The Billionaire's Illicit Twins - Holly Rayner Page 0,33

our way toward the skeleton of the thing—and it all worked in Bella’s favor. Almost all of it gave her client exactly what he wanted, and she was looking like a complete rock star in the negotiation.

Yeah, a whole lot of that was because she really was incredibly good. I wasn’t doing her as many favors as I was sure my lawyer thought I was. She was holding her own, pushing when she had the advantage, and seeing solutions where most people would only have seen problems. She deserved to have a much higher-level job than she did.

She deserved to be running her own practice. And she’d be brilliant when she got to that point.

But a lot of it was also because I was blocking Joseph from pushing her back. I wanted her to see that I was on her side. I wanted her to see that I was willing to throw my company under the bus at least a little bit if it meant she thawed enough to give me some time.

And I knew from the quick glances she kept throwing my way that she saw exactly what I was doing. I saw from the hidden smile at the corner of her mouth that she knew things were going easier than they should have—and that it was my way of opening the door between us back up.

I knew that when I got up and stretched at the end of the meeting, then made my way over to the corner table where she was shoving things into her bag, she’d hear me out.

“You’re even better at negotiating than you are in the courtroom,” I said quietly. “I’m definitely going to hire you away from your firm now.”

Her mouth drew up in a smile that she quickly tried to suppress. “It helps when you’re negotiating with someone who’s intent on giving away the entire farm.”

I shrugged. “Well, not the entire farm. I’m keeping most of the cows in the barn.”

And at that, she turned to me, giving me the full force of those eyes—which were hesitant, but laughing. Well, not laughing. They were sort of chuckling. Not a full laugh, not yet, but open to the idea of it.

“So you’re giving us what, one cow? Two, maybe?”

“One and a half, max,” I told her solemnly. “I figure it’s the least I can do.”

A stern nod on her part told me that she knew exactly what I was talking about—and agreed with me—and I took that as an invitation to continue. To jump right off the cliff and see if she was going to give me a parachute… or not.

“I am sorry, for what it’s worth,” I said quickly. “I shouldn’t have jumped into it the way I did. But I do still think we can work something out. Something that works for both of us. All four of us. Give me a chance to take you out to dinner. Give me a chance to find the right route for… all of us.”

She tipped her head, her mouth twisting up in doubt. “Dinner? With our professional history? That’s—”

“Our professional history is almost done,” I said, cutting her off. “Besides, don’t you think we deserve a chance to make sure we’re doing the right thing? Don’t you think we all deserve that?”

She didn’t answer, and I knew I had her there. She might not meet with me for herself—but she would definitely do it for the babies.

When she finally nodded, I almost jumped in excitement. In fact, I barely stopped myself—which was weird, considering this was someone I just wanted to get to know so we could work out an arrangement for the babies.

I put that little hiccup away, though, and focused on the more important part. She had agreed to dinner. Which meant I had a shot to see her outside of work. Get to know her better. Get to know her at all.

I pulled one of my business cards from my pocket and leaned down, jotting my personal number on the back. When I handed it to her, I made sure our fingers brushed.

Not because I enjoyed the feeling of our skin touching, of course. But because I thought she might.

“Call me tomorrow,” I whispered. “And we’ll set something up.”

Then I turned and strolled oh-so-casually out of the room, my back burning up with the knowledge that she was watching me go.

Dinner. That meant I’d have at least an hour, maybe two, to convince her to work with me on a