Legally Charming (Ever After Book 1) Page 10

  She stiffened her spine and met Sabine’s gaze. “I can do this.”

  Her boss patted her shoulder again. “That’s what I want to hear. Now let’s go talk contracts with the men.”

  Felicity squared her shoulders, wiped at her eyes, and nodded. “Right.” She followed Sabine back into the conference room, and when she met Jared’s intense gaze, she didn’t flinch. It was time to focus on work, and she had to put thoughts of him aside until the job was done.

  Four hours later, with a lunch break in between, the design scheme was settled, the contracts adjusted, and hands were shaken all around. It had been easier than Felicity had expected to put aside worries about Jared and dive into the project with Sabine. Halfway through the meeting, she’d abandoned her “observe and assist” attitude and found herself engaging Mr. Worthington and Thad equally with her ideas on the nouveau art deco themes she came up with.

  Her boss had eased back in her chair and let Felicity take charge of the rest of the negotiations and strategizing. By the end of the meeting, she was full to bursting with confidence. Even Jared had stopped looking mad and had been participating fully.

  “It seems like Ms. Hart has quite an eye for Roaring Twenties art deco themes,” Mr. Worthington announced with some pleasure, directing a fatherly gaze of approval Felicity’s way.

  “She does,” Sabine agreed with pride.

  “I agree, Felicity has quite an eye for beauty.” Thad was staring at her, his chin resting in one hand, the perfect picture of masculine ease. Jared went rigid next to him, and suddenly Thad winced and looked at something beneath the table before he shot Jared a dirty look.

  Mr. Worthington cleared his throat and stood. “Right. Well, Thad, we ought to get back to the office and hammer out some of the details. Thank you, ladies, for an enjoyable morning. I believe this redecoration will be quite an adventure for us all.” A hint of a smile played upon the older man’s lips.

  Both Thad and his father were ready to leave for their office, and Sabine went with them to the door to show them out.

  Jared remained behind in the conference room with Felicity as he gathered up the contracts he had revised during negotiations.

  “Your boss drives a stiff bargain for her design fees,” Jared mused softly as he ruffled the papers before slipping them into his briefcase.

  Felicity raised a brow, feeling her temperature rise as she sensed he was challenging her somehow. Not in a bad way, but he was…testing her.

  “Sabine is one of the best interior designers in the country, and with her master’s in the arts, she is unparalleled in her profession.”

  His lips twitched. “I’m not disputing that, sweetheart, but she’s expensive, and a good lawyer always tries to trim costs for his clients.” He sidled a step closer to her, and her entire body tensed with anticipation. They weren’t arguing, not quite, but the way he said “sweetheart” in that dark, soft, seductive voice while disagreeing with her… Felicity had the sudden desire to drag him into the nearest coat closet and shred his clothes to get to him. But this was work; she couldn’t be caught with Jared. She’d promised Sabine she would keep things professional.

  “You could hire someone else, but you’d sacrifice quality,” Felicity replied.

  “We could, but the Worthingtons want the best, and I believe Sabine is it.”

  She tried not to look his way, but it was impossible to resist. When she peeped at him from beneath her lashes, he was watching her, a narrow-eyed expression hardening his features. For a long second Felicity feared neither of them would speak. A thousand things to say came to her lips, but never left them as she struggled to find the right words. Would they talk about last night? Did he feel the tension of working together like this, too? The tightness in her chest eased as he opened his mouth.

  “What was with the note this morning?” He gripped the back of one of the conference chairs, knuckles white as he leaned on it.

  Damn, Layla should have warned her that Jared had a scary lawyer-style scowl. Was this how he was at all business meetings when he wanted answers? His intensity was sucking up in all the air in the room.

  She swallowed hard. “I…I’m sorry about the note.” She shored up her confidence, knowing she had to own up to the fact that she had run this morning. “I had to leave because I was running late to get here. There wasn’t time for—”

  “For goodbye?” He cut her off, and the way he whispered the word, she heard the hurt in his voice, the wounded acceptance of what they’d shared coming to an end. He shrugged, as though trying to rid himself of a great weight that rested there.

