Unwrapping the Playboy / The Playboy's Gift: Unwrapping the Playboy

Kullen nodded. “Can’t miss her. She looks like the last living cast member from the set of The Wizard of Oz,” he said tactfully.

It was an apt description of the woman, Lilli thought as she turned toward the door. The administrative assistant did look a great deal like an aged Munchkin. “When do you want to see me again?” she asked Kullen.

I never stopped wanting to see you, he told her silently. With effort, he forced himself to focus on more neutral terrain. He should only think of her in light of the actual business they had with one another. Nothing more.

Turning the calendar on his desk toward him, Kullen glanced at several consecutive pages. As near as he could tell, they were filled. It didn’t matter. He’d find a way to make time for her.

Pushing the calendar away, he turned to face her. “Whenever’s convenient for you.”

The word convenient didn’t fit the situation. There was nothing convenient about it. “Mrs. Dalton got the court to accelerate the date, so as soon as possible would be very much appreciated.” She eyed him hopefully. “I can come back with the papers later this afternoon if you like.”

He would have liked to say yes, but he couldn’t. “I’m leaving for court in half an hour.” And more than likely would be there for the rest of the day, until the judge adjourned the proceedings.

Lilli didn’t allow obstacles to deter her, not anymore. She’d learned that along the way as she carved out a living for herself and her son. The meek and mild were stepped on, the forceful were not.

“All right, then I can drop the documents off at your place tonight,” she suggested. “I know it sounds like I’m being pushy, but I’ll feel a lot better the sooner you have all the ammunition you need at your disposal.” And then she realized that she’d overlooked an important, salient point. “Unless your wife doesn’t like work from the office showing up on your doorstep at night.”

“No wife.”

The disclaimer was out of his mouth before he realized that he had just ruined his one opportunity to keep her permanently at arm’s length. If Lilli thought he was married, she would keep her distance. She wasn’t some femme fatale, given to whimsical flirting. There wouldn’t be any more impromptu incidents of her throwing her arms around his neck. Lilli was honorable that way.

How the hell did he really know what she was like, he silently demanded the next moment, growing irritable. He hadn’t been right about her the first time around. Eight years ago he would have bet his last dime—and his life—that Lilli wasn’t the type to vanish without a word, especially after someone had bared his soul to her.

He would have lost that bet.

For all he knew, the challenge of prying a man away from his wife would spur Lilli on.

I really didn’t know you at all, did I? he thought, looking at her.

“You’re not married?” Lilli asked, surprised. Someone like Kullen should have gotten snapped up years ago. He was one of the few true good guys left in the world. They didn’t make men like him anymore. If she hadn’t discovered that she was pregnant the same evening that he’d proposed, she would have gladly married him and spent the rest of her life trying to put that one awful episode in her life behind her.

Don’t go there, she warned herself. What’s done is done.

“No,” he answered, “I’m not married.”

“Oh.”

Despite the fact that it was years too late for her, that what could have been between them was in the past, Lilli was suddenly aware of a small, intense flame of warmth igniting within her. A warmth that swiftly spread, as if to thaw her out. To make her feel alive again.

This wouldn’t accomplish anything, she upbraided herself. It was best to leave things just the way they were. There was no going back. Her future, her life, was all bound up around the boy. Jonathan was the important one here. Jonathan was the only reason she was here, temporarily interacting with Kullen.

She wanted to be clear that he didn’t mind her doing this. Eager though she was, she didn’t want to risk crowding him. “Then I can bring the papers by your house?”

He didn’t want her getting the wrong idea, that her coming over would lead to anything but discussing her case.

“You could have brought them by even if I was married,” he informed her. “When’s the court date?” She told him and he whistled, shaking his head. No wonder she was antsy. “Two weeks. That really doesn’t leave much time,” he agreed.

“That’s the whole idea behind such an early court date. Mrs. Dalton’s trying to steamroll right over me.”

Kullen liked a challenge, liked fighting the good fight. Cut-and-dried cases didn’t allow him to stretch his muscles, and a lot of the time they bored him. His gut told him he wouldn’t be bored with this case. Not by a long shot.

“Well, Mrs. Dalton’s just going to have to rethink her strategy,” he replied. He reached over a pile of papers to get one of his business cards from his desk. Flipping it over, he wrote down his home address on the back, then held the card out to Lilli. “Here’s my address,” he told her. “I should be home after six.”

What sort of a home did he live in? Was it strictly utilitarian, the way his room had been in college? Or had his obvious success changed him, changed his tastes? Was his home big and splashy, filled with furniture and objects of art chosen by some interior decorator?

Lilli slipped the card into her purse. “I’ll be there,” she promised.

She started to open the door, but the sound of his voice stopped her.

“Just out of curiosity, who referred you to me?”

He wondered if she’d just looked him up, forgetting that he’d once had plans to work in the poorer section of Los Angeles, counseling those who couldn’t afford to pay a lawyer. Or if she did remember, did finding him here make her think that he’d sold out and joined his father’s firm just to please him?

Her answer caught him off guard. “Your mother.”

“My mother?” Damn it, Kate had been right. Now that she, Nikki and Jewel were all squared away with fiancés and weddings in the near future, Theresa Manetti had decided to turn her sights on him. “You looked up my mother?” he asked incredulously.

“No, actually, it’s all just a very fortunate coincidence.”

Yeah, I just bet, Kullen thought. He didn’t believe in coincidences, fate or luck. Not anymore. Especially not where his mother was concerned. She’d known about this at lunch today and she hadn’t said a word to him.

“My mother needed to have a party catered,” Lilli explained, “and she looked up your mother. Your mother comes very highly recommended,” she told him by way of a compliment. His expression remained oddly stoic. “They started talking and my mother told yours that I was badly in need of a lawyer. Your mother volunteered you.”

His mother probably heard the words “my single daughter” and her imagination galloped off, Kullen thought darkly. “Did my mother ask yours what kind of lawyer you needed?”

Lilli smiled. It was the same smile he used to think lit up a dark room. “My mother only said I needed a good one. Your mother proudly said that you were. But my nine months in law school were not wasted,” she said, tongue in cheek. “I looked you up,” she told him. “I wanted to be sure that you weren’t practicing criminal law or just doing estate planning.” A distant expression came into her eyes. “I won’t need a criminal lawyer except maybe as a last resort.”

He knew what she was saying. That if it came down to it, she’d kill to keep her son. He wondered if she actually meant that.

“As your lawyer, I have to advise you not to make those kind of jokes right now—” he underscored the word “—just in case Elizabeth Dalton does happen to turn up dead.”

Lilli studied him for a long moment. “I don’t remember you being this cautious before.”

He was the exact opposite of cautious and serious when it came to his social life, but professionally it was another matter. The law didn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for mistakes.

“I’m not,” he replied. “But in this particular case, it wouldn’t hurt to cover all bases.”

He was right and she was grateful to him for that. For taking her case. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was criticizing him or his methods.

“Thank you,” she said again. “Just knowing that you’re on the case makes me feel a great deal better al ready.”

“That makes one of us,” he said to the door after she had left and closed it.

Damn it, he had a feeling that once this case was over he would have to start from scratch again. He would have to work to drive her essence out of his head. Out of his soul.

“Of all the law firms in Bedford, she had to wander into mine,” he murmured under his breath, riffing on Humphrey Bogart’s famous line in Casablanca.

With a sigh Kullen glanced down at his watch. He gave Lilli five minutes to stop at Selma’s desk, get the list he’d suggested she take with her and then make her way to the elevator.