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“Not so much these days. He and I are…” He hesitated, as if weighing his words carefully, “very different people.”
“How so?”
“We simply are.”
Hmmm. Definitely something there, but pressing the issue was only likely to make him shut down on her. “What about your parents?”
“Is this really what your readers are interested in? My family dynamics?”
“Yes.” Grinning, she picked up her wine and took a sip. “People eat this stuff up. Especially when it comes to people in positions of power. It helps to humanize you, and they like knowing they have something in common with you.”
“Well, I am certainly human. I don’t see why we need to delve into my family drama to prove that.”
“Drama, huh?”
His brows knitted together in obvious annoyance. “You would latch onto that specific word. Don’t we all have drama when it comes to the people who share our DNA?”
“I suppose that’s true.” Sensing she wasn’t going to get anywhere by tilting at that particular windmill just yet, she switched tactics a bit. “So, what brought you to DC? I would have thought New York would have been the perfect place for an ambitious young attorney such as yourself.”
“It is. But I was looking for a change of scenery, so I pretty much applied up and down the East Coast.” Lips curving up, he took a drink from his own glass. “And I like DC. It has a certain charm that New York lacks.”
“Charm? That’s not a term you normally hear associated with our nation’s capital.”
A waiter appeared to place their plates in front of them, and she waited impatiently as Cyrus chatted him up, assuring him everything was fine.
Yes, yes, it’s all delicious, now please just go so I can get my damn interview.
“So,” she pounced as soon as they were alone again, “you were telling me why DC and not New York.”
“I suppose it’s not very different from a lot of people eager to escape their family’s circle of influence. I would have been happy pretty much anywhere, but I was excited for the opportunity to work here.”
Slicing into her still bleeding steak, she glanced over at him. “Does that have anything to do with the United States chapter of the Libra Guild being headquartered here?”
“Not really. Even as a Supreme, I don’t have much involvement in the Guild. It’s not something that particularly interests me.”
“Really? Why is that?”
“I’m not interested in the politics involved in running the Guild. Or the country. I prefer my position as ADA, ensuring laws are enforced fairly.”
Interesting. Many men in his position would have leapt at the chance to be on both sides of the law. There was power to be had within the Guilds, and he struck her as a man who enjoyed wielding power.
They chatted for a while longer, covering his time at Howard and the early stages of his career before she circled back to more personal matters. “You have a reputation for being a bit of a playboy, Mr. Banks. Do you feel it’s a deserved reputation?”
“I suppose to some it is.” He smiled, almost dreamily, as if he were recalling fond memories of past lovers. It was all too easy to see how a woman could be pulled in by that smile alone. “But I like to think my companions find our time together as…satisfying as I do.”
I just bet you do.Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, she had the distinct impression that he meant it, and that no woman left his bed unfulfilled. “Does that mean you’re not interested in settling down anytime soon?”
Looking up from his steak, his gaze locked on hers, unreadable even to her trained eye. “For the right woman, perhaps.”
There was something in his tone that sent a ripple up her spine and alarm bells ringing in the back of her mind. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what the “right woman” might be like, but it felt a bit too much like skating out onto thin ice. “I think we’re all just hoping to find the right person someday. What’s been your most interesting case so far?”
As she’d hoped, the sudden change threw him, and he blinked in surprise. “The Johanssen trial a couple years ago.”
“Really? I would have expected you to say Senator Whitley’s trial last year. That was the one that really put you in the public eye. What was it about the Johanssen trial?” While she waited for him to speak, she searched her mental files for the case.
Missing teen, junkie parents. A sister who never stopped looking for her little brother even after the cops had written him off as a runaway. They’d found his body nearly a year after the sister had reported him missing.
It had made for a good human interest story when the trial first started and when the boy’s killer had been sentenced to life without parole, but other than that, it had sadly been just another in a long string of homicide convictions for the district.
