“Why are you here?” she asked, not responding to his question about her sleeping habits.
“Enough with the pleasantries?” he teased.
Blushing, she looked down, picking up her pen. “Mike, we…”
“I’m being sued.”
She stopped, looking over at him. “Sued? By who?” she asked, her stomach tightening with dread. As a corporate leader, Mike had plenty of legal issues. But the way he’d made that statement told her that this was somehow in a different realm of legal problems.
“A woman.”
That was different. “Most of the work we do for you is corporate in nature. I’m guessing this is personal?”
“Yes.” He pulled some papers out of the pocket of his leather binder, sliding them across the table towards her. “Sylvia Litener.”
Andrea looked down, her fingers shaking as she pulled the document closer. It was a court filing, alleging that Michael Mancuso was…!
“She’s suing you for paternity?”
Mike watched, his gut aching as she stared at him as if he’d just stabbed her. “That is what she is alleging.”
Her fingers trembled and he wanted to pull her into his arms. He wanted to assure her that he had no idea who this Sylvia person was and he couldn’t have gotten her pregnant, never even been intimate with her. But after months without Andrea, he knew that he couldn’t just tell her something. He knew that Andrea needed figure things out in her head. She had to ‘get it’. She had to prove this truth to herself.
After she’d run out of his penthouse that night after he’d proposed, Mike had been furious with her. She hadn’t just rejected his marriage proposal. She’d run away from him, as if he had some horrible, contagious disease. She hadn’t answered his phone calls, refused to meet with him, and hadn’t even taken a moment to explain why she’d run. For several weeks, he’d tried to push her out of his mind, telling himself that, if she didn’t want him, he’d just move on and find another woman.
But he realized that banishing Andrea from his life wasn’t as easy as the other women he’d been with in the past. She’d gotten under his skin. Her crazy hours and passion for her job were oddly invigorating. Her sharp mind and tempting body had ruined him for other women. No other female would do.
So he’d taken a different tactic. He’d figured her out. Mike hadn’t liked going behind her back, but he needed answers. The private investigator had been the only way he could figure out what he’d done wrong. And one thing that had come up in his private investigator’s report was her father’s dalliances, adulterous affairs and multiple marriages. That told him a lot and explained some of her comments while they’d been together, especially her avoidance of marriage or any other kind of commitment. Simply put, Andrea didn’t trust men. She didn’t trust marriage. She didn’t believe that a man would stay with a woman and love her forever.
A day after that discovery, he’d been hit by this ridiculous lawsuit. Not only had the woman filed on him in court, but her lawyer had arranged for television interviews where she told everyone who would listen about how they’d had a wonderful weekend with him but now he wouldn’t even return her calls.
He watched as Andrea read through the court filings. When she looked back up at him, he could see the betrayal in her eyes. Once again, his gut tightened, but he knew what he had to do.
“So, you’re going to be a father,” she replied, forcing her lips into a smile. Her expression made him ache but he was determined to stay the course so she’d understand both herself and him better. He’d watched her beautiful features shift as she’d read the accusations and knew what was going through her brilliant mind. She was hurt. Deeply hurt.
But he had a plan. Andrea was passionate about the truth and about the law. When she took on a client, she worked until she achieved a fair outcome. The woman was tenacious, creative about using the law for her clients, and an absolute pit-bull in the courtroom. Thankfully, Andrea rarely had to appear in court. She was just that good! She worked her magic so that her contracts came out on top of the competition. She had an absolutely brilliant legal mind.
Once she started to defend him, she’d defend him with everything she had. And she’d learn more about him this way. He’d prove his feelings for her by letting her prove him innocent of this lawsuit.
“She’s claiming that you are the father of her child, but a simple test will determine that.”
“Ms. Litener won’t have an amniocentesis, claiming that it will harm her baby. And she’s doing interviews with anyone that will listen. As a public figure, there are a lot of people who will listen to her accusations, take them at face value. That’s hurting my business. So, I can’t wait for a DNA test until after the baby is born. I need to prove her wrong now. I need you to break her story.”
She pressed her lips together, looking down at the papers. Damn, she was beautiful! Normally, Andrea was a powerhouse, always on the move, always thinking. He knew that she woke up in the morning thinking about her cases. She went to sleep thinking about the issues. She dreamed about them. There had been a couple of nights she’d woken him up by talking in her sleep, yelling at a judge or calling out a question to a witness.
He’d thought it charming when she’d done that and had kissed her back to sleep. Now he hated going to bed because she wasn’t in his arms. He hated eating dinners because she wasn’t there to talk with him, discuss her day. Before Andrea, everything in his life had been good. He’d socialized and ran his business. But he’d gone through life not knowing what he was missing.
With Andrea, the sun was warmer, colors brighter, and his life fuller, more complete. Without her, life was grey. Boring. Desolate.
He wanted her. Not just back in his life, but he wanted her to take this case. He wanted her to defend him. He knew that he had enough power to make her take the case. A simple phone call to her boss would be sufficient. But he wanted her to take the case on her own volition.
