‘Of course.’
Sam watched her even white teeth sink into her bottom lip and felt his body react. He could see that she still wasn’t happy about him stepping in and he now knew it wasn’t entirely due to her ego being pricked. Which left only one other issue outstanding between them.
‘Now is that it? Or is there another reason you don’t want to work with me?’
Harried green eyes cut to his. ‘I didn’t say I didn’t want to work with you.’ She let out a breath and, to her credit, tried to smile. ‘You’re Miller’s brother-in-law. Why wouldn’t I want to work with you?’
‘Perhaps because we have more history between us than my brother and his wife,’ he said equally as coolly. ‘Perhaps because I’ve had my mouth on yours.’
Not to mention on your neck, your hair, your breasts.
A momentary flicker of panic darkened her emerald eyes before she shut it down, reaching for her water glass, her hand trembling only slightly as she brought it to her lips. ‘That was two years ago and has nothing to do with any of this.’
‘Doesn’t it?’
‘Of course not. It was an impulsive, late-night thing on both our behalves and it meant nothing.’
Sam didn’t like hearing her say it had meant nothing to her, even though he had told himself the same thing at the time. But what happened two years ago was chicken feed compared to what had happened between them on Friday night.
‘Since we haven’t seen each other since then,’ she continued doggedly, ‘we should...we should...’ She shrugged one slender shoulder. ‘Just forget it ever happened.’
Sam stared at her for a beat. ‘But we have seen each other since then, Ruby.’ His ego scratched at the surface of his skin, goading him to push her. ‘At Miller and Tino’s wedding nearly a year ago? Don’t you remember?’
‘Of course.’ Relief was stamped into each breathless word. ‘How could I forget? It was a beautiful night.’
‘How’s the banker, by the way?’
‘Banker?’ A small frown notched between her brows. ‘Oh, you mean Chester. He’s a stockbroker.’
‘I didn’t ask what he was. I asked how he was.’
‘He’s good. I think he’s good. Anyway, moving on...’
Unbelievable, he thought with growing incredulity. She was not going to acknowledge Friday night at all. And that left him in a bit of a quandary because not only did he want to mention it, but he also wanted to repeat it.
Not a good idea, Samuel. You’re her boss now.
‘Maybe I’m not ready to move on,’ he found himself saying, regardless of what he’d just told himself. ‘Maybe I want to explore things some more?’
‘Explore things?’ He’d admire her poise more if that pulse at the base of her throat wasn’t fluttering like a trapped bird trying to get away from a hungry cat. ‘Why would you want to explore anything about Chester Harris?’
Sam shook his head and told himself to back off. Whether she knew he had been the one she had been urging to take her on Friday night or not didn’t matter. He had to let that go. Stop obsessing over it. If he wasn’t careful he’d make this whole thing more important than it needed to be and that should have been more than enough to cool his interest in her.
More than enough to stop him from wanting to slip beneath the polished, professional facade this woman wore as convincingly as she had worn the black lace mask on Friday night and find out if the fire that had burned so brightly between them was for him and him alone.
‘Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.’
His jaw flexed. Because, as irrational as it might be, he wanted her to admit that she had known exactly who she had welcomed into her stunning body, and he wanted to have her there again. Hot and wet just for him.
But he couldn’t do that. She worked for him. Even more reason he should use his brain and let this thing between them die a natural death.
Which meant no more leading questions about what that kiss had meant to her two years ago, and no informing her that he knew she was the woman he had held against a wall and buried himself deep inside until he’d seen stars last Friday night.
Watching her now, he told himself to take a very large step backwards. His feelings—whatever they were—for Ruby Clarkson didn’t belong in the office. Or in his head.
He’d been back in the country for three days, he was hardly looking for any kind of relationship, and on top of that Miller would probably deliver his balls on a plate if he started something with her best friend, only to drop her a week later.
A best friend who looks like she would rather stick hot needles in her eyes than start something with you, Ventura.
‘Sam?’
Her confused voice broke into his thoughts. ‘What?’
She frowned across at him. ‘I asked if you agree with me.’
No, dammit, he didn’t agree with her. Especially when he’d been so lost in thought he hadn’t even heard her. ‘Agree with what?’ he barked, coming to a stop in front of her desk, his fingers digging into his hipbones.
‘That we should forget all past—’ she cleared her throat, moving a document from one side of her desk to the other ‘—interactions between us if we’re going to work together.’
When he didn’t immediately respond she lifted her gaze to his, one eyebrow raised in query as if they were discussing the merits of cucumber sandwiches. Her cool regard was like waving a red rag at a particularly irate bull and Sam ignored all his earlier good advice to himself to back off and went straight for her jugular. ‘Friday night,’ he said with a savage smile. ‘Did you enjoy yourself on Friday night?’
A swift tide of emotion darkened her eyes and then she blinked and it was gone. When she spoke her voice was as steady as an ocean liner, her brow puckered with just the right amount of confusion as to appear genuine. ‘Why would you ask me about Friday night?’
God, she would make a formidable opponent in court, he thought with unwilling admiration, his ego slightly mollified by the overactive pulse still thrumming at the base of her neck.
