Abel watched as Vivian clutched the arms of her chair and gritted her teeth. It wasn’t often he’d gotten to see someone put Angie in her place. He was damn sure gonna enjoy it, too.
“These people we’re dealing with, up to and including our client are dangerous, Angie,” Vivian reminded her co-counsel. “Dangerous in a way that people do not cross. I, for one, would appreciate going back to Atlanta unscathed. So, if you could, please pull your head from Mr. Turner’s ass and stay the hell on point here, would you?”
Abel’s lips twitched at Vivian’s direct assessment of the situation going on around her. Truthfully, he liked the pretty brunette attorney from Atlanta. She was straightforward and forthright in her words and mannerisms, and it was clear she had an obvious dislike for her co-counsel. Clearing his throat, he was interrupted from replying as his assistant’s irritated voice echoed through the room.
“While I completely agree with you, Miss Vivian,” Maggie drawled, slowly cutting her gaze to where Angela fumed silently, “I think I need to make something real clear to your colleague. Darlin’,” she continued, narrowing her own gaze on Angela’s face, “Do I look like the kind of woman that’s gonna fetch and serve for anybody? Especially you?” she asked, crossing one elegant leg over the other as she smoothed her Valentino skirt over her thighs. “I don’t hardly think so, sugar pie.” she continued with a negative shake of her head, not bothering to wait for a response. “You want coffee? It’s that way.” The redhead gestured toward the Keurig coffeemaker situated on the credenza against the wall. “I’m not your beck and call girl, honey. You’re much more suited to that role than I’ll ever be from what I hear.”
“Sing that truth from the mountaintops,” Vivian muttered under her breath with a terse nod of approval at Maggie. Looking over her shoulder worriedly at Abel’s office door, she grimaced. “Y’all do realized that Mr. Fuentes said he’d be here in less than half an hour, don’t you? He doesn’t strike me as a man that tolerates being told to wait, Angela! Act out your daytime drama on your own time,” she rebuked the other attorney harshly.
“Abel!” Angie balked in outrage, her jaw dropping as she looked to her former lover for help. “Are you going to let them talk to me like this?”
“Yes,” Abel, Vivian and Maggie replied instantly in complete harmony.
Angie turned her infuriated gaze on Margaret and Vivian. “This is ridiculous,” she seethed. “Abel, I demand to speak with you privately. Call off your guard dog!” the angry woman demanded imperiously, flapping a hand toward Maggie. “And Vivi, dear, you and I will address our business privately later. I think you’ve conveniently forgotten who is sitting first chair on this case,” she added with condescension dripping from her tone.
“First, only my friends call me Vivi, and you, my dear, are no friend of mine. You’re barely a tolerable colleague. And second, I suggest you address any complaints you have about my performance to our client. Unfortunately for you and me, Mr. Fuentes doesn’t trust you or your legal opinion as far as he could throw it. Unlike the partner you slept with to be awarded this case, he only cares about ascertaining qualified legal counsel,” Vivian snapped impatiently, her irate gaze skewering her co-worker.
“And, Angie, sweetie, if I was a dog like you just suggested, I’d have already gnawed through that scrawny, faux pearl wearin’ throat of yours,” Maggie added lightly, never missing a single beat. "And in case Abel hasn’t told you, I’m here at his request,” she declared, arching one eyebrow toward her boss.
Ignoring the other women in the room, Angie blinked slowly and turned, focusing all her attention on Abel. “Is that true, Abel? Why in the world would you feel that way, darlin’? ”
Abel jaw tightened as he stared at the woman that he’d almost made the mistake of marrying. Christ, she was a piece of work. Not for the first time, he wondered how he’d allowed himself to get sucked into her orbit six years ago. Why hadn’t his seen what a vapid, manipulative bitch she was? Had he really been that blinded by the sex? Had he really been that much of a horny bastard that he’d been willing to overlook all the serious flaws in her character? Sure, Angie had been a creative lover, but no lay was that good, was it?
