Robyn Donald - One Passionate Night

‘Training,’ she said brusquely, which led to her telling him about her work history and how she’d learned not to wear her heart on her sleeve.

‘Except when I’ve just been jilted,’ she added as the light turned green and they walked on. ‘I always lose it on occasions like that. Especially when I find out the man who’s supposedly in love with me has made some other girl pregnant. Would you believe this isn’t the first time this has happened?’

‘That’s incredibly bad luck.’

‘I agree,’ she said drily, and launched into her sad tale about Dwayne.

Daniel nodded sympathetically at all the right moments.

‘Men can be right bastards at times,’ he pronounced when she finished.

She stared at him, then smiled. ‘You’d know, I guess.’

By this time they’d reached the quay area and weren’t far from the open-air café Charlotte was taking him to.

‘On the plus side,’ she said as they strolled along together, ‘you are a wonderful listener.’

‘Aah, now, that’s my training. I’m not just any old lawyer, you see. I’m a divorce lawyer. With female-only clients. A good proportion of my job is just listening to women rave on. I have to confess I’m used to hearing the sexual shortcomings of the male sex. Frankly, some of the horror stories I’ve heard make me ashamed of being a man at times.’

‘But why do you have only female clients? Surely men want you to represent them sometimes.’

‘Aah, now, that’s a long story.’

Charlotte refused to let him fob her off with that old chestnut. ‘You must tell me all about it over coffee,’ she said firmly.

Daniel had no intention of doing any such thing, but oddly enough, within ten minutes of their sitting down together at one of the very pleasant alfresco tables, he found himself telling her in minute detail all about his father’s desertion and subsequent marriages.

‘Mom never recovered from his betrayal,’ he said as he stirred his coffee. ‘And I guess neither did I. Beth was too young to hate him. She never even knew him. But I despise the man for what he did, and what he’s done since. When I first started practising law and handling divorces, I did have male clients. But I couldn’t put my heart into representing them. It felt like I was representing my father. When I became a partner in the practice a few years back, I decided enough was enough. I’ve only had women clients from then on.’

‘I fully understand,’ Charlotte sympathised. ‘And your mother? How is she coping these days?’

Daniel’s chest tightened. ‘Mom passed away last year.’

‘Oh, how dreadful for you!’ Charlotte exclaimed with genuine sympathy in her gorgeous blue eyes. ‘I don’t know what I’d do if my mother died. I’d be devastated. And of course so were you. I can see it in your face.’

Daniel blinked his amazement. He’d always prided himself on never showing his emotions to the outside world. Maybe he wasn’t as self-contained as he thought. Or maybe Charlotte was extra-observant when it came to people’s body language. He’d read somewhere that hairdressers had to be good counsellors and therapists as well. They spent as much time talking to their clients as he did.

‘So is this why you’ve come out here to visit your sister?’ she went on. ‘Because she’s the only one who understands how you’ve been feeling?’

Daniel was once again taken aback at the accuracy of Charlotte’s observation. He wasn’t used to being read so well.

‘Partially,’ he replied. ‘But I also had the urge to come home for a while. I’ve lived in LA for many years, but I always think of Sydney as home. There’s no place like it,’ he said as he glanced around.

Their table was less than ten metres from the harbour, which he was facing. To his left loomed the magnificent coat-hanger-shaped harbour bridge. To his right, the truly splendid opera house with its white sail roof and absolutely perfect setting. Right on a point that jutted out into the harbour.

‘I fully agree,’ she said. ‘I know exactly what you mean about that urge to come home. I lived overseas for years, but in the end all I wanted to do was come home to Australia.’

When she picked up her coffee he did likewise, sipping and soaking in some of the sunshine whilst he admired the beautiful city he had been born in.

‘Daniel…’

‘Yes?’ He put down his cup and looked over at her.

‘I want to thank you. For everything. Regardless of your motives. You were wonderful with my parents at lunch-time. And very agreeable about the food. I know it was pretty simple fare.’

‘I enjoyed it immensely.’

‘Oh, come, now. A big-shot divorce lawyer from the Hollywood hills would be used to the best of wine and food, and the most sophisticated of company.’

Used to them. And bored silly with them. ‘I much prefer the company I had today. And the company I’ll have tomorrow.’

‘What about after that, Daniel? I mean…you’re going back to the States in a fortnight, aren’t you?’

‘That’s my plan,’ Daniel said. ‘Meanwhile, I thought you might like some company on that honeymoon you’ve already paid for. The one up at the Hunter Valley.’

Her eyes widened. ‘Did I tell you about that?’

‘You certainly did.’

‘Good old blabbermouth me.’

‘So how about it?’

She stared at him, her expressive eyes betraying her. She wanted him to come with her. He could feel it.

‘I don’t think so, Daniel,’ she replied, stunning him. ‘As much as I find you a very attractive man, I don’t want to risk becoming emotionally involved with you. You’ve made your position on marriage quite clear so to spend more time with you would be foolish. The reason I was marrying Gary was because he said he wanted what I wanted. Marriage. And children. I’m thirty-three years old. I haven’t got enough time to waste on another man who won’t give me what I want. I’ll spend tomorrow night with you. But come the following morning, that will be it for us.’

Her stance both impressed and sobered Daniel. All his adult life, it had been him laying down the law about what he wanted and didn’t want in a relationship. He’d finally come across a woman who was capable of telling him what she wanted, right from the start. Usually, in the beginning, his girlfriends were more than willing to go along with his sex-only demands, perhaps because they hoped to trap him into more.

Charlotte was willing to give him one night. But only that one night. After that, she was sending him off with a flea in his ear.

Wow. What a woman. The kind of woman a man would be crazy not to want for much more than one night. The urge to pull her into his arms and tell her he was already emotionally involved was incredibly strong.

But he stopped himself. Such an action would be counter-productive at this stage.

Past hurts had made Charlotte very determined. And extremely wary. If he told her he just might have changed his mind about lots of things since meeting her, she would think he was lying; conning her so that he could have his wicked way with her for more than a night.

He had to pretend to go along with her wishes.

But as much as she was determined to resist him, he was determined to have her.

For a lot longer than their ‘wedding’ night. Not marriage, of course. Daniel would never embrace that unrealistic and unreliable institution.

But marriage was not the only alternative for a future relationship.

‘Fair enough,’ he said, pleased to see she looked disappointed by his easy agreement. ‘So what are you going to tell your family about us?’

‘That’s my problem. I’ll drive you back to your sister’s place the morning after the wedding, then go up to the Hunter Valley on my own. That should give me time enough to decide when and how to tell my parents that our marriage didn’t work out.’