Free The Laws of Seduction: A French Kiss Novel by Gwen Jones

industrial accident.”
    All at once Rex felt his jaw tighten and spasm, the fingernails of his right hand digging into the chair’s frayed fabric. He bolted upright. “Would you mind if I poured myself a bit more?” he asked, taking one last gulp.
    “No,” she said, peering at him. “Go right ahead. Though you’re the one who said we should have something to eat.”
    “Just a bit more,” he said, already at the sideboard, his hand shaking as he tilted the bottle over the glass. “It’s just that good.”
    “Well . . . thanks,” she said, a bit warily. “I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
    He sucked three-quarters of it back before he even set the bottle down, relishing the heat as it sank into his stomach. He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, relieved he was out of her sightline. After a moment he felt better, setting the bottle back. He rejoined her.
    “So it seems your mother left you for Paris when you were still a schoolgirl,” he said as he found his seat again. “Mind if I ask why?” When she seemed taken aback, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer that.”
    “No, it’s okay,” she said. “I’m just a little surprised you’d ask. I guess you can say she left because of a broken heart.” She looked into her glass, swirling the ice a bit. “My father left her for another woman.”
    “I see,” Rex said quietly.
    “I know what you’re thinking,” she said, looking up with accusation. “You’re thinking—oh, those Americans. So prickly when it comes to relationships. But it wasn’t like that. My mother was oh-so-very French in her sensibilities. She would’ve overlooked his having a mistress. But it went beyond that. When he chose this other woman over her, he threw back in my mother’s face everything she was about.” She drained her glass, then, staring at it, jiggled the ice. “I think I’m going to need more of this myself.”
    “Do you think you should?” Rex asked.
    The look she gave him brooked no discussion.
    “Well, all right,” he conceded.
    Charlotte went to the sideboard and poured herself a bit more, topping off the little that was left in her glass. In all actuality, Rex thought she needed the trip to the sideboard more to ponder whether to continue, and it struck him how much that little gesture showed what they had in common. She returned to the sofa, facing him directly.
    “My father was a lawyer, as was my mother. As was her grandfather, as I am.” She laughed a bit. “I guess you can say law’s the family business. My grandmother’s family had quite a successful corporate law firm in Paris, where she was a legal secretary. But then the war came, and they lost everything. And after she married my grandfather and came back here, she took on the traditional role for American women at the time, which was being a housewife and raising a family, even though she had all this experience behind her. Then my grandfather was killed, just as my mother was about to enter college, so she went back to work as a legal secretary. And then she received a large sum in compensation from the steel company.”
    “A settlement,” Rex said, taking a swallow of scotch.
    “That allowed my mother to return to college and go on to law school,” Charlotte said. “By this time my grand-mère was working for the district attorney’s office, where she became acquainted with a pretty cocky up-and-coming defense attorney by the name of Jake Andreko.”
    “Your father,” Rex said.
    Charlotte’s brow knit in anger. “Yes.” She took another sip, belting it back. “Look, I’ll cut to the chase as we should be talking about your case, not about my family skeletons. Eventually my mother graduated and passed the bar, and all during that time my father was pursuing her, so the day the letter arrived saying she passed the bar was the same day they got engaged. They had a huge church wedding and a honeymoon in Venice, after which Mom went to work for