‘No reason.’ He forced a lazy smile to his lips. ‘Miller mentioned that you work long hours. Even weekends. I wouldn’t want you to burn yourself out.’
‘Oh.’ She glanced over his shoulder at the door as if she wanted it to open magically and suck him outside. ‘I’m not nearing burnout. Thank you for asking.’
She rubbed the outer edges of her left eye as if to control a twitch. Sam’s smile grew. Oh, she knew all right. She knew he had been the man who had been inside her at the Herzogs’ party, the man who had pleasured her so deeply, so thoroughly, so intimately he’d had to hold her upright immediately afterwards so she didn’t fall over. He was dead sure of it now. And damn, if that didn’t ease the choke hold she had on his unaccountably fragile ego.
‘My pleasure,’ he purred, buttoning his jacket and willing to back off now. ‘Set up that meeting with every one of our Star Burger clients. And Ruby?’ He stopped at her door and smiled at the wary expression on her face. ‘Thank you for your time. It was very enlightening.’
CHAPTER FOUR
RUBY SAGGED IN her seat the moment Sam closed her office door behind him.
Good lord, she was never going to be able to work with him. He was too big and too dangerous to her equilibrium, sucking all the air out of the room until she could barely breathe.
The way he had looked at her, all hot and intense...it was all she could do to hold herself aloof. And when he had asked about last Friday night...her eyes narrowed as she recalled his bland expression. She’d almost been certain he’d been toying with her, but he was a master when it came to inscrutability.
Even so, there was no way he could know that he’d been with her at the Herzog party. No one had known her there, as far as she was aware. The only way he would know it was her was if she told him. Which she wasn’t about to
do. Ever.
‘Here are some boxes,’ Veronica said, carrying in two cardboard flat-packs she immediately set about constructing on Ruby’s desk. ‘I know you have a lot to do today so I’ll take care of the packing up. Just remember tomorrow when you finish in court to head to the new office building. With the amount of manpower Sam has provided we’ll definitely be in by then. And we’re on the executive floor.’ She waggled her brows. ‘I’m going to do my best to get us a view of the harbour. How was your meeting with His Hotness before? He looked a lot happier when he left than when he was standing around waiting for you.’
‘His Hotness?’
‘That’s what a few of the girls have already nicknamed him. I’m married, but I wouldn’t mind locking lips with him just once in this lifetime. I’m sure my husband would forgive me.’
Veronica grinned and Ruby tried to grin back. ‘He’s unlikely to remember you afterwards,’ she said with enough bite to have Veronica looking at her strangely.
‘What does that mean?’
‘Nothing.’ Ruby pushed back from her desk and started shoving things into the first box. ‘Ignore me. I’m upset that another client has opted out from the Star Burger case. I have to set up an appointment for all of them to meet. I think Sam has some idea that he can convince them to re-commit to the case.’
‘Maybe he can. He’s awfully compelling.’
About to tell Veronica she didn’t really want to hear how ‘compelling’ their new boss was, she stopped when there was a knock at her door.
‘Werner meeting about to start in five, Rubes.’ Grant Campbell, a rising-star associate in the firm, poked his head through the door. ‘We’re in conference room four.’
‘On my way,’ she said, grabbing her laptop and accidentally upending five case files in the process.
She glanced at Veronica. ‘Ever get the feeling you should have stayed in bed some days?’
‘All the time,’ Veronica quipped.
And that was pretty much Ruby’s day, chasing her tail and trying to keep up with work until she fell into bed that night so tired she didn’t even think about Sam the whole night. Or mostly.
By Wednesday morning she felt marginally more in control, though she used that term loosely because she could already feel her nerves buzzing around inside as if she were high on caffeine. Which she wasn’t because she hadn’t even had time for a coffee so far this morning.
She stared at the view of the Opera House outside her new office window. Veronica had done well, nabbing a great space for them in the impressive tower. The Manly ferry pulled up to the wharf, unloading a small colony of workers and a few eager tourists onto the fastidiously tidy Circular Quay area far below.
She was just wondering if she had time to work out how to use the state-of-the-art coffee machine in the kitchen when her phone buzzed. She glanced down to find a text from Grant regarding the Star Burger case. Apparently some of the nineteen plaintiffs had arrived and were drinking cola and eating cake in the conference room.
Sending him a quick thank-you in reply, she rolled her chair back and scooped up her file notes on each one of her clients along with her laptop.
Even though she had emailed Sam the information yesterday morning, he had asked that she stop by his office an hour before the meeting to go over their strategy together. It was the last thing she wanted to do, given that she’d steadfastly avoided any contact with him the last two days, but it had to be done.
Today she wouldn’t be able to hide in her office if she thought she heard him outside her door, or turn the other way when he was coming towards her down the hallway, her insides jittery as she waited for him to call out to her and ask her to stop. Her fixation on his whereabouts in the office was making her crazy and, what was worse, interfering with her usually fanatical concentration levels.
Channelling all things serene, she pushed her feet back into her favourite don’t-mess-with-me stiletto heels and checked her immaculate red lipstick before making her way to the end of the hall, knocking sharply on Sam’s office door.
