Ysela has left fresh coffee and pastries on the counter. She’s a saint. I pour myself a cup, black, no sugar, and take a moment to appreciate the sheer ridiculousness of my current situation.
Two months ago I was a workaholic corporate litigator whose idea of self-care was occasionally ordering salad with her delivery food.
Now I’m playing house with my ex-boyfriend in a Caribbean villa while helping him run a community legal clinic and also having the best sex of my entire life.
Your Honor, the defense would like to submit that the witness has lost her entire mind.
Corin finishes his call and joins me in the kitchen, his hand finding the small of my back like it belongs there.
Which it does.
“Morning,” he murmurs, pressing a kiss to my temple.
“Morning yourself.” I take a sip of coffee to hide the fact I’m blushing. Twenty-eight years old and I still blush like a teenager around this man. Pathetic. “Everything okay in Manhattan?”
His jaw tightens almost imperceptibly. “Mostly. Noemi, my chief of staff, flagged something. We have a visitor arriving on the island today.”
“A visitor?” I ask casually.
He nods slowly, holding my eyes. “Xavier Laurent.”
I freeze.
Xavier Laurent. The former board member who buried Corin’s objections five years ago. The one who silenced his dissent and let my mentor’s career burn to protect the firm’s optics. And the corrupt piece of garbage who’s lately been planting forged documents to frame Corin for misconduct he didn’t commit.
“He’s cominghere?” I can’t hide the disbelief in the voice. “To Eleuthera of all places?”
“Under the guise of a ‘conciliatory investor’ looking to support local development.” Corin’s expression is carefully neutral, but I can see the tension in the line of his shoulders. “Marisol already invited him to a community forum this afternoon. She didn’t know.”
“Of courseshe didn’t.” I set down my coffee cup harder than necessary. “And how long haveyouknown?”
“Twenty-four hours,” he admits quietly.
Twenty-four hours.Corin has been sitting on this information a whole day.
I fold my arms over my chest. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“I didn’t want to worry you until we had confirmation.” He sounds sincere, but...
“Corin.” I turn to face him fully. “We talked about this. The whole ‘protecting me’ thing? That’s not how this works.”
He has the decency to look chastened. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Old habits.”
I want to stay mad, but he’s already admitting fault, and those dark eyes are looking so vulnerable that I can’t help but back down.
Objection: witness is being unfairly attractive during an argument.
“Fine,” I sigh. “So what’s his play? Why come here in person?”
“Intimidation, probably. Reconnaissance. He wants to see what we’re building and figure out how to destroy it.”
“Charming.”
“Xavier’s many things. Charming is unfortunately one of them.” Corin runs a hand through his hair, leaving it slightly disheveled.
I finish my coffee and rinse the cup in the sink, buying myself a moment to think.
Time to put on your litigator hat. You’ve deposed hostile witnesses before. You’ve cross-examined corporate executives who thought they could charm their way out of accountability. Xavier Laurent is just another rich guy who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else.
