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All business once again, Gannon slid her a steely look. Warned softly, “It’s going to be a bumpy ride unless you can get your emotions under control.”
His seemed locked up tighter than a drum.
Lily worked to slow her racing pulse. Her knees suddenly felt a little wobbly, so she leaned against the wall and folded her arms in front of her.
This wasn’t like her.
It had to be the threatening crisis that had her wanting him—and the stark masculine protection he offered—so badly.
“Meaning I can’t spout off like that in court.”
He followed her to the windows that overlooked Main Street. “Or any time you’re dealing with your ex, or anyone associated with Bode, for that matter.”
Another tense silence fell.
Gannon studied her for another long beat, then gave her a slow, steadfast smile, the kind that said that as long as she let him call the shots, everything would be all right.
Vowing that she was not going to be one of those women who turned to her lawyer for personal comfort, Lily closed her eyes. Swallowed. Instructed herself to use every ounce of common sense and treat him like the extraordinary lawyer he was, nothing more.
Recognizing that it would be a mistake to lean on him in a more intimate way, she opened her eyes, returned to the conference table and pointed to the sheaf of papers she had been served that very morning. “Back to the request for a modification to our custody order.” She forced herself to sit down calmly once again. “What’s our battle plan?”
“I’ve already filed a request, asking for an extension. If we’re granted it—and we should be—that will give Liz roughly forty days to file an answer. I am also going to file a motion for dismissal this afternoon.”
“You think we’ll get it?”
“Probably not. But it will send a clear signal to Bode’s attorneys that you intend to fight this with everything you’ve got. Given everything else he has going on career-wise, that alone may give him pause.”
Deciding everything was well in hand, Lily reached for her bag. She had to get out of here before things turned even more personal. “You’ll let me know?”
He nodded. “One way or another, as soon as I hear. But that likely won’t be until early next week.”
Which meant she’d be spending the weekend wondering and worrying, Lily realized unhappily.
Knowing she’d spent way too much time alone with Gannon in any case, she said sincerely, “Thanks for all your help.” Then made her way for the door.
Lily spent the rest of the day dealing with the fallout over the “fire statue” and working on putting together a weekend work schedule for the upcoming chili festival.
By the time four o’clock rolled around, she was exhausted and ready to call it a day. And that was, of course, when Gannon walked in. She hadn’t expected to come face-to-face with him again today, but truth be told, he was a welcome distraction.
He was still wearing the nicely pressed shirt, tweed wool sport coat and dark jeans he’d had on earlier. She was just as drawn to him now as she’d been before, and in the fading wintry light in her office, she could once again see the inherent protectiveness in his midnight-blue eyes. Except now his dark brown hair was rumpled—as if he’d been running his fingers through the thick, touchable strands. And the hint of evening beard lined his strong, stubborn jaw, further adding to his masculine allure.
Just looking at him made her quiver deep inside.
Oblivious to the sensual nature of her thoughts, he ambled closer and handed her the papers, their fingers touching briefly in the process. “I thought you might like to see a copy of the motion for dismissal for your own files.”
She did, but...seeing him again so soon, being alone with him, was something else entirely. Wishing she weren’t so attracted to him, she swallowed to ease the parched feeling in her throat. “You could have emailed it to me...via attachment.”
The corners of his lips twitched at the exaggerated lack of enthusiasm in her voice. He stepped closer, his eyes heavy lidded and sexy. Smiled. “I wanted to see how you were doing.”
Better. Since you walked in the door...
Lily pushed the unwanted emotion away. She stiffened her spine. “I’m fine, as you can see.”
And she did not need his protection.
She did, however, temporarily need his legal help. Heart racing, she flipped through the brief. His legal rebuttal was just as she expected—concise and hard-hitting. She sighed in relief. “Looks good.”
He flashed a wry smile. “Thanks.”
Unsure whether it was the long-simmering, never-acted-on attraction or nerves from all the turmoil of the day causing the butterflies in her midriff, Lily took the document back to her desk and dropped it into her briefcase. She turned back to him, all business now. “So you’re all done with your part in my case?” Which meant they’d no longer need to see each other. At least in that regard.
He gave her a long, thorough once-over, then returned his gaze to her face. “Unless Liz needs me again, but yeah, you can consider me officially off the clock.”
“Speaking of fees...” She dreaded calculating his hourly rate—which was bound to be exorbitant—times the six or so hours spent. “What do I owe you?”
His hand stopped hers before she could open her checkbook. “Nothing. I work for Liz.”
Trying not to notice how the width of his shoulders blocked out the fading winter sunlight, she eased away from his touch. Although the morning had been sunny and clear—almost warm—the weather had shifted again, bringing in cooler temperatures and dismal gray skies. Trying not to feel as depressed as the vista encouraged her to be, she tilted her chin and continued, “Then what do I owe Liz on your behalf?”
