“You live here in this bar?”
“No,” he said seriously, climbing into the chair opposite her. “Here in Birmingham.”
Ignoring the way that revelation made her heart constrict, she frowned. “I’m sorry, but I’m expecting someone.”
There was no way in hell she’d let Matt ruin this blind date for her. She conveniently forgot that she’d been considering walking out on her date a few minutes ago.
“Oh?” Why the hell was he smiling? “I’ll just keep you company before he gets here.”
She was somewhat mollified that he assumed it was a man she waited for. At least the dress and the fuck-me slingbacks were sending the right message. To the wrong guy, but still…
“I wish you wouldn’t” she told him, her voice sounding desperate to her own ears. “I mean, I don’t want him to see me with…”
“What’s the big secret, Jules?” His eyes scanned her face. “Are you afraid he’ll be able to tell how we feel if he sees us together?”
“What are you talking about?” How did he know how she felt? He hadn’t even bothered to call her since he’d left town. And she hadn’t told a single soul about how far gone on him she’d been. How she’d fallen in love with him while he was seducing every last inhibition out of her.
“I’m talking about the fact that you’ve been pining for me every since I went back to D.C.”
“I have not been pining!” she almost shouted.
“Come on, Jules,” he smiled ruefully. “If you’re anything like me, mine is the first face you think of when you wake up in the morning, and the last face you see before you fall asleep at night.”
“If you have some kind of obsession problem, I’m sorry to hear it…” she began, but he interrupted her.
“That’s just it,” Matt said, reaching across the table to take her hand. The contact was electric and Julie immediately tried to pull her hand away. But he was stronger. “I am obsessed. You might even say I’m in love.”
“Don’t patronize me,” she said frowning. If he was going to sit there and lie to her to her face, then date or no date she was out of here. “I have to go.”
But as she stood to leave, he shook his head.
“Still as stubborn as ever, I see. I guess I’ll have to go with Plan B.”
“What’s Plan B?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“I am,” she heard a voice behind her.
She turned to see her sister standing at their table.
“Lily?”
“Julie, there is no blind date,” her little sister informed her. “Well, there is, but your date is Matt.”
“What?” Her sister had lied to her? What the…?
“Don’t blame Lily,” Matt said. “She did it as a favor to me.”
“Well, more a favor to you, Julie,” Lily said, her expression serious. “I’ve gotten tired of seeing you isolate yourself in the name of taking care of me.”
That stung. Even if it was partly true. But this wasn’t about Lily. It was about Julie and Matt.
“I don’t blame Lily,” she said to Matt, who still held her hand. “This stunt has your fingerprints all over it.”
But if that bothered Matt, he didn’t show it. “I can live with that. But I had to find a way to talk to you. And since you’ve been screening your calls and you’ve denied every friend request I’ve sent you on every social networking site known to man, this was my last option.”
“You wanna talk? Talk.” She finally got her hand out of his and crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive position. “I’m listening.”
***
Now that he had the floor, Matt felt a jab of fear in his gut. This was the most important speech of his life. If he didn’t get this right both he and Julie might regret it for the rest of their lives.
No pressure.
He stopped himself from running a hand through his hair. No signs of weakness, he told himself.
“I know you think I slept with you to seduce information about the leak from you but that wasn’t how it was at all.”
At the mention of them sleeping together, Julie’s eyes darted to her sister.
“What?” Lily asked, rolling her eyes. “Like I don’t know you two did it? Please.”
Seeing both Julie and Matt’s glares, she threw up her hands in defeat. “Okay, I guess my work here is done. I’m outta here.”
When she was gone, Julie turned back to him.
“So, anyway, I didn’t sleep with you for any reason having to do with the leaks.”
“Then why?” she asked. She seemed genuinely puzzled that he would find her attractive enough to sleep with her for her own sake.
“Because,” he said, a little desperately. “Because I love the way you fill out a pair of tweed pants. Because seeing you stand up to Clay is about the ballsiest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do. Because I’ve had a crush on you since law school?”
She stilled.
“What?”
“It’s true,” he said, not daring to look away from her gaze. “I can even tell you the moment it happened. It was in Middleton’s contracts class. When he called on you and tried to trip you up with that question about non-compete agreements. The way you answered the question and then anticipated what he would ask next was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. Especially since he was such a dick about the fact that you didn’t fall into his trap.”
“He was a jerk,” she said with a reluctant smile. “I can’t believe you remember that.”
