Seducing the Heiress Read Free

take you both back,” Karen replied as she turned to address a man that had been hovering nearby but was now approaching her, holding several files with a confused look on his face.
    Robert turned and leaned against the desk. “So now you want to share the fact that we’re married.”
    â€œWill you please lower your voice?” Farrah scolded, scanning the faces of the mothers-to-be who were sharing glances that she was certain had everything to do with them.
    â€œYou can’t have it both ways, you know,” he said, narrowing his gaze on her flushed face. “Just because you’re jealous—”
    â€œI’m not jealous,” she snapped through a forced smile. “And I’m certainly not the one who was sneaking around trying to find out what’s going on between me and Trey Steel, who wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you.”
    Tremaine Steel, often called Trey by his family and friends, was a wealthy senior partner in his family’s exceptionally successful law firm, and had become involved in defending Blake & Montgomery in a patent lawsuit. He had a reputation for being a talented attorney who loved the ladies. From what Robert had learned about the man, his looks, deep pockets and wicked charm could make a woman drop to her knees. The report on Robert’s desk spoke to the fact that plenty of them had done just that, and a lot more, on more than one occasion.
    Blake & Montgomery had been entangled in a lawsuit over the ownership of a security patent for a single-system digital device that would incorporate all of one’s personal and business security needs for the past five years.
    Ted Jefferson Jr., the son of a deceased former business partner of the firm’s founders, Frank Blake and Milton Montgomery, was claiming that it was his father’s original drawings and specs on which Robert had based his ideas for a revolutionary new security system that would allow users to secure their home, business and digital information using fingerprint and palm-recognition technology.
    Farrah had played a vital role in developing their defense from the moment she joined the company, and within the last two years had become the lead attorney on the case. Although the lower courts had offered a judgment in their favor, Blake & Montgomery was being forced to defend itself in both the media and through the court’s appeals process.
    Robert had requested and gained the board’s support to bring in an outside attorney to take over the case through the next phase of its defense, especially since it was his own program designs that were at the center of the dispute. Strangely enough, a furious Farrah had decided not to fight the board on the matter. Instead she insisted on being a part of the attorney selection process. That should have been his tip-off that she was up to something. Farrah’s selection of Tremaine Steel was an exceptional choice happily accepted by all concerned—almost all.
    Tremaine Steel had successfully argued cases before both the State and Federal Supreme Courts, which made him the perfect person to handle the Blake & Montgomery patent appeal. But as far as Robert was concerned, he had better steer clear of Farrah, or Robert might find himself in need of an attorney of his own for a far different reason.
    â€œI wasn’t sneaking around doing anything,” Robert protested. “I may have inquired a few times as to what was going on with the case.” He ran his right hand through his hair. “Look, we’ve talked about this already. You know that I think you’re an amazing attorney. It’s just, with all the different types of claims being leveled...”
    Farrah twisted her neck around and her eyebrows flew up.
    â€œWait,” Robert raised his hands in surrender, trying to hold off the scolding he knew was coming. “Not that you don’t know what you’re