She watched him pick up the rocks glass beside his water goblet, swirling the contents before draining it with a chuckle.
“Yeah, that sums it up.”
Vanessa swallowed, preparing her thoughts before opening her mouth, but Grayson continued with more unexpected confidences.
“Someone from the national board came in this week. Do you know what they had the audacity to tell me? It was one of those ‘tell me I got this job I didn’t really want in the first place because of nepotism without telling me’ conversations. He said it was too bad I didn’t have more experience in public practice; that’s what my predecessor came on board with. A shame I hadn’t worked in the DA’s office before, or — wait for it — that I didn’t have any experience as a public defender.”
Her laughter was unrestrained, chiming like a bell across the dining room, and the troll at the table beside them turned his head with a cocked eyebrow in her direction.
“Too bad you don’t have any of that worthless first-year law student experience,” she tittered before another wave of laughter overtook her. “I hope you reminded them that public defenders don’t have experience litigating federal trials.”
“Oh, that’s exactly what I reminded him. Also, my predecessor left because of burnout, yet his hours in court last year were half of mine.”
“It’s a shame you don’t have someone at home with that worthless PD experience with whom you could share attorney-to-attorney privilege.”
His eyes met hers for the first time, and Vanessa swallowed, unable to define the emotion she saw there.Playing games is what got you into this mess in the first place,the little voice in her head whispered.
“How did we get here, Gray? I still don’t even know how we got here. How am I supposed to know what you want when we’venevertalked about things?Youdon’t even know what the fuck you want! You completely changed careers out of the blue, to spite me and make your dad happy. But guess what? You spiting me has made your dad a little less happy with you, and now it sounds like you might hate your job. So who’s winning? Who gets to be the victor in this one, counselor? I didn’t mean to hurt you, Grayson, but everything you’ve done since then has been very deliberately designed to hurt me.”
He said nothing for a long moment, his eyes raising from the tablecloth to glance around the room.
“Actually, I know exactly what I want right now. Another drink.”
She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, her confidence that she could fix things shriveling.What’s gone is gone. Too late to try and set parameters around things now.She jumped when he hooked her pinky with his own across the table, biting her lip as the obsequious server appeared to whisk away the empty rocks glass, reappearing shortly after with a fresh drink.
“Since when do you drink anything other than champagne?”
“I’m contemplating taking up alcoholism, actually. It seems like the next logical step to achieving a triumvirate of poor decisions. Someone asked me if I was planning on doing gardening, but I don’t think my cuticles would take well to the dirt. A hobby is a hobby, though, right?”
Her shoulders shook in laughter as she laced their fingers fully.
“Please don’t. You already have a terrible personality, sober. And I don’t think your poor brain could handle that. It’s not too late to walk back on some of those poor decisions. Itshouldbe, but it’s not. Well . . . actually, Shrike has your office now. I don’t think you can walk back on that one. Are you even going to have time to plan your party this year?”
“That’s what event planners are for. I’ll be lucky if I can even get the night off. What about you, rabbit? Are you going to be ready to run?”
Her heart thrilled, hearing her pet name for the first time in what felt like an eternity, but for all her talk, she didn’t know what she wanted either. Shewasready to run, wasalwaysready to run, wanted him to keep chasing her forever. She wouldn’t know what to do with herself if she were caught, but it was looking more and more likely like she either needed to face the snare or find a new running partner.
“Of course,” she agreed with a wide smile. “If I have a party to go to, that is. I wonder who might catch me this year, it’s a wide-open field.” She held his eye as she drained her own glass, wondering if he would even care to claim her. Vanessa realized, for the first time, how exhausting this all was. She was chasing him, for the first time in their relationship, and she fucking hated it. “And you know what they say. After the ceremony, the chase is the fun part.”
* * *
Chapter eleven
The Capture
“Ididn’texpecttosee you here tonight.”
Vanessa turned at the familiar deep voice, his scent catching her nose, similar to Grayson but just different enough. Not as icy cool, peppery at the back of her tongue, as if his bad temper and short fuse manifested into an appropriate flavor. She turned, smiling up at Trapp.
“Is that because you didn’t think I would be invited, or you didn’t think I would come?”
“. . . Both?” he winced, earning her laughter. “I’m very glad to see you, don’t get me wrong. Look, I don’t know what happened, and I really don’t want to be involved, but I’m glad you’re here. You’re good for him. I hope he’s good for you. I’m surprised, but it’s a happy surprise.”
“Well, this is the only Lupercalia shindig in town. I couldn’t miss out.”
He beamed with that megawatt smile, and she wondered, not for the first time, what he was doing, wasting his time with a human. “You made the right choice. This is probably your only chance to see me in formal wear. Get your last look, but it’s about to be left in a heap somewhere.”
Vanessa laughed. “Get to it then, brother wolf.”
