The Intern (The Dalton Family #4)(23)

I took another deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I heard from the other side.

I didn’t know why I was racked with nerves or why my body felt so weak, my limbs numb. This was just an internship; it wasn’t like I was about to step into court for the very first time. Hopefully, I’d feel better once I got a sense of Christopher and his work style and what this process was actually going to look like.

Knowing I was already taking too long, I turned the knob and slowly opened the door. I was fully expecting there to be a tall, almost-lanky, blond-haired, light-blue-eyed man behind the desk—details I’d captured during my research of him.

But Christopher’s eyes weren’t the ones staring back at me.

These were green.

Magnetic.

And they pulled so many memories from my mind, ones that had started during the mock trial, ones that continued at the bar, ones that had locked with mine before he led me to the alley.

Declan Shaw?

Is here?

No.

He couldn’t be.

He wasn’t employed by The Dalton Group.

He worked at Smith & Klein.

Doesn’t he?

I blinked.

Again.

And again.

Every time my eyes refocused, Declan was still there. His strong, broad shoulders taking up the whole width of the chair. His square jaw, a literal work of art, was taunting me, as were his perfectly thick lips. The dusting of scruff on his face had now thickened into a fuller beard.

When I realized my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, my mouth parted, and instead of saying something to greet him, I gasped.

Oh shit.

That sound hadn’t just happened in my head; it was audible.

But it turned out, I wasn’t the only one surprised; the same look was registering on his face.

“Hannah …”

The shock didn’t last long, and what replaced that expression was hunger. His lips opened, and his tongue licked across them, his eyes becoming feral.

After the disappointment and hurt that I’d felt from that photo, I would have thought my body would have zero reaction to him.

But my body wasn’t on the same wavelength as my mind.

Almost instantly, there was a wetness between my legs, my body aching for his fingers. I caught a glimpse of his hands, remembering the way they had tugged my nipples, twisted, and instant memories from that night in the alley were suddenly making me breathless.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

My fingers fell from the doorknob, my feet frozen in place.

I couldn’t take another step.

I couldn’t sit.

I’d planned to never see this man again unless I faced him in the courtroom, where I would be forced to address him professionally and fully intended to whip his ass. That was what he deserved after ditching me for Madison. The aftershock of seeing that photo still rattled me.

But now, he was here.

In Christopher’s office.

Which meant only one thing.

I was staring at my new mentor—a piece of information my family hadn’t given me before I walked down the hallway. Based on his question, I figured they must have kept him in the dark as well.

Oh God.

How? Why?

And what am I going to do?

The dryness on my tongue made it almost impossible for me to swallow. “I work here.” No, that’s not really true. “I’m an intern.”

“Since when?”

I couldn’t tell if he was pleased by this news or pissed.

“Since today,” I replied.

If he had been given my information prior to me walking through his door, then he would have connected the dots by now, and he would know I was a Dalton. Therefore, I had to assume he still didn’t know.

Oh boy.

Today keeps getting more interesting by the second.

“Declan, when did you start working here?”

I hoped this was just a temporary situation, that Christopher was on vacation and would replace Declan in a couple of days or hours—the latter being my preference.

“A few days ago.”

I tried to fill my lungs. “And you’re going to be my … mentor?”

His eyes narrowed. “Looks that way, doesn’t it?”

“It … does.”

He pointed at one of the chairs in front of his desk. “Sit.”

I encouraged my feet to move even though they didn’t want to, and once I was safely seated, his stare intensified.

I couldn’t continue to hold his gaze.

It was too much.

I just wanted to run and never return to this office again.

But I couldn’t. I had to say something. There were just so many elephants in the room; I didn’t know which one to start with.

My name seemed like a solid place, but I needed to find a way to ease into it.

Make light of it—somehow.

“You know, it’s funny; my cousin always tells me about the firm’s new hires,” I said. “At least the lawyers who come on board who have quite a name for themselves, like you. I wish he’d mentioned something, especially since you’re such a celebrity at our law school.”

I wondered why Ford hadn’t told me, considering I’d watched his daughter the past two nights, giving him a perfect opportunity to bring it up.