The first week at the firm hadn’t allowed her much time to talk with Noah, and she wasn’t really working on cases yet, but she knew that someday things would calm down, and she would get to spend more time on cases.
“You’re so funny.”
“I know.” Noah winked back at Rose.
“Maybe I should also start preparing your opening arguments for your next case? Or getting your dry cleaning for you? Do you need me to clean your house for you? Perhaps set you up on a hot date?” she joked.
“Sure if you have time for all that.”
Rose gave Noah a small punch on the arm as he joked with her. She loved how funny he was and his willingness to keep seeing her as a normal person. So many people in her life thought she was too fragile to hold normal conversations. Friends wouldn’t tell jokes around her or want to do fun things because they didn’t think that Rose wanted to laugh or have fun.
Then there were other friends who just wanted her to laugh and have fun because they thought she was being too serious. It was difficult for Rose to manage all the expectations that people had for her. They were much more complex than the expectations Rose had for herself. All Rose wanted to do was make it through each day without punching someone in the face.
Noah had behaved himself perfectly since Rose had arrived. It was hard for him, though. He often caught himself imagining what it would be like to be with her. His thoughts weren’t in his control as he would watch her walk by in her tight pencil skirts. Her tiny little ass looked like it needed his hand on it desperately, but Noah kept his hands to himself.
Rose had aged more gracefully than any woman Noah had ever met. The last five years had been hell for Rose; even though Noah also missed Derek, he couldn’t have missed him as much as Rose did. He admired Rose for pushing forward like she did, and he didn’t think she was rude or harsh like others did. Noah knew the true Rosaline Tate, and he knew that the person she was underneath was still the same. She just hid herself from the pain she was feeling.
“I’ll let you come to court with me on his next case if we take him on as a client, and he doesn’t turn out to be too much to handle.”
“Really?” Rose said excitedly.
“Sure, I could use a second chair. He’s got a patent case that we get if we take him on as a client, and it will likely have to go to court. You can help.”
This news excited Rose, and she suddenly felt more than able to finish her manual reading and help research this new client. Suddenly life as a lawyer was looking interesting to her again. She appreciated that Noah knew her well enough to know that she didn’t want to sit behind a desk the whole time she was a lawyer. She wanted to be in the courtroom.
“I’ll see you later,” Rose said as she grabbed the folder from Noah and left his office before he could say another word.
The relationship between Noah and Rose was a weird one. They had sometimes gone months without seeing each other since Derek’s death, but they still fell right back into their old pattern of fun. Noah was Rose’s getaway person, and she didn’t have anyone else in her life that she felt she could be totally herself around.
When she was around her family, they made her feel incapable of doing anything on her own. They wanted to baby her and take care of her. Her parents didn’t want her to do anything on her own and had actually wanted her to move back home after Derek’s death. That was absolutely the last thing Rose could have ever imagined. She wanted as much space from everyone as she could get and certainly wasn’t going to move back under the same roof as her family.
She made her way downstairs and back to her office to get started on her day. There wasn’t much to distract her in their basement office, except the other first years, of course. They were always there to distract her.
The three other first years made Rose jealous, though. They looked at life as a relief now that they had passed their bar and were working. Everything they had gone to school for and worked so hard for was finally coming true. To them, life was now freedom. As long as they showed up to work and did their job, they would get paid and could go party and have fun. Life was much different for Rose.
The offices of the four first-year lawyers weren’t exactly offices. They had an old conference room in the basement that was set up for them. Each had claimed one corner of the room as their own and had their things spread out over the large table in the middle of the room. Rose had one of the areas closest to the door, and of course, Bronx chose the other corner near the door.
Over the past week, Bronx had been relentless in pursuing Rose. She would have been flattered if he wasn’t driving her totally crazy. He constantly wanted to talk to Rose, ask her questions, and then he’d slip in a request for her to go on a date with him.
Bronx was used to getting what he wanted, and that was clear, but Rose was also used to getting what she wanted. She had no need for Bronx anymore, and she wasn’t planning on mixing her lovers and her workplace.
She felt like she was in high school as she constantly rebuffed his flirting and had to try and make excuses for why she needed to stop talking to him. Bronx was a handsome guy, much better looking than most of the men in the office, and Rose knew he’d find love sooner or later. She also knew that it didn’t have to be with her.
Rose hadn’t found the right words to tell him she wasn’t interested in dating him. She’d certainly be alright with having him in her bed again, but she didn’t want to date the guy. It was rather funny to her that she had turned into the type of woman who actually preferred one-night stands. No one would have believed that she would have been such a woman.
Rose had always been very virtuous growing up. She even refused to sleep with her husband on their first date because she told him she despised such behavior. Boy, times sure had changed, there was no doubt about that. Rose would never be that naive young woman with idealistic dreams of the future; instead, she was ruthless and hard with realistic dreams of her future.
