His Contract: Legally Bound, Book 1 (20 page)

He dropped back against the couch, envious of her youth, of having energy to spare. The stiffness in his body reminded him those years were firmly in the past. The lust-crazed fog he’d been in for the last thirty-six hours was catching up with him. As was the confusion he’d woken up with.

Jack closed his eyes, the heavy weight of guilt like an anvil on his sternum. He hadn’t anticipated how Lilly’s presence in the house all weekend would make him react. Mistaking her for Eve this morning felt like the ultimate in unfaithfulness.

It was too much to deal with, and he let sleep claim him.

Groggy, he awoke a short time later from sounds in the kitchen once again. There was a clanging and a thump, then the rush of running water, followed by clicking noises he recognized as the gas burner coming on. Puzzled, he lumbered into the kitchen. Lilly was surrounded by pots, bags of groceries halfway unpacked on the island.

“What are you doing?”

She looked up from the stove and grinned. “Making lunch. Or a banquet, apparently. I was hungrier than I thought, and since I passed a store on my run, I thought I’d cook us something.”

Good God, she was cooking for him.

Jack gaped and walked unsteadily toward her, one hand pressed to his chest.

“I had my credit card on me so I got as much as I could carry,” she continued. “I got more than we needed, but I wanted you to have some decent food in here. You need to eat things that don’t come in a paper box.”

Her smile was bright, but it disappeared when her eyes met his.

“Was this the wrong thing to do?” she asked quickly, putting down a box of pasta. “You said be myself in here, and I—”

“No, no, no.” Jack pulled her into a tight embrace. “It’s just I can’t believe you… It’s been so long since…” But he couldn’t finish what he was saying and buried his face in her hair. “Thank you.”

She put her arms around him. “You’re welcome.”

He pulled back and stroked the hair off her forehead, the tug of grief he’d felt earlier vanishing into a feeling of wonder at her gesture. He wanted to kiss her, to find some way to tell her how much she meant to him when the doorbell rang.

Jack glanced over his shoulder. Two tiny faces were pressed against the glass by the front door. His stomach bottomed out. “Shit. It’s Brady and the girls.”

“What are they doing here?”

“They sometimes come over unexpectedly. Shit!” The bell rang again. “Hide the cat, okay? I’ll think of something.”

He went to the door, opening it to Allegra and Hope yelling, “Surprise!”

Brady nudged them inside, one hand grasping a bag full of food while the other held his Wii console and games. “It’s not a surprise when we’ve been ringing the doorbell for a half hour. What the hell took you so long?”

“Language, Brady,” Sam said as she came up behind him. The girls ran down the hall and her gaze followed them. Her mouth dropped open slightly in surprise. “Oh. We didn’t know you had…company.”

Jack started to panic, his mind going blank, but then Lilly appeared next to him, perfectly at ease. “Hey, Brady. What a weird coincidence.”

Jack’s brother stepped into the foyer, his brow pressed low. “It sure is…weird.”

Lilly laughed. “I know! I was going for a run—it turns out I don’t live far from here—and I passed by Jack when he was bringing groceries in from his car. I offered to help carry them and then we started talking about this awful case I’ve got at work. He had such helpful advice, I decided to make him lunch.”

She was so convincing, her tone so cheerful, that Jack almost found himself believing her too.

“Well, then,” Brady said, eyeing Jack. “I guess we didn’t need to bring lunch over after all, since you’ve finally gotten some food for yourself.”

Before Jack could answer, Allegra came to Lilly’s side.

“You’re pretty,” she announced. “I’m Allegra and that’s my sister, Hope. What’s your name?”

“I’m Lilly. My brother Nick is a friend of your dad’s.”

Allegra tilted her head in consideration. “Do you know how to play Just Dance? Daddy brought ours from home.”

“I haven’t played it before, but I’d be happy to try after lunch.”

She cheered, grabbed Lilly’s hand and towed her back toward the kitchen. Samantha followed, and Brady raised his eyebrows at Jack as they brought up the rear.

“She really needed help with this case,” he insisted.

Brady finally shrugged. “All right. Cool. Nick said she was a great cook. Let’s eat.”

Jack closed the door and exhaled quietly, thankful they’d all bought the lie. In the kitchen, the girls were poking through the boxes and jars on the island. Anxiety lurched through him as he scanned it for the contract he’d never put away. Lilly caught his eye and then glanced purposefully at a drawer. She must have slipped it in there when she’d unpacked all the food.

