by Cat Schield
She didn’t react to his flippant tone. “Obvious, maybe, but you don’t seem happy.”
“Since when are you an expert on what makes me happy?” he shot back, still pained by her blunt opinion of him all those years earlier.
What made the sting so much sharper is that she hadn’t been wrong. He’d loved playing polo, but he hadn’t played up to his abilities. He hadn’t had to with Rusty’s money backing him.
“I’m not,” she said, her voice somewhat softening with regret. “I’m sorry I said that. I don’t know you at all and have no business making assumptions.”
“No, I’m sorry.” He rubbed his chest where a tight knot had formed. Damn. “It’s just that I never imagined our reunion happening because I was accused of embezzlement and that you’d believe I was guilty.”
“Wait.” She frowned in confusion. “You imagined that we’d have a reunion?”
“Sure.”
“Unbelievable,” she muttered, tossing an indignant look his way. “Then why haven’t I heard from you in five years?”
Three
Lani breathed slowly in and out through her nose, struggling against the anguish that had just blindsided her. Damn it. Why had she asked that ridiculous question? Now the infuriating man would think it bothered her that they’d never reconnected.
“I don’t have a good answer,” Asher admitted, sounding more subdued than he had a moment earlier.
“Of course you don’t.”
Why couldn’t she stop being surprised when he disappointed her? After all, she’d traveled to Royal to investigate him for embezzling millions of dollars.
“Did you want me to?”
“I...” Had she?
Lani’s heart began to race. Once upon a time she’d prided herself on being straightforward and honest with people. Experience had taught her that this tactic didn’t always produce the results she desired. Bottom line? She learned to mislead people in her pursuit of the truth or justice for her clients.
Kingston Blue had chosen her because of her past romantic connection with Asher. Was it wrong to take advantage of that to get him to trust her? If she appeared to believe he was innocent, maybe he’d drop his defenses and slip up.
“Well?” he prompted.
“It would’ve been nice to hear from you,” she admitted, keeping her tone from revealing her inner conflict.
“Really?” He practically vibrated with curiosity. “The way things ended, I thought you’d be happy never to hear from me again.”
“Yes...well.” She couldn’t give in immediately or he’d be suspicious. He had to work for it.
“You were pretty mad the last time we talked,” he reminded her.
“You told me a long-distance thing between us would never work after I told you I thought I was falling in love you, and then when I asked how you felt about me, you said you liked me, but didn’t think it was that serious between us.” Acutely aware of Asher’s gaze on her, Lani stared straight ahead and resisted the urge to glance his way. She focused on calm thoughts to reduce the heat scorching her cheeks as she revisited the humiliating scene. “And then you said it wasn’t your intention to upset me.”
“See, I was right. You are still mad at me.”
“For pulling that typical guy crap and turning the whole disagreement back on me? You bet I am!” Her temper flared. “As if I was being unreasonable because I wanted to keep things going.”
“Even though it would never have worked?”
Lani released a frustrated breath. “We could’ve at least tried.” But agreeing to attempt a long-distance relationship would mean he had feelings for her and that had obviously not been the case.
“What can I do to make it up to you?”
He could tell her where the money went. “Not a damned thing.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Really. I don’t want you to make anything up to me. We went our separate ways five years ago and it was for the best. In fact, I should thank you. Dragging things out in an effort to make it work and then failing would’ve been a lot harder in the end.”
“Lani...”
She gave her head a vigorous shake to keep him from saying something that would make her wonder...was there a way they could find their way to each other this time?
“Let’s just keep the past where it belongs and focus on keeping things professional between us.”
To her relief, Asher lapsed into silence and focused his attention on the landscape speeding past them. Lani let out an inaudible sigh.
Why was she surprised to be no closer to figuring out what made him tick than she had been all those years ago? Back then, little had seemed to bother him. The only thing that seemed to get under his skin was the way his adoptive father treated him with such indifference and even when she’d asked him about it, Asher had shrugged it off as Rusty’s issue, not his.
Asher was an expert at putting up a good front, never admitting anything was wrong, never asking for help. His reluctance to dwell on anything that made him uncomfortable had made it hard for them to develop the sort of intimate connection Lani craved. Not that this stopped her from falling deeper under his spell with each day that passed. And yet, despite his unwillingness to share how his father’s death had affected him, she sensed that the loss left him unsure how to let people in.
Maybe if he’d opened up to her, shown that he needed her, she might not have given up on him so easily. But she couldn’t figure out where she fit in his life and in the end she’d let him go.
Which had relieved her parents to no end. They’d been afraid she’d put off her education to run around the world with some rich, entitled polo player, thus ruining her life. While staying on the path she’d laid out for herself had been sensible, her decision wasn’t without regret. Especially after her dreams of a career in the FBI had abruptly ended. Add in her struggles to build her business, and she sometimes wondered if she could’ve been happy following Asher from Argentina to England and all over the US.