Any sort of workplace romance would be a distraction from her goals, and Rose didn’t want anything to take away from what she intended to do at Wolfe and Conley. If Rose had to show up to work each day, she was going to do it and be the best at her job. There was no use in being second best, and Rose was willing to take people down to get herself to the top if that was what was needed.
Chapter 6
“Oh, what do you have there? A love note from Mr. Conley?” Bronx teased Rose when she arrived back in their office/conference room.
“It’s my first assignment; it’s just research on a new client.”
“Of course you get an assignment before the rest of us,” Shamus said almost under his breath as he turned back toward his desk in the corner.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rose said angrily to him.
“Nothing, it’s just that you obviously are friends with Mr. Conley, and he’s going to give you special treatment because he wants to fuck you. Or is already fucking you.”
Rose almost got up and slapped Shamus right there in that room, and she would have if the other first years weren’t a few feet away. How dare he imply that she was doing something improper with Noah to get some sort of special privileges.
“Calm down; he didn’t mean anything by it. We don’t care if you’re screwing the boss,” Bronx added.
She hated that Bronx would even bring up something so despicable. Rose earned her spot in the law firm just like Bronx did. In fact, Rose probably earned her spot more than Bronx did since his aunt ran the place. But to suggest that she was sleeping with Noah purely to get her job, that was ridiculous.
“Perhaps if you knew what it was like to actually work, you wouldn’t feel the need to analyze those of us who are working,” Rose said and then turned around to get to work.
“Yeah, that’s it. I was joking by the way—if you couldn’t tell.”
Rose wasn’t going to let Bronx goat her into turning into a bitch in front of the other first years. And she really didn’t care what
any of them thought. It was their own insecurities that were the issue, not anything Rose had done. She knew she wasn’t sleeping with Noah, and Bronx knew it too. The only one in that building that Rose had actually slept with was Bronx.
If he wanted to start airing dirty laundry, he probably shouldn’t be bringing up sex with co-workers. Rose almost said something about their night together to him, but she didn’t want the others to overhear them.
Instead of engaging with Bronx and his childish games, Rose was going to prove that she was a harder worker than all three of the other first-year lawyers combined. What they didn’t understand was that she didn’t have a life at all. Rose didn’t have a boyfriend or children; she hardly spoke to her family and didn’t have emotional connections to any men in her life. She was going to rock the crap out of being a lawyer.
Rose intended to be one of the first people at work in the mornings and one of the last to leave on Friday evenings. She was going to throw herself into her work and do nothing else. This was her life now, and it demanded all of her attention. Rose didn’t have time for moderation, she wanted to be the best.
Over three hours went by as Rose worked diligently, and Bronx, Steward, and Shamus messed around and only worked a little bit. When lunch time came, Rose wasn’t anywhere near ready to take a break and practically ignored the boys as they invited her to go to lunch with them. Rose didn’t have time for frivolous lunches with co-workers; she was going to make partner at her firm, and that didn’t come by wasting time.
“You’re dressed more appropriately this week,” Elaine said as she looked in on Rose during lunch.
“Thank you, I’m still learning how to be a fashionable lawyer, but I’ll keep trying.”
“Why aren’t you at lunch with the other first years?”
“Um, Mr. Conley asked me to do some research on a new client, and I still had to finish reading these policy manuals,” Rose said as she looked up at Elaine.
“I appreciate your dedication, but your svelte size makes me believe you don’t take care of yourself and aren’t eating regularly. No one will be impressed by a woman who passes out from lack of food. Plus, being antisocial is never a positive female characteristic. The others in the office won’t look kindly on someone who is too good to spend time with them,” Elaine said abruptly.
Elaine left Rose’s office as quickly as she had arrived. She didn’t wait for a goodbye or even need one. Elaine scared the crap out of Rose, and it felt like she couldn’t do anything right to impress that woman.
At first, Rose had dressed conservatively, but Elaine said she was boring. Now, Rose had her business attire under control, and Elaine thought she had an eating disorder or something. There really was no making that woman happy at all. Plus, Rose knew that her co-workers didn’t really like her much, and she didn’t care. It was their loss if they didn’t want to take the time to get to know her.
Rose took a break and made her way to the lunch room where she had some yogurt and sandwiches waiting. It didn’t seem like wasting an hour eating out with her co-workers would really be worth anything to Rose. Those guys were a bunch of twenty-somethings who hadn’t even lived life yet. She doubted there was going to be much she would have in common with them and didn’t see the purpose of wasting an hour of her time with them. She couldn’t even imagine what they talked about over a whole hour at lunch.
As Rose ate her sandwich, she suddenly missed her husband more than she could imagine. She felt lonely in a world that didn’t exist with him in it anymore. It was like she was surrounded by people, yet all alone most of the time. Every now and then, Rose got philosophical about losing her husband and really started to wonder why he had been killed instead of her.
When Derek died, Rose didn’t have a job; she was staying at home and pretty much spending her time at the gym, local animal shelter, or spa. She didn’t have much of a life and wasn’t contributing to society all that much. She often felt like God should have taken her instead of Derek.
