Page 15 of Take the Bait (Love in Danger)

15

Dani spent the weekend digging through old personnel files at WMP. Zoey had obtained a pile of paper folders out of the company’s archived records storage, and she’d sent a couple dozen more recent electronic files to Dani’s home email.

When she had a list of two dozen female lawyers who’d left the firm for no apparent reason shortly after being hired, Dani felt confident enough in her suspicion that she wasn’t the first woman who’d been treated as meat for sale at WMP to e-mail the women and share with them confidentially what she’d overheard.

That done, she went for a vigorous run in Central Park. She took a shower and made herself a power smoothie. But then she was out of ways to distract herself from thinking incessantly about Cam and their incendiary night together.

She couldn’t believe she’d thrown herself at him the way she had. Not that she could bring herself to regret having done so. Of course, he’d been all over her, too. It had been instant attraction, hot and unstoppable. She hadn’t been kidding when she’d told him it was the best sex of her life.

They might have to stay away from each other for now but that didn’t stop her from imagining doing everything they’d done that magical night—and more—again. Constantly.

The only thing that kept her from going over to his house and taking him to bed was the certain knowledge that both of their careers were over if they got caught.

Between worrying over how the women she’d reached out to would respond and fretting over whether Cam would forget all about her and move on to some other lucky woman’s bed before Alex’s trial concluded, she tossed and turned in bed for hours, unable to sleep.

It was nearly midnight when her cell phone rang, lurching her upright and out of steamy, frustrated thoughts of Cam. She answered the phone more grumpily than usual.

“Hey, Dani. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about you. I hope I didn’t wake you up.

Cam’ voice was soothing balm across her raw nerves, and she sank back against her pillows with a sigh of relief.

“Hi, Cam. I couldn’t sleep, either.”

“I spent the whole weekend thinking of things I wanted to know about you that I forgot to ask at dinner and thinking of things I wanted to tell you about myself and my life.”

“Like what?”

He rapid-fired questions at her until she teased him about being overeager to question the witness and not giving the jury time to keep up.

They talked until the batteries on their phones went dead and the eastern sky outside her window was starting to lighten into dawn.

The more they talked, the more infatuated she became. They had a great deal in common, the notable difference being his grandparents’ wealth. She was impressed to find out he’d insisted on paying for his own law school and had only recently paid off his student loan.

She ought to have been exhausted at work that day, but she was so exhilarated by their conversation and connection that she floated through Monday on a cloud.

He called again that night, too. But after a bet over which one of them snored the loudest, they agreed to fall asleep with their call connected and their phone speakers on. There was something incredibly comforting about listening to his quiet breathing in her ear. It lulled her into the deepest and best sleep she’d had in ages.

Their phone calls became a nightly thing. Somewhere between ten o’clock and midnight her phone rang, and they talked until they both fell asleep.

It felt strange knowing he was in the same city, only a few miles away, but totally inaccessible to her. She worried now and then that she was so attracted to him because he was forbidden fruit. But then they talked again, and her doubts and fears melted away for one more night.

With every phone call, the pressure built inside her to repeat that epic Friday night in his bed and in his arms. She’d known sexual frustration in her life before, but nothing like this. And no matter what she tried to distract or exhaust herself, none of it worked. Every night she had increasingly erotic dreams featuring Cam. She’d had no idea until now that she had such a vivid imagination.

A judge was assigned to Alex’s case, and as Dani expected, he did his level best to get Alex to accept a plea deal. Judge Rasmussen leaned first on Alex, then on her, then on WMP. All to no avail. Alex refused to change his mind.

Reluctantly, the judge set a date two weeks hence for Alex to appear in court to enter his not guilty plea.

As the days dragged past, each more slowly than the last, she became so exhausted she could barely follow the thread of her nightly conversations with Cam.

Tonight, he was sharing the details of a complex case the D.A.’s office had just won and how they’d done it, and she was really interested in the story. But as she yawned yet again, she finally admitted to him, “I’m sorry I’m so sleepy. It’s not you, I promise. I’ve just been sleeping terribly.”