“Julie, I remember every encounter we’ve ever had. I was dating Susan then but I couldn’t help feeling that zing of attraction for you. I couldn’t cheat on her, but I couldn’t help how I felt either. Did you know she broke up with me the week before you quit school? I was trying to give you some time before I approached you. Your parents had just died and you were trying to swing law school and raising your sister at the same time. I didn’t want to complicate your life any more than it was. But before I could even work up the courage to ask you out for coffee you were gone.”
She shook her head. “I can’t believe you even noticed me back then. But why didn’t you say anything when you met me again at the firm?”
“I was there to find the leaker. Not to start an affair with my main suspect’s paralegal. Believe it or not, I didn’t want to act on my attraction for you for the very reason you hate me now. Because I didn’t want you to think I was sleeping with you to get information about Clay. I was planning to wait until I had enough proof on my own. Until I saw your Before Thirty List that night. Then I was too turned on to think or care about the goddamn leak.”
He smiled ruefully. “And once the deed was done and I’d agreed to help you with your list, I convinced myself that I could sleep with you and continue trying to catch the leak without any conflict of interest. Which was, of course, the dumbest thing I’ve done in years. In my defense, I planned on telling you about the leak before I went to the partners. But you overheard me talking to Mitchell before I could do it.”
“So, it wasn’t because you didn’t trust me?” she asked softly.
Seeing that she was bending a little, he stepped closer. “God no,” he said, gently cupping her upper arms, and running his hands down her arms to twine their fingers together. “I just didn’t want to bring you into the whole sordid business. There’s a reason why spies don’t get a lot of praise. It takes a lot of lying and sneaking around to sniff out the truth. In a lot of ways I’ve been just as dishonest as Judy was. I just happen to work for the side with more power.”
“That’s not true,” Julie said, kissing him softly on the lips. “What Judy did was wrong. Yeah, RFG isn’t exactly blameless. But they deserve to have local counsel who doesn’t share secrets with the enemy camp. If it starts being okay for law firm staff members to betray their clients then no one wins.”
“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about siding with Goliath against David anymore,” he said, pulling her against him. “Star
ting next month I’m hanging out my own shingle.”
Julie pulled back to look at him. “You are? That’s great! You’ll be the best plaintiff’s attorney in D.C.”
“Not D.C.,” he corrected, kissing the end of her nose. “Birmingham.”
“You mean you were serious? You do live here now?”
“Yep.”
“But why? I thought you loved your life in D.C.? What about the museums and the sports and the cuisine?”
“Doesn’t do me much good if I’m going to be spending my spare time in Birmingham anyway.”
“Why would you—?” She frowned. “For me? You moved here for me?”
“Well, you and Grandmother,” he said with a grin. “I was looking out my window at the monument and I thought, ‘Why am I here when everyone I love and everyone who loves me is in Birmingham, Alabama?’”
Julie swallowed. “Everyone you love?”
He kissed her on the mouth this time. With all the passion and tenderness he’d been saving up in the two months since they’d parted.
When he pulled back, they were both breathless, and he was as hard as a poker.
“Everyone I love,” he repeated. “That includes you.”
She shook her head. Then kissed him again.
“Well?” he asked, against her mouth. “I’m waiting.”
A tiny furrow appeared between her brows. “For what?”
“Don’t you have something to say to me?”
“Hmmm,” her expression turned puckish. “I don’t know. I might need some more persuasion before I’m able to make any sort of declaration.”
He growled against her neck, feeling the answering shiver run through her.
“Okay, okay,” she cried her laughter pressing her breasts tightly against his chest. “I love you.”
This meant another kiss. They had to get out of there soon, or be arrested for public indecency.
“And I love you,” Matt said. “Now get your purse and let’s get out of here. I have an appointment with a very hot law student who needs some serious help.”
“Oh really?” she asked taking his hand. “Let me guess. Contracts?”
“No,” he answered, opening the door so that she could precede him out onto the sidewalk. “She’s got this list…”
THE END
About the Author
Manda Collins is the author of the Ugly Ducklings Trilogy from St. Martin’s Press, a trio of Regency Historical romances about three less than popular cousins and the gentlemen they love. The first, How to Dance with a Duke spent five weeks on Nielsen Bookscan’s Top 100 Romance list. How to Romance a Rake, the second in the trilogy, is scheduled for publication in August of 2012, followed by How to Entice an Earl in February 2013.
Though she did work for three years as a paralegal before returning to librarianship, the characters in Legally Yours are pure fiction.
Connect with Manda online:
http://www.mandacollins.com
http://www.twitter.com/MandaCollins
http://www.facebook.com/MandaCollinsAuthor
I hope you enjoyed Legally Yours!
Coming June 2012:
Legally Mine, Book 2 in the Lawyers in Love Trilogy by Manda Collins
Legally Yours Page 8