At least now he knew it certainly hadn’t been love that he’d felt for her. It couldn’t be. Love didn’t die, but lust sure as hell could. And, the lust he’d felt for Angela had bitten the dust over two years ago when he had learned that his precious fiancé had reverted to her old slutty ways while she’d still had her claws sunk deeply into him and started fucking the entire male population of Paradise behind his back. He was ashamed of himself when he looked back on what he’d allowed to happen. He’d let this vacuous bitch lead him around by his dick and humiliate him for the entire last year of their relationship. She’d fucked more men than he wanted to remember while he’d been struggling to get his law practice up and running. Hell, he’d known she wasn’t lily white when he’d hooked up with her himself eight long years ago, but she’d sworn that she was a new woman and he was the only one for her and he’d agreed to put her past aside and concentrate on the woman she said she wanted to be.
He’d believed all her pretty lies.
Little did he know that she’d been screwing around on him on and off for the entire six years they’d been together. He’d played the part of clueless devoted fool to the fullest and he hated himself for it.
And now, the faithless bitch honestly thought she stood a chance with him again? She thought she could convince him to resurrect their poisonous relationship? He’d heard of being self-delusional, but this little fantasy she had cooked up in her mind was going to take the prize.
“Ms. Miller, I apologize in advance for what’s about to be said here. I know you have less than zero interest in my former unfortunate choice of women and my past relationship with your co-counsel, and I’d truly hoped we could keep this meeting professional, but your colleague keeps using our shared history in an attempt to ingratiate herself to me. Evidently, she’s deluded enough to believe that I’ll view our shared past through rose colored glasses. For the record, I won’t. I also believe that it’s time that I call a halt to those fantasies she appears to be harboring about a reconciliation between us,” Abel informed Vivian graciously before turning his attention to Angie. “As for you, you are aware of exactly why I’ve demanded Margaret sit with us during this alleged meeting, Angela. And I allege it’s a meeting because no actual business has actually been discussed as yet!” he bit out, his voice raising as he felt his irritation skyrocket.
“Amen to that,” Vivian agreed, her irate eyes shifting toward a seemingly oblivious Angie.
“At any rate, I’m going to play along with this farce for a moment and answer your question. The reason that I insisted Maggie be present, my dear, was that I wasn’t entirely certain that I would be able to keep from wrapping my very-capable-of-murder hands around your treacherous, deceitful neck,” Abel clipped coldly. “After your Oscar-worthy performances this week while we were in public, I believed that it would be in my best interest to have a third party present to keep me from committing a very bloody homicide,” he continued to bite out harshly. “Or, are you going to deny that you’ve been actively and eagerly implying all over Paradise County that you and I might just be on our way to a happy little reconciliation?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Abel,” Angie declared innocently as Maggie audibly snorted from her seat in front of Abel’s desk and Vivian rolled her expressive chocolate colored eyes toward the ceiling. “I’ve not said a single, solitary word to that effect to anyone.”
“You have got to be kidding?” Vivian laughed humorlessly as she pinned Angie to her chair with one look. “All I’ve heard about since we arrived here is how you aren’t leaving this hick town – her words, not mine - without gaining Abel’s forgiveness and regaining the oh-so-coveted spot beneath him in his bed!”
“Oh, honey,” Maggie laughed, leaning toward Viv. “That spot is currently
occupied with a capital OH-MY-My!! Little Miss High & Mighty just can’t face facts as they are, but then again, she always did have a small problem separating fact from fiction,” she explained to Vivian as Angie huffed and glared at the women. “That spot in dear Abel’s bed is filled. Or, at least it will be if he ever convinces Patience that he’s worth the risk to her heart.”
Tuning out the other two ladies in his office, Abel stared at his ex-girlfriend with dead eyes. “Angela, my own father called me this morning and threatened to disown me if I even contemplated for a moment taking you back. He didn’t just pull that idea out of thin air,” he snapped harshly, the muscle in his jaw flexing as he felt his irritation growing by the second. Christ, he had so many better things to do with his time than argue with a woman that was smart enough to know when she’d lost.