“Why’s that?”

“I keep dreaming about…well, you know. Us.”

“Really?” He sounded intrigued. “Like what?”

She winced. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“But you did. So spill. What do you dream about?”

She sighed. “Sex. And more sex. All kinds of sex. With you.”

“Ahh.” A long silence fell on the line. Then, “Yeah. Me, too.”

“You dream of sex with yourself?”

He laughed. “No. With you, Einstein.”

She smiled into the phone. “Really?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

She made a ‘you moron’ face at herself in the mirror facing her bed. “I figured you must dream about lots of women. Your subconscious has a wide selection of previous lovers to choose from, after all.”

“I already told you, I’m done with the whole sleeping around thing. It was a lonely, soul-sucking way to live. I’d rather stay home every night and talk on the phone with you than pick up random women to have meaningless sex with.”

Her heart warmed. “Aww. You say the nicest things.”

“I’m not being nice. I’m telling you the truth.”

She heard the conviction in his voice, and the warm, fuzzy feeling spread through her whole body. She asked longingly, “How much longer until the Koronov case is over? I really want to make love with you, again.”

He made a sound of frustration. Both of them had been trying to push the case along as fast as possible, asking to expedite everything they were allowed to expedite, but the court dockets were jammed. It was taking forever to get anything more than the upcoming plea hearing on the case.

“If only we had a trial date,” she grumbled. “At least then I’d know how long it’ll be until we can resume our relationship where we left off. But this waiting is killing me.”

He grunted in commiseration.

“Any chance we can spend just one more night together?” she asked hopefully. “Just one time. Nobody will ever know.”

“Slippery slope, baby,” he replied regretfully.

“Yeah, I know. Party pooper.”

He laughed painfully. “Believe me, I’d be all over racing you down that slope if I weren’t worried about your career. But I couldn’t live with myself if I wrecked your reputation because I couldn’t keep it in my pants for a few months.”

“You have a great deal more self-discipline than I do. I’m dying, here.”

His laugh became a little more pained. “Don’t tell me things like that. It’s hard enough staying away from you.”

About a week before the plea hearing, she started having nightmares. They all involved Cam leaving her in some horrible way or him being with other women. Did she unconsciously fear he would get tired of waiting for her and move on to another woman?

The weird bit was the more she talked with him, the more she trusted him. Why her sleeping mind was going the other direction, she had no idea.

The third night she lurched awake, literally sobbing as she woke from a dream of Cam marrying another woman. She caved in and reached for her phone.

Its face said it was four a.m. Too late to call Cam and hear the reassuring sound of his voice. She comforted herself by texting him a quick message through her tears that she missed him.

About five seconds later, her phone rang. “What’s wrong, Dani?”

The floodgates opened. She full on ugly snot-cried. Good grief, this had better be her hormones acting up because she never randomly cried like this.

He demanded, alarmed, “Talk to me.”

“I had a nightmare about you, and it’s really stupid because you’d never—” she broke off. Nope. Not telling him what she’d dreamed about him. “—I’m just stressed out at work, and sick of waiting for Alex’s trial, and I’m not getting any sleep, and this is probably just my stupid hormones?—“

“I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“No—“

He’d already hung up. Crap. What had she done?

He wasn’t kidding. Her doorbell rang in five minutes to the second. She didn’t want to think about the speed limits he’d destroyed to get here that fast. And how on earth had he found a parking space at this hour? She ran to the door in the sloppy t-shirt she’d slept in and threw open the door.

Cam swept inside and enveloped her into his arms, hugging her tightly. And then it was all hands plunging into hair, wet mouths, and murmured words of lust.

“Bedroom?” she muttered.

“Better not. No way would I be able to put on the brakes.”

In fact, he declined to come any further than just inside her front door, mumbling something about any horizontal surface being a temptation at this point. She buried her face against his chest and inhaled the clean, masculine scent of him, relishing his warmth and strength, and loving the thud of his heart, which was neither slow nor steady at the moment.

