Like she was feeding off the exact same thing that was oozing from me. “Let’s be clear—love didn’t have a thing to do with what went down last night.”
Hurt blanketed her face, her throat bobbing frantically with short, jagged pants. “Good, then we can pretend like it never happened.”
Was she serious?
Ignore this?
Forget it?
More likely, it hadn’t mattered to her at all.
For a beat her eyes closed, softly, like maybe the girl was issuing a silent prayer.
I wanted to reach out and shake her.
Then she was slowly opening them, turning that mesmerizing gaze in my direction. A tidal wave to knock me off my feet. I was going to need a fucking anchor to survive this girl. “You asked me to take a chance on you, Ian Jacobs. Now, I’m begging you to take one on me. You are the only chance I have. I can pay you. A lot.”
Fierce determination burned from her spirit. Somehow, it was muddled with shame as she rushed to unzip the big bag at her side.
My chest nearly caved.
Stuffed inside was nothing but stacks and stacks of bound cash.
My eyes about bugged out of my damned head. Holy shit.
Clearly, the girl was a whole lot more like me than I wanted to admit.
Willing to do anything.
Anything to get her to her goals.
But hers were that desolating kind.
Dreams that would crush you. Leave you nothing but rubble and ash. It was the kind of risk definitely not worth taking. But for her? There was no question that it was.
A gutting worry almost clouded my mind, toyed with my senses.
What did you do, Angel Girl, what did you do?
Then a rush of anger boiled back to the surface. I couldn’t let this girl get under my skin.
Obviously, she’d go to any length to get what she wanted. Use anyone. Just like she’d done me.
I roughed a palm over my mouth to break up the insanity. Then my voice was dropping, my head angled as I gritted the words so close to her face that our noses were touching as I roughly zipped back up her bag.
“It doesn’t matter how much money you can pay me. I can’t do this. You know it. I know it. We slept together. I could be suspended, or worse, disbarred, and the last thing I’m going to do is jeopardize my chances at becoming partner.”
Not for her.
Not for anyone.
I swallowed hard. “And Reed Dearborne on top of it? Not for all that money you have in your bag would I take him on. I’d be a fool if I tried, and I’d still turn you down even if this was the first time I’d seen you. Taking that case would be career suicide.”
Her chin trembled, and that same hopelessness I’d witnessed the first night I’d seen her doused her expression in defeat. She looked up at me, words so quiet, so low.
A sharp, hot dagger.
“I never took you for a coward, Ian Jacobs.”
“And I never took you for a whore.” It was a knee-jerk response. Defense against her criticism that went bone deep. Against the truth of what she’d said.
The second I released it, I regretted it. The way her entire being was rocked. The quiver ignited all the way into her soul.
Like I’d physically injured her.
I thought I must have.
Hurt her in a way I could never take back.
It was for the best.
It was for the best.
I needed to get her out of here. For good.
“Wow, you really are an asshole, aren’t you? I shouldn’t have let myself forget it after the first time I talked to you.” Tears gathered in her eyes. She tried to fight them, but one streaked free, gliding down her cheek and dripping from her chin.
Fuck me, I wanted to reach out and wipe it away. Tell her I’d give her hope if there were any to be had.
But it was impossible.
Only a fool would get involved in that kind of high-profile custody case.
Against an asshole like Reed Dearborne.
Especially a man like me with a girl like her.
This girl who’d touched me in a way she couldn’t.
The girl who was standing there with that big heart bleeding out all over my floor.
An angel with a broken halo.
This woman with three kids.
Three kids.
That right there had me wanting to crawl into the back of my closet and get cozy with all my skeletons. Snuggle up close. They’d be much cozier than dealing with the consequences of this.
There’s so much we don’t know about each other.
“I never claimed not to be an asshole,” I forced out through clenched teeth.
Grace twisted out from between the bookcase and me, head dropped low as she headed for the door.
I forced myself to stay rooted.
Right then was not the goddamned time to grow a conscience.
I was chanting, she did this, she did this. She knew all along. It was an ambush. A set up.