Mistress Under Contract

So she loved him. Someday she’d get over it. ‘The answer’s still no. I won’t come back to the bar.’ She inhaled deeply. ‘Or you.’

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

You find it difficult to talk about your feelings

HE FROZE. Sound finally emerged, half strangled. ‘I need you, Lucy.’

‘You need me like you need a hole in the head. Come on, Daniel. Aside from sex we have nothing in common.’

‘That’s not true. We both can’t get to sleep at night. Not without each other.’

‘We have nothing in common in the things that really matter, Daniel.’ She pushed him away. ‘You’re so much more…worthy than I am. You’re living this life where you’re going to make a difference. You’re an achiever. Someone who’ll make the world a better place. You should be with someone similar. Someone like Sarah—who has beauty and brains to match yours.’

‘Your belief in me is flattering, Lucy, but I’m just another lawyer—there are thousands of us graduating every year.’

‘That’s not true, Daniel. You’re special and you know it. Why else are they all clamouring for you? Daniel—be a partner! Daniel—be a professor! Daniel—be the Chief Justice!’

‘So?’

‘So you can’t be with someone like me. A guy who’s maybe going to be a judge one day can’t have a barmaid for a girlfriend.’

‘Why not? And I don’t want you for my girlfriend. I want you for my wife.’

‘Daniel.’ Pleading for him to stop offering her the moon when she couldn’t accept it. She loved him but she wasn’t what was best for him.

‘Lucy. You have talents too. You have amazing talents.’

‘Like what? Playing second violin? Come on. I’m nowhere near your league and you know it.’

‘I know that no one runs that bar better than you. I know that you get those bar staff working and happy. You get punters coming back in those doors time and time again. Since you started there the sales have gone way up. You know how to entertain people, Lucy. You make an environment that people can relax in. That’s just as important as winning someone’s case for them.’

He read her ‘yeah right’ expression.

‘It is, Lucy. What’s life without pleasure? It can’t all be hard work. I love my work—you know I do. But I need to relax too—I understand that now. And I need you to help me relax.’

‘It’s the sex again. That’ll fade. You’ll get bored soon enough.’

‘I will not. And it’s not just the sex—we’re better than bed mates. You challenge me. You pull my head in when it’s sticking out too far. You make me laugh. You point out the fun things when I’m too busy with my head in books. You make my life real, Lucy.’

The shakes were back and worse this time. Daniel was in winning-lawyer mode and his arguments were wearing her last shred of resistance down.

‘Daniel…’

‘Look, on the one hand you’re crediting me with a brain and the next you’re saying you know what’s best for me. I know what’s best for me. And that’s you.’ He paled. ‘I cannot go through another week like this, Lucy. I cannot be without you. Anyway. I’m not going to be a judge. I don’t want to be a judge. Never have.’

‘What are you going to do?’

His arms were around her again, smoothing down her back; she knew he could feel her shaking, knew he was being gentle to calm her.

‘They’re offering me a position at the university—lecturing with guaranteed time for research. I want to study, Lucy. It’s where my heart lies. I’ve never been able to leave that university. You’ll be pleased—I’m teaching evidence and ethics.’

She leant into him. ‘I feel sorry for your first-years.’

‘Why?’

‘They’ll all fall in love with you.’

He shook his head. ‘Not everyone sees me the same way you do.’

She didn’t quite believe that.

His hands kept smoothing her ruffled skin, her rocky emotions. ‘My office door will always be open. I’m going to be the coolest professor on campus with a wife who runs the coolest bar in the city.’

She stood rigid for a second longer. Then with a soft sigh she slipped her arms around his waist. Held him back. His ability to always have the right answer was going to drive her crazy. But how she loved him for it. They stood together—relaxed, relieved—for the ten seconds until the tension rose to the surface again. He pulled back, his hand running down her arm to take her hand. ‘We’re taking my car. It’s much more reliable.’

He held her hand tightly and marched ahead. She almost skipped beside him. Feeling like the most over-excited kid. But still trying to play it cool. Just a little.

Then they got to where she’d parked her car. She stared at the car behind it—that he’d just unlocked. ‘Daniel. Your suits are black, your shirts are white and your car is grey.’

‘So?’ He flipped her a fabulous grin that had her insides softening further. ‘You provide the colour in my life, Lucy. More than enough colour.’

She slipped into the front passenger seat, shoving her cowgirl boots to the floor.

‘You’re putting those on for me later.’

She had to stop thinking about that. It would be at least an hour and a half until they were back in Wellington, back in his bed.

But he didn’t turn the car and head for the main road back to the city. Instead he took a side road, roaring along and turning into the driveway of one of the more exclusive vineyards.

She looked at him. ‘Wanting to stock up?’

‘We’re staying here.’

‘Here? You booked this already?’

‘I have a secretary and I’ve got to make the most of her before I hit the university and under-funding. She booked it half an hour ago once I figured out where you were heading.’

He pulled the car up in front of the main building, disappeared for a few minutes and then came out again, walking quickly. It registered that he looked more dishevelled than she’d ever seen him. His shirt unbuttoned, the tails flapping free of his trousers, a wild look in his eye. And she knew they wouldn’t be waiting more than another—oh, five minutes?

He got in the car again and the shingle crunched as he sped down the lane between the vines to the far end of the property. To the sheltered hedge-hidden farm worker’s cottage that stood there. He got out of the car, grasped her hand and together they ran.

The cottage was almost decrepit-looking from the outside, but the overflowing well-tended flowerpots gave away its secret within—the care and work that had gone into refurbishing it into luxury accommodation. Warm muted colours, clean lines, a single bedroom with a giant bed. That was really all she noticed.

‘There’s a bath outdoors apparently, hidden by the hedges. We’ll check it out later, right?’

‘Oh, yes.’

He walked towards her. Eyes burning. ‘I haven’t slept in days.’

‘Nor have I.’

‘Think we should catch up a little now?’

‘Definitely.’

The kiss was full and deep and after a mere moment he pulled back and started yanking his clothes off. She followed suit. It was faster to do her own. But she couldn’t resist teasing him as they stripped. ‘Peanut M&M’s or plain?’

‘Plain.’

‘Mayo or vinaigrette?’

‘Mayo.’

‘Sunny-side up or over easy?’ She mock slapped his arm as the look on his face turned wicked. ‘Skip that one. Surf or ski field?’

‘Ski field.’

‘Cork or screw cap?’

‘Cork.’

‘Let’s face it. We’re totally incompatible.’

‘Totally.’

‘Fast or slow?’ She answered before he could. ‘I want fast.’

‘I want slow.’

‘Tell you what, you go slow and make me go fast.’

‘Get you across the finish line and you can go round in a victory lap again?’

She nodded. ‘Something

like that.’

‘Sure.’ Smiling, he ran his hands down her torso. ‘See? We agree on the things that matter.’

‘There has to be more than sex, Daniel.’

‘There is more than sex. You know that, Lucy. You have from day one.’

‘Day one?’

‘OK, maybe week one.’ He grinned at her. ‘We’re good for each other. You slow me down at work. I speed you up.’