Gradually, her nightmare faded, chased away by Cam’s comforting presence.

“Demons chased away?” he murmured.

“Uhh huh.”

He pushed a strand of hair back from her face as she leaned back to gaze up at him. “Tell me about the demons. What was your nightmare?”

“It’s dumb.”

“It’ll make you feel better to tell me about it, no matter how dumb it is. Demons are destroyed when you reveal them, you know.” He kissed his way across her forehead and down her temple to her ear, where he commenced tickling her with his tongue.

Giggling, she demanded, “Stop that!”

“Not until you tell me what made you cry so I can beat up the monster for you and make it all better.”

“That should be interesting. You were the nightmare.”

He pushed away to arm’s length to stare down at her as he asked in horror, “What did I do to make you cry?”

“You married another woman.”

“Ahh.” He gathered her close against him once more. “You’re worried that I’ll get tired of waiting for you?”

“I guess. It was just a stupid dream.”

“Still. It made you cry.” He added reflectively, “Would it make you feel better if I promise not to date anyone else until the Koronov case is done and we’ve had all the hot monkey sex either of us can take?”

“I can’t ask that of you.”

“I promise, nonetheless.”

“Cam—“

“It’s a done deal. Kiss me to seal the deal.”

Their kiss took a long time as they savored every moment, every sensation. It was emotional for her, and she thought it was for him, too. She’d missed him more than she realized, and she was aware of missing him pretty hard.

As he murmured endearments against her lips and as he kissed his way across her jaw to her neck, the silliness of her nightmare became evident. He wouldn’t leave her for anyone else if he felt this strongly for her.

He surprised her, though, when he lifted his head a moment later, saying, “You mentioned being stressed out at work. What’s going on? Can I help?”

She tensed against him. She wasn’t ready to ask him to choose between her and his career. And if she pushed him to reveal the owner of the raspy voice at WMP, that would be exactly what she would be doing.

If he narced on a law firm with WMP’s prestige and power, all the private east coast firms would close ranks against him, and he would never get to leave the D.A.’s office.

She did ask, however, “Have you ever heard any rumblings of impropriety at WMP regarding how they treat their female associates?”

“Is somebody harassing you?” he asked sharply.

“No, no,” she answered hastily. “Nothing like that. I’m just curious why they have no senior female associates and no female partners.”

His whole body went still.

Dang it. He was too fast on the uptake. She shouldn’t have given away even that much to him about her secret investigation of WMP. She wanted to rattle a few bars in WMP’s cage, not get herself into an open war with her employer.

Frantic to distract Cam, she reached for his head and tugged his face down so she could kiss him. Thankfully, the tactic seemed to work. Heck, after a few moments, even she couldn’t remember what it was she’d been hoping to make him forget.

An undertone of desperation punctuated their kiss. They’d stolen this moment, and they both knew that, at all costs, they mustn’t slide any further down the slippery slope yawning between them. How she was going to find the strength to stay away from him after this reminder of how powerfully and perfectly they connected with each other, she had no idea.

As he stepped back from her after one last, lingering kiss of farewell, it felt as if he’d stolen her heart right out of her chest. And when he murmured a quiet good night and slipped out of her place, disappearing down the hall, it felt as if he’d taken her heart with him. She’d never felt so alone, so bereft, in her entire life.

And yet, she couldn’t find it in her heart to label tonight a mistake. Professionally, it had been a risk. A huge one. Both of them had been sorely tempted to fall into bed with each other again. It had been a near miss with disaster.

But on a personal level, she could only think of Cam as a miracle. No doubt about it, he was a man worth waiting for.

If only he didn’t hold the key to saving her career. And if only revealing that key wouldn’t destroy his career. Particularly because neither of them would be able to forgive the other for taking away the profession they’d each worked so hard to achieve and to become.

How on God’s green earth was she supposed to choose between his professional survival or hers? Worse, how was she supposed to choose between her lifelong passion for law and love?