Unwrapped (Unwrapped and Unraveled 1) - Page 15
"Amy."
Before she could utter a word, he'd brushed past her and entered her apartment.
"Uh, come in why don't you?"
He had a package in his hand. A Christmas present. A big box tied with an oversized red bow.
"Thanks. I think I will." He turned to her, surveying her apartment. "What? No Christmas tree?"
She rolled her eyes. "I'm never here. A tree seemed pointless."
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"How appropriately humbug of you. I'll just set this down here, then." He laid it on her coffee table.
"Justin, really, you shouldn't have."
"Yes, I know. You don't deserve it. I did it anyway."
She crossed her arms, feeling profoundly uncomfortable. "Why are you here?"
He took a seat on her sofa, grimacing at the laptop. "Obviously you're not at home because you're sick. Your cheeks are pink and you look fine to me. My guess is you're avoiding me."
"I am not. I just needed to catch up on some work and wanted to do it uninterrupted."
"Oh, yeah. Learning all those new cases because you swapped client files with Jamison."
She sank onto the other end of the sofa, hating the confrontation that was coming, but knowing it was inevitable. "Justin. Let's be realistic."
"Okay. Go ahead." He shrugged out of his jacket and slung it over the back of the sofa.
Amy wanted to run her hands over his cashmere sweater. Or under his cashmere sweater to feel his smooth, heated skin and the play of muscles in his abdomen. Instead, she steeled herself, reminding herself why she'd done this in the first place.
"We have no future together."
"Really? Why?"
"You're younger than me."
"Do you really consider that a valid excuse?"
No. "When I'm fifty you'd be--"
"Forty-five. I can do math, Amy. I still don't get your point. I don't love you because of your age. And I think it's damn hot that you're older than me."
Oh, shit. "You love me?"
"You graduated summa cum laude from Stanford. If you can't figure out that I love you, then I'm really disappointed in your perceptive powers. Of course I love you. Would I put up with your bullshit if I didn't?"
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Her throat constricted and she fought back tears. "Love doesn't last."
"And you base this on?"
"May/December romances never do. I'll get wrinkly. I'll get jowls."
His lips lifted. "I'll put a bag over your head when I fuck you."
She couldn't help it. She snorted. "That wasn't funny."
"And I don't love you because of how you look. I love you because of who you are.
You're brilliant. You can be funny. You love adventure and you have no fear. We have the same backgrounds. We're both driven and competitive and I like being with you. I like making love to you, like having you sleeping next to me at night. Do you think five years make any difference to me?"
No, she didn't. Dammit, she didn't. Her mind whirled trying to come up with something else.
"We're constantly competing with each other in the firm. It would destroy us."
He grabbed the box and placed it in her lap. "Open your Christmas present, Amy."
"I--"
"Just open the goddamn box."
"Fine." Anything to get through this and get him out of her apartment before she fell apart. She pulled the bow on the giant box and lifted the lid, lifting out miles and miles of tissue paper. At the bottom of the box was an envelope. She pulled the envelope out and slanted a quizzical look at Justin.
He nodded. "Open it."
She sliced through the envelope and opened the single paper in there. Her blood went cold when she read the contents.
"You didn't," she whispered, her gaze shooting to Justin.
"I did. This afternoon."
"Oh, Justin. Why?"
"I turned in my resignation at McKenzie and Shoals for two reasons. First, because I love you and I don't want this whole thing about us being competitive and you thinking I www.samhainpublishing.com 81
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wanted to fuck my way to the top--or using you and our relationship--coming between us. Now it's not between us anymore."
She couldn't believe he'd resigned. He'd been working his way through that firm for years. He was poised on the brink of partnership. "Are you insane?"
He moved closer to her, tossed the box and all the paper on the floor and took Amy's hand in his. "No, Amy. I'm in love."
Shock froze her in place, her mind refusing to register what he'd done on her behalf.
Because he loved her? "You've ruined your career."
"No. I've just started it."
"What do you mean?"
"What do you think of Garrett and Parker?"
Her pulse raced. "Garrett and Parker?"
He smiled. "Yeah. You, me, our own law firm?"
"You've lost your mind." Excitement warred with trepidation. "We don't have the capital for that kind of venture. Or the clients."
Justin arched a brow. "No, that's true. We don't have the capital to start our own firm."
/> It hit her instantly. "Mitch."
"Yes."
"Oh my God. Mitch would do that?"
"Of course he would. And he'll move all his business to us, too."
Amy couldn't breathe. "Why, Justin?"
"Because I love you, and because neither one of us is making partner fast enough at McKenzie and Shoals. You know it and I know it. They're a great firm, but they're slow to promote. And you and I are ambitious go getters who want to push the envelope.
They're not right for us, Amy. We need our own gig."
He was right. Dear God, he was right. He'd seen it where she hadn't. All this time, she'd been playing it safe, toeing the line, doing everything right in the hopes to make it to the top. And trying to keep her peers from getting there before her--like Justin.
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Justin had taken the risk and was offering her the opportunity of a lifetime, and his love, too.
"All you have to do is say yes, Amy."
He'd done all this because he loved her. And she hadn't even told him--
"I love you, Justin. Before we go any further, you need to know that."
"I know you do."
"You do?"
He grinned. "When I woke up Christmas morning and you weren't in my bed or even in Hawaii anymore, I knew it."
"How?"
"You ran because you were scared of your feelings. If you didn't care, you'd have gotten on that plane back to L.A. with me and wouldn't have blinked."
She tried to take it all in. "Sometimes you scare me because you know me so well."
"That's why we'll make such good partners. Nobody understands me like you do.
Nobody is less willing to put up with my bullshit as you are."
She laughed. "We make quite a pair, don't we?"
"There's something else."
"Okay."
"I read the email you sent to your friend Gloria. The one where you said you wanted a menage."
Her eyes widened. "What? When?"
"A week or so before we left for Hawaii. You'd tossed your laptop at me to pull a document off, and I couldn't find it so I thought it was in your email attachments. I found it there." He at least had the decency to look guilty.
"That's how you knew about my fantasy."
"Yeah."
"I should be furious with you for invading my privacy."
"Yes, you should."
But she wasn't. He'd given her the greatest gift she could have ever asked for.
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Source: readsnovelonline.net