  “Yes.” It felt like she was sinking into the floor. She’d just left him without an explanation, yet it felt as though they were talking about something deeper, a more permanent issue that lay between them. It was scary as hell to think about.

  “It’s just one little word, Felicity.” His tone was still soft, hurt, and it shocked her. Her leaving really had upset him.

  It was supposed to be this way, this goodbye…but suddenly the idea was unbearable.

  “I’m sorry,” she replied, her voice shaking. “We both know that this thing…whatever it is…won’t work out in the long run. I’m not staying in Chicago, not if I get the job I want in Los Angeles, and you’ve built your career here. The deeper we go, we can’t…” She struggled with the words. “So I thought I’d just make a clean break.” There, she’d said it.

  “You never even gave us a chance. You don’t know what it would have been like between us.” Jared released his grip on the chair and raked a furious gaze over the room before settling on her.

  “What would have been the point of that? I’ll be leaving next year. This isn’t permanent for me.” Each word hurt as she spoke, but it was the truth. She’d never planned on staying here, no matter how much she’d fallen in love with the city and the friends she’d made. She hadn’t found any museums willing to take her on here, or she would have stayed.

  “What’s the point? When you have feelings for someone, there’s always a point, Felicity. You don’t walk away from the chemistry we have. When I touch you? It makes my entire body burn. I’ve never felt that way about anyone else.” He spoke so desperately, a quiet rage in his eyes as though he fought to hide how much he was hurting. “Shouldn’t we have at least given it a shot? Hell, we might have been terrible together, but I wanted to take that chance.” His jaw clenched as he swallowed whatever else he had planned to say.

  “You really wanted me?” She couldn’t believe it. A guy like him could have anyone. Why did he want someone like her? She wasn’t good enough for him. She was… Dark voices from her past slithered through her. Hateful words she knew couldn’t be true, yet she still believed them anyway. She wasn’t good enough for him. Just a mousy little girl from a small town in Nebraska. She’d been a waitress at an Applebee’s in high school while he’d probably been studying in law school. It just didn’t…fit. They didn’t fit.

  His eyes darkened. “There you go again, with that look on your face.”

  “What look?” she demanded, irritation and pain prickling her inside like deep-rooted thorns digging into flesh.

  Jared walked around the table to stand in front of her. She’d almost forgotten how tall he was, but as he towered over her, forcing her to tilt her head back, she remembered the way his long, lean body had curled around hers in bed. Protective, warm, seductive. A combination that was fatal to her heart.

  He cupped her chin and turned her face to the right where a gilt-framed mirror hung on the wall. Embarrassment hollowed her out inside as she saw her face. Eyes wide, lips trembling, a heavy sadness painted its broad brush across her features, which now flamed red with shame.

  “That look,” he breathed in a disappointed sigh. “Like you can’t believe that anyone would want you.” Anger snapped and burned in his eyes like hungry flames devouring tinder. He didn’t unleash it though, didn’t hurt her. He only muttered a strangled curse before his fingers dropped
from her chin to the back of her head, his fingers fisting into her hair as he dragged her into his arms.

  Mouth open in shock, Felicity was unprepared for his punishing kiss. The edge of violent desperation that sparked from his lips and the way he savaged her heart and soul with the pain she tasted in that kiss. His pain and hers. She had hurt him. But she couldn’t take it back, could not turn back the clock to undo this morning. Her hands rested on his chest, feeling the faint thump-thump of his heartbeat beneath her palms. Her own heartbeat echoed his, like a dove cooing to its mate.

  Whenever he kissed her, she lost all sense of self and time. She found herself swept into a secret place where only sensations and emotions reigned. It wasn’t something she could fight, nor did she want to. If only she could stay like this in his arms forever and not have to face reality.

  Jared brushed his lips back and forth over hers, and she tried to press close again. He shook his head and stepped back. “You’re killing me, princess.” His words were husky and a little rough. He licked his lips and then tilted his head back and sucked in a deep breath.