He held her gaze for a moment longer, hoping she could see how grateful he was, but then something unexpected flashed on her face—a brief flicker of pain. He didn’t know what to make of it, but she quickly pasted on a smile and turned to Samantha, launching into small talk as they prepared lunch together.

The afternoon passed in a crescendo of conversations, food and laughter. The meal Lilly cooked was delicious, and as she played with the girls, fitting in so easily among his family, Jack sat back in amazement. She danced and talked with a confidence so unlike the wounded, timid woman he’d met months ago, and he loved the way she seemed to shine. It made him hate himself for what they were doing, because as certain as he was that this would never work out in the long run, he didn’t think he could let her go.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lilly got to work late on Monday morning and rushed past reception, hoping no one would notice her, which wasn’t likely.

No one did. Which was odd.

The office was bizarrely silent. Even the admins were absent from the kitchen and perched dutifully at their desks. Lilly rounded the corner and found Cassie pacing outside the conference room. Gabe and Forrester were inside, Charles Mahoney seated across from them. There seemed to be some kind of silent standoff happening, a staring contest that had probably started when Forrester and Mahoney were in law school and never stopped.

“It’s almost nine,” Cassie hissed as she pulled Lilly to the side. “Where have you been?”

“I overslept.”

She left it at that, not wanting to explain that her brain wouldn’t shut off when she’d gotten home from Jack’s the night before. Or the fact that she’d woken up disoriented, the sun too bright for the time she’d thought it was, Rumbles’s paws on her chest as he stared down at her, waiting for food. Realizing she’d overslept, she’d jumped out of bed, unable to shake the nightmare that blared in her mind.

It was different than the usual fare her subconscious chose to torment her with, and more insidious than any before it had been.

“What’s Mahoney doing here?” Lilly asked.

“He was here at eight thirty. Without an appointment.”

“Why?”

“No idea, but I’d kill to read lips right now.”

They both peered into the conference room as Mahoney slid a stack of papers across the table. Forrester glanced at it, then shoved them back abruptly and stood. Gabe followed suit, but Mahoney took his time, leisurely gathering his things.

He pushed the door open and sauntered into the hall. “My offer stands for the next forty-eight hours. After that, we won’t play nice. My clients mean business.”

Gabe snorted. “The best way to enter their kind of business is to be made into it.”

Mahoney looked amused. “You’ve groomed this one well, my friend. Is your whole team equally as clever?”

Forrester’s gaze darted to Lilly and Cassie. “Some more than others.”

“Well, just make sure you’ve taught them how it feels to lose a fight.”

“I’ve never had to before. Why should I start now?”

“We’ll see.” Mahoney strode down the hall. “Forty-eight hours, old friend. And then it’s war.” He turned the corner, and Forrester’s knifelike glare settled on Lilly and Cassie.

“Would you two please join me and Mr. Hartley? Now?”

Cassie gripped Lilly’s elbow when he turned on his heel. “We’re dead.”

“Please don’t say that.”

Inside the conference room, Gabe had returned to his seat. He was slunk down low, eyes closed, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. Cassie reached for the papers Mahoney left behind and flipped through them.

“It’s a settlement agreement.”

“Thank you for stating the obvious, Ms. Allbright. I’m glad your contracts class at least prepared you for something.” Forrester braced his hands on the table. “What I’d like to know is why Mahoney marched into
my
house, threatened
my
client, and I have nothing to throw back at him?”

His tirade stopped people in the hallway outside the conference room in their tracks. Cassie dropped the papers back onto the table and wilted into a chair.

Gabe’s hand dropped from his face. “We’ve gone through every piece of documentation. Every line of testimony. We don’t have anything.”

Lilly paged through the abandoned agreement. The conditions were that Simon admit he stole the formula and close down his lab. In return, the Giordanos would drop the suit. Accepting this would destroy everything he’d worked for.

She looked up to find Forrester’s cold glare centered entirely on her.

“Then go find me something,” he snapped and stormed out. Lilly’s face burned.

Gabe sighed. “Ignore him, hon. He just doesn’t like being shown up like that. This isn’t about you. You’re doing great.”

She shook her head, her lips pinched tight. This was the first case Forrester had put her on. Her first chance to show her mettle. If she didn’t produce something, it might be her last.

