not going to tell you everything,’ she retorted, thinking of Brad and Mario.
And she certainly didn’t mention those two humiliating relationships. But she did tell Ryan about her mother running away from home to Sydney and eventually marrying her father, who’d been a runaway of another kind. Carmelo Ferrugia had been a lawyer, a refugee from Columbia whose first wife and children had been murdered by some very bad people. Carmelo had been twenty years older than her mother, a kind, compassionate man who’d spent the rest of his life helping people in difficulty.
She also told him about their tragic death in a small-plane crash when she’d been only eleven, about her years living up in the Hunter Valley with her grandparents and her time at a Sydney boarding-school.
‘I always knew that I would stay in Sydney as soon as I finished school,’ she added. ‘And that I would become a lawyer, like my dad. I actually worked for legal aid for a while, like he did. But I didn’t like it all that much. I found it a bit … boring.’
‘So you moved on to Harvey, Michaels and Associates.’
‘No, I joined another legal firm first, one which specialised in criminal defence.’
‘You couldn’t have found that boring.’
‘No, I loved it. But I … um …’
‘You what?’
Too late Laura realised where this conversation was heading.
She winced. She hated talking about Mario. Brad had hurt her, but Mario had cut very deep.
‘I had a relationship with a client that ended badly,’ she finally admitted.
‘I see.’
‘I doubt it.’
‘No, I do see. I had a relationship with a client once. That ended badly too. It almost destroyed my business.’
Laura was shocked. ‘What happened?’
‘In a nutshell I had a brief fling with a client. When I broke up with her she did her very libellous best to bring my company—and me—to our knees. It was a close call, I can tell you. Makes you damned careful in future. I’ve never dated a client since. I dare say you feel the same way.’
‘You could say that.’
‘Just as well this isn’t a real date, then. Still, I don’t think I have to worry about your ever getting obsessed with me, Laura.’
Oh, the irony of that remark, she thought as she turned droll eyes his way. ‘I think you’re reasonably safe.’ Provided you don’t do anything stupid like make a pass at me.
His laugh carried real amusement. ‘You know, it’s quite refreshing being in the company of a woman whom you can entirely trust.’
‘Meaning?’ she said a bit more tartly that she meant to.
‘Meaning I would never have offered to pretend to be your boyfriend if I thought you liked me at all. Because let’s face it, Laura, if that was the case this weekend could have complicated our working relationship.’
‘I don’t see how. Even if I liked you, you don’t like me.’
‘Not true, sweetheart. How could I possibly continue to dislike a woman who spent three-thousand dollars saving the life of her poor little puddy-tat?’
‘Oh,’ she said, and then did the unthinkable.
She blushed.
RYAN could not believe it when Laura’s cheeks flushed a bright red. For a second or two, he was troubled by her reaction. But then he saw it for what it was: a natural response to the unexpected occurence of a man saying something genuinely nice about her.
Ryan suspected that Laura had been short of male compliments over the past few years, particularly with the way she dressed and acted. Clearly, she’d shut down after that disastrous affair she’d had with her client. He would have liked to know a few more details about that affair but knew better than to ask right now.
‘I hope I haven’t said anything out of order,’ he said instead. ‘There’s no reason why I can’t like you, is there?’
To give her credit, she regathered her composure with astonishing speed. ‘Of course not,’ she said with her usual brusqueness. ‘You just took me by surprise, that’s all. And, for what it’s worth, I find I can’t continue to totally dislike a man who would give up his weekend to make my gran happy.’
He had to smile. ‘Careful. We don’t want to get too carried away with the mutual compliments, do we?’
‘You don’t want me to start lying to you, do you?’ she countered tartly.
‘Not till we get to our destination, at which point I think some judicious lying will be necessary, along with some judicious flattery and flirting.’
‘Flirting!’
He almost chuckled at the horror on her face.
‘Absolutely,’ he said with a brilliant poker face. ‘You do know how to flirt, don’t you, Laura?’
‘I’ve never been a flirter. Or a flatterer.’
No, he thought ruefully. You wouldn’t have been.
‘In that case, it’s time you learned. Or are you planning on spending the rest of your life as an old maid?’
She shot him a mutinous look. ‘How I spend the rest of my life is none of your business.’
‘For pity’s sake,’ he snapped, feeling angry with her now. ‘What is it with you? Okay, so some bastard hurt you way back when, obviously very badly. But he’s only one man, not the whole male race. We’re not all rotters. You have to move on, woman. Get back on the horse, so to speak.’
‘Thank you very much!’ she ground out sarcastically.
‘You will, if you do what I say. Look, this weekend is a perfect opportunity for you to learn how to flirt. You can practise on me to your heart’s content without having to put up with any awkward consequences.’
‘No kidding.’
‘You can cut the sarcasm for starters.’
Her sigh sounded … what—weary? Frustrated?
Suddenly he saw that he was being way too forceful. It was a bad habit of his, trying to fix things and to control things. A result maybe of his childhood where everything had been out of his control.
‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m being obnoxious, aren’t I?’
‘Very,’ she said.
‘You
