Mad About the Man by Tracy Anne Warren Read Free Book Online Page A

year.”
    â€œYes, but you’ve been a practicing attorney for eight years with experience in both the public and private sectors. You graduated from Harvard and Harvard Law at the top of your class, served as an editor of the
Law Review
, and landed a position at a prestigious New York law firm straight out of college.”
    Her lips parted with surprise, but he continued before she could say anything. “You left corporate law to work for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., for a few years before returning here to the city to resume your original career track,” he went on. “You’re considered one of Marshall McNeal Prescott’s best and brightest litigators and were already well on the way toward partnership. My . . . suggestion that you be offered partner did nothing more than move up the timetable. I’m sure you and they were already thinking along those lines well before I came along.”
    â€œYou had me investigated?” she said on a sudden gasp of understanding.
    He shrugged, unapologetic. “Of course. I’m a businessman, Brie. I do my homework. You don’t really think I’d put the legal concerns of a company worth nearly a billion dollars in the hands of someone who doesn’t know what she’s doing?”
    Her breasts rose and fell as she drew in several rapid breaths. “Why, you—”
    â€œDon’t worry. I told my investigator to focus on the business side of things. He left out most of the personal stuff. You’re whistle clean when it comes to drugs, not even an occasional puff of a joint on the side.” He made a smoking motion with one hand.
    â€œOf course not,” she shot back, her blue eyes ablaze.
    â€œStill the incorruptible princess, aren’t you, Brie-Brie? But then, I always liked that about you. You’ve got integrity.”
    The kind of integrity a man wanted to corrupt for his own personal pleasure.
    He thought again about tugging her onto his lap, spearing his fingers into her hair, and kissing her until neither one of them could think straight. But she’d already decked him once. He didn’t want her to have an excuse to give him a second black eye.
    â€œHere are our drinks,” he said as the waiter reappeared. “I’m sure our lunch will be ready any minute.”
    She accepted the iced tea, her hand tight on the glass.
    For a second he wondered if she was going to toss it at him. Instead, she raised it to her lips and took a long drink.
    Steadying her nerves?
    He always had been able to get a rise out of her. He couldn’t wait to see how long it took him to bring the banked passion he sensed in her to the fore.
    Brie set her drink down with a slight click, then looked him in the eye again. “You still haven’t told me why.”
    â€œWhy what?”
    â€œWhy me?”
    Rather than answer, he took a long swallow of his own glass of iced tea. Despite his offer of wine or a cocktail, he didn’t drink alcohol. He’d been sober for more than ten years now, and he had every intention of remaining that way. He’d even refused the painkillers they’d offered him at the hospital for that reason.
    â€œGood or not,” she continued, “there are lots of excellent attorneys in the city, including the ones at your old firm. Why pick me when we never got along and when I gave you what looks like a very painful black eye the first time we ran into each other in over twenty years?”
    A slow grin spread over his mouth. “Oh, that’s easy. I want you in my bed. I thought we’d start with business first, then work our way up to the pleasure.”

C
HAPTER FIVE
    B rie stared for a long moment, then tossed back her head and laughed. The very idea of her and Monroe, it was . . . well . . . it was laughable. They despised each other for one thing. For another, she didn’t hook up with men she worked