One thing was for sure, she never imagined he’d take a position at the family organization. She knew he must have hated being tied down and yet didn’t Rusty’s threat to cut him off if he quit feed perfectly into a motive for Asher to steal the money? The amount that had gone missing would’ve funded his polo playing for many years. Or had he planned to roam the globe in search of thrilling adventures?
Yet Asher made it sound like he was relying on the Edmond family fortune when she’d noticed that he’d moved up the ranks and started doing really well as a professional polo player. His Twitter feed reflected numerous endorsements and photo shoots he’d done, capitalizing on his good looks. He’d engaged in a fair amount of philanthropic work, as well. So why was he promoting the impression that he’d been barely getting by without Rusty’s money?
“Tell me something about the client you’re meeting,” Asher prompted, pulling Lani from her thoughts.
For a moment she thought of refusing, but talking about her work beat brooding over this man. “She came to me because her husband is cheating on her and she wants to make sure she has a clear financial picture to take to her divorce lawyer.”
“I don’t know why men do that.”
“Do what?” she quizzed, shooting a sidelong glance his way. “Get married, cheat or hide money?”
“Get married and then cheat.” Was he thinking about Rusty who’d been married four times—once for three years to Asher’s mother—and was currently single and definitely mingling? “What’s the point of agreeing to love someone ’til death do you part only to change your mind a few years later?”
“Is that why you never got married?” she found herself asking.
“I never got married because playing professional polo kept me from settling down with the right woman.”
Was he talking in generalities or had his h
eart been claimed before or since they’d been together? The question raised all the insecurities she’d experienced that summer. The vividness of her reaction was like standing next to a warning siren when it went off. Her muscles twitched in response, sending a pulse of adrenaline through her.
“You seem to have settled down now, so why haven’t you reached out?”
“Who says I haven’t?”
“Is she in a relationship or married?”
“Neither. But she doesn’t really trust that I’m not the same man she once knew.”
Lani wasn’t sure how to answer him. Nor could she figure out why she was pouring lemon juice on an old cut that had never fully healed. At least she knew why he hadn’t wanted to try a long-distance relationship with her. Obviously he’d never gotten over the woman he’d once loved.
“You should get in touch with her. She might surprise you.”
“She might,” Asher murmured, his expression pensive.
With the mood between them growing incredibly awkward, Lani was thrilled that her office was only five minutes away. She pulled into the underground parking garage and slipped into her dedicated spot. Now that she and Asher had arrived, Lani was quite sure that agreeing to let him tag along had been the wrong decision.
“There’s a café and lounge on the first floor where you can wait,” she said, snagging her laptop out of the back seat and slipping from the SUV. “My meeting shouldn’t take too long.”
“Do you mind if I come along? I’d like to see your office.”
“It would be better if you didn’t.”
Asher pointed to his ankle monitor. “Separation anxiety, remember?”
Since Lani couldn’t trust him to refrain from doing something that might blow back on her, she had no choice but to agree. And she couldn’t ignore that she wanted to show off a little. The spot she’d chosen for her firm was north of downtown Dallas in a glass-enclosed building with great views. Her office was on the eighth floor. She shared a spacious waiting area with a lawyer and an accountant and had done work for both of them in the year since she’d moved in.
“This is me,” she declared unnecessarily a few minutes later, unlocking the door to the dual-office suite and making her way down the hall.
Entering her airy workspace with its glass walls and north-facing windows, she circled her desk and woke up her computer to check if any email had come in during the drive from Royal.
Asher glanced around the space, noting the light spilling in the floor-to-ceiling windows. The room was spacious enough to accommodate a table with four chairs, her desk and a pair of guest chairs.
“Who works there?”
Lani looked up. His attention had shifted toward the empty workspace they’d passed. “No one at the moment.” Seeing his curiosity hadn’t been satisfied, she sighed. “When I leased the space, I’d hoped to expand. Add an associate. I still plan to. It’s just that I don’t have enough business at the moment.” Hopefully that would change once she completed this job for Kingston Blue. “So, now that you’ve seen my office...” She hoped he’d take the hint and leave her to await her client in peace. “Like I said, there’s a café downstairs. Or you can sit in the waiting room.”
“Why not there?” He indicated the empty office. “No one’s using it.”
Before Lani could argue, a woman appeared in the open doorway from the waiting room. Shooting Asher a withering glare, Lani smoothed her face and stepped forward to greet the newcomer.
* * *
“Hello, I’m Lani Li.”
“Mika Sorenson.”
Sensing that he’d already pushed his luck too far with Lani, Asher waited until the women were seated before he popped into Lani’s office.
“Can I get you anything?” he offered. “Water? Coffee? Soda?” He’d spied a small interior room with a copier, storage and a beverage cooler.
“Nothing for me.” Mika gave him an appreciative smile. “Thank you.”
“Ms. Li?” The way her eyes flashed, Asher could tell he’d gone too far.
“I’m fine.” Her teeth were firmly clenched as she added, “Thank you.”
