Page 61 of Legal Attraction

“I really did. I don’t have proof though. I told no one.”

“Hm.”

“So then at karaoke I looked for you. I wanted to dance with you. I tried to avoid all the other women for you and then found myself to be the luckiest guy there when you wanted to go for a walk.”

“Oh stop.”

“Ok. I won’t add the fluff words, but it’s true. You’re incredible. And I felt super lucky we could spend that time together.”

“Sharks and all?”

“I could have done without the sharks.”

“Honesty becomes you.”

“Hm. Okay, so then I had the best make out of my life.”

She laughed.

“And thought I’d lost you forever.”

“But I showed up at your firm. How utterly convenient is that? You work for the firm who is actively trying to attack Royals and you just happen to kiss me? You’ve been in a lot of convenient places this whole time.”

“But all of that is coincidence. It really is. Or fate. There is a chance I’m in your life because we need each other. There’s a chance that we are meant to work together on this, that we’re both uniquely placed to stop a really bad organization. And have you considered that what we heard just now could also be wrong? They could be working to trap the wrong people? No one knows who Othello is, not even Lucan.”

She hesitated and then nodded. “But I’m not going back to the firm until we have some more intel on this. We have to talk to Lucan.”

“Agreed. We can work from anywhere. And while our clients are here, I say we stay here. We have had no tails, not threats. It’s been a great location.”

“There might not be a we, Rand. What if I just go home? There was an almost attack on my own country. I should be there.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. While a part of him most desperately wanted to be at her side, he also knew that now was the time to respect her wishes.

“I’ll do whatever you need. I even asked for your jet to be moved to Charleston. You can go anywhere you want.”

She looked away.

“And I’m not finished with my story, my true story. So, when you showed up at my Goldstein and Smithson, I was angry.”

“Angry?”

“Yes. How am I supposed to behave normally, treat you like all the others, not fall at your feet in adoration, when I had absolutely fallen in love with you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Now you’re just making stuff up. Stop. It’s not nice.”

“No, it’s true. I didn’t know it until I saw you. But I had fallen for you and had been missing you since we left Nico’s. Can you see how that would complicate work for me?”

“I definitely experienced how I complicated work for you.”

“I’m sorry about that. I am. I was trying to protect us both.”

“I can see that.”

“But then I just couldn’t help but be completely focused on you. The day you went to lunch with Muskanza? That was torture. All day, gone. I didn’t know if you were safe. I didn’t know how to find you. And then I heard you were taken into Joe’s office. I was about to ram down the door and then it opened and you weren’t in there. My heart dragged along with my feet all the way to your office and I had to stop myself from running in and pulling you tight against me. It was an agony.”

Coral’s eyes were shining but she crossed her arms. “I’m waiting for the part where the firm asked you to date me.”

“Well, Gladys told me it was obvious to everyone that I was into you.”

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