Rose and Derek had only been married for a couple of years before she lost him, but it was long enough for her to have planned her life out. They were going to have children together, Derek would make partner in his firm, and they would build a successful social life among the elites of D.C. But instead of that life, Rose was alone and trying to build a life for herself. She was trying to build something that resembled her dreams with Derek, but also allowed for her own dreams. It was a work in progress, for sure, and Rose wasn’t positive she even knew where life was taking her yet.
She didn’t have the emotional energy to build up connections with her co-workers. Rose just wanted to keep her head down and plow through work so she could get a little release over the weekend. Talking to people always involved a level of action and energy from Rose. She could hardly ever be herself, and instead felt compelled to put on a happy face and make like her life was perfect.
Noah was one of the only people she felt she could let her guard down around. He knew it all. He knew about Derek. Noah knew about her boy toys. She didn’t have to pretend to be someone else, and she didn’t have to hide the quirky personality traits that made her the person she was. But around everyone else, Rose had to pretend; there was no way around it.
“You look like someone off of those sad animal commercials on TV,” Cassandra said as she walked into the lunch area.
First impressions of Cassandra had not been all that great when Rose arrived at the law firm on her first day. Cassandra was the front desk secretary and had on a skimpy outfit with her boobs practically bursting from the top of it. But, surprisingly, Cassandra had turned out to be one of Rose’s favorite people at the firm. She was honest and said what was on her mind. There wasn’t any mincing of words when it came to Cassandra, and Rose appreciated that sort of honesty.
“So are you going to keep busting the balls of those first years or are you going to be nice to them?”
“What? I’m not busting balls. I’m just working.”
“Oh, I saw how you talked to them yesterday. I think you pretty much called them childish little boys.”
“Oh, yeah, well they were acting like it.”
“Rose, take it from someone who has a reputation around here. You want to stay in control of your own reputation, and right now people think you are a giant bitch.”
Rose started to laugh; it was actually very funny that people thought Rose was being like that. For most of her life, people had said that Rose was a goodie-two-shoe, she had always been the sweet girl that was nice to everyone and never did anything wrong. So it was an interesting turn of events that she was now being labeled as a bitch. Oh, Rose didn’t mind being called that at all, though; at least, it meant that people would leave her alone.
“I am a bitch,” Rose said through her laughter. “It’s totally true. They can keep saying it.”
“I’ve never met someone who was happy that people hated her.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
Cassandra grabbed her food and sat with Rose while they both played on their cell phones and didn’t talk for the rest of their lunch break. That was another reason Rose liked Cassandra; she valued quiet just as much as she did. Rose really didn’t mind spending time with people if they didn’t talk to her or ask her questions all the time.
The other people Rose didn’t mind spending time with were her friends on Saturdays. Sure she put up a bit of a tantrum sometimes, and other times she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to go out or not. But overall, it was good for her to get out, and she knew it. If she didn’t have her girlfriends on the weekends, it was highly likely Rose would be held up in her apartment crying and looking through old photos of her and Derek.
Twenty minutes later, Rose was finished with her food and back at her desk. She was determined to be seen as a hard worker at the firm and was happy to be known as a bitch at the same time. Women were always labeled with stuff like that when they were tough and hardworking. But Rose wouldn’
t let such a label hold her back from success.
Being a lawyer had never been her dream; it had been Derek’s though, and Rose liked that she was following in his footsteps. She had grown to be very fond of the law throughout school and couldn’t wait to learn more as a lawyer at Wolfe and Conley.
The man she was researching for Noah seemed absolutely atrocious. As she read through his file, there were media clips and links to online stories about Drake LeBlanc that Rose couldn’t believe were all true. He had been linked to both women and men sexually, and sometimes more than one at the same time. There was a story that he had seven women held up in his house for a week while he played with them and tried to decide on which one would be his long-term play toy.
In business, Drake LeBlanc seemed much more stable. He ran a very successful technology company that was well-known throughout the world. He was opening up offices everywhere and had one in Washington D.C. Mr. LeBlanc owned over a thousand patents.
Rose could see why the man needed a law firm on retainer. Noah was excellent at getting big names like Drake LeBlanc, and Rose knew that he really didn’t need her to look at his folder. Rose knew enough about Noah to know that he had probably searched through all the material already and was simply giving Rose something to do. But Rose was determined to make herself useful, and she was going to find something interesting to help Noah in his defense of Drake.
“Do you ever take breaks or are you just trying to show us up?” Bronx said as he and the other first years came back.
“I ate, now I’m working again.”
Rose wasn’t trying to be unfriendly to Bronx, but she wasn’t going to flirt with him and lead him on either. Bronx was a one-night thing and nothing more. Rose had no intention of continuing with what they had started.
Sure, he had been great in bed. She could still remember the touch of his tongue on her body, but that didn’t matter. Rose didn’t want an emotional connection, and if she let things continue with Bronx, she felt like there was no way around forming an emotional connection with each other.
Mine to Protect Page 45