“I’ll go back through the files,” she said, her voice wavering, her coat almost slipping from her hands as she found her way to the door. It was difficult, with the way her eyes had gone blurry. “There’s got to be something we missed.”

She headed straight for the file room and wrenched the Giordano boxes from a shelf. After placing them on a table, she pulled out a binder full of files and tried to ignore the way her throat felt like it was closing up. It wasn’t just because of the way Forrester had spoken to her, though. Her mind remained haunted by the change in her nightmares.

Last night, it wasn’t Damien who turned away from her in her dreams. It was Jack.

It was only a dream. A figment of her imagination, her fears from the past morphed and brought into the present.

Pushing the binder she was looking through aside, she took out the next one. Then the one after that. All the depositions read exactly the same as the last seven times she’d looked at them, and none of them showed a single chink in the Giordano armor.

Frustrated, she put the boxes away and went to her desk. She booted up her computer and stared blankly at the screen as yesterday’s events flashed through her mind. Jack had taken her home after Brady and his family left. They’d never made it back to the playroom, and Lilly missed reconnecting, missed being “Sir” and “little girl” again after hours playing the part of platonic friends.

There’d been no option but to put up a front with Brady, coming up with that lie and saving Jack from a situation he obviously didn’t know how to handle. Still, it hurt to have to pretend—to act like there was nothing between them. It reminded her too much of Damien.

Lilly shook the thought away. The two were incomparable.

Determined to focus, she loaded the Giordano database and scanned the columns, avoiding Simon’s incriminating entry and onto the data that followed. She tapped her finger on the mouse, once again wondering what “MOD_dt”, and the numbers listed under it meant. It irked her not to know, but it was an insignificant detail and they were out of time.

She put her head in her hands. Forrester believed in her, and she’d promised she wouldn’t let him down. So much for that. There was no way she had the skills to investigate everything on a case as big as this. After all, she was the one who’d never done her research at Northwestern, never bothering to look into a single thing about BDSM.

Lilly believed Simon was telling the truth. If only she believed in herself half as much.

Hoping to find some shred of proof, she went back to work. She hadn’t moved hours later when Gabe and Cassie found her.

“You’re still at it?” Cassie asked. “It’s dark already.”

Lilly sat up, shocked that the sky agreed with her. “I guess I lost track of time.”

“Have you eaten?” Gabe asked.

“Not since breakfast.”

“You’re done.” He picked up her coat and held it out for her. “Nick’s meeting us for dinner and you’re coming. Shut down the computer.”

She complied, too exhausted to argue. Outside, the pavement was wet, the air clean from a storm that must have passed through during the day.

Cassie linked an arm with Lilly’s as they walked down the street. “I guess it rained.”

“A brilliant deduction,” Gabe drawled, imitating Forrester. “I’m so glad you’re my associate.”

“Shut up. I like spring. The blossoming trees, green grass. Not that we see any of it cooped up in the office all day.”

“True. They should put a disclaimer on all JDs,” Gabe said. “‘Doctor of Jurisprudence, which is conferred with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto. You will never see the light of day again.’”

Lilly laughed wearily. “Someone remind me why I wanted to be a lawyer?”

Cassie squeezed her close. “Because you’re passionate about making sure the bad guys get what they deserve.”

The reminder made Lilly stand a little taller.

Inside a bistro on the corner, Nick was seated and waved at them through the window. He gave Lilly a kiss on the cheek and she sat down next to him.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said as Gabe flagged the waitress and ordered a bottle of wine. “I need to make sure you know about Friday night.”

Lilly propped her head up with one hand. “What about it?”

“It’s Jack’s birthday.”

The announcement was like a club to her head.

“Oh?” she asked, feigning disinterest. “Are we having a cake at the pub or something?”

“No, Patrick is having a big party at his place. It’s black tie. I know it’s last minute, but you must have something to wear, right? A dress from one of your college formals?”

She knew Nick was talking, but she couldn’t hear him over the thoughts stampeding through her mind. Jack’s birthday was in four days, and an event worthy of an evening gown was being held in honor of it.

Wasn’t that a detail worth sharing with her?

“Lilly?”

She jerked her head up. “I’m sure I have something.”

“Well, I don’t.” Cassie crossed her arms and frowned. “There’d better be some single guys at this party if I’m going to have to buy a dress for it.”

“Patrick will be there,” Nick said with a wink.

“I said guys. Not pigs.”