For a long moment, she frowned at the court documents and he could see the debate raging within her. He knew what she was thinking as she tapped her finger against the table. She was counting out the pros and cons, listing the good and bad aspects of this case. Not for her career. No, there was never a personal consideration when she took a case. There was only right and wrong, and how she could best serve her client. Even if that meant that her client needed to take a hit, she’d work her way through the issues and try to come up with the best outcome.
When her finger stopped tapping, he held his breath. Waiting. He knew the exact moment he’d won her support because she straightened her spine, determination on her beautiful features.
“Tell me everything,” she announced. Mike breathed a sigh of relief. She was going to help him! Damn, that felt good.
When Mike walked out of her office an hour later, he knew that things were better.
Chapter 3
“Who the hell do you think you are?!” a furious voice demanded.
Andrea swung around, startled by the outburst, but she should have anticipated it. She should have been prepared. The managing partner, her boss’s boss, stood in her office doorway in his ten thousand dollar suit and five thousand dollar, custom made shoes.
Bracing herself, she took a deep breath, knowing that he deserved an explanation. “Good afternoon to you, Mark. It’s always a pleasure.”
Mark stepped into her office, slamming the door behind him. “Don’t you dare give me that! Explain!”
She put the folders on the table. “Sir, I understand your anger and, in most situations, it would be justified.”
Shockingly, his face went from red to crimson. “Are you saying that my anger is not justified when you steal the biggest client in this town?”
Good point, she thought. “Well, no. Actually.”
His arms crossed over his chest and he glared at her as if she were a bug. “Interesting! Please explain!”
“Sir, this is a case about a woman filing a lawsuit claiming paterni
ty of her unborn child. How would it look to the rest of the world if Mr. Mancuso was represented by an extremely wealthy man?” She hesitated with her next comment, sure that it wasn’t going to go over well. But it needed to be said. “A man on his third marriage.”
He’d hesitated after her first comment, but her second was received with the fury that she’d expected. “How the hell is my marriage situation relevant to the issue of you stealing an important client?”
Andrea sighed, wishing that she didn’t have to explain. Why were men so obtuse about the way they treat women?
“Sir, if you walk into a courtroom with Mr. Mancuso and accuse a pregnant woman of lying about her pregnancy, it’s going to look like one wealthy frat boy defending another wealthy frat boy.”
Uh oh, her boss looked apoplectic! How old did a man start to have a real threat of a heart attack? “Are you accusing me of…?”
“No!” she interrupted before he could become more furious with her. “Not at all, sir. You’ve worked extremely hard for everything you’ve achieved in your life. Everyone in this office is here because of the long hours you have worked over the past several decades. So no! I am definitely not telling you anything. I’m simply pointing out the optics involved in a case such as this.”
Her words seemed to mollify him, but he glared at her for another long moment, probably just to show her who held the power in this battle of wills, but then he nodded. “Okay, fine! You’re right on that point. But you should have referred the man to me immediately. I should have been the one to assign the case.”
“You’re absolutely right, sir. Unfortunately, I walked in this morning, fully prepared to interview witnesses in the Hembra case. I was tossing out questions to Jeff and Mary, giving them assignments as I walked. It was only Mary’s superior knowledge of the clients in this office that caused her to forewarn me of who was in my office, waiting on me. I promise you that I didn’t solicit this case. When I walked into my office, I simply shifted gears away from the Hembra issues and jumped on Mr. Mancuso’s problem, just as you would expect me to do. Sir.” She took a deep breath, correctly gauging Mark’s newfound understanding. “As it is, I have been researching the case all afternoon and I have a strategy. I’m more than willing to sit down with you to discuss it if you’d like to review my thoughts.”
Mark sighed, pacing around her office as he rubbed his face. “Fine! You’re right. You did exactly as you should have and it’s a credit to your experience that Mr. Mancuso was taken care of quickly.” He swung around, pointing a finger at him. “But I want daily updates. You will treat this case as if your job and your reputation depend on it. Do you understand?”
Andrea stiffened, not liking the threat. Not one little bit. “Fine.” She narrowed her eyes right back at him, refusing to back down to his threat or his bully tactics. “My job and my reputation will rest on this case. As long as we both agree!”
Mark pulled back, surprised by her vehemence. Andrea knew that most of the other lawyers in this office considered Mark to be a bully. He was the managing partner and threw his title and power around like a toy. He liked his power and he liked everyone in Denver kowtowing to him. It was only the people like Mike Mancuso or Reid Cole who were higher up on the food chain that Mark didn’t push around. Which was why it was such a coup for Mark to be Mike’s personal lawyer.
But Andrea didn’t like bullies! When attacked, they tended to come out snarling like rabid dogs and were dangerous. Fortunately, she was a damn good lawyer and wasn’t intimidated.
Okay, so she was intimidated. But there was no way she was going to show it!
“I want daily updates!” he reiterated. With that, he stalked out of her office, slamming the door closed behind him.
When she was alone, with only the echo of the slam as her companion, she took a deep breath, pushing the hair out of her eyes. That’s when Mary and Jeff stepped into her office, both wide-eyed.
“Are you fired?” Jeff immediately asked. Mary nodded worriedly.
