by Jessica Gray
The way his worn jeans stretched across his formidable backside when he bent over might have had her drooling if she wasn’t so irritated with him. At some point, he’d removed his work shirt, leaving him in a threadbare tank top. His sculpted shoulders and heavily muscled arms stole her breath, and she wondered if his abs were as sculpted as the rest of him.
She’d always had a thing for a six-pack. The thought of stroking her fingers across his stomach, one rippled muscle at a time, sent shivers down her spine. You’re forgetting to whom this gorgeous body belongs, girl. And her daydreams ended right there. Why couldn’t that mouth-watering body belong to someone with a brain and a personality?
Deciding to take a walk down to the lake, she changed into her bathing suit and put on a pair of shorts and a tank top. She retrieved a towel from the bathroom and exited the bedroom expecting to see Rocco still hard at work with his power tools.
When she didn’t she was relieved – no need to parade in her skimpy attire in front of him. But a part of her was disappointed. A lot. To distract her thoughts, she grabbed an apple and a bottle of water from the fridge, packed her Kindle into the beach bag, and turned off the music before she headed for the back door.
The fresh air with the woodsy smell took her in and she stretched her arms over her head. Maybe it hadn’t been such a bad idea to come here. The sound of chirping birds filled the air; it was then she noticed the drilling noise had stopped. I hope he’s gone for the day to leave me in peace.
Her uncle had raved about the lake, and she decided it might be a nice place to spend the afternoon. Now that she was doomed to inaction she could as well splash out and lazy around for the remainder of the day. She snagged one of the lounge chairs from the back deck, folded it up, and took it down to the lake.
The lakeshore was only a hundred yards or so from the end of the driveway, and Lee enjoyed the leisurely walk. In Chicago, where she lived, she never spent much time in nature. The sounds and smells of the mountain forest were new to her, and she felt the tension leaving her body as she concentrated on the new sensations. Now she wondered why she’d never come here before. Uncle Charlie had offered his cabin more than once. Back then, when she’d studied law in Santa Clara, she’d been outdoors almost every weekend to go climbing or hiking. But since she’d started working in Chicago, her burning ambition to become the best divorce lawyer had glued her to her desk, putting in seventy- and eighty-hour weeks.
Not that she complained. She liked her job – until her meltdown, that is. But she’d dropped everything else. Thinking about her life in the city, she shuddered. It was empty. Filled with nothing but work. She didn’t even have friends in Chicago; all her old friends had stayed in California and she hadn’t taken the time to go out and make new ones.
At the lake, she found a grassy place to set up her chair and plopped down. “Ahh.” The small honeysuckle bush to the right of her chosen spot exuded a fragrant smell that reminded her of her grandmother’s garden.
After contemplating the water’s edge for a while, she decided to walk down and test the water temperature. It was only a little on the cool side. A swim would be refreshing and might help to cool down her body, which was still drooling over muscled shoulders and arms. She removed her shorts and tank top to expose the two-piece suit. It was one of her favorites and accentuated her breasts and slim waistline. She’d always received compliments from the men at the apartment pool while wearing it. Too bad there weren’t any hot men around this afternoon. She could use a little diversion after the horrible morning.
She walked into the water, until it was above her knees, and then took a deep breath before she let herself fall forward, immersing her entire body in the lake water. After the first shock, the water felt great and relaxing.
The absence of gravity in the water together with the absence of the obnoxious handyman lifted her spirits, and she was smiling as she surfaced. Lee struck out for the buoy located about a hundred yards out.
She’d only taken a few strokes when the sound of a voice drifted to her ears and had her turning on her back to peruse the shore. Shocked to see Rocco sitting on the shore next to her deck chair, she screamed and swallowed some water as she lost her floating balance. She floundered several seconds, before she finally found her footing on the slick lake bottom.
“Leave. What are you doing here? Are you following me? You can’t be here!”
***
Rocco grinned as he finished another bite of his sandwich. When she’d arrived at the lake minutes earlier, he’d wanted to make his presence known. Well, until she revealed her barely-there bikini. His jaw had dropped to the sand and his eyes had been glued to her luscious curves.
Heck, he’d barely refrained from embarrassing himself by chasing after her as she’d walked into the cool lake water. Her whole-body plunge had ignited every cell in his body, yearning to join her, if only to find relief from the persistent heat and tension he’d felt since he first set eyes on her gorgeous and naked body this morning.
It hadn’t been his intention to startle her, but her reaction was totally worth it. His grin broadened; she sure was something. And if she didn’t calm down, the water around her was liable to start boiling.
Still staring at the swell of her breasts, visible above the water, he answered, “The way I see it, I got here first. I’ve been here for almost twenty minutes eating my lunch; you just arrived. If you don’t like my company, you’re free to leave.”
Her face flushed – whether it was anger or embarrassment he didn’t know. But it was sexy as hell. As she headed for the shore, she must have noticed him totally focused on her, because now her creamy white skin was flushed all the way down to her belly button, which now appeared above the water line. Sexy. As. Hell.
