Total pages in book: 183
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
She hesitates, like she isn’t going to move on, but finally seems to succumb to the shift of topic. “I was obsessed with legal shows from the time I was a pre-teen, forward. I even went to sit in on court cases while I was in high school. What about you?”
“My mother was an attorney and of course, there was my father.”
“But he was into wine too, right?”
“He invested in the winery. I just signed that deal you saw in my office, and now I’m set to sell it.”
“Sell it? You’re into wine. You like it. You know it. Why not keep it?”
“I like to drink wine. I don’t want to grow my own grapes. More importantly, we’re becoming a full-service firm and spreading our wings into malpractice law, and that means financing large cases before they pay out. You saw the sale. That alone will go a long way.” I change the subject. “What happened with your mother and her date?”
“He’s going to have to fight to get her back. She’s pretty tough. She says my father loved her and she isn’t settling for less than my father, and yet my father gambled away all of our security. I don’t get it.”
“Your mother must think he’s a good man who made a mistake.”
“Maybe,” she concedes, “And maybe I’ll see it differently when I get us out of financial ruin.”
“What’s that going to take?” I ask. “Is it all medical bills from your mother’s stroke?”
“I’m not answering that.”
“Come on, sweetheart,” I urge, resting my hand on her hip. “I need to understand what you’re going through.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re together and what affects you, affects me.”
“We’re new.”
“And that means what? Tell me.”
“Medical bills and other debt.”
“Did your father have life insurance?”
“Not nearly enough.”
Which means the policy was small or the debt was enormous. “Was he good to you before that?”
“He was,” she says, “but that doesn’t feel real. I don’t know the man who left us like this.”
In other words, I’m living in the shadow of her father who she now feels is one big lie. “Let’s talk about rules,” I say, trying to set the solid ground work between us I now know is critical if I want to keep this woman in my life and I do.
“I don’t want anyone to know about us at the office or in a work environment.”
“What about Cat and Reese? They already have an idea about us.”
“Not yet if we can help it. I’d like to have some time for us to figure this out, but I know they do and I can’t lie to Cat any more than you can Reese.”
“Agreed, but if you have to tell Cat, just tell her. I’ve seen how hiding things from her stresses you out.”
“All right,” she says. “How does the hotel work for us in LA?”
“I’d like to say that you get your own room and stay with me or me with you, but not this time. Not when we’ll likely be watched.”
She settles her hand on my cheek. “Thank you. For doing what you said you would and really trying to protect me. Another rule.”
I cover her hand with mine and kiss her. “What would that be?”
“Don’t make my past a big deal. That separates us.”
“We’re talking about the conversation at the apartment?”
“Yes. I had to fight through a few things, but so did you. I had my mother growing up and a father that I didn’t hate back then. You didn’t. And don’t tell me you had money and I didn’t. Money does nothing to ease the pain of loss.”
“I could remind you that money would have kept you in law school and kept you from hating your father, but then, you wouldn’t be here now. And I’m selfish enough to want you here with me.”
“I believe we end up where we’re meant to be,” she says. “We just don’t always understand why until much later.”
“No one knows that part of my life you just repeated except you and Reese, and he knows because he had to walk me off the ledge with my father in college a few times.”
“But you told me the first night we met?”
“We both went places that night that we don’t normally go.”
“Yes,” she says simply, settling her head against my shoulder. “We did.” She smiles, and fuck, it’s a beautiful smile that has my cock hard, and this crazy feeling swelling in my chest. What is this woman doing to me? She snuggles down into the crook of my arm, head on my shoulder, and I shift slightly to hold her just right.
I lay there, holding her, listening to her breathing, the feel of her body pressed to mine, a drug that illogically arouses and calms at the same time. I’m not beyond admitting that my possessiveness with this woman is going places beyond my bedroom. I want to talk to her. I want to win cases with her. I want to hold her. I want to protect her. I want to save her from the hell of medical bills and struggles, and I can. I can make it all go away for her, but ironically, considering every woman before her wanted to roll around naked in my money, my money is partially why Lori left me the first time. I have to use restraint with Lori or she’ll leave me again. Or try.