Legal Ease (Sutton Capital Series) Read Online Free Page A

the couch that sat along the longest wall in Jack’s office and tried to breath but ended up taking in huge gulps of air that felt as if they might choke her. For the first time since she came up with her hair-brained scheme to get her hands on enough money to attend Yale Law School by marrying Jack Sutton, the reality of what she had just done hit her like a ton of bricks.
    ***
    Jack studied Kelly as she began to fall apart in his office. She was the one that had been so cool and collected two minutes ago – so totally in control of the situation. Now he watched her crumble as if all of the steel she’d seemed to have running through her veins moments ago was suddenly drained, leaving her frightened and panicked.
    He smiled wryly as he watched his future wife burn a circle in his carpet. Jack suddenly felt back in control. I guess it’s my turn to be the calm, cool, collected one.
    T he killer instincts he always felt when he walked into the board room or sat down at the negotiating table came back in full force and he crossed to Kelly and took both of her hands in his. He led her to the couch and let her sit down, then sat next to her. He spoke firmly and calmly.
    “You did great. You had them completely fooled and you did great. I don’t know how Andrew did this on such short notice, but you were fantastic.” Jack started to rub her back in slow, soothing circles, hoping to calm her down so they could discuss the details of their newly made arrangement. Since Andrew hadn’t had time to give him a heads up, he had no idea how this was supposed to work out.
    Jack continued to rub her back and he could hear her breathing begin to slow down and become more regular. Jack felt her body relax as her breathing returned to normal. “See,” he said, “that wasn’t so bad.”
    Kelly nodded and gave him a weak smile. She took several more deep breaths. Jack watched as her expression moved from panicked to resolved.
    “Ha! I did it. I knew I could,” Kelly said out loud.
    Great, she’s got multiple personalities or she’s bipolar or some other shit. Jack watched as Kelly’s emotions swung back and forth.
    Then Kelly’s eyes went round and she sat up straighter. “Wait,” she said, “who’s Andrew?”
     

Chapter Five
    Poker face or not, Jack needed to put some space between them when Kelly asked who Andrew was. He stood up and took a few steps back and schooled his expression once again. He forced himself to stay calm despite her revelation that Andrew hadn’t set this up. If she didn’t know who Andrew was, how did she come to be here, and who had he just agreed to marry? All the calm that had come back to him in the last few moments, fled and he felt himself floundering again. What was happening to his ordered world?
    “If Andrew didn’t send you , then who the hell are you?” Jack demanded. This day was just getting worse and worse. Hell, it had to be a nightmare. There was no way he had just agreed to marry some complete stranger in front of his aunt and cousin. A complete stranger who just happened to materialize out of thin air right when he needed a wife?
    Jack rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes. He hadn’t slept much the night before after he had lied to his aunt about having a fiancé and he had been working even more than usual lately. Maybe he had imagined this. That’s it. She’s an hallucination. A very vivid hallucination.
    The hallucination was sp eaking, though. Do hallucinations speak? Jack asked himself. “I’m Kelly Bradley,” she said, tentatively.
    Jack leveled a steady glare at her and crossed his arms over his chest. “Nice to meet you, Kelly. Now who the hell are you and where did you come from?”
    “Well, I recently became aware of your little problem and I have my own little problem and I put two and two together and figured out we could help each other and so here I am. Voila,” explained Kelly with a little flutter of her hands at the voila. She pasted a