He spread his palms and remained maddeningly aloof. “Nothing.”
Trying not to wonder if the rest of him was as big and capable as his hands, she gave him a look. Waited.
He shrugged again. “I’m doing this pro bono.”
Charity? He was doing this as a charity case? Anger warred with pride. It was true, her salary as mayor wasn’t much, but she didn’t need much since she had accrued some savings before running for public office. “I don’t need your professional largesse, Gannon.”
A contemplative silence fell. He gave her a slow, reckless smile that quickly set her heart to pounding. “You really want to pay me back for my help?”
Talk about a loaded question! She regarded him matter-of-factly, letting him know with a glance she did not want to owe him any other favors, either. “Absolutely,” she snapped. “The sooner the better.”
He edged closer, inundating her with the sandalwood and spice scent of his cologne and the brisk, masculine fragrance unique to him. “Then how about dinner—tonight?”
Lily blinked. “Are you for real?”
Another slow, seductive smile. “Very.”
She drew a quavering breath, held up a staying hand and reminded herself all the reasons why not. “We went through this eight years ago. I’m not going to date you, Gannon.”
He comically palmed his chest, as if he’d received a major blow to his heart. Or was it his ego? she wondered. Then he frowned at her in reproof, adding wryly, “I wasn’t asking for a date, Lily. I was asking if you wanted to go out to dinner with me.” He waggled his brows mischievously. “But...if you want to call it a date...”
Lily flushed in embarrassment, as he had obviously meant her to. “I don’t,” she responded. Pausing, she narrowed her eyes at him. “And I can’t have dinner with you because when I’m not working, I’m with my son.”
“No problem,” Gannon said, not the least bit discouraged. “We can take Lucas with us.”
Without warning, she felt an intimacy she didn’t expect welling up between them. Most of the men she met viewed the fact she had a child as a major deterrent. Not Gannon. “You really are serious about this.”
His lips took on a sober slant. He stepped closer. “I’d like to get to know your son—and I need to talk to you.”
Lily’s pulse raced at the gentle undertone in his low voice. “About?”
Their eyes met, and Gannon regarded her seriously. “Becoming friends again.”
* * *
JUST THE THOUGHT of that, Gannon noted in disappointment, was enough to cause Lily to take a step back, away from him.
She held up a delicate left hand, conspicuous only for its lack of wedding and engagement rings. “That’s not really necessary, Gannon,” she told him archly.
“So you’re saying you forgive me for the things I said after we graduated from law school?” When they had still technically been friends. Although he had never stopped wanting something more...
Lily raked her teeth across her soft lower lip. “You were right about Bode, Gannon. He was all wrong for me.”
The knowledge brought Gannon no comfort. He followed her back over to her desk. “You didn’t think so at the time. In fact, as I recall, you accused me of being jealous of what you had with him.”
She shot him an uncompromising look. “Weren’t you?”
More like worried. Because Gannon had seen, even when Bode was merely a backup quarterback who’d spent his first three years in the NFL sitting on the bench, that he wasn’t the kind of guy who would ever give Lily even a fraction of the love and attention she deserved. A hunch that Bode had proved true shortly after he became a star.
Because then he had dumped Lily. Pronto. And hadn’t cared that she had been pregnant with his child.
But seeing no reason to go into that—Lily had suffered enough humiliation due to her ill-considered end-of-law-school liaison with Bode Daniels as it was—Gannon merely folded his arms across his chest. Stood, legs braced apart. “I never stopped wanting to date you.”
Lily looked surprised. As if she had never known he had wanted to be anything more than friends after she had rebuffed his advances that first year at UT Law.
Figuring it was time they cleared the air, Gannon went on, “But, by the same token, I wasn’t going to waste three years waiting to see if you would change your mind and eventually go out with me after all.”
Frustration and regret crossed Lily’s face. She held out her hands beseechingly, came closer. “Had I not been in my very first year of law school when you asked me out...had I not seen all of our friends who got seriously involved or married to someone in their first grueling year of professional school eventually have their relationships destroyed amidst all the stress and pressure, I probably would have gone out with you.”
“But you didn’t want to risk it.”
She started to speak. Stopped. Then tried again. An invisible emotional wall went up. “I wanted you to be friends with me, the way we never had been when we were growing up.”
“And I was.” Although, given how much he had yearned to make her his woman, it had been hard as hell keeping things light.
Her eyes grew stormy. “I wanted us to use that first year to build a foundation for whatever came next, assuming something came next, not just jump heart-first into an affair that was pretty much guaranteed because of the pressure-filled circumstances we were in, as first-years, to crash and burn!”
