. But then, she did more than her share of melting, too. They came together with strong desire, with reckless abandon, with shared declarations of love. And in the quiet aftermath she realized she'd been wrong not to trust him or herself. He was everything Troy had never been, never would be.

Alisha settled against Daniel's chest, content and confident that their future together would be as solid as their commitment to see justice done. And before she drifted off in his arms, she acknowledged that sleeping—and making love—with her former enemy and future husband had never felt so right.

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Bonus Features.

 

 

Bonus Features:

Author Interview

A Conversation with Kristi Gold

 

Author's Journal

Simply Stated: San Antonio's Allure by Kristi Gold

 

Sneak Peek

ONCE A REBEL

by Sheri WhiteFeather

 

 

BONUS FEATURES

 

 

 

The Law of Attraction

 

A bestselling author, national Reader's Choice winner and romance Writers of America RITA
^®
Award finalist, Kristi Gold has written more than twenty books since her first book debuted in 2000. Recently she chatted with us as she took a break from writing her latest Silhouette Desire novel.

 

What's the most rewarding aspect of writing? The most challenging?

Writing at times can be very cathartic, especially when you consider that authors possess the power to manipulate fictional worlds and produce a happy ending, even when those endings sometimes seem few and far between. But the most significant rewards, at least for me, have come through correspondence with readers and knowing they appreciate what I do. The most challenging aspect is staying fresh, staying
motivated and sometimes staying awake since I tend to write very, very late at night.

 

If you couldn't be a writer, what would you be?

My pat answer to this question has always been: miserable. But if I had to choose another occupation, I'd like to be a nurse. I have a great deal of respect for the women and men who work in the healthcare trenches. They possess a lot of guts, and usually receive very little glory. But what they do on a daily basis is very, very important, if not always appreciated.

 

Besides writing, what other talent would you most like to have?

I've always wanted to be a singer. Trust me, this will never happen. Just ask anyone who's heard me wail.

 

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

You know, that would have to be my three kids. I wasn't equipped with any kind of how-to manual, and they've actually turned out pretty well—so far.

 

What is your most treasured possession?

I have my mother-in-law's love letters sent to her by her future husband as he journeyed by train from Texas to Wisconsin, mailing one at every stop until he found his way to her. They have both since passed away, but what an incredible love story they've left behind.

 

Who are your heroes in real life?

Anyone who makes an extreme sacrifice for the good of all—aide workers, police officers, firefighters, service men and women, shelter volunteers. Those who lead by good example, and not by hollow rhetoric.

 

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

Wow! This is a really tough one, and as always, a toss-up (Hey, I'm a Pisces, a fish, and we're known to flounder on occasion). I will focus on the male persuasion, and narrow it down to two: Danny Sinclair, from Leigh Riker's
Danny Boy
—an emotionally and physically wounded rodeo cowboy, and Joe Burgett from Kathleen Korbel's
A Rose for Maggie
—a reclusive children's book author. As you can see, they are polar opposites in terms of their chosen careers, but they both possess what I feel is the most heroic quality you can find in a man: honor.

 

What is your favorite quote or motto?

This particular quote by Calvin Coolidge, sent to me years ago by a fellow author while we were still struggling to publish our books, has served to see me through many tough times:

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

To wake every morning knowing I can begin my day surrounded by family and friends, many more opportunities to share my stories and a continuous supply of Starbucks
^®
cappuccinos on hand.

 

What actress would you want to play you in a movie?

This one is relatively easy—Stockard Channing. I idolize her. Heck, I want to
be
her!