The Inconvenient Laws of Attraction. Trish Wylie

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СКАЧАТЬ another large palm flatten on the wall beside her waist. Like it or not, she wasn’t going anywhere. Not without hurting him.

      ‘Nice speech,’ he commented.

      ‘I meant every word of it,’ she said with a lift of her chin, trying desperately to ignore the erratic thudding of her heart. One man should not be that breathtakingly gorgeous up close. She took a deep breath and stifled a moan. He absolutely shouldn’t smell that good.

      For a second she felt a little bit dizzy. She could really do with some air that wasn’t filled with testosterone. Everything around him contracted and went fuzzy again, leaving her unable to focus on anything but him. Her gaze went to the full lip she was so attracted to—the one she wanted to kiss, lick with the tip of her tongue, suck and maybe even nibble a little.

      When had she got so sexually frustrated? She tried to remember the last time she’d been on a date—the kind with the remotest possibility of ending in great sex.

      Well, that was depressing.

      ‘If you’re not up to the task, maybe I need to find another lawyer.’

      Thank you! It was exactly how she needed him to be. If he added charm—or, worse still, seduction—to an already potent mix, she would be in deep, deep trouble.

      Not to mention naked. Fast.

      ‘For the record, Mr Clayton, underestimating me is a bad idea.’ And she wasn’t kidding about that. Thanks to her former profession, she could have him flat on his face on the floor in less than ten seconds and when it came to her present occupation—‘I’ve been assigned to the Warren accounts since I joined the firm. I know the company inside out and back to front. You won’t find anyone more qualified than me.’

      He frowned. ‘You worked for Charlie?’

      ‘I met him.’ She softened a fraction at the mention of the father he’d lost. ‘But I didn’t work with him.’

      ‘For him,’ he corrected.

      ‘With him,’ Olivia argued. ‘That’s how we do things at the firm: we work with our clients. It’s a long-term partnership based on mutual trust and common goals.’

      ‘I’m not looking to get married, sweetheart. I’m looking for someone to do what I tell them to do when I tell them to do it. Is that a problem for you?’

      ‘You tell me to jump, I ask how high?’

      ‘Works for me …’

      Over. Her. Dead. Body.

      Her breath caught as his head lowered. What was he doing? When he stilled, his face inches away from hers, every fibre of her body ached with an almost crippling desire to be kissed. How could she dislike him and want him so badly at the same time? Maybe the heat was getting to her. They said people did things they wouldn’t normally do during a heatwave. Olivia just wished she was the kind of girl who hid behind excuses when they did something stupid.

      ‘What’s wrong, Liv?’ he asked in a low, excruciatingly sensual rumble. ‘Not good at taking orders?’

      ‘Depends what they are,’ she replied in an equally low voice. And what they were doing at the time.

      Don’t go there, the professional warned the woman.

      When a knowing smile began to form in his eyes, she frowned, swiftly getting back to business with, ‘I won’t do anything illegal.’

      ‘Unless I’m mistaken, a big part of your job would be to make sure I don’t.’

      ‘Whatever trouble you get into away from Warren Enterprises isn’t my concern.’

      ‘I’ll keep that in mind when I’m only allowed to make one phone call.’

      The man had no shame. Raised on a diet of discipline and obeying the letter of the law, Olivia had never considered herself the kind of woman who would be attracted to a bad boy but apparently she’d been wrong. Who knew?

      ‘I assume I can’t schedule any meetings north of the border.’ She analysed his reaction with a tilt of her head.

      ‘Probably best not,’ he replied without giving anything away.

      She sighed heavily. ‘Is this how it’s going to be every time we try to have a discussion?’

      ‘That’s what we’re doing, is it?’

      She aimed a narrow-eyed glare at him.

      ‘So what’s it to be?’ he asked. ‘We got a deal?’

      ‘I’m not going to come running when you holler.’

      ‘Where’s the fun in that?’

      ‘I think you’ll find it would be more fun for one of us than it would for the other.’ Inwardly groaning at the fact she was encouraging him, she moved on to the next point. ‘I have no problem working outside office hours, but you can’t call me in the middle of the night.’ Her errant gaze dipped to his tempting lower lip. ‘There are boundaries I’m not willing to cross.’

      ‘Like never mix business with pleasure—you have a rule on that, right?’

      As it happened, yes, she did. Olivia liked rules. It was part of the reason she loved the law so much. A single set of rules for everyone to follow, there for the protection of all. It was an even playing field and she was less likely to mess up as badly as she had before if she worked within the boundary lines.

      ‘Yes,’ she replied.

      ‘Why am I not surprised?’ He shook his head. ‘But you’re still not getting it. I’m not questioning your capabilities. If they sent you to deal with this, I’m sure you’re up to the task.’

      Then what—?

      ‘But here’s how it’s gonna be, sweetheart. The only advice you get to give me is law-re-lated—you don’t question my decisions unless it’s something that might get me prosecuted, sued, or both—and there’s no First Amendment for free speech in this arrangement. We clear on that?’

      Olivia blinked in surprise as the woman inside her purred like a cream-filled cat. Suddenly she understood why Charles Warren had chosen him as his heir. He didn’t sound like a man who didn’t want the responsibility of the legacy that had been left to him; he sounded like a man taking charge and more than up to the task.

      It was exactly how Jo had described him: sexy as sin.

      Who was this man? Tilting her head, she looked at him more closely. Her curious gaze whispered over his face, taking in every detail from the crease lines at the corners of his dark eyes that suggested he laughed more often than she’d had evidence of thus far to the small scar on his chin her fingertips itched to touch while she asked how he’d got it.

      ‘Liv—’ his deep voice held what sounded like an edge of warning, forcing her gaze back up ‘—we clear?’

      Right. Negotiations. Focus.

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