Page 36 of Legal Attraction

She was about to chase after him, but Jaden called out to her. “Bold.”

Coral smiled. “Thank you? I think I overstepped quite a bit. But he has to know it would work. He has to see that I’ve done my homework.”

Jaden stood, her notebook in hand. “I don’t know how you could have done any research at all. You heard about it five minutes before you started defending your position like it was the hill of all hills to die on.”

She paused. “Was I coming across too strong?”

“I think so.” Jaden winced. “And you called him Rand.”

Coral felt the color drain from her face.

“As if you’d called him that before, often.” Jaden turned to Mel. “Did you hear it?”

She nodded. “It just rolled off your tongue.”

They both stared, waiting.

The others were moving out of the room. Trey was almost out the door, but he paused.

“What? What are you asking me?”

“Nothing at all. Just making mention of the fact that you seem awfully comfortable calling Mr. McCarthy by his first name.”

And now Coral saw the folly in pretending like she and Rand didn’t know each other. If she’d just owned up to having met him, it wouldn’t seem suspicious to bring it up now. “I don’t know. It just came out.” She put a hand on her forehead. “He probably thinks I have no respect at all.”

They all turned and left the room together. “We don’t see a lot of personality in him usually.”

“Well, we haven’t seen a lot of him at all. Even though we’re camped in his office.” Mel shrugged. “But he was showing some personality in there.” She looked at Coral again with a pointed inquiry, but Coral pretended not to notice.

She just looked at everyone like they weren’t talking about anything in particular. “It would be difficult to work with someone who didn’t have a personality.”

They both turned away from Coral. Mel lifted one shoulder. “Let’s meet after work, get dinner. All four of us.” She looked over the same shoulder at Trey.

“I’m in.” Trey lifted a hand and then walked in the other direction.

“Sure.” Coral had to. She was going to need to create some real relationships and gain some trust with these three. She got the impression they would be working together a lot, or at least clumped together for things. And she wasn’t sure how competitive they would need to be.

As soon as she was walking along the hall by herself, she had a second to be angry with Rand. That cold, stiff man she’d caught a glimpse of at Nico’s had returned to the conference room. And she’d known it was coming before he even spoke. After praising her, he would have to temper it with some real indifference, but he had no need to be critical. And she did not even agree with his reasoning. There was nothing she as a first year couldn’t do if she worked and studied hard enough, if she gathered a good enough team. He’d absolutely crossed the line calling her arrogant, assuming that she wouldn’t do due diligence. And he’d called her out in front of the others. She stood taller, feeling herself lengthen her stride in her heels. She didn’t care how hot he was or how good his lips felt on hers. Not good enough. She smirked. She’d prove him wrong.

As she stepped into her office, her phone rang, not her public phone, the private burner the security detail had given her.Rand. She pressed her lips together. And ignored it.

Then it rang again so she picked it up. “I’m not ready to talk to you yet.”

“Excuse me?” A familiar voice, not Rand’s, sounded mildly amused.

She checked the phone. “Is this Lucan?”

“Yes. I have some information I thought you’d like to know, but if it’s not a good time…”

“No, it’s a great time. I’m sorry! I thought you were someone else.” She closed her door and paced to the window. “What’s going on?”

“First things first. You didn’t call.”

She placed a hand on her forehead. “Oh right. But no. I’ve got a bone to pick with you sir. Why didn’t you tell me I was going to work at the same firm with Rand? That seems like a very important detail to leave out for a friend.”

“Would it have made anything better if I had?”

She considered his question and then didn’t even care. “It doesn’t matter. You should have told me. And no, I didn’t want to call you so you could be amused at my expense.”

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