With a smirk Lani’s client did not see, Asher ducked out of the room and headed straight into the empty workspace. Because the building was going for a sophisticated modern aesthetic with industrial vibes, glass walls divided this office from the larger one where Lani sat. Asher settled back in the office chair with his back to Lani, and strained to hear the conversation. The women spoke in subdued voices, making it impossible to discern more than a word here or there. Asher had resigned himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to learn anything, and was about to head down to the café when a tall man wearing an expensive suit and a stormy expression strode into the office.
When the man’s furious gaze locked on Mika Sorenson in Lani’s office and his fingers curled into fists, Asher was on his feet and standing in the man’s path before the guy had taken more than two steps.
“Can I help you?” Asher demanded in a tone that said he had no intention of being the least bit cooperative.
“That’s my wife.”
“Okay.”
Before Asher could say more, Sorenson’s red face contorted in rage and he made as if to charge into Lani’s office and take his bad temper out on both women. He set his hand on the man’s shoulder, determined to get the guy out of there, but Sorenson was completely focused on his wife.
“You stupid bitch,” the man yelled, pushing his weight against Asher in an effort to power past him. “Who the hell do you think you are hiring a private investigator to spy on me?”
The situation was deteriorating fast and Asher had to get the guy out of there. He caught the man’s arm in a tight grip. “Let’s go.”
Although Asher and Sorenson were the same height, the other man lacked Asher’s strength. But what Sorenson lacked in muscle, he made up for in outrage.
“Who the hell are you? Let go of me.”
“You need to leave,” Asher said.
“The hell I do. I’m not going anywhere without my wife.”
Asher didn’t need to look over his shoulder to know that Mika Sorenson was afraid. And that Lani was not. Years of playing polo had given him the ability to widen his senses and track the ever-changing dynamic of a game where eight players, each riding a thousand-pound horse and swinging a three-foot mallet, all raced after a fist-sized ball. He knew Lani was going to get in the middle of this scuffle and that she might get hurt. Sorenson needed to go before that happened.
“Call security,” Asher advised Lani, his gaze never leaving the other man.
Sorenson didn’t seem to hear. “Get out of my way.”
Keeping his tone mild, Asher responded, “I can’t do that.”
When the man’s fist came toward his face, Asher leaned out of the way. Off balance from the wild swing, Sorenson wasn’t at all ready when his opponent snagged his foot and used his own momentum to send him toppling to the floor. Asher winced when Sorenson’s head bounced off the hardwood flooring. Convinced Sorenson wasn’t about to jump up and go for round two, Asher glanced toward Lani.
Her eyes had gone wide as they bounced from him to the man on the ground. Already adrenaline surged through his veins from the altercation, but seeing the unbridled hunger in Lani’s mink-brown gaze, his whole body went up in flames.
“Security,” he rasped, wanting nothing more than to take her in his arms and claim the passion parting her soft lips. “You can thank me later.” The declaration was both a warning and a promise. Unlike the previous night, there would be no chaste kiss on her forehead. He intended to accept her gratitude in spades.
In the end, with some sense knocked into him, Sorenson left on his own, escorted to the elevator by Asher. When he returned to Lani’s office, a white-faced Mika Sorenson was making an appointment with a divorce attorney and Lani
was arranging a safe place for her client to temporarily stay.
Lani was standing at her office window, staring out at the storm blowing out of the west when Asher returned from walking Mika to her car in the parking garage. Lightning flashed and the building rumbled as thunder rolled over them. Asher crossed to stand beside her, noting that her tension was as charged as the atmosphere outside.
“Thank you,” she muttered, sounding not one bit convincing.
“Oh, you’re going to have to do better than that.”
She turned toward him, eyes fierce, arms crossed. “Fine. Thank you very much.”
Asher snaked his left arm around her waist and brought her up against him hard. “Better,” he coaxed, his tone lifting on the latter syllable.
“I don’t know what more you want.”
“Oh, I think you do.” Dragging his knuckles over her flushed cheek, he lowered his head until his lips hung a whisper above hers. “I want you to say it.”
“Say what?” The mutinous line of her mouth wavered even as her muscles softened, bringing her pliant curves into sizzling contact with his hard planes.
“Say that you were glad I was here to take care of you and your client today. How having me around was a good thing.”
“I could’ve handled him just fine.” She let loose a shocked gasp as he slid his palm up her spine, wrapped his fingers around her ponytail and gave it a sharp tug. “But I’m glad you were here so I didn’t have to.”
“Better.”
The uneven cadence of her breath matched his as he covered her mouth with his in a deep kiss meant to remind her how they’d once burned up the nights. Electricity danced down his spine as his stomach somersaulted. Rain battered the window beside them. And lightning flashed once more, this time behind his eyes as her tongue darted forward to tangle with his. Her sultry moan filled his ears while her warm skin scented the air with roses and jasmine. She lifted her fingertips to his face and ran them over his stubbly cheek. He loved when she touched him like this.