“Only forty bottles left in the world.”
“Then why did you open it? You should have saved it for a special occasion.”
He shook his head. “I think sharing a glass of wine with you is occasion enough.”
I raised my eyebrows. “And I thought the wine was smooth.”
A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Too much?”
I tilted my head to one side. “Actually no. I like it.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed another mouthful of wine. How did he make drinking wine sexy?
“Did you hear that Craig wants to extend my contract by three months?” I asked. I wanted to gauge his reaction. Would he mind? Would he be pleased? I’d been the one to stop things between us, but now, as we shared a glass of wine—something I knew he didn’t do with anyone else in chambers—things felt intimate, as if he saw me as an equal. For a man as brilliant as Knightley, it was more than flattering—it was intoxicating.
“I hadn’t heard, but of course they want to extend your contract. You’ve made quite the impact.”
“On you—I mean your billing.”
“On me,” he corrected me. “And because of the billing.”
I couldn’t imagine I’d had an impact on someone like Alexander. I didn’t see how anyone would. If the building caught on fire, he was the sort of man who’d calmly stride toward the exit while everyone else ran screaming.
“Even after the awards? I thought you were angry at me?” I asked. Did that mean he still wanted me? Right now, I wanted to feel his lips skirt over mine, his tongue snaking its way into my mouth. It was a desire I was trying to fight—head over heart, mind over matter.
“You did the right thing. It wasn’t like we could keep fucking in the office.”
It was as if he’d doused me in cold water. I shifted in my seat, sitting up a little straighter.
“But maybe I could take you to dinner one night?” he asked.
Oh.
“One that doesn’t involve a delivery guy on a motorbike and a plastic fork.”
Knightley’s cell buzzed on the desk, interrupting my response.
He was asking me out on a date. Away from the office. I’d been on a thousand casual first dates, but something told me that dinner with Alexander would be anything but casual. I never went on a first date with any hope that it would go one way or the other, but if Knightley and I had dinner, I’d want him to enjoy my company. To kiss me afterward, fuck me like he had done the first time.
Alexander put the phone down. “Sorry, it was just—”
“Yes,” I blurted. “Dinner sounds good.” I was tired of resisting this thing between us. He was different from all those guys in New York. Complicated and confusing but challenging and desperately sexy. And I couldn’t keep away. I didn’t want to.
The way he tried to dampen his smile made me shiver.
“And we’ll just keep us outside chambers,” he said.
“Us?”
He sucked in a breath. “Our dinner and . . .” He shrugged.
I’d never seen him awkward before. It was beyond cute, and I wanted to sit on his lap, link my arms around his neck, and kiss his cheek. “Our dinner,” I repeated, grinning.
“Food!” I jumped up when the front door buzzer went off. “I’ll get it. You make a space.” I nodded at his paper-filled desk.
I came back and unpacked the contents of the brown paper bag, letting him sit in his chair while I sat across from him.
We swapped containers, napkins, and plastic forks and began to eat.
“This is delicious,” I said, closing my eyes as I took my first bite. “I can’t believe it’s takeout.”
“Better, I didn’t have to shop or cook to eat it.”
“Do you ever cook?” I asked. Was he domesticated? I couldn’t imagine him with an apron on.
“No. I live in a hotel.”
“Wait, what? You don’t own the bed you sleep on?”
He half choked as he put down his wine. “I never thought about it that way, but no. Or the sofa I sit on or the TV I don’t watch. But you rent in London. Isn’t it the same?”
“I’m staying at my . . . sister’s sister-in-law’s. I’m not sure what that makes her. Well, in her house anyway. Her main place is in the country.”
“You own something back in America?”
I took another bite of my sea bass. I owned almost nothing I couldn’t wear in America. I could fit my life in my car. “No. But I don’t live in a hotel.”
“It works for me.”
“So this weekend you’ll hang out at the hotel? Does it have a pool and stuff?” Did he have friends? Hobbies?
“I’ll be in chambers this weekend,” he said. “I work Saturdays and Sundays.”
“Do you ever take time off?”
“You realize you’re asking me these questions while you’re eating dinner at work at ten in the evening?”
I laughed. “I know, but this is unusual for me.”
“What about you? What are you doing this weekend?”
Before I could answer, I caught sight of the name of the company I founded with David on the edge of a folded, pink newspaper. I dropped my fork and grabbed the paper, unfolding the article so I could see.
Fuck. There was no escape. I’d not given David and the IPO a second thought in weeks. Why did I have to see this now?
This wasn’t supposed to follow me to London.
I scanned the short article. There were a few details of the IPO and how it was all set for Monday.
“Violet?”
I glanced up and Knightley was looking at me, his brows pulled together.
“Yes, sorry. You were asking what I was doing this weekend. I don’t know. I was going to that spa weekend. But . . .” The last thing I wanted to do was to be left alone with my thoughts all weekend knowing that David was preparing to make his fortune from my hard work come Monday morning.
“Is everything okay?”
I shrugged and sat back in my chair. “Yeah. Just some company I used to be involved with is going public on Monday.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
It was supposed to be a great thing. It was what I’d spent so many hours working toward. And now it was someone else’s future.
“Things ended badly. I left. It’s just difficult for me . . .”
“I’m sorry about that,” he said. “Maybe the spa is exactly what you need.”
“If I don’t drive myself crazy being on my own for two days, winding myself up while being massaged.”
“I don’t know what happened, but I do know you deserve a break. You’ve been working hard and making great progress here. Go to the spa. Try to forget about . . .” He glanced around his office. “Everything.”
He was right. I shouldn’t let what had happened ruin this weekend along with all the rest of the weekends it already had destroyed. I should go to the spa and try to relax. “I just wish Darcy was coming with me to distract me.”
“Darcy?”
“My sister-in-law. Kind of. She’s the only real friend I have in England.”
“You have me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Wanna come to the spa with me for the weekend?”