Anyone else would have asked:Who are they?
Joaquin gave an impassive blink. “Why contract law?”
“Are you suffering insomnia and need something to put you to sleep? Why are we still talking aboutme?”
“I’m interested.”
Was he? He was listening attentively, but his motives were impossible to read. He was most likely trying to get lucky. Perhaps he was lonely. Maybehewas an assassin trying to blend in by having a drink with a stranger.
She really wanted to take him at his word, though. She was feeling a deep pull of attraction and yearned for it to be mutual.
“It’s another deeply unsexy answer,” she warned. “When I was young, our family went through some hard times. One of my sisters got into estate law to pay the bills. Probate and such.”
“Not the direction desperate women usually take,” he noted with a twitch of his lips.
“Right?” Siobhan grinned, but the truth was Cinnia had also been the girlfriend of a very rich man and had taken flack for it, even though that wasn’t how she’d kept their family afloat. “She always said there was good money in doing the tedious work no one else wants to do. I have a good memory and I read fast. I’m detail-oriented and I can be cutthroat when necessary. I love the idea of achieving something difficult by wielding fine print.”
“This is the sister who paid for your room?”
“No. I have three. The one who booked the room is married to a pro athlete. She travels with her husband and collects tons of points so she didn’t technically pay for it. This—” Siobhan indicated the designer jacket she wore over a snug cashmere sweater and pleated trousers “—I stole from another sister’s closet. She works in fashion. I take what fits and hope she doesn’t notice.”
“Ah. You’re not hiding from the law. You’re hiding fromher,” he accused.
“Truth. She’s vicious when crossed.”
“Are they all in Australia?”
“No, we’re sprinkled everywhere.” This was getting too personal so she turned it around. “What about you? Siblings? Any crimes against them you’d like to confess?”
His expression lost all its ease. His gaze dropped to the glass he was pinching.
“I had a brother. He passed eighteen months ago.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t know.” He took a hefty gulp of champagne. “We’d grown apart. Things were complicated.” His expression shuttered and he looked out the window. “I feel strongly that I let him down so yes, in that way I committed a crime of negligence that I’m trying to make up for with his children.”
Oh. She understood that need to self-flagellate far too well. She couldn’t help reaching across to set her hand on his hard wrist, offering what little compassion she could.
“It’s so easy to believe there will be ample time later, isn’t it? You don’t have to talk about him if you don’t want to, but you can. I understandcomplicatedvery well.”
His gaze came up from where she touched his wrist. For a few seconds, she saw into his soul, where regret and glimmering coals of self-directed anger lived.
She felt the walls within her shift. They didn’t fall open, but they angled as though adjusting to nest against his. It became a shared beveled wall. It was the sensation of sitting back-to-back with someone. Not aligned, exactly, but occupying the same space.
Heislonely.
His hand shifted to take hold of hers and the mood altered again. Excitement flared within her, shocking in its intensity. There was a reciprocal flash in his eyes, one that made her skin burn where his thumb stroked across the backs of her knuckles.
“Let’s talk about something else,” he said.
“Something simple?” she suggested shakily, not moving her hand but very, very aware of how her fingers twitched in his loose grip. “Quantum mechanics, perhaps? Or fate versus free will?”
His mouth pulled sideways. “I lean heavily toward free will. You wouldn’t have got the job you wanted if you hadn’t applied. You wouldn’t be having a drink with me if I hadn’t invited you. You sat down because you wanted to.” His thumb skimmed across her skin again, short-circuiting her brain.
“But you wouldn’t have asked if we hadn’t wound up in the same elevator,” she challenged shakily. “Perhaps that was kismet.”
“Please,” he scoffed in that sinfully sexy accent of his. “I took one look at the attractive woman beside me and made a deliberate decision to shirk the calls I ought to be making.”
