One Kiss In... Hawaii. Jill Monroe

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      Her eyebrows arched over her sunglasses, a cynical smile curving her lips. “Weekends? Is there such a thing at Pearson and Stern?”

      “Point taken.” He took out his sunglasses and slid them on before pulling out of the lot. “Is that why you left?”

      “I never minded the work.”

      He cursed himself for bringing it up. Not so much because she sounded defensive, but the subject only reminded him of his unwanted errand. Luckily traffic was heavy and required all of his attention. So did the GPS. He already knew from studying the map earlier that Hawaiian street names were difficult to differentiate. Too many vowels.

      She apparently got the message that he was focusing on driving, but as soon as they stopped at a red light, she asked, “The day I resigned…why didn’t you ask why I was leaving?”

      “I was too shocked.”

      “You had two and a half weeks.”

      David sighed. “I don’t know why. Denial, maybe.”

      She didn’t respond, but tied her hair back into a ponytail with something she’d found in her purse. “The light’s green.”

      “Thanks.” He started to proceed, but two pedestrians darted into the crosswalk, and he jammed on the brakes.

      Mia gasped softly, her hand shooting out to brace herself. “And they say New York is bad.”

      “No kidding.” He waited until it was clear, and then accelerated. “I keep forgetting you’ve been here before. I should’ve asked if there’s someplace in particular you wanted to go.”

      “Uh, I didn’t get too far out of Waikiki. Or off the beach, for that matter. I had the worst sunburn.”

      “I did the same thing freshman year, and I knew better. When I was a kid we spent a lot of summers in Aruba and St. Thomas.”

      “Yeah, I know what you mean. That Caribbean sun is killer.”

      “Where did you summer?” he asked conversationally, then heard an odd strangling noise coming from her. He glanced away from the road long enough to see her burst out laughing.

      “The backyard in a small blue inflatable swimming pool.” She patted his arm. “That’s where we Butterfields summered. On special occasions we went to our neighbor’s backyard.”

      “All right.” He felt like an idiot. “Consider me duly chastised.”

      “You get a pass, but only because you’re not spoiled or a snob.” She paused. “Contrary to what I thought when I first started with the firm.”

      He took his gaze off the road long enough to shoot her a look of disbelief. “Totally unfounded.”

      “Not from where I sat.”

      “On what grounds?”

      “Oh, my God, you sound like a damn lawyer.”

      He smiled. “Guilty as charged.”

      “Okay, no more of that kind of talk.”

      “Or what? You’ll fine me for contempt?”

      Mia groaned. “The upside is that you do have a sense of humor, corny as it is. It wouldn’t be enough that you’re pretty.”

      He choked out a laugh. “Pretty?”

      “Oh, come on.” She drew a finger along his jaw. “You know you are.”

      All he knew is that if she didn’t keep her hands to herself, he’d end up rear-ending the Jeep in front of them. “Where did you grow up?”

      She withdrew, though chuckled softly as if she knew he was trying to distract her. “Upstate New York. Ithaca, not too far from Cornell.”

      “But you didn’t go there as I recall.”

      “Too expensive. I went to NYU.” She’d moved her hand, or at least she wasn’t touching him. “I’m surprised you know anything about my undergrad studies.”

      “I read your résumé.”

      “You weren’t there for the interview process.”

      “I was in Atlanta overseeing a case.” Good thing. He clearly remembered meeting her on her first day at the firm. One look into those sexy green eyes and he knew he wouldn’t have hired her. “But I was the one who initially flagged you as a candidate.”

      “Hmm, I didn’t know.” She shifted, angling her knees toward him. “Why me? You probably had a dozen Harvard and Yale graduates nipping at your heels.”

      “We did.”

      “So what was it about my résumé that caught your attention?”

      He cocked a brow at her. “You were only second in your class, but the top dog had already hired on with another firm in San Francisco.”

      “Thanks,” she said dryly. “I happen to know you’re full of it because Lance Heatherton went to work for his father.” She sniffed. “And just so you know, he barely inched past me.”

      David smiled at her competitive streak. “Frankly, being second in your class obviously got our attention, but what impressed me more was that you were there on a scholarship, working a part-time job and volunteering with the ACLU and the Legal Aid Society. To me, that shows a lot of character and ambition.”

      “Ambition nothing, I was exhausted. But I also learned a lot from volunteering.”

      He thought for a moment. “I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never admitted to anyone.” He glanced over at her to reassure himself. “The first four years at Harvard, I did the typical spring break things, traveled abroad during the summer, screwed off like the rest of my friends. When I started law school, my father told me I had to start spending break times at the firm, sort of like an intern. I resented it. I figured I’d be working my ass off soon enough. He knew how I felt, but he didn’t say anything.

      “That first week during Christmas break I showed up like I was supposed to. I was given a small office, and I mean small. In fact, now it’s that storage closet the admins use.”

      Mia issued a short laugh. “Seriously?”

      “Oh, yeah. I couldn’t believe it, especially since there were a couple of empty offices with windows.”

      “I can see your dad trying to teach you a lesson.”

      “He never said a word about it, and I didn’t, either. I thought, screw him. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of complaining. It took me a couple of years, but I figured out that he’d saved me a lot of grief. Ended up, respect was more important to me than being the boss’s son. It never would have mattered how good an attorney I was if I hadn’t earned my place in the firm.”

      She stayed quiet for so long that he finally СКАЧАТЬ