Page 87 of Courting Gossip (Courting)
‘How do you choose your clients?’ she asked. ‘What’s too far?’
He folded his arms, and his weight went to the balls of his feet. ‘I had someone try to hire me to get out of a battery charge. I walked away when I saw the girlfriend’s black eye.’ He rocked forward and then back. ‘And I took her to a women’s shelter, and he never saw her again.’
But he didn’t publicise that.
Genieve’s harsh breaths began to slow. It might not be a sob story, but he was painting a picture. He truly was a Black Knight. He’d found a way to rise to power. He didn’t follow the straight and narrow, but he still had a code.
‘People might not like my methods, but they like my results.’ He bent forward at the waist. ‘That’s all I was trying to do today, Jenny, get results that still protected you.’
‘Ooooh!’ She was so tired of hearing that. She stomped her foot, but then raked a hand through her hair and wandered around the open space. ‘You’re so damn logical and unemotional. I can’t do that.’
‘I don’t want you to.’
She’d spent all day trying to understand, but to him it was so clear-cut and obvious. ‘She hurt me,’ she said.
His lavender eyes flashed. ‘She’ll never do it again.’
Finally, there was emotion in his voice. The chill that ran down her spine was satisfying. ‘I didn’t want her silenced,’ Genieve pouted.
His chin lifted, and his jawline was hard. ‘That’s something we’ll just have to agree to disagree about.’
When? In the future? Did they even have one?
Her hand worried the knot at her waist. He was getting to her again. She wanted to believe he’d had her best interests at heart.
‘What am I to you?’ she asked, bracing herself for the answer.
‘A game-changer.’
She faltered. What did that mean? ‘Because you had to switch tactics? Protect both Samuel and me?’
‘Would you stop bringing him up?’ Brody grabbed a throw pillow off the sofa, but just wadded it up and put it back down. ‘This has nothing to do with that idiot. It has to do with you and me.’
Her toes curled into the coral area rug beneath her feet. ‘There is no you and me.’
‘The hell there isn’t.’
‘I had Nina end the contract. It’s run its course.’
‘Does it feel like it’s run its course?’ He folded his arms again, and his fingers began beating a driving tempo against his biceps. ‘OK, if we’re tidying everything up, it’s my turn to get some answers. Why do you do whatyoudo?’
She’d known that was coming. She’dknownit. She planted her hands on her hips defensively. ‘It’s not a sob story either.’
‘I don’t want it to be.’
Her eyebrows rose. That was the first time she’d ever gotten that response, but it made the chunk of ice around her heart crack. He didn’t want to hear she’d been forced into it. ‘I chose it,’ she said, seeing if he’d waver.
‘Why?’
She gestured around. She had two beautiful homes and good investments; she travelled well and met interesting, powerful people. ‘The money is fantastic.’
‘I’m well aware of that.’
Right. He’d been getting the bills.
‘You could make a living lots of ways. How can you stand to crawl into strangers’ beds?’
She flinched, but covered it with a flip of her hair. Apparently they were getting brutally honest. ‘Well, usually I’m carried there,’ she quipped.
