The Reluctant Heir Read Free Page B

appetite.
    “Thank you,” she murmured, surprised at his thoughtfulness.
    “It’s nothing. I hope you like fish.”
    “Love it.”
    He seemed satisfied and went back to work.
    “What are you working on?” she asked as walked towards the table.
    “Buying a chain of gasoline stations on the East End,” he answered without looking up.
    Her ears perked up. “Marshall?”
    His eyebrows rose questioningly as he leaned back into his chair, assessing her in a way that made her cheeks burn. “Why do you say that?”
    “There’re only two local chains in the area,” she began uneasily. Why was he looking at her like that?
    “And the Relope family would never sell,” she continued, blabbering. From her case studies, she knew that they were too uptight about keeping the business in the family and making sure everything was top quality. Many larger chains had tried to buy them, but they’ve never succeeded. At least, not yet.
    He continued looking at her strangely.
    Had she said something wrong? Perhaps, he had found a way to charm Mr. Relope and it was the Relope chain he was buying or maybe he thought that she was fishing for information. She winced. What if he thought that she was working on the other side? Maybe he thought she was in mergers and acquisitions and was trying to pry information from him.
    It would’ve been better if she had just stayed quiet, she realized duly. Suddenly feeling as if she had overstayed her visit, she shook her head. “Never mind.”
    “Have you already eaten?” she asked as she sat down at the other end of the table.
    “Yes.”
    “Oh.”
    Steam came out of the metal container and guilt coursed through her. She hoped he hadn't waited for her.
    She removed the warm metal top from the plate and was assaulted by the delicious smell of rosemary.
    There was a large piece of salmon with diced potatoes and some greens that looked terribly delicious. Eagerly, she stuck her fork into a potato and felt as if she’d gone to heaven when the warm, buttery taste of the potato hit her lips. Famished, she began to eat.
    “So tell me about yourself,” Landen’s smooth voice came in a few minutes later, sending shivers throughout her body.
    Surprised to hear him speak, she looked up at him and saw that he had stopped working. “There’s not much really,” she began. “I’m from Essex.” She shrugged. “Only child, good parents, and of course, a solicitor trainee.” Her friends often ribbed her about her choice of profession, but she enjoyed it.
    “What made you decide to be a solicitor?”
    The tips of her mouth quirked when she remembered her childhood dream. “I thought it’d be fun to help put bad people in jail.”
    “But you ended up in Shaw, Blake and Associates,” he said dryly.
    She smiled. Most of their clients were international corporations. Even to a businessman like him, it must’ve seemed as if she’d ended up on the other side of the law!
    She shrugged. “During law school, I realized that it was the business case studies that interested me the most and I just went for it.”
    Though she loved the business aspect of law, she still didn’t know exactly what she wanted to concentrate in.
    She’d always thought that she would stay with the mergers and acquisitions division under Mr. Shaw. But now that he was gone, she would end up working under Mr. Penn and she didn’t like the way he took advantage of the smaller family companies.
    Thankfully, the insurance division had also expressed their interest in her after training contract ended so it wasn’t like she had to go M&A.
    But at the same time, she'd had her heart set on M&A for so long that she was worried that she’d be making the wrong decision if she chose to go to insurance law.
    She smiled wryly. When she'd first started as a trainee, she'd hoped to make a good enough impression for someone to hire her. And now there were two departments willing to take her.
    Even though she was grateful, she wished only