Andrea glanced out through her doorway, noticing that several of the other lawyers and office staff further down the hallway were staring, some of them almost salivating at the prospect of getting her office. “No,” she sighed and walked behind her team, closing the door. But she did so carefully. No slamming for her. Men could get away with that kind of behavior and they thought it made them appear tough. If a woman slammed someone’s door, the office gossips and management would whisper about how she had a temper and couldn’t control her emotions under stressful conditions. Not fair, but that was the reality of the gender inequality in the work place.
“Okay, so here’s what we have to do.” She turned to her team and started listing ideas. “More than anything, I need background on this Sylvia Litener woman. We need to find all of her previous boyfriends and interview them if possible, where she works, where she lives, what she does in her spare time. Most importantly, we need to find out who the father of her baby is.” Even Andrea was startled by that command.
Find the father of the baby? Did that mean…? Yes, Andrea acknowledged that she didn’t believe that Mike was the father of this woman’s child. How did she know? Why was she so sure?
Because she knew Mike. She also knew that he was careful about protection. There was never a time that he hadn’t used a condom while they were together. He was incredibly careful and she’d appreciated that level of confidence. Of course, accidents happened, but Andrea’s gut told her that Ms. Litener’s situation was not an accident.
She continued listing instructions, writing down things she needed to research. Mary and Jeff offered additional ideas. “Anything else?” she asked of her team. The three of them worked extremely well together and Andrea appreciated their dedication, although neither of them worked the long hours she put in, nor would she ever ask them to.
Mary and Jeff nodded, both scribbling frantically in their notebooks. “We’ll get Jessy working on some of these issues,” Mary announced, referring to the firm’s investigator.
“That’s a good idea.” Andrea tapped her chin with her pencil, trying to think of other issues to deal with. The three of them sat in Andrea’s office for the next hour, brainstorming and coming up with a plan.
Later that afternoon, a box arrived. “What’s this?” Mary asked, hefting a beautiful, large box through Andrea’s door, placing it on the small conference room table.
Andrea looked up from the contract she’d been revising, blinking to try and focus on the box versus the small words on her computer screen. “Um…I have no idea. I haven’t ordered anything recently.”
“Well, the box is definitely addressed to you. And it’s from that cute boutique over on Market Street.” She sighed, her hand smoothing over the elegant box with longing. “I swear, my nose is permanently imprinted on the window of that store. Every time I walk by, there’s a new gorgeous dress in the window.”
Andrea had been about to focus back on the contract, but Mary’s words brought her attention right back to the box. “That new one? With the weird logo?”
Mary glanced at the box, nodding. “That’s the one.” She started walking towards the door again. “I’ve never been in there. I don’t think I make enough money to afford the oxygen in that place,” she said, laughing at her joke as she walked back to her desk.
Warily, Andrea lifted her hands away from her keyboard, not sure she would craft the correct text while her heart raced. The box, with a shiny, black exterior, sat mocking her from the table. Because as sure as she knew that her coffee cup was empty, Andrea knew that the box was from Mike. He’d sent her something outrageously expensive, although she had no clue why.
Why? Because he could! While they’d been together before, he’d tried to buy her expensive trinkets but she’d refused to accept them, telling him that she could afford to buy anything she wanted. That wasn’t true, completely. There were lots of things she wanted, like the beautiful pair of red shoes she’d seen last week. But she hadn’t purcha
sed them because she couldn’t afford them. Yet! Maybe never, but Andrea was an optimist.
It had been a serious issue between them because Mike was one of those horribly wealthy men who spent money on things that others had to save up a lifetime to even consider purchasing. He had a private jet with a pilot on standby, so if he wanted to fly down to the Caribbean for the weekend, he’d just go. And he’d stay on his private island where he had a live-in housekeeper who was more than happy to cook him anything he wanted.
Mike lived in a different world, lived a different life, and she hadn’t wanted to get used to anything that she might miss when they broke up. And that had been a good thing, in retrospect. Because they’d parted ways after his abrupt and completely unexpected proposal. She’d thought they’d have a few more months before parting ways, but his stupid proposal had ruined everything!
Now she stood up, staring at the beautiful design on the black box. “What have you done?” she whispered to her empty office. Thankfully, no one answered and she walked over to the box, too curious to ignore it.
Lifting the tag, she read the words. Sure enough, Mike’s bold scrawl explained everything. Sort of. “I need you at an event tonight. This dress is just a suggestion. If you have something more appropriate, wear that. I’ll pick you up at six.”
“Irritating man!” she grumbled, dropping the note onto the table. Unfortunately, that curiosity wouldn’t allow her to ignore the contents of the box. Lifting the lid, she peeked inside and… “Wow!” she whispered, reverently laying the top of the box aside as she lifted the beautiful dress out of the box. Pushing the tissue aside, she lifted the dress up. It was red with embroidery covering the bodice. A full skirt danced in the air as she surveyed the incredible craftsmanship of the dress. It was like holding a piece of art!
“Oh my!” Mary said as she stepped through the door again. “Are you going to wear that?”
Andrea shook her head although her eyes never left the beautiful dress. “No. But it’s amazing, isn’t it?”
Craving Him (Sinful Nights Book 6) Page 2
