Wrangling with the Laywer (13 page)

She lifted her brows, trying to hide her disappointment. “All sorted, then.”

“Almost.” If he heard the barb, be chose to ignore it. “Will you be okay now? Can I get going?”

Would she be okay? She actually laughed in disbelief. Hadn’t he been the one asking for her help on Friday night? He made it sound like he’d done her a favour by taking her to his parents this weekend.

Unamused, he didn’t wait for a response. “I have to run. I’ll see you on Friday,
Harper.”

She barely even stopped for long enough to put on a load of laundry before she wrapped Finn up again and drive him over to Megan’s to vent.

By Friday morning,
Harper was in a better frame of mind. She’d had a relatively quiet week in comparison with the weekend. There hadn’t been any illnesses or unforeseen disasters at the studio. Her deputy was managing better than ever, which had freed up some of her time to finish up the work on the house. She was finally having the damp-proofing done, which was the last major job before she focussed on decorating the interior. She’d also come to terms with the memory of that impulsive kiss she’d shared with Gabe. Well... she refused to think about it, anyway, and it was kind of working. Every time it entered her mind, she grabbed the status reports on the civil case. Needless to say she had covered them in massive detail, and as a result she felt prepared and calm entering this meeting for the first time in what seemed like weeks.

Calm until she was shown in to
Don’s office and saw Gabe standing at the window with his back to her.

He looked impeccable as usual, even from the back. He was just a few inches taller than six foot, and it struck her again as it always did that carried himself beautifully. The lean, elegant line of his form was unmistakable, perfectly finished by his expertly cut hair. He was holding a cup of coffee; when he turned to her, he lifted it to his lips casually. His dark eyes lingered on her for just a moment. While she underwent what felt like a firework display of emotions battering against her chest, he just looked at her. She was overwhelmed by how pleased she felt just to see him. It was confusing and not a little alarming. She realised she’d been trying to recreate his face in her mind all week without success; she hadn’t succeeded in capturing that gleaming predatory sensuality even closely.

He was truly stunning.

She’d missed him.

“Coffee?” Don passed in front of her on his way to the conference table.

She snapped out of her reverie. Staring at
Don, she then following his gaze to the refreshments, filling in with supposition where he hearing had failed. “Coffee,” she repeated gratefully. “Yes. Please.”

The full impact of what her mind had just confessed clattered against her nervous system. She’d missed him? How could she...? She’d missed looking at him or being around him?

“You don’t take sugar, just cream, right?”

She couldn’t remember. She didn’t care. She nodded brightly. Why hadn’t Gabe spoken to her? A heated sensation of high colour was working its way from her extremities up her back, shivering its fevered way to her cheeks. She couldn’t turn her head to look at him. Had she said hello already? How was she going to get through this meeting today with his sitting right there in front of her? She had to get a grip. Could he see the realisation on her face?

“Here you go.” Don crossed over to her with the coffee cup. “Shall we get started? Gabe has an eleven clock meeting with Hannah across the hall.”

Just hearing his name for the first time caused a shiver of awareness. Turning towards him, she finally managed what felt like a normal smile. “Hi, Gabe.” Her internal coil loosened in a marginal sigh. She could do this. “How are things?”

He paced to the table, pulling out the chair at the head neatly and placing his cup down. “Good. How have you been this week?” There was nothing he could do that would take the sexy edge off his low voice, but he seemed to be aiming for ascetic in his tone.

“Great.” Her smile was forced.

“I’m glad to hear it.” His dark eyes seemed to reluctantly sweep across her when he spoke, as if he didn’t want to look at her properly.

She swatted the paranoia from her mind like a troublesome fly. “Are we going to cover the patent case first, since you’re leaving early?”

“If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” She took a seat, leaving a space between them.

Don sat across from her. His frown was slightly amused. He turned from one to the other. “So how did it go last Friday? I heard Abernathy decided to allow a full investigation.”

“Yes.” She nodded to show her pleasure. Last Friday... she couldn’t believe this austere man to her left was the same man who’d turned up at her house with a distraught daughter in tow.

Gabe exhaled slowly. “We’ve started the ball rolling with the patent review board. In fact Davidson and goons have requested some mediation this afternoon. I’ll reschedule, of course,” he turned to Harper distractedly, “but I think should you attend.” He started checking the calendar on his phone.

She shrugged. “I’m free this afternoon.”

“Until five?”

“Until whenever. Finn’s having a sleepover.” She sipped her coffee. “I know it’s short notice but maybe we could just get it out of the way while I’ve got a free, uninterrupted day.”

Gabe considered this. He seemed to look at her properly for the first time. “Okay. I’ll give them a call.” 

He slipped out of the meeting with apologies at eleven. She saw him leave the building just five minutes afterwards. The paranoia returned; she wondered if the meeting with this Hannah person had been fabricated so that he didn’t have to spend too long with her. Sighing internally at her own foolishness, she turned back to
Don’s careful monotone and tried to focus. As if Gabe would call short a meeting to avoid her. He was one of the most formidable lawyers in New York City, hardly the type of man to shrink from an uncomfortable situation. She could only presume her had something better to do until they met at his office later than afternoon.

She had lunch with
Marlene, relaxing for an hour in the park with hot soup and a shared sub. Afterwards, she wandered around the lake by herself for a while, biding time until the video conference that afternoon. She and Gabe would be alone in his office for the duration, even if they were being watched on a large screen by Joe Davidson and his small army of lawyers. She exhaled to release a knot of tension high in her stomach; she wasn’t looking forward to seeing Joe again. They’d been close work colleagues at one point, and almost friends. It still stung how abruptly he’d turned on her. She didn’t want to attribute it to anything other than professional rivalry, but it was hard believe that, knowing the full circumstances as only he and she did. Either way, any contact with him now was deeply unpleasant.

