Read Online Power Play (Crimson Romance) by Nan Comargue - Free Book Online

counselor.”
    Lila brushed this suggestion aside. “I don’t need a marriage counselor for a pretend reconciliation.”
    Her lawyer glanced around at the surging flow of people before drawing her into a less trafficked corner of the lobby. “I would advise you not to speak of the real nature of your marriage reconciliation in public. One of the terms of the contract you just signed restricts you to secrecy.”
    “What about Jack? I assume that he’s an exception.”
    Adam Billings shook his head. “There are no exceptions save for your respective legal counsel and we are bound by solicitor-client privilege. I couldn’t breathe a word about this case even if I wanted to, or else I would lose my license to practice law.”
    She caught his suited arm. “We have to go back upstairs. You have to negotiate an exception for my boyfriend. I have to be able to tell him about this contract or he’ll believe … ”
    Her words trailed off as the full effect of what she had agreed to infiltrated.
    “Or he will believe what everyone else will believe,” her lawyer concluded. “That you and your husband have reconciled in order to give your marriage another shot.”
    He was staring at her and she remembered that even he didn’t know the true motive behind the fiction of the reconciliation. No one knew that save for she and Cahal.

Chapter Five
    With enough money, any chore could be made easy, even a pretend reconciliation. Lila’s possessions moved without the need for her to lift a hand in aid. Her clothes, her books, even her knickknacks and cosmetics flew across the city, shuttled by hired professionals, and all she had to do was follow in their path. As disconcerting as it was to find her clothes arranged on hangers and in drawers, her perfume bottles ranged along a glass-topped dressing table, almost as if she had done it all in her sleep, it was also a relief. Her possessions fit in well, now it was her turn.
    “It’s a nice place,” she commented, the words inadequate to describe the lake-facing penthouse suite with its floor-to-ceiling windows along one long wall and stark contemporary furniture. It was far from the comfortable traditional house in Chicago and she guessed that that was the point of the stringent modernity.
    “It’s your home now,” Cahal replied, his tone one she didn’t like to analyze.
    Lila couldn’t resist adding, “Only for the next two months.”
    “We’ll see.”
    Clenching her fists, she said nothing.
    It had all happened so quickly. One day she was looking forward to a new life and the next she was back in time, back in a marriage with a man who had always made her feel jealous and insecure. No, not always. When they were teenagers and Cahal’s star was just rising, she’d been proud of him and never suspicious. His successes felt like hers and she knew he felt the same about her education and career. What happened? Was it just the fame seeping between them, eventually forcing them apart, or was it more?
    A peal of classical music caused her to search out the purse she’d dropped on Cahal’s leather couch, scrambling her cell phone from its depths. She’d turned it on only minutes ago, aware she couldn’t hide indefinitely.
    “Lila?” Jack’s familiar voice held an odd mixture of relief and anger. “Where have you been for the past two days?”
    First at her lawyer’s office and now back under her husband’s roof? Those words weren’t easy to say, on top of being perfectly ludicrous.
    She settled on, “It’s a long story.”
Even longer beneath Cahal’s mocking eyes.
Lila turned her back on him. “Can we meet somewhere and talk?”
    “I’ve got practice tonight.” He sounded aggrieved.
    “How about afterwards?” Her dark eyes were on Cahal, aware that he could hear every word of their conversation due to the other man’s raised voice. She added, “We’ve really got to talk.”
    Jack’s laugh was hollow. “That doesn’t sound good.”
    She swallowed.