  Felicity watched him, her body shaking with need, her chest squeezing her heart in its iron fist.

  “You’re afraid,” he said. “You’re so young. I keep forgetting that. Just a kid in some ways.”

  She started to protest, but he held up his hand.

  “You don’t know how to make a leap of faith. I get that. It’s scary as hell. We probably aren’t right for each other. Trust me, I know that. We’d never have time to be together between my work and your school. I get that, too.” He dragged his fingers through his hair and reached for his coat. As he slid his coat on, he stepped away from her, and the feeling of that distance cut her soul deep. How could someone she’d only known a few days make her feel like this? Like her heart couldn’t beat if he walked out that door?

  “Jared—”

  “I like you.” A rueful smile twisted his lips. “You made me…feel. It’s been a long time since anyone’s done that. But if you aren’t ready, I’m not going to push you.”

  His words were destroying her as much as they saved her. She couldn’t have anyone in her life, not anyone she loved. In a way he was right. She was afraid he’d be too perfect, and once he left her, no other man would ever measure up. The idea of spending the rest of her life someday with another man…it left a sour taste upon her lips.

  A thousand words hung on her lips, yet she couldn’t say a single one. He seemed to read her silence as affirmation of his accusations.

  “Thank you for yesterday. It was nice.” He stepped toward her again and pressed his lips to her forehead in a light kiss. “Goodbye, princess.” He lingered, his warm breath fanning her cheeks and his hands on her upper arms as he held her close just one moment longer. Her heart beat hard against her ribs, and she couldn’t speak past the slicing pain in her tight throat as it constricted.

  And with that he left.

  Felicity crumpled into the nearest conference chair, staring blinding ahead of her. Jared Redmond had cut out her heart and walked away with it. She’d practically challenged him to do it, and he had.

  It was better this way.

  Yet it felt as though she’d betrayed herself by not running after him. He had wanted her, but was he right about what he’d said? She believed she didn’t belong with a guy like him or his glittering world. Even if she could convince herself she and Jared could be together, it was crazy to think it could work. When would she ever get to see him? Their schedules were impossible to match, so what was the point? She would leave Chicago and any relationships she had behind. Just let it go. A terrible hollowness filled her until her entire body echoed with its emptiness. She hadn’t known how full of happiness she’d been until she’d lost it all, when she’d lost Jared.

  9

  Mondays were shit.

  Jared had never thought otherwise, but now more than ever, he hated Wednesdays. The brief but explosive beginning to his weekend had rocked his world to the core, and yet the thing that had spun his world on its axis had pushed him away.

  She had pushed him away.

  And losing a chance to be with a woman like Felicity, it made him fucking hate today. Fucking Mondays.

  He walked into his office at Pimms & Associates and dropped his leather briefcase into one of the two black armchairs facing his large desk. Then he stripped off his gray mélange virgin wool suit jacket and flung it over the back of one chair before he studied the surface of his desk.

  It was a battlefield littered with paper bodies. Contracts, sales agreements, licenses, and everything else related to his work was all here, a ready distraction. But for the first time his heart wasn’t in it. He’d spent the rest of Sunday in a foul mood. Alone. Tanner and Layla had tiptoed around him after he’d all but snarled like a beast at the first mention of Felicity. He’d told himself to let it go, that focusing on her wasn’t productive or healthy.

  She was a kid. Too young for him to date seriously. She had a life ahead of her, decisions about her career that could take her far away from Illinois, far from him. He shouldn’t be so…attached. Attached, God, he sounded pathetic, but he was somehow connected to her.

  That kiss on the couch and the one in Sabine’s conference room had bound him to Felicity with invisible strings. He knew he should want to shake them off, enjoy being single, but it didn’t feel right. He wasn’t like Thad or Angelo. He didn’t play the field. He was a one-woman kind of guy when it came to dating. What the hell was he supposed to do if his one woman was running from him and running from herself? The memory of seeing her doubt and pain, so stark and sharp in her eyes, as though her life was at risk, knifed his heart. Why was she so afraid to trust him? Why didn’t she think she was good enough?