“Stop staring at me. You…twerp.” She stopped her approach and glared daggers at him.
“Sorry, miss. Just saw an apparition.” His lips quirked up.
“Turn around,” she shouted at him and when he didn’t obey, she stomped her foot, which almost made her lose her balance and go underwater again. As she’d regained her balance, she perused his stance. Her eyes scrolled down his bare chest and abs, down to his bathing shorts, leaving a trail of fire in their wake, and suddenly reminding him of just how much he was attracted to her as a certain part of him woke to life, straining against his shorts.
Before he could do anything, Marilee turned, and swam out towards the buoy.
Chapter 5
Lee was beyond annoyed. Why did this handyman follow her around? And why did his muscled body provoke such a strong reaction in her? The growing bulge in his bathing shorts hadn’t been lost on her, and even now in the cool water, it made her hot. A lot hotter than she wanted to admit.
She needed to gather her bearings, urgently. Paddling to keep herself afloat, she gauged the buoy to be another fifty yards out or so. The perfect place to get away from him. He wouldn’t dare to follow her onto the buoy.
“You really need to kick harder to make your stroke more successful,” Rocco shouted to her from the shore.
“You can kiss my ass.” She groaned, blushing moments later for fear that he might have heard her unfitting response. The best answer would be to ignore him and his not-so-helpful criticism, she decided, and continued swimming until she reached the buoy. Her feeling of accomplishment was overshadowed by the figure standing on the beach, attempting to demonstrate proper swimming technique to her. He looked so hilarious she had to cover her mouth so he wouldn’t see her grin.
She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of leering at her in that skimpy bikini atop the buoy, so she decided to swim back, hoping – no, praying – he’d have left by the time she reached the shore. By the time she felt ground beneath her feet again, she was freezing from the chilly water and longed to reach her waiting deck chair and the warming towel.
Of course, Rocco hadn’t moved one inch and sat there, watching her with a grin on his face. “You really need to practice your bre
athing technique. If you swim out to the buoy again, I’ll watch real careful this time so I can tell you what you’re doing wrong,” he suggested, getting her hackles up.
He seemed to enjoy irritating the heck out of her, and Lee responded with a look that intended to kill him. She was trapped! She wouldn’t give come out of the water like Halle Berry in Die Another Day, for him to watch, even though that image turned her on immensely and the goosebumps on her body intensified. Whether it was from cold or heat, she didn’t know.
“So what had you so upset with your laptop this morning? You looked like you expected it to reach up and bite you,” he asked.
“It’s none of your business what I was doing this morning.”
“Well, it sure looked like it was unpleasant. Why would you bring your laptop up here anyway? I thought people went to their cabins to get away from work, not to bring it with them.”
His voice floated over to her and somehow she liked it. It was deep and throaty. Masculine. Promising. “I wasn’t working. I was just checking to make sure things were running smoothly back at my office.”
Rocco squinted his eyes for a moment and then asked, “So what is it exactly that you do when you’re not slumming up here in the woods?”
“I’m an attorney for a family law practice.” She shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other in the suddenly icy water. Her eyes stayed longingly on the huge beach towel that promised to warm her up again.
“And that means you do what?”
“It means I help people correct the biggest mistake of their lives.” Lee truly believed marriage was the biggest mistake two people could ever make. It didn’t matter what the statistics said; in her book, everyone who got married eventually ended up divorced. It was messy and costly, and if you knew it was coming, why not just avoid it from the outset, and save yourself all of the heartache?
“You mean you’re a divorce lawyer?” Rocco stood up and stepped toward the water.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. The institution of marriage is simply the breeding ground for the act of divorce. All marriages end up in the courtroom; it’s simply a matter of how long two people will pretend to be happy before they realize they actually hate each other.”
“You don’t really mean that, do you?” He seemed stunned at the vehemence in her voice.
“I do.” Lee searched his eyes as she made her next statement, “Marriage ruins people. It makes them do things they would not normally do and act as if they have no concept of right or wrong. Divorce is the only solution and brings to light what people are truly like. In my experience, people are generally horrible human beings after having been married.”
A bright grin crossed his face and she loved the way his eyes lit up. “And here I thought I was the only person who believes marriage should be outlawed.”
What else could she do than nod?
“So why are you up here in the mountains, instead of helping some poor person escape the confines of their marriage?”
Lee remained silent for a moment. No way in hell would she tell him the truth. The entire encounter with him had been embarrassing enough; she didn’t need to add to that. “I’m here trying to find my perspective again.”
“Perspective?” He took another step toward the beach and she forced herself not to retreat deeper into the water.
“My balance, my peace – call it whatever, but I was given the opportunity to relax for a while and find some peace before continuing my career choice.”
“You get laid off or something?”
“No, I was given a sabbatical.”
“Sabbatical? Like an extended vacation?” Something dark flashed up in his eyes, but it was gone before she could find out what it was.