Of course, Angie never was one to accept defeat easily and she didn’t hesitate to reach out for Abel’s hand. “Abel, sweetie, Seth is an elderly man. If he happened to misconstrue the conversation we had at the café the other night…”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Mr. Seth is old! He’s not addled, you empty-headed Barbie doll,” Maggie growled through clenched teeth as she gripped her pen so hard it bent. “You’re actually gonna try to infer that Abel’s daddy isn’t in his right mind? Talk about desperate moves,” she muttered in disgust.
Ignoring Maggie’s outburst, Abel shook his head. “My father is sharp as a tack and fully cognizant of all the goings on in Paradise. Thankfully, he’s also well acquainted with your sneaky antics so he made sure to pay extra attention to every word you were saying. He knows exactly what he heard and what he saw. Add that to the fact that you were basically crawling all over me in the booth we shared night before last, and my father was there to witness it, and I think you’ll understand why he felt compelled to issue ultimatums. Half the town has watched your behavior, Angela. It was disgusting,” Abel spat, his jaw clenching as he remembered Angie shamelessly grinding her ass against his lap two nights ago.
Not that he could say he was completely innocent in the whole ordeal. He’d been voluntarily enduring Angela’s attention for the past couple of weeks, sharing a meal with her several times at the I Don’t Care Café under the pretenses of business dinners. He had thought he knew what he was doing. It had seemed like the perfect ploy he could use to capture Patience’s attention.
He’d gotten it, too. Just not in the way he’d hoped.
Since he’d noticed Patience watching them several times during the last week, he’d allowed the demons riding herd on his conscience to win and stupidly decided to allow Angela to continue acting like a lovesick fool that was hopped up on Ecstasy while she was with him. It had seemed like a sound plan at the time. He’d held the silent hope that Patience’s jealousy and temper would overwhelm her and she’d be forced to finally approach him – even if it was to give him hell.
He should have known better; Patience had never done anything he expected her to do in her entire life.
Besides that, it had been a purely dick move, precipitated by the fact that for the last couple of months he’d been watching her joke around and flirt with their town Sheriff’s older brother, Ice Monroe. Abel had known Ice for years – even considered him a friend of sorts – and he’d been well aware that the older man had a soft spot for Patience, often popping into the bar to visit her when he was on leave from the Army. Now that Ice was retired and settled in the area, he’d noted the other man dropping in more and more to ‘visit’ with Patience and her sisters at the café (and let the record reflect that the emphasis of Ice’s attention appeared to be solely with Patience). Abel was honest enough to admit he was jealous and more than a little envious of the easy relationship Ice shared with the woman he wanted in his life and in his bed. It didn’t matter that as Patience’s best gal pal, Maggie had assured him over and over again that there were no deeper feelings for Ice on Patience’s part. As a man, he knew carnal interest when he saw it. And Ice was more than a little taken with his Patience. So, like an idiot, he’d decided to try and make a point to Patience by using Angie.
His plan had backfired. Massively. In fact, it might well be the single biggest fuck-up he’d made with Patience to date… and that was saying a hell of a lot since he had an annoyingly regular habit of fucking up huge where it came to the tiny tornado that was Patience McKinnon.
Oh, points for him, he’d definitely gotten her attention alright, but instead of the rage he’d hoped he would see reflected in her big deep blue eyes, he’d instead seen revulsion and disgust. For Angela, absolutely. But most of all, for him. With one look, she’d made him feel as small as he was acting. Patience’s eyes were the windows to her soul, and she’d slain him when he’d seen the intense repulsion shining in their depths. When he’d seen her rake him with a scathing glare that had threatened to singe his testicles and turn them to ash from twenty feet away, he’d known beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt that he’d successfully made a bad situation exponentially worse. And as an extra kick in the balls, he’d spent the remainder of the night battling nausea not only because of Patience’s reaction, but also because Angie’s repugnant perfume had clung to him the rest of the evening.
