A deep blush rose in her face and she shifted on the wooden bench seat. ‘I was awful to you the other night. I’m so ashamed…’
‘Don’t be. The Peytons don’t own me Laila, but they did make me who I am.’
To his surprise, Laila gave an adamant shake of her head. ‘No, you made you who you are. You were a little boy Evan, stealing food because you were hungry, doing what you needed to — to survive.’
She pulled a hand away and laid it over her chest. ‘That strength, that risk taking. It was already in you.’
Evan’s throat began to close over, and he swallowed hard. This woman talked so much sense, and she understood him more than anyone. Now she knew the truth, he needn’t worry about hiding it anymore. She’d had her own bad start, but she’d been open about it, shared it with him, whereas he’d never been emotionally mature enough to talk about it.
Well from now on, that was going to change.
Their eyes locked, and all of sudden the air became charged with the kind of sexual tension that always happened when they were together.
He looked down at her bare hands again. ‘You’re not wearing your rings today.’
‘No.’ Laila reached up, took hold of his sunglasses and lifted them off his face. She wasn’t sure how easily Evan Barclay spooked when it came to discussing these sorts of things, but when she said what she needed to say, she wanted to look in his eyes.
‘After our fight the other night, I realised I was wasn’t grieving for Will anymore, but mourning the loss of another man.’
She watched his beautiful mouth curve in a smile, but it was the loving glow in his eyes that had her standing up and coming around to his side of the table. ‘I love you Evan. I love you, and more than anything, I want to be with you.’
He stood and folded her in his arms. ‘I love you too, Laila, so much.’ The words were whispered right against her ear, like he was making sure she heard. ‘I’ve just been waiting for you to catch up.’
She leaned back, took hold of his tie and pulled his head down until his lips claimed hers in a passionate kiss. He groaned deep in his throat, flicked his tongue across the seam of her lips until she parted them. She linked her arms around his neck, closed her eyes, breathed him in, felt his coat brush her legs as his arms tightened around her.
‘Oh, get a room.’
They pulled apart as two teenage boys rode past on skateboards, grinning.
‘That reminds me,’ Evan said, his lips against her cheek.
‘Hmm.’
‘Are you free tonight?’
Laila pulled back a little and raised her eyebrows. ‘Don’t tell me we’re actually going on a date?’
‘I made a reservation at the Rockpool, if you’d like to have dinner?’
‘I would love too, Mr Barclay.’
‘Oh, and pack an overnight bag.’
She reached up and fiddled with his tie. ‘You want me to stay over?’
He grinned then. ‘Give me some credit. I’m more romantic than that. I’ve booked a suite at the same hotel where the Law Society dinner was held. I think we should start over.’
Happiness bloomed in Laila’s chest, spreading throughout her body until her entire being hummed.
This was big.
No, this was huge.
A man like Evan Barclay didn’t make these sorts of gestures unless he was serious about a woman.
‘So, we’re outing ourselves as a couple, making our first public appearance?’
Grey eyes glittered in the sunlight. ‘If that’s okay with you.’
‘On one condition.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Only one?’
She smiled and pressed her lips to his again. ‘That we make tonight a very early night.’
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ISBN: 9781489221261
Title: Hot Lawyers: The Lee Christine Collection
Copyright © 2016 by Lee Christine
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Limited, Level 13/201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2000.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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Hot Lawyers: The Lee Christine Collection Page 67
