Hard Rules (Dirty Money #1)(21)

“Thank you,” I say, darting to the awning-covered sidewalk. I turn to find Shane still on the driver’s side of the Bentley, palming a tip to another man in uniform before rounding the hood of the car, and my God, the man is gorgeous and I’m about to be naked with him. And everyone knows. Oh God. That’s embarrassing.

I shove my hands in the pocket of the jacket, his jacket, and decide, yep. They all know. How can they not? I tell myself it doesn’t matter, but I have this internal need to control the perceptions of those around me that comes from a place that really isn’t a good one. I blink and Shane’s attention locks on me, his eyes warm, and his pace determined, as if he can’t wait to get to me, and my worries about appearance slide into the breeze that lifts my hair.

Tai intercepts Shane by my side, and Shane palms him a bill I’m pretty sure is a generous fifty. “Keys in the car, Tai,” he instructs of the Bentley. “We’re in for the night.”

We’re in for the night. Does he mean me and him or him and the car? It doesn’t matter really. My belly flip-flops anyway, and not just because of his use of the word “we,” but the inference that I’m staying the night. Am I staying the night? I think I want to, but isn’t the morning after weird?

“Always a pleasure to park the Bentley,” Tai replies, sounding rather excited by the prospect.

He turns away, as if eager to get to it, when Shane stops him. “By the way, I meant to tell you. Culinary school for your daughter was a good investment. I took some clients to her restaurant last week and we all agreed. Best meal we’ve had in years. I’ll be sending people her way.”

Pride and appreciation flashes across Tai’s face. “The restaurant’s gotten a slow start, so you have no idea how much that means to all of us.”

“My absolute pleasure,” Shane says, grasping his shoulder. “One day she’ll make a husband fat and happy.”

Chuckling, Tai pats his belly. “Just like her mother.” He hurries away and Shane’s attention lands on me, and I swear the connection I once again feel to this man, who is so obviously more than his money and good looks, punches me in the chest. I’ve never had a man affect me like this.

He steps in front of me, reaching into the jacket pockets to pull my hands onto his shoulders before his settle possessively at my waist. “I like you in my jacket,” he says, his voice a low, rough caress I feel in every part of me. “It says you’re with me.”

It’s the exact thing I’d found concerning minutes before, but coming from him, it’s pure seduction. “I like me in your jacket because it smells like you.”

“You can keep it as long as I’m in it.”

“You aren’t in it now,” I point out.

“You won’t be either in a few minutes,” he promises, turning us toward the entryway and wrapping his arm around my waist, under the jacket. “Finally, I’m going to have you to myself.”

“Which wouldn’t be happening had I driven the Bentley and wrecked it,” I say as the double glass doors part for us and we enter a fancy lobby with a long oak registration desk to our right, and chairs and tables speckled here and there to our left.

“You weren’t going to wreck it,” he assures me. “And you had other reasons for declining and we both know it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say quickly, and it’s the worst lie I’ve told. I know and I’m now certain he knows that I didn’t want my lost dreams punishing me any more than they already have tonight.

“Besides,” he says, giving me an escape, and directing us toward the elevators, “I wouldn’t have let you wreck it.”

“All that confidence and command won’t stop me if I want to crash, fall, or spill something, I promise you.” We turn a corner and stop at what appears to be a private bank of elevators. “There’s a law of nature element to it.”

He punches the call button. “I don’t believe in the law of nature any more than I do the power of the universe.”

“Never. Not at all?”

“No. To do so would infer I have no control over the outcome of a situation and if that’s the case, why keep fighting? I want control. That means I have to believe I can take it.”

“What about how you just happened to come downstairs tonight when I was at the desk? That’s fate. Or the stars aligning, or whatever you want to call it.”

He steps to me and shackles my hips, something he does often, and I could easily get used to it, but of course, I will never get the chance. “I chose to come after you,” he states.

“But you wouldn’t have had the opportunity if the timing hadn’t been perfect.”

“Semantics.”

“That’s not even close to the definition of ‘semantics.’”

“It is if I say it is. That’s how I win over juries. I believe what I’m saying and I make them believe it too.”

“So you’re not just good at your job, you’re good in the courtroom.”

“Being good means rarely going to court.”

“And you do that how?”

“Know what makes everyone tick, which means knowing more than your client and the people influencing their situation and life. Know the same about your opposing counsel.”