Sam uncoiled from behind his glass desk as she entered his lair, an unreadable expression on his face. She noted his impressive physique in his pale blue shirt, royal blue tie and charcoal suit trousers. He looked like the uber-successful lawyer that he was and she knew her clients would be incredibly intimidated by his powerful aura. Couldn’t the man tone it down just a little bit?
‘Why the frown?’ he asked, his voice gravelly as if he hadn’t spoken for a while.
Deep breaths, she told herself. He might live up to his new ‘hot’ label but she was a professional. Plus, she’d been there, done that, and now she was blushing and he was looking at her in that intense, curious way of his. How he didn’t know that they had been as close as two people could ever be was beyond her, and it was definitely absurd for her to be thinking like that when she was extremely happy that he didn’t know it was her at the masquerade ball.
Not that she should be thinking about that night at all. This case was incredibly important for her and she genuinely cared about her clients, who she had rapidly come to think of as ‘her boys’.
Boys who were only teenagers and new to the country, a couple of them barely speaking English but all of them hungry to learn and to find a place to belong where their safety wasn’t at risk every other minute of the day. Star Burger Restaurants should have provided them with a place of employment that espoused the egalitarianism that most Australians liked to be known for. It hadn’t, and it was Ruby’s job to prove that management had not only known how her clients had been mistreated, but also that the rot in the organisation was filtered from the highest level down.
Would Sam take the case as seriously as she did? Or would he see it as a vehicle to showcase his prowess in the courtroom? And why did that matter if he helped them win?
‘Stop biting on your lip,’ he rasped, ‘and tell me why you’re frowning.’
Ruby released her newly tortured flesh, hoping she hadn’t eaten her lipstick off in the process. ‘I’m frowning,’ she said softly, ‘because I’m concerned about our meeting today. Some of these kids went through a traumatic experience working for the Star Burger chain and it’s been really hard gaining their trust. I don’t think going over things yet again is going to help.’
Sam sat down on one of the white leather sofas set in an L-shape looking out over the cloudless blue sky of a summer’s day. ‘They’ll have to repeat their stories if it goes to court.’
‘Which is why most of them pulled out.’
‘No. Most of them pulled out because Carter Jones started a smear campaign against them. We need to get those clients to re-engage in the case if we want to win and you know it. Come. Sit down.’
‘They don’t trust the system,’ she told him, reluctantly doing as he’d bid and taking a seat on the spare sofa adjacent to his. ‘And why should they? It hasn’t done them any favours so far.’
‘It will after we win their case.’
Ruby’s brows drew down. ‘Just don’t push them too much, okay? They don’t know you from Adam.’
Sam cocked his head, his gaze raking her face to the point of discomfort. ‘You care about these boys almost more than you care about winning, don’t you?’
‘I care about doing what my client wants me to do,’ she said, pushing her hair back behind her ears. She didn’t want Sam to think she brought excessive emotion to her cases because it was one thing to be passionate about work, but quite another to be so involved you stopped being impartial and became ineffective.
‘I have been around the block once or twice, Ruby—I do know what I’m doing.’ He gave her an all-encompassing look. ‘Is that the only thing making you so jittery right now?’
Ruby’s head reared back. ‘First you say I’m prickly, now you say I’m jittery. I’m neither,’ she said hotly, her stomach doing a somersault and making a
mockery of her words. Lord, if he could see through her so easily, she was toast.
‘Good. Then help me work out the best strategy to get the full nineteen boys back on board. If we want to beat Jones we’re going to need them to at least agree to show up in the courtroom, even if they have no intention of taking the stand. It will give our current clients a confidence boost and hopefully worry the hell out of Jones.’
Ruby unclamped her lips and found herself envying Sam his ability to remain so composed while she felt as if her insides were getting ready to audition for the lead role in one of Molly’s musicals. But then he wasn’t constantly distracted by flashbacks as to how it had felt to have her hands all over his body on Friday night. How it had felt to have his hands all over hers. And why couldn’t she manage to put that behind her? It had been five days already.
‘I know you care about these boys, Ruby,’ he said softly. ‘You’re not as hard-nosed as you’d like me to believe.’
Ruby opened her file notes and lifted her chin. ‘I’m exactly as hard-nosed as I want you to believe.’
Sam shook his head and moved from his sofa to hers, his powerful thigh brushing against hers as he settled too closely beside her. Fire shot through her at the slight touch and she surreptitiously adjusted her position further along the settee, ignoring his sidelong glance.
‘Ready?’ She arched a brow in question.
‘Always.’ He took the first file from her and Ruby exhaled as his agile brain switched from her to work, forcing her own to follow suit.
* * *
Three hours later Ruby was quietly impressed with the way Sam had approached the case. He did know his stuff and had gone out of his way to put the boys at ease, asking insightful questions and never pushing in a way that might be construed as threatening or manipulative.
Now, with the meeting about to finish up, she couldn’t wait to get out of there. A whole morning of being this close—and this aware—of her new boss had her nerves strung tight. And some sixth sense told her that Sam knew exactly how she was feeling.
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