Much like her personality, he’d found Angie’s fragrance much too cloying to be comfortably tolerable. These days he found himself craving the natural vanilla based scent that Patience wore. Every time he got near her he smelled sugar cookies and like the big, bad wolf he knew he was, he fantasized about taking a nice, long bite out of her.
Staring at Angela as she continued to eye him, he felt his body grow hot. How the hell had he ever mistaken love for lust with this woman?
How many times had his own daddy given him the same lecture and why the hell hadn’t he paid better attention to his words of wisdom? He could still hear Seth Turner’s firm voice in his mind saying, “Boy, you don’t need to be thirsty to drink or hungry to eat. You don’t need to be in love to fuck either, but you damn well better be able to tell the difference! If you can’t, it’s a sure bet you’ll find yourself saddled with a filly you don’t wanna spend eternity ridin’.”
Well, truer wisdom had never been shared. Seth Turner had been absolutely right. He’d mistaken love for lust and now, that nag he’d once enjoyed riding just wouldn’t give up the race.
The funny thing was that he’d gone from one extreme to the other.
When they’d been together before, Angie had gone out of her way to put on a convincing act as the dutiful and loyal woman in love … to show him that she’d changed. It had been an act. Unlike Patience, Angie was completely artificial. From her knockoff designer shoes to her saline breast implants all the way up to her Botox injected lips which, incidentally made her look like a duck, she was a total fraud. And that was just her body.
Her personality was so much worse.
And he’d spent six fucking years with the bitch. Then, he’d spent and additional two years getting over the humiliation of what she’d done to him.
But, he could finally say that enough was enough. His heart was completely cured of the disease that was Angela Hastings.
Fucking finally.
Although, if he wasn’t careful, the cure he’d found WOULD kill him. Patience wasn’t exactly known for her sweet demeanor.
“Abel,” Angie said huskily, ignoring Maggie’s low chuckle as she stood and began to sidle around the desk toward Abel, “I was there the past week, honey, just like you were. You wanted me, too. When I was squirming away from that spider I saw in our booth, I could feel just exactly how much you still wanted me.”
“Oh, hon-ey,” Maggie laughed, propping her chin on her hand as she cast the obnoxious woman a pitying look, “You really are crazy as a loon, aren’t you?” she asked on a sigh before turning her attention to Abel and grinning. “I was in that booth with you two at that particular pivotal moment, and I’ve gotta tell you that if the good attorney here was sporting some wood beneath the table, it wasn’t for you.” Leaning
forward in her seat, she whispered conspiratorially, “It would never be for you. Not anymore, at least. And thank the good Lord for that!”
“I think I know good and well exactly what a man’s interest feels like! Especially Abel’s,” Angie snapped snidely over her shoulder at an amused Margaret.
“Enlightening as all of this is, exactly how is any of this relevant to Diego Fuentes’ case?” Vivian asked even though she knew she was talking to herself. Glancing at her phone as she reviewed her most recent text, she scowled. “As of five minutes ago, our client’s just arrived in Paradise and has messaged me that the local motel has no vacancies. Angela, didn’t you make prior arrangements for Mr. Fuentes? You know, the guy who’s also known as one of the top ten scariest men on Earth?” she asked, exasperated by the lack of professionalism the other woman was showing.
“No worries, Vivian. I’m getting bored here anyway, sugar,” Maggie declared with a yawn as she stood from her chair. “I’ll just go and get started on finding y’alls star witness a place to hole up for his foreseeable future in Paradise. It might not be up to the five star accommodations that Diego Fuentes’ drug czar standards demand, but I’ll get the job done,” she added with a wink at Vivian.
Ready, Willing and Abel (Passion in Paradise: The Men of the McKinnon Sisters Book 3) Page 13