“Yes, like an extended vacation. I lost my perspective and blew up at a client.” There, she’d said it. Somehow he’d caught her off guard and she’d embarrassed herself to the bones. Suddenly she wished the lake bottom would morph into slick sand and swallow her whole.
But instead of laughing at her as she’d expected, his voice grew softer. “Bet your bosses weren’t happy with that…”
Now she could as well tell the whole mortifying truth. “Well, if it had happened in the office, I probably would have gotten a lecture about decorum and such, but to my dismay, I was in the courtroom when I lost it. I didn’t even hear the judge when he asked me to take my seat.”
Rocco laughed out loud and then slapped his hand over his mouth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. I just imagined you ranting and raving in court.”
“It really wasn’t all that funny. The judge found me in contempt of court and my secretary wasn’t allowed to bail me out until the next morning. I spent the night sitting in a jail cell listening to one woman puke her guts up and another one call her pimp every name she could think of. She was very inventive in her use of the English language. Needless to say, I had never been so relieved to see my secretary the next morning.”
He grew silent and gauged her with his amazing steel-blue eyes. “Again, sorry to hear that. So the big bosses gave you a vacation to cool down?”
“Kind of. I have to meet with the senior partner in three weeks and convince him I can handle family law and can refrain from becoming emotionally involved with my clients.”
“Emotionally involved?” His stance became threatening and Lee was thankful for the distance separating them. “Is that what set you off, some lady not getting enough of her husband’s wealth to meet your requirements?”
The audacity of this man was out of this world. He didn’t have a clue about the clients she dealt with. Without thinking, she took a few steps towards him, the water falling below her belly button. But she didn’t care one bit. In a high-pitched voice she answered, “You’re just like the rest of them. It’s always the woman’s fault and they’re all money-grabbing hookers. Usually the husbands are cheating slimebags who bang anything and everyone around them, except their wife of course. And then they pull out a one-sided prenup where she gets nothing at all.”
The memories of her breakdown came back and the words tumbled out of her mouth a mile a minute. “Not this time, though. The lying bitch deceived me every step of the way. While her husband worked sixty-hour weeks so his wife could afford the house on the hill with the pool and tennis court, she slept with every male in reach.
“When it came time for the settlement, he willingly agreed to everything she asked for. He was shattered and just wanted out. It seemed to be one of my easiest cases. She wanted the house; he gave it to her. She wanted enough alimony so she wouldn’t have to work; he agreed.
“Everything she asked for he agreed to. The only thing he wanted was the kids, which fell right into her plans; after all, being single with two kids would put a serious dent in her playtime. Until her sister told her how much child support she could go after if she asked for custody of the kids.
“The witch didn’t even prepare me. We were in the courtroom to close the case when she stood up and demanded a custody hearing.
“I just stared at her, I was so upset. When the judge asked me if I was making a motion to set a custody hearing date, I lost it and told her exactly what I thought of her as a person and that she was the worst mother in the world. I called her a few choice names as well.”
“Is that when the judge found you in contempt of court?”
“Pretty much. I tried to apologize to both the judge and my client, but it was a little late for that. I heard from my secretary that my co-counsel excused my behavior to the court as a nervous breakdown and took over the client’s custody hearing.”
“Did she win custody?” Rocco asked.
“She got partial custody. The judge agreed that since she was prone to use nannies and babysitters when the kids were at home for any length of time, they’d be better off living with their father during the school year. My secretary said the court gave her every other weekend, alternating Christmases, and six weeks every summer. Once the kids turn twelve, t
hey can choose to spend those times with her or their father. Then the judge denied her request for child support and closed the case.” Lee’s chest heaved with emotion as she finished telling the details of her story.
“Just one more failed marriage, bringing out the worst in people. So what about you, ever think about tying the knot?” She didn’t gauge him to be the marrying type, but one could never tell.
“Not me. I watched my mom and dad fight it out for the first ten years of my life. Then, when she finally got smart and left him, she just found another, and then another. She’s on husband number five right now and they always end up the same way. She gets hurt, then depressed, then starts drinking, and I get to bail her out of the slammer. Nah, marriage is a sad state of affairs better left to those poor saps that don’t know any better.”
“I agree. Marriages always result in divorce, so why put yourself through it when you already know how the story ends?” Lee was surprised that she and Rocco actually had something in common.
She was silent for a moment as she debated whether to exit the water, even if he was still there watching. Swallowing her nervousness, she walked toward the lakeshore keeping her eyes to the ground.
Chapter 6
As Lee reached her deck chair – and the warming towel – she noticed Rocco was gone. A rush of relief coursed through her veins, but right behind that emotion tailed another one: disappointment. Yes, she’d wanted him to leave her alone and had been irritated at his presence; but now that he was gone, she felt somewhat lonely.
The slight breeze hitting her wet skin caused her to shiver and she promptly wrapped herself in the plush towel. She stared into the void, trying to make sense of her feelings. On one hand, it was “good riddance” to the source of her discontent this day. On the other hand, she tried to find something in their last conversation that would have caused him to leave so abruptly.
