Page 16 of Cocky Counsel

He stayed silent for a few minutes, studying my face while I held my stance. Forget the fact that my legs shook beneath me, and I felt like I could fall at any moment. I may have been weak from being so sick but wasn’t about to bow down and let him think that he intimidated me. I needed him to stop seeing me as an inferior employee that didn’t know what they were doing, and to see me as the highly educated, incredibly talented, and experienced lawyer that I am.

“I’m sorry.” He pulled his lips together into an awkward smile.

I raised an eyebrow, wondering if my fever had returned and made me delirious. Surely there was no way that Ethan Roberts was standing in my apartment, apologizing to me.

“Don’t look so surprised,” he muttered. “I do have a soft side... on occasion.”

“Yeah, like when you stay the night at your employee’s apartment to care for her and feed her chicken noodle soup?” I offered with a genuine smile. I hated that he had spent the night here when I knew that he had things he needed to do. I hated even more that he had seen me at my absolute worst.

“For starters,” he chuckled. He glanced down at his watch and blew out a heavy sigh. “I need to get to the office this morning to handle a few things, will you be okay on your own, or do I need to confiscate your toaster before I go?”

“I’ll be fine,” I rolled my eyes. “Toast doesn’t even sound good.”

“Alright, then I’m heading out but if you need me just call.”

“Thanks for everything last night, I really do appreciate it.”

“No problem.”

He smiled and for a brief moment, I saw something in his eyes. A softness that I hadn’t seen before. I was desperate to hang onto it a little bit longer but knew that he needed to go.

“Oh, by the way, Graham will be coming in this morning to talk with you about the White knight information. He didn’t give me a time, however, I assumed that he’s not the kind of client that I should pressure into making an appointment.”

“No, definitely not. I’ll be sure to have his files ready when I get to the office. Thanks for letting me know.”

He gave me a quick smile before grabbing his coat off the chair and sliding his shoes on. I wondered if anyone at the office would question where he had been or why he was wearing the same suit as yesterday, which was now crumpled and not crisp and clean. Knowing him, he would have a handful of options hidden in his office, and no one would even know. He grabbed his laptop from the coffee table and slid it back into the messenger bag before slinging it across his shoulder. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as I watched him walk to the door and linger. If I didn’t know any better, it seemed as if he didn’t want to leave as much as I didn’t want him to go.

“One more thing—” I said quickly, stopping him as his hand turned the knob to open the door. He froze and turned his attention to me.

“Graham mentioned that he would also need to speak with you about Genevieve. I’m not sure if this is related to the same deal or not, but I thought you might want to know…”

Ethan squinted his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers and sighed.

“Genevieve,” he sighed wearily, then looked at me. “She’s his ex-fiancé that left him for his best friend. The one who owned Gainesworth Investments.”

“Well that just got messy real quick, didn’t it?”

“It sure looks like it. I’ll touch base with you this afternoon. Try to rest and recuperate. I’ll need you to jump in and help with this case as soon as you can.”

I felt the corners of my mouth lift into a smile that I couldn’t deny, even if I wanted to. He smiled back and turned and walked out the door, leaving me in a blissful state of feeling like he was actually going to let his guard down and allow me to show him what I was capable of.

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