I swallowed. “Do all of your clients occupy your mind as much as I do?”
When we stopped at the next red light and he set the gear in neutral, he looked at me, and from the way his expression intensified, I was sure he was going to kiss me. Ravish me. I shivered slightly, and put my hand out to adjust the air vent so it wasn’t hitting me directly. Victor smirked knowingly.
“Fuck, no,” he said. “They don’t, and that terrifies me.”
I reared back slightly, taken aback by the sincerity in his tone. My heart was pounding so loudly now, I wasn’t sure I could even say what I wanted to say.
“Why does it terrify you? Because of your job?” I asked in a whisper. He ran his thumb along the seams of my fingers.
“Not because of my job.”
Our gazes were locked on each other. I wanted to ask so many things.
Because you like me more than you care to admit?
But I didn’t want to ruin the moment. If he said yes to either of those things, I would be thrilled, but I still had to be mindful of his promotion. I wouldn’t get in the way of him getting it. Yes, I wanted him. Yes, I thought sleeping with him again would douse this flame, but I knew we had to be careful. And the reality was that I liked him. A lot. He started driving again and I sat back in my seat. How messed up was it that I was feeling these things for another man? For the man who was helping me divorce my husband? If I was being honest with myself, I didn’t really care how messed up it was. As far as I was concerned I hadn’t been married for a long time, because even though we were on paper, the things that happened in that relationship over the past two years were things no respectful relationship should have to endure. I didn’t blame Gabe on the matter, either. It was both of us. He changed. I grew. Apart.
When we reached the parking lot of the courthouse, he looked over at me.
“You ready?”
I gave him a small smile. “I think so.”
He turned slightly in his seat with a serious look on his face. “No. You are. There is no think. There’s only know. You’re a hellion. Fuck what they say. Fuck what they want. This is about what you want, and whatever you want, we’ll get.”
His words filled me with a sense of serenity. I’d told Gabe I didn’t need a knight in shining armor, and I didn’t. I didn’t need Gabe. I didn’t need Victor, but it felt good to have somebody like him on my team. Fighting for me. Fighting with me. I told him as much, and caught a glimpse of a more tender Victor, one I’d seen more often than not lately. He looked at me for a long beat, with those beautiful eyes and just said one word. One drawn out, gravelly, deep voiced word that threatened to make my toes curl in my heels.
“Nicole.”
He gave my hand one tight squeeze before switching off the ignition. I took one last long breath before we got out of the car and headed toward the building.
I SHOULD BE awarded a medal for dealing with imbeciles. First, the metal detector kept going off and I kept having to go back through it, even though Jean was the one securing the place and had seen me walk through these doors a million times. I wanted to say, “I’m pretty sure I left my shotgun at home this time, Jean.” But with all of the mass shootings I couldn’t really make a joke out of it. I told Nicole as much as I put my jacket back on and she laughed.
“That and your temper,” she said.
“You’re the only one who thinks I have a temper,” I said, picking up my briefcase and glancing at my watch.
Nicole scoffed. “Maybe I’m the only one who tells you that you have a temper.”
I waved at my friend Ezra as he walked by going the opposite direction with his client.
“Golf this Sunday?” he asked.
“And miss the Lakers game?” I shot back. He laughed, shaking his head.
“Maybe sometime next week then. I have a case I want to discuss with you.”
I nodded and continued walking. “See? People like me.”
We stopped outside the doors and I propped my briefcase on the piece of crown molding on the wall so I could look for the file I needed. As my fingers sorted through the tabs, I chuckled, thinking about the day I found Nicole’s panties inside. We hadn’t talked about it at all, mainly because there hadn’t been a good time to bring it up. If I asked her about it when we were alone, we’d be charting troubled water. As it was, things were choppy, lines were blurring, if they’d even been there in the first place. When I found the file I was looking for, I took it out and shut my briefcase.
“Maybe it’s because you only let them see one side of you,” Nicole said. I frowned. What the hell was she talking about? I looked at her.
“Are you talking to me?”
She shot me a look. “No shit. Who else is standing here?”
I looked around, and sure enough, we were the only ones in the hall. I shook my head. “What are you talking about now? Your voice box hasn’t taken a break all day.”