She was shown straight into Gabe's empty office when she arrived at his exclusive building. She sat down, breathing in the discreet scent of his masculinity which pervaded the air. The office was ordered, stylish and understated, much like its owner. Her eyes swept the unparalleled view of downtown, wondering if he sat here often looking out at the same thing. She wondered what went through his mind during these quiet moments. It was crazy, but she wouldn’t have put it past him to have discarded last weekend’s events from his mind already. He’d seemed distracted this morning by something a million miles away from her. He always had the air of a man in the middle of important business. If he did remember, he clearly didn’t seem to consider what had happened as significant. She cringed again as she recalled her own discomfort.

She sipped some of the sparkling water laid out of her on the table. The shock of her reaction to seeing him this morning still smarted. She was entering dangerous territory with this man. Hadn’t she warned herself more than once from developing any rose-coloured notions about Gabe? It had happened while she wasn’t looking. She felt betrayed by her own self-consciousness. There was no mistaking, even in memory, the intensity of the pleasure she’d felt just looking at him. Sure, it had been a physical thing; he was definitely beautiful to look at, but that hadn’t been the extent of it, nor the most alarming part of it. She’d felt... happy to see him. She realised that she’d wanted to be with him, to spend time with him. She’d missed his company.

Standing, she paced over to the window and smoothed down her skirt. She bit on her thumbnail for a moment until she realised what she was doing. Agitation spread under her skin like an infestation. How could she miss someone she barely knew? Why did she miss him? Having the hots for him was one thing, but how could she seriously have developed an attachment for a man who clearly didn’t have any long-term interest in her existence? So they’d shared a couple of uncomfortable intimacies this weekend - it hardly constituted a friendship. What on earth had possessed her to develop these feelings of... closeness to him? Unobserved, she let her expression fall aghast. He was a superficial, self-centred workaholic who treated women like temporary play things. She refused to admit that she’d fallen for those glittering charms just because he was good-looking and talented.

And funny. And deeply caring when he allowed himself to be.

Turning, she stalked back to the table and pulled out her tablet.

In the adjoining conference room, unobserved, Gabe sat back and watched her working. She looked wound up. Seriously agitated. She was chewing her lower lip again, circling her foot and tapping quickly on the tablet screen. What had pre-empted that awkward stroll over to the window and the pained expression he’d seen on her face reflected in the glass? He frowned to himself, pushing his phone away when it beeped noisily. He hoped there was nothing seriously wrong. He felt a tearing discomfort in his chest just imagining there might be something wrong in her life that he wasn’t aware of.

He enjoyed the chance just to allow his eyes to leisurely peruse her. He knew now that her dark hair smelled of exotic flowers, and felt like heavy silk lacing through his fingers. He also knew that her swollen lip, the one she was trying to chew off right now, felt indescribably soft against his mouth. What he didn’t know was how those lips would feel against other parts of his body, but his body temperature skyrocketed every time he tried to imagine it. He also didn’t know exactly how those perfectly formed breasts would feel against his body, or how the tender skin just below her hipbone would taste against his lips, but he’d thought about both of those things very carefully and continuously since last weekend.

He rubbed his hands across his face. He had to snap out of this. He’d never seen her uncomfortable before, not to the degree he’d witnessed this morning. She clearly regretted what had been nothing less than a disastrous weekend; it had been unforgivable of him to thrust her into that awfulness. It only made matters worse that he’d tried to seduce her. What had he been thinking? He hadn’t been thinking at all, actually, which was the problem. At least he’d discovered something useful: if she ever came into close physical proximity with him again, he had to run in the other direction as fast as his legs would take him. This type of attraction wouldn’t be controlled. It only wanted to be satisfied, and it was a beast eating up every pathetic emotion it could find along with it. It didn’t just want to have sex with her; it wanted to be
intimate
with her. The very notion sent a vague sense of panic through him.

His phone beeped again. Irritated, he picked it up and realised it was
Davidson’s people looking for him. Time to get this show on the road.

She looked up at him cautiously when he entered the quiet room. He smiled, helping himself to water. “Hey.” Taking a sip, he looked down at her tablet. A page of code stared densely back at him. “Working?”

“Just filling time.”

He nodded, guessing this was a polite prod to get things moving. “
Davidson’s ready to start.” He lifted the remote control and switched on the video conference system. “Is there anything you want to go over before we let them in?”

She shook her head, her dark hair swinging and reminding him even from this distance how good it smelled. “I don’t think so. We covered everything this morning.”

The screen flickered to life. On it, he saw the familiar faces of three patent lawyers and one case lawyer from the firm hired by Davidson. Davidson himself sat in the centre of the table. Tall and with a privileged smile, he had less hair now than Gabe remembered him having from Harvard. Gabe would never have allowed his client to sit centre-table during mediation. He was clearly still an arrogant S.O.B.

“Gentlemen.” He took a seat next to
Harper at the table, folding his tie against his chest. He caught Harper’s scent again, feeling a violent rush of protectiveness.

“Gabriel.”
Davidson spoke first, to Gabe’s amazement. Did the guy really think he was talented enough to replace his own counsel? “Harper. You’re looking well.”

He felt her shift beside him. The move was probably imperceptible on the screen, but Gabe felt it like a wave of sensation down his side. “Hello,
Joe.” She kept her tone even, strong. She sounded slightly more on edge than usual.

“So here we are again.”
Davidson sounded gleeful. His eyes hungrily combed the screen. “Looks like we’ve got another long case ahead of us unless we can agree to play nice today.”