Lilly forced a smile. The waitress set down a glass of wine in front of her, and she stared at it for a second before downing half of it in one gulp.

Nick eyed her strangely. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she insisted on a swallow. The little tidbit of information he’d given her was the big fat cherry on top of today’s ice cream sundae of a shittastic day. “I’m great.”

Two hours and three glasses later, her stomach not full enough to balance it out, Lilly was home and beyond buzzed, torn between feeling sorry for herself and being pissed as hell.

“Screw this,” she muttered, dialing Jack’s number. He owed her an explanation. The second he said hello, she dug right in. “Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday?”

Her accusation hung in the silence that followed. It was rude, but it was a weekday and she wasn’t on her knees in his playroom. Besides, he’d hurt her. She had some ground to stand on.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal,” he finally answered. His voice had an edge to it too.

“Really? It seems like a big deal from the black-tie party Patrick is having, which, by the way, I found out about from Nick.”

“I didn’t ask for the party,” Jack snapped, then took a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry you found out that way. I meant to tell you, but things were a little overwhelming this weekend and I forgot.”

His tone was softer now, repentant. “You were so wrapped up in me you forgot to tell me about a party in your honor?”

“I guess I did.”

It was almost comical. The knot in her stomach deflated, replaced with a need to smooth things over.

“I suppose seeing you in a tux will make up for it. I’m looking forward to that.”

“I wish I felt the same.”

“You’d rather be naked with me in the playroom.”

He laughed, but it was a tight sound. “Listen, Lilly. You did a great job yesterday of making sure Brady and the girls didn’t suspect anything. A lot of my peers will be at this party, so I’ll need you to act the same way there. Can you do that for me?”

Her heart sank. It shouldn’t have, though. He’d been clear about what he wanted. No one in his life suspected what he did behind closed doors, and the same was true for her. Still, would it be so horrible if people knew they were together, and not what they did when they were alone?

“This is the way it has to be if you want to keep doing this.”

She pinched her eyes shut and shook Damien’s words out of her head. Her ex had entirely different motives when he’d said that, the distance he’d put between them a reminder of how little she meant to him. Jack wasn’t rejecting her. He was simply trying to keep his private life private.

“Sure. I can do that,” she said. “No problem.”

“Thank you.” He lowered his voice. “You know, I may not be looking forward to dressing up myself, but I am excited to see what you’ll be wearing.” His tone dropped another notch. “And taking it off you, after.”

Her body reacted to his words, her muscles going slack, but her heart…

God
, her heart.

“Me too. Good night, Sir.” She needed to say that, needed a small verification that this thing between them was real.

And then he gave it to her in words that made her whole again.

“Good night, little girl.”

Lilly’s phone rang on Friday night as she was fastening her earring. She threw it on speaker.

“I’m here,” Cassie said.

“Be down in a second.”

She reached into her closet for her purse and wrap, nearly toppling over in the four-inch heels she hardly ever wore. Rumbles stared from his spot on the bed, tail flicking.

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” she told him, scratching his head. “And then we’ll go to Jack’s.”

Outside, a taxi idled by the curb. The bottom of Lilly’s dress caught underneath her heel, and she reached down to unhook it, feeling like a foal on new legs. She hadn’t worn this dress since Northwestern’s Barrister’s Ball. It was an emerald silk crepe that picked up the green in her eyes, a wash of color that draped from her collarbone to her ankles.

Cassie cooed when Lilly climbed into the backseat next to her. “Your dress is beautiful,” she said as the driver pulled away from the curb.

“So is yours.”

“Thanks. It cost almost as much as this contraption I’m wearing under it to keep everything sucked in.” Cassie dug her thumbs in by the underarms of her sequin-covered cocktail dress and hiked it up. “I’d better not actually meet someone tonight, or I’m going to be pulling a Bridget Jones in some guy’s bathroom.”

Lilly thought about where she’d be when the party was over and looked out the window at the passing scenery, smiling to herself.

She’d been so upset before she and Jack talked, not sure where they stood, but as today got closer, Lilly remembered she was the person he wanted to go home with. She’d taken a lot more time with her appearance than usual, breaking out her curling iron and shading her eyes in a smoky charcoal. She wanted to be his birthday gift, to be perfect for him, even if it meant keeping up the farce he seemed to need. Then they’d retreat to his playroom, and she’d drop to her knees and take him in her mouth until his hands were knotted in her hair and he was groaning out his release.