“You see, Lily?” Gannon shot back. “That’s the difference between us. Because I never thought a relationship between us would end in failure. And if you had been brave enough to start something with me, regardless of the timing, you would have discovered what I already knew—that we would have been the exception to the rule. The couple everyone else looked up to because we had made our relationship work in the face of impossible odds.”
Briefly, Lily looked as crushed as he had felt back then, when she had turned him down. As though her heart had been broken.
As usual, however, she bounced back fast.
With an angry sniff, she folded her arms in front of her and asserted, “Not that we ever had a chance to find out, since you went on to pursue everything in a skirt that came your way over the next three years. Thereby unwittingly proving my point that relationships forged in the maelstrom of professional school do not last.”
Acutely aware his serial dating had been a mistake, embarked on because he was still smarting from Lily’s rejection, and knew she would never do anything more than hold him at arm’s length, no matter what she said, Gannon shrugged.
“So sue me for not wanting to sit on the sidelines while you soldiered on bravely alone!” Gannon volleyed back. Because, true to her self-flagellating vow, Lily hadn’t dated anyone until the very last few weeks of her law school years.
Lily stuffed papers in her briefcase willy-nilly. “You always were an all-or-nothing kind of guy.”
His gaze swept over her, head to toe. Reminding him all over again what a lithe, beautiful body she had. How she was determined to let the satisfaction he could bring her go untested. “Whereas you live your life in all half measures,” he retorted just as stubbornly.
“You’re right. I do see the value in compromise.” Lily zipped her briefcase shut with quick, jerky motions. Hunted around for her purse.
Finally finding it, she flung it on her desk next to her briefcase, then defiantly marched toward him, chiding him all the way. “And if you’d grown up the way I had, as the fifth-born of six daughters, you, too, would be happy to get whatever you could—whenever you could—and never ever expect too much because...”
Recognizing another We Can’t Do This speech coming on, Gannon decided the time for treating her with kid gloves had passed. Lily was all woman. He was all man. And the attraction between them was tantalizingly real.
Wordlessly, he closed the remaining distance between them and took her in his arms. Flattened one palm over her spine and threaded his other hand through her hair.
Smiling at her gasp of surprise, he tilted her head up, lowered his mouth slowly and deliberately over hers.
“What are you doing?” Lily sputtered, her turquoise eyes flashing.
Just this once, Gannon decided to stop putting his own wants and needs aside. “Showing you exactly what you could expect if you ever let down your guard with me.”
Chapter Four (#ulink_f1a3675e-d226-5355-a703-512a402603a0)
Lily saw the kiss coming. Knew she could have prevented it simply by flattening a hand over Gannon’s broad chest. But she didn’t push him away. Didn’t do anything to keep his head from lowering, ever so deliberately, to hers.
She had dreamed of this moment for years. Yearned for it. Been afraid of it. And the sensation of his lips and body pressed against hers was, she quickly found out, everything she had ever worried and wanted and dreamed it would be.
He was just so darn hard and warm and strong. All over. So tall. So comforting. So alluring.
He tasted good, too. Like mint and man. And desire.
And, oh, sweet heaven, she wanted him in that instant more than she had ever wanted anything or anyone in her life. Which was why she knew she had to end this now.
Hands against his chest, she pushed.
He lifted his head, as she knew he would.
If there was one thing Gannon was to the core, it was a Texas gentleman.
“See?” he teased, sifting a hand through her hair. “That wasn’t so bad, now, was it?”
Bad! It had been artful. Seductive. And enthralling. It was all she could do not to groan out loud. Lily gathered her wits and pushed the rest of the way away from him. “I never said I wasn’t attracted to you.”
He caught her about the waist and reeled her back to him. Ran a hand lovingly over her spine, eliciting new tingles of awareness everywhere he touched. “Good to hear,” he said gruffly, grinning at her prickly manner. “Because I never said that, either.” His hot gaze skimmed her face. “In fact, just the opposite is true.”
His stubborn words mirrored her own wistful feelings. Which was why she had to be practical. “And that’s exactly why we can’t take this any farther than we have.” His eyes narrowed in response, but Lily forged on. “My life is here. Yours is in Fort Worth. I have a son. You love living the bachelor life.” If that wasn’t enough to make them put on the brakes, she didn’t know what was!
Deep grooves formed on either side of his mouth, and he studied her grimly. “You have it all figured out, don’t you?”
Lily drew a bolstering breath. “I don’t want to get hurt again, Gannon. The biggest mistake of my life was starting something with someone who I was never destined to be with.”
The mention of her former lover was enough to throw a bucket of cold water on his desire. “Bode,” he said, letting her go.
