Free Listed: Volume I by Noelle Adams Page A

side table.
    They
ate in silence, and Emily was able to finish half of her sandwich. Paul had
been right. The food eased the churning of her stomach, although it didn’t help
the pounding of her head.
    When
they were done, Emily was able to get up without feeling dizzy, and she
insisted she was ready to start up the deposition again.
    Paul
gave her a dubious look, but he didn’t object.
    He
walked out of the lounge with her, putting a hand on her back to guide her
toward the conference room.
    She
resisted. “I need to go to the bathroom first.”
    Paul
adjusted his direction, and they were walking to the restrooms when they passed
the pretty receptionist Emily remembered from the day they’d signed their
pre-nup, the one Paul had appeared to be flirting with.
    The
receptionist glanced away from them now, but not before Emily had caught an
expression of amused curiosity.
    Since
she wasn’t at her full thinking capacity, it took her a minute to figure out
what that expression meant. When she got into the bathroom and stared into the
mirror over the sink, she realized what the receptionist had been thinking.
    Emily’s
hair was hanging in messy, rumpled waves around her face. Her blouse was
wrinkled and disarranged. And her cheeks were unnaturally flushed, probably
from dozing on the sofa for so long.
    She
blushed hotly as she realized that the receptionist had thought Emily and Paul
were indulging in a little sexy-time behind the closed door of the lounge. They
were supposed to be newlyweds, after all, and the receptionist wouldn’t know
Emily’s condition or the terms of their marriage.
    It
embarrassed her more than it should have, probably because it was so far from
the truth.
    The
receptionist wouldn’t know Paul had absolutely no interest in Emily’s body,
even when she’d offered it to him.
    *
* *
    Emily made it through
another hour of the deposition. But, by then, her head was pounding so
painfully that, although she objected when Paul called an end to the
proceedings, she couldn’t help but be a little grateful.
    They
rescheduled for the following morning. Tomorrow was Saturday, but Paul's
lawyers would accommodate any of his wishes, and Hathaway and the defense
attorney clearly just wanted to get this done.
    Emily
went to the bathroom one more time before they left the law offices. When she
came out, Paul was on the phone, but he hung up as she approached.
    “Ready?”
he asked.
    She
frowned at him. “I wish you hadn’t done that. I told you more than once that I
wanted to get it done today.”
    “I
know what you wanted, but it wasn’t going to work out. Your answers were
getting less and less coherent. We needed to reschedule.”
    She
stuck out her chin as she studied his impassive face. “Well, I appreciate your
absolute commitment to the perfect quality of my testimony, but I was doing
fine. Since I’m the one giving the testimony, I should be able to decide
whether I’m up to doing it or not.”
    Something
tightened on his face as he pressed the elevator down button, and she wondered
if he was going to get angry. He’d been impatient with her before. He’d been exasperated
or coolly patronizing. But she couldn’t remember him being truly angry with
her. She almost wanted to see it, since it would be proof that he was treating
her like a normal person.
    His
voice was level and controlled, however, when he replied, “I would let you
decide for yourself if you weren’t so ridiculously stubborn.”
    She
gasped in outrage, her anger only serving to make her head hurt even worse.
“You’re calling me stubborn! You’re the one who—”
    “Emily,
enough,” Paul interrupted curtly. “The decision is made.”
    She
responded automatically to the clipped authority in his tone and then hated
herself for doing so. She was feeling dizzy again, though, and she just
couldn’t put up the fight his behavior deserved.
    She
shook with indignation and with physical weakness when she got on the elevator
with