“Hey, Kate. Thought you might be in today.”
Oh, crap. Not now. What is he doing here?
She didn’t even lift her head. “Hey, Michael. Now’s not really a good time…”
But he didn’t leave, and instead took a few steps inside until he reached the other side of her desk and perched on the corner next to her. She h
azarded a peek from behind her fingers to find him half smiling at her.
“Come on, Kate. This is me. What’s going on?”
She rubbed her forehead again to try and relieve the aching pressure. “Honestly? I don’t really know anymore. But for starters, there’s this damn McKenna case.”
He nodded. “Nicole mentioned that you seemed to be…struggling with things of late. But I heard you nailed the deposition.”
“I did.” Yep. Couldn’t fault her there. She’d done an impeccable job of making Mark McKenna come off as a veritable saint. She should win some award or something.
“So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is my client is a liar and a predator and I’m pretty certain he sexually assaulted at least three women from his company. Then, when they tried to complain, he had them dismissed. And here”—she hit the keys and brought the footage back a few seconds to show Ms. Herrera leaving his hotel room again, ripped shirt and tears impossible to miss—“is what happened after he assaulted Ms. Herrera at the Radisson. Interestingly enough, this is the second copy of this footage the firm has received. The first went mysteriously missing.”
“Are you saying you don’t think it was an accident?”
“What I think is that Tim wanted to make sure this footage didn’t get into the hands of the other side, and he buried it.”
“Well, of course not. It’s our job to protect our client. You can’t take these things personally, Kate.”
Looked like Michael also wasn’t above hiding evidence that they were bound by the rules of evidence to provide.
“Sure, I guess it would be easier if I could flip a switch and turn off this inner moral compass that tells me this is wrong,” she added flippantly. “That my life is on the wrong track and I’m working for the wrong side.”
He sighed. “Kate. You can be so adorably naive sometimes.” He leaned over, closing the space between them. “You have a good heart, which is one of the things I love about you.”
Love about her? Present tense?
“But you’ll get through this. You’re a great trial attorney and you’ll do what you need to do and probably join the ranks of junior partner. I know how much that means to you, and you’re almost there.” In a softer tone, he added, “You just have to hold on, and you can have everything you’ve ever wanted.”
That made him the second person in two days to mention getting everything she’d ever wanted. What the heck did she want?
Michael reached out and tucked a strand of hair back from her face, but instead of breaking the contact, his fingers trailed lightly down in a caress to her jaw, her neck, then stopped at the collar of her shirt.
She sat frozen, trying to figure out what was happening as Michael continued. “Once upon a time you wanted me as much as I wanted you, and for a crazy moment, I thought I could let you go. But—hell. I’ve missed you, Kate. And no matter how hard I’ve tried to move on, I can’t get you out of my head or my heart.”
She swallowed, trying to process. “What are you saying, Michael? Are you saying that your engagement to Nicole is over? And if so…why now?”
His brown eyes crinkled and he smiled. “Let’s just say seeing you with the wrong guy was a good kick in the pants to realize who was the right one. That guy—” He shook his head. “Dominic? He doesn’t know what you need, not like I do. He can’t give you what I can, Kate. You know that.”
It was as if she was in a dream, finally feeling his fingers softly caress her. Hearing the words she had wanted to hear for so long.
Only now that he was saying it, it sounded flat. Her heart wasn’t skipping or racing anywhere near like it had when she was with Dominic. How was that even possible?
She had loved this man. Wanted to marry him, spend forever with him.
Kate pulled back, away from his hand. “It’s kind of convenient, Michael. How on earth could I ever trust you again? Trust that you’re not going to change your mind?”
“Sorry to interrupt.” A low voice cut through the silence of the room, and her gaze flew to the door where Dominic was standing. Like someone had splashed a bucket of cold water on her, she jumped back in her chair.
How long had he been standing there? Dark, anguishing guilt hit her, but when she forced herself to look into his eyes, they didn’t reveal anything.