  “Jared.” A feminine voice pulled him from his thoughts. He glanced up to see Shana Pimms, his ex, standing in his doorway. Her long blond hair was pulled into a sleek chignon, and she wore a black suit jacket and matching pencil skirt. He knew her enough to know she preferred pantsuits, but her father insisted female attorneys wear skirts in the office.

  “Hey,” he greeted, offering her a smile he didn’t even remotely feel.

  Her brows drew together in concern. “Are you okay? You look awful.” She blushed and glanced at the floor as though embarrassed she’d said that. They’d been so close…once. Before her father and their jobs had driven a chasm between them.

  When her words finally registered, he looked down at himself. His clothes were freshly pressed and clean, but there was something unkempt about him, probably the fact that his hair was a mess, and he felt like shit. Dressing well and looking sharp had always been natural to him, but the last few days he’d been too distracted to focus on little things like shaving.

  “I had a rough weekend. What’s up?” He rose from his chair.

  Shana only shook her head, a troubled expression on her face. “It’s nothing. We’re having a meeting in five minutes in the main conference room. Just wanted you to know.” She tucked a strand of loose hair behind her right ear and returned a smile just as melancholy as his before she left. Pity for her filled him.

  When they’d been together in law school, she’d been so wild, so free and fun. It was what had drawn him to her when they first met. They’d connected as friends more than lovers. However, with the weight of her parents’ expectations that she become a Super Lawyer—especially her father’s expectations in the last few years—any fire in Shana had been extinguished. She wasn’t in love with real estate law, not like Jared was. Her passion lay with adoptions and family law, but her father refused to let her practice that. Getting a job in Chicago without his help and influence was impossible, so she’d resigned herself to practicing in an area she wasn’t passionate about.

  Jared rummaged around his desk until he found a yellow legal pad and a pen before he headed for the conference room. Pimms & Associates was on the twelfth floor of their building and housed about forty attorneys, six of whom were
partners and the rest associates. The modern-style offices were cool and impressive, from the gold letters of the firm name hanging on the wall behind the receptionist’s desk, to the huge conference room with flat screens and expensive teleconference and video conference technology.

  Shana’s father, Matthew Pimms, was already seated at the head of the table. His secretary, Alice, a pretty young woman, hovered behind him, her pen flying across a notepad as he told her what he needed to be prepared for the meeting. Shana sat in a seat as far away from her father as possible, apparently on purpose. Her own legal pad and pen were in front of her untouched. She brightened a little when Jared walked in, but then she seemed to catch herself, and grimaced when she realized her father noticed. Other attorneys were soon crawling into the conference room, legal pads and coffee in their hands.

  “Redmond, over here.” Pimms pointed at the chair to the left of his.

  He did that a lot, singling Jared out for favoritism. For as long as he’d worked here, Pimms had allowed him to participate in most of the heavy billable transactions. But with that privilege and the stressful workload there were the comments Pimms made, the little references to Shana and his future, always together in the same conversation. A future he had no intention of bringing about.

  Once all of the attorneys recruited for the assignment were in their seats, Pimms passed around copies of a document. Jared took his paper and scanned it. A basic letter of intent for the sale of the art deco era hotel that Thad and his father were interested in purchasing, and the same project he would be working with Felicity on.

  Pimms ran through the facts relayed to him by their clients and the brokers on the deal. Jared was only half listening.

  “Redmond, you’ll be in charge of drafting the purchase and sale agreement. The letter of intent will set out the terms. Work with Shana on this and get in touch with the seller’s counsel immediately. The rest of you will be covering the other aspects, such as the hotel income and other pertinent information we’ll need to know when restructuring the hotel ownership. I’ll spend the rest of the meeting discussing the Worthingtons’ strategy for the purchase and the general idea behind the relaunch of the hotel.”