“You get a pass, but only because you’re not spoiled or a snob.” She paused. “Contrary to what I thought when I first started with the firm.”
He took his gaze off the road long enough to shoot her a look of disbelief. “Totally unfounded.”
“Not from where I sat.”
“On what grounds?”
“Oh, my God, you sound like a damn lawyer.”
He smiled. “Guilty as charged.”
“Okay, no more of that kind of talk.”
“Or what? You’ll fine me for contempt?”
Mia groaned. “The upside is that you do have a sense of humor, corny as it is. It wouldn’t be enough that you’re pretty.”
He choked out a laugh. “Pretty?”
“Oh, come on.” She drew a finger along his jaw. “You know you are.”
All he knew is that if she didn’t keep her hands to herself, he’d end up rear-ending the Jeep in front of them. “Where did you grow up?”
She withdrew, though chuckled softly as if she knew he was trying to distract her. “Upstate New York. Ithaca, not too far from Cornell.”
“But you didn’t go there as I recall.”
“Too expensive. I went to NYU.” She’d moved her hand, or at least she wasn’t touching him. “I’m surprised you know anything about my undergrad studies.”
“I read your résumé.”
“You weren’t there for the interview process.”
“I was in Atlanta overseeing a case.” Good thing. He clearly remembered meeting her on her first day at the firm. One look into those sexy green eyes and he knew he wouldn’t have hired her. “But I was the one who initially flagged you as a candidate.”
“Hmm, I didn’t know.” She shifted, angling her knees toward him. “Why me? You probably had a dozen Harvard and Yale graduates nipping at your heels.”
“We did.”
“So what was it about my résumé that caught your attention?”
He cocked a brow at her. “You were only second in your class, but the top dog had already hired on with another firm in San Francisco.”
“Thanks,” she said dryly. “I happen to know you’re full of it because Lance Heatherton went to work for his father.” She sniffed. “And just so you know, he barely inched past me.”
David smiled at her competitive streak. “Frankly, being second in your class obviously got our attention, but what impressed me more was that you were there on a scholarship, working a part-time job and volunteering with the ACLU and the Legal Aid Society. To me, that shows a lot of character and ambition.”
“Ambition nothing, I was exhausted. But I also learned a lot from volunteering.”
He thought for a moment. “I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never admitted to anyone.” He glanced over at her to reassure himself. “The first four years at Harvard, I did the typical spring break things, traveled abroad during the summer, screwed off like the rest of my friends. When I started law school, my father told me I had to start spending break times at the firm, sort of like an intern. I resented it. I figured I’d be working my ass off soon enough. He knew how I felt, but he didn’t say anything.
“That first week during Christmas break I showed up like I was supposed to. I was given a small office, and I mean small. In fact, now it’s that storage closet the admins use.”
Mia issued a short laugh. “Seriously?”
“Oh, yeah. I couldn’t believe it, especially since there were a couple of empty offices with windows.”
“I can see your dad trying to teach you a lesson.”
“He never said a word about it, and I didn’t, either. I thought, screw him. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of complaining. It took me a couple of years, but I figured out that he’d saved me a lot of grief. Ended up, respect was more important to me than being the boss’s son. It never would have mattered how good an attorney I was if I hadn’t earned my place in the firm.”
She stayed quiet for so long that he finally took his gaze off the road to look at her. Had he revealed too much?
Her lips curved in a soft smile. “Thank you for sharing that with me.” She touched his face, innocently enough, but he tensed, because with Mia, there was no innocent touch. It was crazy how easily she got to him. “You missed a spot.” She circled the side of his jaw with the tip of her finger and then moved her hand to the tightness at the back of his neck.
“Good thing it’s a straight shot to Diamond Head, or we’d be lost already,” he murmured.
“Oh, am I distracting you? Sorry,” she said, with a sly smile in her voice. “I’ll try to keep my hands to myself.” She folded them primly in her lap, then slowly, deliberately crossed one shapely leg over the other, effectively snaring his attention.
So that was how it was going to go down. Him trying to put on the brakes, and her doing all she could to make him crack.
THEY SKIPPED THE scenic lookout where several groups of people were already stationed, and chose a spot off to the right. Mia inched closer to the edge of the cliff and stared down at the waves slamming the jagged black volcanic rock below. She’d long given up on trying to tame her thick, unruly hair. Between riding with the top down and the stiff breezes that swept off the ocean, the best she could do was keep it secured in a ponytail so that her hair wasn’t whipped into her face.
“Look at those two.” With her chin, she indicated a couple who’d left the lookout and were picking their way down toward the water.
“Did you want to go down for a closer look?”
The words were no sooner out of David’s mouth when water shot out from the blowhole, jetting a good twenty feet into the air. The scene was spectacular, the white spray fanning out in every direction. Though they stood a safe distance away, Mia reflexively leaned back and bumped into David. The adventurous pair below shrieked and scrambled backward, trying to avoid getting wet. Or worse.
Mia shuddered. “The view from here is just fine, thank you.”
He casually slipped an arm around her shoulders, and she sighed and relaxed against him. His skin was warm on hers, his scent spicy and all male.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t get too close,” he said closer to her ear. “Apparently the spray is unpredictable. There’s an underground lava tube that extends into the sea and when the waves crash into it, pressure builds inside the tube. The water can shoot up to thirty feet. Certainly enough to knock someone over.”
Mia pulled away to look at him, disappointment pricking at the pleasure of being held. She’d had the impression this trip had been a last-minute decision. That he’d pulled it together for her. “How do you know all this stuff?”
“I read a few guidebooks.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
She frowned. “You were in a rush to leave my room so you could read guidebooks?”
His mouth twisted wryly. “Right.”
She was instantly sorry for bringing up last night, especially when he lowered his arm and they were no longer touching. Did he think he was rushing her? “I wouldn’t have minded if you stayed,” she said finally.
He kept silent for too long